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Aviation History
1982
1982 - 0004.PDF
W rid news Erebus inquiry findings quashed by Court NEW ZEALAND'S Court of Appeal has dismissed the Royal Commission of Inquiry's findings that Air New Zealand carried out a "predetermined plan of deception" to cover up errors which contributed to the DO10 crash on Mount Erebus in Antarctica in November 1979. The airline had appealed as soon as Mr Justice Mahon's Royal Commis sion report was published. It contends that there had been no such internal conspiracy. The Court has decided that, while some individual witnesses might have given false evidence, there is no sign of the "orchestrated litany of lies" to which Mahon refers; and the judge's very words are criti cised. "The language of the report has evidently been carefully selected for maximum colour and bite." The Appeal Court dealt with Air New Zealand's appeal and it has not considered the difference in blame apportionment between Mahon's re port and the original accident-investi gation report on crash cases (see Flight, May 30, page 1587). It is not immediately clear how the difference will be resolved. Fuel mishandling caused Viscount forced landing IMPROPERLY handled refuelling caused the force-landing of an Alidair Viscount which came down with tanks empty near Exeter in July 1980, says the UK Accidents Investigation Branch. The major portion of the blame is laid at the aircrew's feet for failing to carry out the physical "drip-stick" pre-flight checks on tank contents. The accident investigators are con vinced (but cannot prove) that a Spanish fuel tanker at Santander Air port pumped far less fuel into the Viscount than the bowser's flow meters indicated. Since there were no tank leaks or fuel system malfunc tions in the aircraft, it is concluded that the Viscount left Santander with less fuel than the crew believed it was carrying. Fourth Ariane is successful THE fourth and last Ariane test flight on December 20 put Marecs A into orbit as planned, confirming the operational readiness of Europe's launcher (see page 26 for full story). For the first time Ariane was flown at night, this being the launch window for the chosen orbit (see picture, right). • Before the flight, Southern Pacific Communications (SPC) ordered two launches from Arianespace. The two SPC communications satellites—SPCC 1 and 2-—will share rides aboard Ariane 3s in February and August 1984, respectively. Jaws III? SWEDEN has still not identified the submarine which dragged a Swedish Navy Boeing-Kawasaki 107 helicopter. The incident took place off Gotland island on November 18, in inter national waters. The 107's dunking sonar was snagged by the submerged sub marine. The vessel then dived, ripping the hydrophone off and caus ing damage to the 107's sonar winch. Floods drown light aircraft in Northern Ireland AS many as two-thirds of Northern Ireland's general - aviation aircraft may have been lost in freak floods which struck Newtownards airfield, some 101 miles from Belfast, on December 20. Strong south-east winds, combined with an abnormally high tide and rapidly thawing snow, overwhelmed the seawall along the southern side of the airfield. Newtownards (the home of the Ulster Flying Club) is the main centre for general-aviation in the province and houses almost 40 aeroplanes, from homebuilts to Seneca and Aztec- size aircraft. Only a Lake Amphibian escaped damage. It was flown to Shorts' airfield at Sydenham by the owner who waded through neck-deep water to reach it. The remaining aircraft were in undated, and many valued at less than £8,000 were understood to have been written-off as uneconomic to repair. Among the damaged aeroplanes are four Tiger Moths, a refurbished Chip munk and many small Cessnas and Pipers. The hangars and airfield were flooded to a depth of more than 4ft. FLIGHT International, 2 lanuary 1982
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