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Aviation History
1990
1990 - 0007.PDF
HEADLINES operations Crew blamed for Habsheim air show A320 crash 1 / 'he crash of an Air France Airbus A320 at Habsheim on 24 June, 1988 was caused by the crew putting themselves in a situation that was beyond their experience and ability to control fully say French investigators. The French Department of Transport's accident investiga tion commission says that the aircraft was "... in a flightworthy condition" and that it found no malfunction of the aircraft or its equipment which could have led to a reduction of safety or an increase in crew workload. s,,, The commission points out that neither pilot had any display flying experience and that the pilots had only a short brief for the flypasts planned at the airshow. While taxiing out at Bale, the captain specified his intention to fly by the show at 100ft in dirty configuration, de celerating in level flight to mini mum airspeed corresponding to maximum angle of attack, stabilise and then apply full power on the captain's orders to go around and clean up for a high-speed pass at 100ft. The crew was late locating the airfield and started descent at 10km with the engines at flight South Korea selects F-18 for F-X fighter programme The Republic of South Korea (RoK) has selected the Mc Donnell Douglas F-18 Hornet in preference to the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon to fill its F-X fighter requirement. The deal is worth some $4 billion and was announced on 20 December. The Defence Ministry says that both the F-16 (which the RoK Air Force already operates) and F-18 met Korea's needs but "the F-18 could better cope with threats from advanced North Korean fighters [MiG-29 Ful- crums] and is more durable". The F-18's twin-engine safety and maritime-attack capability also scored points with the Kore ans. The Korean MoD says: "The F-16 had lower acquisition and maintenance costs. However considering future growth, local industrial impact and aerospace industry development, the F-18 is the better choice." The RoKAF will receive 120 F-18s. McDonnell Douglas will supply 12 complete aircraft and kits for 36 to be assembled in South Korea.by Samsung Aero space Industries, which will build the remaining 72 from scratch. Final details of the con tract and delivery schedule are being negotiated. The deal still needs Congressional approval. The decision by the South Koreans to opt for the F-18 is compensation for the loss to General Dynamics of the FSX order earlier last year with Japan. Although the McDonnell Doug las deal involves help in the setting up of a production line in South Korea, the move is not expected to be embroiled in the controversy which has sur rounded the transfer of F-16 technology. McDonnell Douglas is still supplying F-18s to the US Navy and Marine Corps. 0 idle and speed reducing; rate of descent when 100ft was reached was 600ft/min at time 12h 43min 44s. The aircraft was levelled at 30ft with the engines at flight idle and the attitude increasing. The pilot did not have time to stabilise the angle of attack at the maximum value he had selected. Rapid application of full power occurred between 12h 45min 34s and 35s, angle of attack was 15° and speed 122kt. The engine response was normal. The rear section of the A320 touched the trees at 12h 45min 39s and the aircraft sank slowly and de celerated into the forest. A "very violent" fire broke out immedi ately. Three passengers were unable to leave the cabin and died in the fire. The commission says the cause of the accident was the low flypast height; slow speed; en gines at flight idle and late application of go-around power. The commission also believes that, if the descent below 100ft was not deliberate, it may have resulted from poor visual and aural height information cue interpretation. Other factors in cluded planned crew task shar ing being incomplete; neither pilot had experience of applying go-around power from flight idle and late identification of the air field led to a rush of events. • AMX FLIGHT TEST FOR SKYSHARK The Italian-Brazilian AMX ground-attack aircraft has been used for the first time as a platform for the Skyshark stand-off weapon dispenser. Pictured during recent flight trials, two Skysharks are mounted beneath wing pylons on the aircraft. Aerodynamic envelope and submunition- dispersion-capability /light testing for the dispenser, which is manufactured by the CAMSU consortium (Aeritalia-BPD), have been completed recently using four demonstrators launched from a Tornado. A powered version of Skyshark may be considered as the development programme continues. Panama combat debut for stealth F-117 The Lockheed F-117A stealth fighter-bomber was used in combat for the first time on 21 December, 1989, during Opera tion Just Cause, the US invasion of Panama. At least two stealth aircraft dropped two 1,000kg bombs in a field outside Panamanian mili tary installations at Rio Hado. The Pentagon says: "The mis sion was to bomb a field next to the 6th and 7th Panamanian De fence Force (PDF) infantry companies, not to bomb the bar racks as this would have caused extensive casualties". US defence secretary Dick Cheney says that the objective was to drop the ordnance close enough to the barracks to "stun and dis orientate" the PDP troops but not to bomb the barracks themselves. Troops from the US Rangers were then parachuted into the area in a night operation. The Pentagon says that the landing zone was "not a hot landing zone (LZ)" and that therefore the F- 117 mission was successful, adding: "They hit the target; the target was the field". Speculation that the F-117 target was the barrack buildings has been discounted by the Pentagon. The point of origin for the F- 117 Just Cause mission is un known, although crews for other F-117s, deployed from Nevada, are believed to have been told to stand by for operations if required. Operation Just Cause saw 111 missions flown by US Air Force Military Airlift Command in the initial assault, including a total of 84 airdrops. • FT IGHT INTFRNATIDNAT ^.Q Ian
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