All Safety News – Page 1300
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News
Kendell Saab 340 roll turns spotlight on icing
The Australian Bureau of Air Safety Investigation (BASI) is treating as "very serious" an incident in which a Kendell Airlines Saab 340 carrying 30 passengers stalled and rolled almost inverted in light icing conditions on 11 November, injuring a flight attendant. The Kendell flight was in a holding pattern, ...
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KLM reveals plans for cargo alliance
Max Kingsley-Jones/LONDON KLM has revealed a three-stage plan that will lead to the setting up of a standalone cargo airline early in the next decade in a joint venture with its alliance partners, Alitalia and Northwest Airlines. The plan is part of the recently finalised link between KLM ...
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PAL hunts for fresh funding as Northwest turns its back
Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DC Philippine Airlines (PAL) is again involved in a desperate search for fresh financing, as Northwest Airlines shows little interest in coming to the rescue of the stricken national carrier after Cathay Pacific Airways pulled out of investment talks. Cathay has officially confirmed that it has ...
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PS-90A overtakes 6,000h milestone
The lead Aviadvigatel/ Perm Motors PS-90A turbofan passed the 6,000h on the wing mark at the end of November, on an Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-96-300 flying a regular scheduled flight. Aviadvigatel general director Yuri Reshetnikov says that the engine will shortly be removed and given a full stripdown examination, a ...
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Belgium's City Bird announces first profits
Herman De Wulf/BRUSSELS Belgian long haul airline City Bird is diversifying into main-deck freight operations with a deal to acquire two new Airbus A300-600Fs for delivery in mid-1999. The expansion comes as the low-cost passenger carrier recorded its first net profit since starting operations on 27 March,1997. Last ...
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Government saves Air Namibia
Hilka Birns/CAPE TOWN The Namibian Government has injected N$20-million ($3.7 million) into Air Namibia and has appointed a Malaysian financier to restructure, and re-capitalise the troubled national carrier as a state-owned company. The move takes the airline out of the control of state holding company TransNamib, which has ...
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The precision approach
David Learmount/CAPE TOWN Learning only from serious accidents and incidents is a flawed way of advancing flight safety. It took until the 1990s to create a system which is more effective and workable, and until now to persuade most of the world's regions to consider adopting it. The system ...
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African dawn
Lois Jones/DAKAR David Learmount/CAPE TOWN Air traffic services (ATS) in many parts of Africa are already unable to cope with current traffic levels, never mind increased demand. Meanwhile, wars and political instability raging in parts of the continent mean that basic air traffic control (ATC) is often neglected and ...
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US supersonic effort faces axe
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES The NASA-led US national High Speed Research (HSR) programme, aimed at developing a second-generation supersonic airliner, is threatened with closure following the team's decision to raise the noise targets beyond Stage 3, delaying development by as much as 10 years. The surprise move comes as ...
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Developing crisis
It is a nightmare scenario for any company. Immense production problems are overcome at huge expense, just in time for the market to collapse. For Boeing, the timing could hardly be worse. As quickly as the company's production recovery takes effect, the deepening impact of the Asian economic crisis starts ...
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FAA reassures over data use as it launches quality programme
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC With the launch of a long-awaited airline flight operations quality assurance (FOQA) programme, the US Federal Aviation Administration has guaranteed that data obtained from aircraft flight data recorders (FDRs) will not be used against carriers or pilots. So far the programme has been limited to ...
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Air France plans US link to pave the way toward a global alliance
Julian Moxon/PARIS Air France expects to join a global airline alliance based on an agreement with one of its two US partners, "before the end of 1999", according to the airline's president Jean Cyril Spinetta. The signing of the co-operation pact between KLM and Alitalia on 27 November ...
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UK promises action to crack down on airline violence
Action to stamp out violent behaviour on aircraft has been promised by the UK transport minister, but he has handed to the airlines the task of organising research into the growing phenomenon of "air rage". Following a meeting with airlines and interested organisations in London on 25 November, transport ...
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UK CAA warns against regulatory split
The UK Civil Aviation Authority has urged the government not to divide its regulatory functions between several bodies after the proposed privatisation of its National Air Traffic Services (NATS). The authority, which at present owns and regulates NATS, was responding to options set out in a UK Government consultation ...
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Raisbeck wraps up study into recertification of DC-9s
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES Raisbeck has completed a feasibility study into a Stage 3 recertification of McDonnell Douglas DC-9s and is canvassing operators before committing to launch the programme. The aerodynamic modification kit, if given the go-ahead, would be available "on or before 1 January, 2000", says James Raisbeck, ...
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CFIT surge sets US/European safety agendan of DC-9s
David Learmount/CAPE TOWN Accidents involving large jet airliners in controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) have dramatically increased, reversing a trend which had been heading downwards, it was revealed at the Flight Safety Foundation international air safety seminar in Cape Town, South Africa. Concern over CFIT has already seen the ...
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Fire evidence grows as more MD-11 wreckage is found
Evidence of fire in or close to the Swissair McDonnell Douglas MD-11's flightdeck is accumulating as wreckage recovery off the Nova Scotia's coast continues, says the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSBC). Despite the onset of winter, the recovery operation has been continuing sporadically. With 80% by weight of ...
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Northwest eyes regional jets
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC Northwest Airlines is expected to decide early next year whether to equip its Memphis, Tennessee-based Northwest Airlink subsidiary, Express Airlines I, with regional jets, according to industry sources. The matter was discussed at the US major's recent board meeting, but a decision was put off ...
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Lawsuit fails to stop Northwest purchase of Continental stock
Northwest Airlines has completed its $311 million purchase of 51% of Continental Airlines' voting stock owned by David Bonderman's Air Partners investment house, despite anti-trust objections from the US Justice Department. The transaction will lead to a so-called "virtual merger" of the airlines, linking route networks through codesharing and ...
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Piper Training
New Piper Aircraft has finalised an agreement with Belgium's Sabena Airlines for the purchase of 10 new aircraft to be used for ab initio training. The aircraft - five Archer IIIs, three Saratoga II HPs and two Seneca Vs - will replace Sabena's US training fleet based in Scottsdale, Arizona. ...