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Aviation History
2003
2003 - 1371.PDF
FULL LIST OF READER SERVICES EDITORIAL +44 (20) 8652 3842 Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS, UK Fax +44 (20) 8652 3840 email fligMMernational@rbi.co.iik Editor Murdo Morrison •44 (20) 8652 4395 murdo.morrison@rbi.co.uk Editorial Assistant Andrew Costerton •44 (20) 8652 3835 andren.costerton@rbi.co.uk News Editor Andrew Ooyie +44 (20) 8652 3096 andrew.doyle@rbi.co.uk Commercial Aviation Editor Max Kingsley-Jones t44 (20) 8652 3825 max.kingsley.jones@rbi.co.uk Defence Aviation Editor Stewart Penney +44 (20) 8652 3834 stemrt.penney@rbi.co.uk Operations/Safety Editor David Learmount +44 (20) 8652 3845 david.learmount@rbi.co.uk Business Editor Alexander Campbell +44 (20) 8652 3990 aiexander.campbeil@rbi.co.uk Business S General Aviation Editor Kate Sarsfield +44 (20) 8652 3885 kate.sarsfield@rbi.co.uk Reporter Justin Wastnage +44 (20) 8652 3863 iustin.wastnage@rbi.co.uk Technical Reporter Michael Phelan +44 (20) 8652 3843 michaei.phelan@rbi.C0Mk Spaceflight Correspondent Tim Furniss +44 (1237) 47)960 tim@spaceport.co.tik Senior Technical Artist Giuseppe Picarella +44 (20) 8652 B05Aioe.picarella@rbi.co.uk Editorial Artist Tim Brown +44 (20) 8652 8043 tim.brown@rbi.co.uk EUROPE/MIDDLE EAST European Editor Christina Mackenzie +33 (1) 64 23 68 89 christina.mackenzie@rbi.co.uk Israel Correspondent Arie Egozi +972 (3) 9413)32 AMERICAS Washington DC Office Fax +1 (703) 836 8344 Americas Editor Graham Warwick +1 (703) 836 3448 graham.warnick@rbi.co.uk East Coast Editor Paul Lewis +1 (703) 836 3084 jpaui.iewis@rbi.co.uk West Coast Editor Guy Norris +1 (949) 252 8971 Fax +1 (949) 252 8972 guy.norris@rbi.co.uk Brazil Correspondent Jackson Flores Jr +55 212439-6062 Fax +55 212349-6090 fubar@uol.com.br Canada Correspondent Brian Dunn ASIA/PACIFIC Singapore Office Fax +65 6789 7575 Regional Managing Editor Nicholas lonides +65 6780 4311 nicholas.ionides@rbi.co.uk Deputy Asia Editor Brendan Sobie +65 6780 4309 brendan.sobie@rbi.co.uk Regional Reporter Leithen Francis +65 6780 4314 leithen.francis@rbi.co.uk Australia Civil Aviation Correspondent Emma Kelly +61(8)92861724 Fax+61 (8) 92861724 emmajkelly@bigpond.com Australia Military Aviation Correspondent Peter La Franchi +61 (0) 419 246 620 Fax +61 (2) 62312795 nulka@ozemaii.comM EDITORIAL PRODUCTION Group Production Editor Graeme Osborn +44 (20) 8652 3828 Group Art Editor James Mason +44 (20) 8652 4994 Chief Sub-Editor Chris Thornton +44 (20) 8652 4997 Deputy Production Editor Jackie Thompson +44 (20) 8652 3850 Sub Editor Megan Turner +44 (20) 8652 3848 Photographer Mark Wagner +44 (20) 8944 5225 WWW.FLIGHTINTERNATIONAL.COM Webmaster Sheena Buchanan +44 (20) 8652 4432 SUBSCRIPTIONS +44 (1444) 445454 rbi.subscriptions@rbi.co.uk THE FLIGHT COLLECTION kim.hearn@rbi.co.uk © and Database Rights 2003 Reed Business Information Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing of the publishers jY-'f* 7 Air Transport Intelligence (ATI), Flight International's sister £A] J onlineserviceatwww.rati.com.containsthefulltextofFlight • International and Airline Business since 1996. Full text of the magazines can also be found online with Lexis-Nexis, Dialogue, FT Profile, IAC and Reuters. Editor Kieran Daly +44 (20) 8652 3837 Reed Business Information COMMENT Sleeping killers Much research has been done on human factors in maintenance, but the tasks that face managers have still not changed The Taiwan Aviation Safety Council (ASC) "fac tual data collection" on the China Airlines Boeing 747-200 that suffered catastrophic structural failure has highlighted problems that aviation has always suffered. If the final report reflects the ASC's instinct, as demonstrated by its clearly developing area of focus - a rear fuselage repair made 23 years ago, around which fatigue cracks had developed - then the issue, as usual, will be one of human factors. Meanwhile, the January 2000 crash of one of its Boeing MD-80s still haunts Alaska Airlines - some families of those who died have still not settled their compensation claims and a court will rule some time in the next few months on whether punitive damages are appropriate. The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) judged this to be a main tenance-based disaster of staggering simplicity: a crucial mechanical system con trolling the horizontal stabiliser-very robust u Aviation is terribly unforgiving of any incapacity or neglect" but with no failsafe system fitted to cope in the event of physical breakage - broke because of inadequate lubrication. Early investigation by the NTSB in the case of the US Airways Express Beech 1900 crash just after take-off from Charlotte Douglas air port in January this year suggests that mis-rigging of the pitch controls was a signifi cant factor in the accident, although load management has also been cited. The generic problems, individual mistakes, failures to follow procedure, or faulty manage ment systems that these events highlight are common to engineering in all fields. But as Capt A G Lamplugh of the British Aviation Insurance Group said famously in the early 1930s: "Aviation is, in itself, not inherently dan gerous, but to an even greater extent than the sea it is terribly unforgiving of any careless ness, incapacity, or neglect." This has often been thought of as applying to flightcrew and the exercise of their skills, judgement and air manship, but Lamplugh was almost certainly referring to the entire task of keeping aircraft fit to fly as well as safe in the air. There is a certain level of resignation - pos sibly even defeatism - in some airline engineering departments' credo that carrying out maintenance or repair tasks before they are essential is not necessarily the safest way to manage them if it results in more frequent work on the aircraft. The argument is that maintenance itself can be dangerous because, especially in repair or replacement tasks that involve much dismantling, there is room for error both in the execution of the objective and in the reassembly process. But mistakes are made even in routine jobs. Failure to replace O-ring seals or blanking plates after an oil change or an inspection is not frequent, but in recent years at least two such events have forced crews to act fast to get their aircraft on the ground before the engines seized up. The industry is taking grand strides towards instituting improved systems for quality control in operations and engineering. These are laudable, and if they work perhaps there will be fewer events like the Alaska MD-80 crash, after which an overdue Federal Aviation Administration audit of the carrier's mainte nance practices found that an admired and operationally innovative airline was not so smart in the hangar. There has also been painstaking research over more than a decade, led by organisations like Boeing and the International Federation of Airworthiness, to research the complex busi ness of human factors in maintenance. Seminars on the subject have become com mon. But back in 1980 when China Airlines carried out work on the rear fuselage of its ill- fated 747-200, the world's worst single-aircraft accident - a maintenance-caused mid-air pressure hull failure to a Japan Airlines Boeing 747SR-100 in 1985 - had not yet happened, and neither had the 1988 Aloha Airlines 737- 200 event in which it lost an entire section of cabin fuselage just behind the cockpit but landed with the loss of only one person. The former showed how a maintenance failure can "sleep" for years before it kills, and the Aloha event woke the world up to the other mainte nance time-bomb: old and high-cycle aircraft. Despite all the research, hard work and bet ter-designed workplace practices, maintenance is still carried out by human beings with all their failings, and airlines still operate old aircraft. The ultimate test of a well- run maintenance hangar is that the people who work there know how important their every job is, feel their work and their judge ment is appreciated by their seniors, and are proud of that. SEE AIR TRANSPORT P11 www.flightinternational.com FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 10-16 JUNE 2003 5
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