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Aviation History
1978
1978 - 1508.PDF
458 FLIGHT International, 12 August I97B DC-10 crash raises tyre and escape questions .. THE Continental DC-10 which crashed on take-off from Los Angeles Inter national on March 1 left the end of the runway at 70kt following a multiple tyre failure and an abort decision at Vi. The left main gear dug into the macadam-stabilised surface beyond the runway end and failed at the rear spar attachment, rupturing two main fuel tanks. All the escape slides failed or burned before evacua tion was completed. These facts have emerged from a preliminary report on the Continental accident, which is still under investiga tion by the National Transportation Safety Board. The main areas receiving attention are the reduction in stopping power due to the burst tyres and the evacuation problems. The public address system went dead when power was cut after the accident, and could not be operated from flight-attendant positions. (The NTSB has already drawn attention to the fact that the cockpit-voice recorder was inoperative throughout the incident.) Evacuation was accom plished via the four rightjhand exits; all the left-hand exits were blocked by fire. Some 120 passengers escaped by the right-hand forward slide, and about 30 escaped via the right-hand rear slide before it failed. The two fatalities were passengers who used the right-hand overwing slide, which deployed incorrectly. The slide should run over the wing and reach the ground outboard of the engine; in the event it deployed between the fuselage and the engine and was destroyed by fire. Two passengers using the over- wing slide died as a result of smoke inhalation. After the slide failed some passengers escaped by sliding down the right-hand trailing-edge flaps, which had dropped below the normal take-off position because of damage to the mechanism. ... and tyre failure is blamed again FAILURE of a retreaded tyre is under stood to have been a major factor in the crash of an Air Canada DC-9 at Toronto on June 26. Concern about the safety of retreaded tyres has in creased following the crash of a Con tinental Airlines DC-10 on take-off from Los Angeles on March 1. According to preliminary investiga tions by Transport Canada, one of the DC-9's right-hand mainwheel tyres lost its tread ("delaminated") before the aircraft had reached decision speed on the take-off run. A piece of the tread hit the undercarriage position sensor in the wheel well and triggered a GEAR UNSAFE warning. The pilot aborted take-off at 141kt (com pared with a Vi decision speed of 154kt for the June 26 take-off) but the aircraft failed to stop before the end of the runway. The investigation is now concen trating on why the aircraft failed to stop. The runway length was fairly close to the minimum required by the DC-9 at the weight, temperature and altitude combination prevailing on June 26, and Transport Canada has investigated the hypothesis that water and deposited tyre rubber on the runway may have reduced stopping power. Airliner market New wide-body customers this week for Airbus Industrie and Boeing. Hapag-Lloyd has ordered a pair of A300B4-200s, for delivery in April 1979 and at the end of that year. Hapag-Lloyd is known to be interested in the A300C4, the 90,0001b-payload freighter version of the aircraft, and it is possible that one of the two air craft will be delivered as a convertible • Boeing reports a major break through with the sale of three 747-200BS to Thai International, a DC-10 30 operator. The aircraft will be delivered in October next year and January and February 1980 (sug gesting that Thai has been paying to reserve positions for some time). Four more 747s have been optioned for 1S81-83 delivery. At $156 million for the first three aircraft, spares and training, Thai has a comparatively good deal. Its 747s are the first to be ordered in a rigid three-class layout, with 24 first-class seats, 45 business and 308 economy. They will be powered by General Electric CF6-50s, like Thai's DC-10-30s. In the highly competitive Orient market, rival carriers Malaysian Airline System and Garuda will have to consider larger long-haul aircraft • Also announced by Boeing are an Eastern order for eight 727-200S, with deliveries in the last quarter of next year, and an Interlease order for two 737s • Fokker-VFW reports that KLM has confirmed its two F.28 Mk 4000 options on behalf of its subsidiary NLM City- Hopper, for delivery in April and May 1979, and announces the sale of an F.27 Mk 600 to Air Niger. The F.27 is already on lease to the carrier. Even more airlines 1 LATEST new airline trying to beat the British September 30 noise deadline is Transasian Airways, a wet-lease and charter airline with a fleet of three all-passenger 707-120Bs. Transasian is an offshoot of Templewood Aviation, the lessors and brokers whose wet- lease subsidiary Tempair International went into liquidation at the end of 1976. Transasian is already wet-leasing one aircraft each to Olympic, Sudan and Saudi a. One of its aircraft is ex- Pan Am, acquired via Aviation Traders after the failure of Aeropa; the other two are ex-American machines leased from Tigerair. Transasian hopes to fly in its own colours from mid-January, operating inclusive-tour charters out of a Far Eastern base. The contracts have not yet been concluded, however, and the airline is unwilling to publicise the exact location in a "slightly competi tive" situation. Transasian's UK appli cation covers only substitute services. Even more airlines 2 ALL NIPPON AIRWAYS and four Japanese shipping companies have submitted a proposal for a new all- cargo carrier to the Japanese Ministry of Transport. The idea has already met opposition from Japan Air Lines, which believes that a new Japanese company would not significantly re duce US domination of the Japan-US air freight market. The new airline, provisionally named Japan Cargo Airways, could start operations from October of next year with two 747Fs. Its sponsors hope that the new airline, with six round trips a week between Tokyo and San Francisco, could increase Japan's share of the Japan-US market from its current 32 per cent to 50 per cent. High flying beds for JAL FROM March 1979 first-class passen gers on Japan Airlines' trans-Pacific and polar routes will be able to sleep in beds instead of their seats. JAL is installing what it calls "hotel-style" beds in the upper-deck first-class lounge on its Boeing 747s. Each air craft in the existing fleet of 18 will be fitted with five 6ft X 2ft 3in beds, while new aircraft (three are on order) will have seven. An extra charge will be levied for use of a bed; on the London-Tokyo polar route this will be £75. BA doubles 737 lease BRITISH Airways has signed a con tract with Transavia Holland for the lease of two Boeing 737s from the Netherlands airline during the winter of 1978-79. This follows on from the existing wet-lease of a single Trans avia Boeing 737 since last November. The two aircraft will be flown by both British and Dutch crews and will be used on BA's domestic and short-haul European routes. Full British Airways colours will be applied to the Boeings, together with Transavia logos.
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