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Aviation History
2001
2001 - 0162.PDF
AIR TRANSPORT Swiss question training methods ANDREW DOYLE/MUNICH SWISS INVESTIGATORS are recommending that training procedures on western aircraft types, for pilots who began their careers in the former eastern bloc, should be reviewed as a result of die ongoing probe into die crash of a Crossair Saab 340 soon after take off from Zurich on 10January2000. Switzerland's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has already issued five safety recom mendations to die Federal Office for Civil Aviation (FOCA) ahead of die final accident report - due to be published at the end of diis year. One recommendation states that pilots who completed their initial flight training on aircraft fitted with eastern-style "outside-look- ing-in" artificial horizons could sometimes have difficulty adjust ing to a standard western display. The Crossair aircraft was being flown by a Moldavian captain and a Slovenian co-pilot when a sequence of events led to the air craft entering an extreme right bank before control was lost (Flight International, 4-12 April 2000). Investigators have so far uncov ered no evidence that instrument failure caused the captain to become disoriented, but are conducting tests using a Crossair Saab 340 to discover whether sig nals from an onboard cell phone could have interfered with die air craft's avionics. FOCA flight inspector Capt Max Wipf says the AAIB made its recommendation after determin ing that diere "could be a close rela tionship" between the accident and "the fact that the pilots initially trained using an eastern-style arti ficial horizon, which is significant ly different to the mediod by which the horizon is transmitting infor mation to the pilot on a western instrument." Wipf says the issue is being "more deeply looked into" by the FOCA. Crossair says that while it has not identified any shortcom ings in its earlier training proce dures it has nevertheless introduced some changes as a result of die recommendation. The captain had initially begun a left turn after take-off in accor- Gulf Falcon Air Services. Iraqi Airways says the 747SP will join the airline's two other airworthy fixed-wing aircraft - an Dyushin 11-76 and an Antonov An-26 -on domestic routes linking Bagh dad with Basra, and Mosul in the north. Internal flights restarted last November after an eight- year break. The new aircraft will also be used to transport Iraqi Hadj pilgrims to Saudi Arabia. Most of Iraqi Airways' fleet, comprising Boeing 707s, 737s and 747s, has been grounded at airports outside the country since the imposition of United Nations sanctions in 1990. dance with the standard instru ment departure (SID) but almost immediately reversed this to a right turn, following his flight director, after the co-pilot entered the Zurich East VOR beacon into the flight management system (FMS). The AAIB's other recommend ations are that: • pilots should always specify a turn direction when entering a "direct- to" instruction into the FMS; • the autopilot should be engaged whenever the FMS is being used as the primary navigation source, or when the pilots are experiencing a high workload or operating in dense traffic; • that the ability of different air craft types to follow specific SIDs be reviewed. J 16 - 22 January 2001 Boeing 747 - donated by Qatar - goes into sen A BOEING 747SP donated to Iraq by a member of the ruling family of Qatar entered service with Iraqi Airways on 9 January on a flight from Saddam Inter national Airport, Baghdad, to Basra in southern Iraq. The for mer Mandarin Airlines 747SP was given to Iraq by Shaikh Hamad bin Ah al-Thani, head of Thailand's Angel delays fl delivery because of lack THAILAND'S troubled sec ond national carrier, Angel Air, has delayed plans to add two wet-leased Airbus A300-600Rs to its fleet because of low demand. The airline leased a A300-600R from China Northern Airlines late last year, as part of a broader co-operation with the Shenyang- 12 based carrier. It was to take anoth er two aircraft in December and January, but now says that March is a more likely delivery date, in time for the summer season. This has delayed the launch of services fromBangkokto Chengdu, Dubai and Kunming until at least March. The airline is operatingjust service with Iraqi Airways Airbus A300 k of demand - base - 12 frequencies a week between l e d Bangkok and Hong Kong. Angel o January s hopes to add services to Japan and A3 00-600Rs to a likel , i e South Korea in the summer season, , fo . but has yet to secure traffic rights. R Thi f The airline halted services last e service from Bangkok t , June for one month when financial r Duba t problems forced it to return air- March i t craft to lessors. • 2 FLIGHT INTE WORKSHOP ++ Japan Air System (JAS) has signed a 10-year deal with Pratt & Whitney Aftermarket Services to provide a fleet management pro gramme (FMP) for the carrier's PW4158-powered Airbus A300- 600R fleet. The carrier operates 19 A300-600RS, and the $360 million contract covers 44 engines. JAS estimates it will save $4 million a year. Full-scale overhaul and main tenance work will be handled by Singapore-based P&W/SIA Eng ineering venture Eagle Services Asia. JAS already has a 10-year FMP deal with P&W for JT8D-200s, which power its Boeing MD-80 fleet. This work is performed at P&W's Columbus Engine Centre in Georgia, USA. ++ American Airlines has asked BFGoodrich to provide improved main landing gear for its fleet of Fokker 100s. ++ Poly nesian Airlines has joined Boe ing's Next-Generation 737 spares exchange programme, which is in tended to reduce airlines' inventory holding and repair costs. Under the programme Boeing ships an exchange item within a day of order receipt. Airlines sign upforupto 10 years at a rate covering about 300 line replaceable units with the rate based on fleet size and flight hours.
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