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Aviation History
1995
1995 - 0013.PDF
MIK TRANSPORT Canadian safety chiefs query airline checks JIM BAGNALL/OTTAWA CANADA'S Transportation Safety Board has criticised Transport Canada for failing to ensure that safety deficiencies it had uncovered during routine air line audits were actually fixed. In a report to transport minister Doug Young, the Board notes that it has investigated 19 aircraft acci dents since 1984, mostly involving small regional carriers, in which the quality of auditing or follow- up inspections was an issue. The report notes that Transport Canada auditors gave Air Manitoba a clean bill of health in June 1993. In January 1994, two months after the crash of an Air Manitoba Hawker Siddeley 748, auditors discovered "mainte nance shortcomings" serious enough to result in suspension of the airline's operating certificate. The Safety Board questions how two audits so close together could produce such completely different results. In another case, involving die fatal crash of a Central Mountain Air Douglas DC-3C, the Board discovered mat the carrier had reg ularly been exceeding weight limits for years. Transport Canada audi tors failed to notice that the cargo pallets were 2.2m further aft than shown on a sample calculation sheet provided by the company. Because of these and other examples, the Board is recom mending that die transport minis ter order more in-depth audits immediately an airline shows a higher risk profile. The Board also recommends that Transport Canada develop ways of systematically ensuring that airlines correct safety viola tions uncovered by audits — and impose penalties where carriers prove reluctant to do so. J Four Dornier 328s will be operated by Lone Star among the Texas cacti Dornier 328s to Star in Texas TEXAS-BASED regional carri er Lone Star Airlines has ordered four Dornier 328s and taken options on a further four of die 30-seat high-speed turboprops. The first aircraft will enter ser vice in January, replacing 19-seat Fairchild Metros used on routes from Dallas/Forth Worth to Chihuahua and cities in Mexico. The announcement follows the just-confirmed sale of 20 328s, with 20 on option, to USAir Express carrier Jetstream Inter national, the first of which will enter service in February. Lone Star is Daimler Benz Aerospace (formerly DASA) subsidiary Dornier's third US regional-air line customer for the 328. Nine aircraft have been delivered so far to Horizon Air. Daimler Benz says diat it has 76 firm orders and 75 options for the 328 from 17 customers, including three US corporate operators. • Boeing starts work on UPS freight 767 BOEING WAS DUE to begin building the first 767 freighter on 6 January at its Everett assem bly site, with work scheduled to start on the front spar of the wing. The cargo floor will also be "loaded" on to production jigs one week later. The aircraft will be the first of 60 on order and option for United Parcel Service (UPS) and will be rolled out on 5 May, with certifi cation expected in early October. The first five 767-300Fs will be delivered to UPS by the end of the year. Two freighters a month will be dovetailed into the production of airliner versions, although "...we could go to three", if need ed, says 767 freighter programme manager John Quinlivan. To make sure that production of the new freighter does not inter rupt the smooth flow of passenger types, tooling people, planners and engineers will be on site during assembly to check on the work. "They will quickly transfer infor mation to people who don't have to guess at what was on die designer's mind a year before," says Quinlivan. Apart from giving die specialists good experience before moving on to other projects, Quinlivan says that the scheme will make assembly "goof-proof. Approximately 91% of the design has now been "released" to production. "It's crunch time, we've got to finish the engineer ing, but we've already started seeing parts coming together," Quinlivan adds. Major fuselage assemblies built in Japan by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Kawasaki Heavy Industries will be delivered in January and early February. Final reviews of the first nose section (section 41) were expected to have been completed at Wichita, Kansas, by the end of December. The final body join of the major sub-assemblies is scheduled to take place around 12 April. Flight tests will focus on "envi ronmental conditions", says 767 freighter chief engineer, David Anderson. "The single most important areas will be in smoke detection, the smoke seal between the cargo compartment and the cockpit and the balance of the air- conditioning system." Planning is also well in hand for the general-market freighter ver sion, 13% of which has been released to production. That model differs from the UPS aircraft in having a powered cargo-handling system, a more sophisticated galley and die ability to carry perishable cargo. The first of two general freighters for Asiana Airlines will be delivered in June 1996, with the second fol lowing in June 1998. Boeing predicts that a market exists for more than 600 767 freighters as Boeing 707 and McDonnell Douglas DC-8 replace ments. The aircraft will be able to carry 54t over 6,000km (3,270nm) or 45.5t over 7,850km. • NEWS IN BRIEF M THAIA330 The first Airbus A330-300 powered by twin Pratt & Whitney PW4168 turbofan engines entered service with Thai Airways International on 19 December. • MYANMAR DELIVERY Myanmar Airways Inter national has taken delivery of a second Boeing 737-400 leased from Malaysia Airlines. The airline plans to use the aircraft to launch a service between Rangoon and Dhaka in Bangladesh and add more flights to Singapore and Bangkok. • MAS CONVERSION Malaysia Airlines (MAS) plans to bolster cargo capac ity by converting two Boeing 747-200 passenger aircraft into freighters. The carrier expects a fivefold increase in cargo growth up to 1999. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 4 - 10 January 1995 11
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