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Aviation History
2001
2001 - 2320.PDF
HEADLINES GENERAL AVIATION Crisis-hit Ayres mulls options Financially troubled agricul tural and utility aircraft maker Ayres is negotiating with cred itors to stave off liquidation. Founder and president Fred Ayres predicts that it will be "a couple of months" before the company's future is settled. "We are still negotiating as to whether we are going to bring Ayres out of Chapter 11 [bankruptcy protection] with a re-organisation plan and con tinue with what we have, sell the assets and/or sell the company," he says. Georgia-based Ayres sought bankruptcy protection in November amid mounting losses attributed to develop ment costs of the Loadmaster LM200, a twin-turboshaft util ity aircraft, and from the failure of its Czech Republic- based sister company LET. GATX stepped in to provide financing while Ayres searched for $80 million to recapitalise the company. "We are working with GATX to find new investors, and we need new money to complete certification for the Load- master," he says. The almost completed first aircraft, cur rently minus the LHTEC CTP800-4T engine, could make its first flight about eight months "after coming out of Chapter 11". Integration work on the jointly developed Honeywell, Rolls-Royce powerplant, GKN Westland gearbox and other propulsion elements "has wound right down", admits Ayres. He maintains market inter est in the LM200 remains high and Fedex "is still on board as launch customer", with 75 firm orders and 275 options. Even assuming a release from Chapter 11 next month, how ever, first flight would not be until the second quarter of 2002, pushing first deliveries to early 2004 - five years behind schedule. LITIGATION NICHOLAS IONIDES / SINGAPORE Families to seek damages over SilkAir fatal crash Plaintiffs allege a deliberate act by the aircraft's captain led to the deaths of 97 people Families of six victims of the December 1997 SilkAir Boeing 737- 300 crash in Indonesia are the first to file suit against the airline in Singapore, claiming the accident was the result of a deliberate act by the captain. The trial, expected to take 15 days, should begin on 2 July in the Singapore High Court. Plaintiffs, representing four Singaporean victims - two with US passports - as well as a Malaysian and a UK victim, will argue that the crash could only have been caused by "manual input" by the captain. They claim that SilkAir, a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore Airlines, is liable under the provi sions of the Warsaw Convention. Represented by law firm Michael Khoo & Partners, plaintiffs will call international experts to testify that mechanical failure could not have caused the crash, which killed all 97 passengers and seven crew. Plaintiffs intend to point to the final Indonesian accident report, which details tests on recovered wreckage. The report's appendix includes an extensive US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) submission and a letter from for mer chairman Jim Hall, who in an unprecedented move challenged the official "inconclusive" findings and said the crash was deliberate. Indonesia's National Transpor tation Safety Committee (NTSC) released its final report in Dec ember, saying it was not possible to determine causes. In August 1999, however, an interim report from the same investigator said the hori zontal stabiliser had nose-down trim at impact that "could indicate a manual input from the cockpit". Operating as flight MI185 be tween Jakarta and Singapore on 19 December 1997, the 737 crashed into the Musi river in South Sum atra after cruising normally at 35,000ft (10,700m). The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder stopped working in the minutes prior to the crash. The theory supported by the NTSB is that the captain, Tsu Way Ming, disabled both recorders shortly before incapacitating his New Zealand co-pilot or locking him out of the cockpit and putting the aircraft into a dive. Tsu took out a large insurance policy before the crash, had accumulated sub stantial personal debts, had discon nected a CVR months earlier and had been disciplined by the airline. The plaintiffs seek "fair compen sation", with any damages to be assessed by the court. Other vic tims' families have taken legal action against Boeing in the USA. SilkAir declines to comment on the legal action but has said it accepts the NTSC findings. AIRCRAFT DEVELOPMENT Sino Swearingen replaces Gamesa Sino Swearingen Aircraft (SSA) has sacked Gamesa as wing and fuse lage supplier for its SJ30-2 light business jet and awarded the con tract to Nashville, Tennessee-based Aerostructures. SSA sources say the contractor switch followed "an unsatisfactory service" from the Spanish aircraft parts maker. Aerostructures, which also builds subassemblies for Airbus, Boeing, Cessna and Gulfstream, is to deliver parts for the first produc tion aircraft within 15 months. SSA's relationship with Gamesa has been unsteady for some time. The San Antonio, Texas-based manufacturer suffered delays in the SJ30-2 certification schedule due in part to late delivery and poor qual ity of the subcontracted aircraft parts, admits a source close to the programme. "Although Gamesa has built and delivered all five test With Aerostructures on board, SSA hopes to start SJ30-2 deliveries in 2003 aircraft there have been serious quality issues with some parts, which had to be disassembled and rebuilt," he says. "The fuselage and wing sets for the first production aircraft should now be sitting in our Martinsburg, West Virginia [assembly and manufacturing] facility but they have not arrived." Gamesa was unable to comment as Flight International went to press. Adding to the problem, Gamesa is believed to have transferred its highly skilled engineers from the SJ30-2 programme on to other con tracts, the source adds. Aerostructures is in talks with Gamesa's European subcontractors to continue making and supplying SJ30-2 components. 4 26 JUNE - 2 JULY 2001 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightinternational.com
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