All Safety News – Page 1499
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News
Protests likely over WAAS decision
THE US FEDERAL Aviation Administration has eliminated all but one of the four competitors for the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) and begun negotiations to award the $500 million contract to a team led by Wilcox Electric. The WAAS will increase the integrity, availability and accuracy of the ...
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NTSB spreads blame in USAir DC-9 crash report
THE US NATIONAL Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says that the flight-deck crew and air-traffic controllers share the responsibility for the wind shear-induced crash of a USAir McDonnell Douglas DC-9 in 1994. Investigators say that the DC-9-31 pilots flew directly into a severe storm cell at Charlotte, North Carolina, ...
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Orenda to certificate piston engine for King Air 90
HAWKER SIDDELEY Canada's Orenda division is to seek certification of the new Orenda Series piston engine on the Raytheon Beech King Air 90 under an agreement with US modification centre Stevens Aviation. Toronto-based Orenda will supply two 450kW (600hp) OE-600A liquid-cooled, twin-turbo-charged, Vee-8 engines in July for ...
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Hughes offers Canada revised ATC schedule
HUGHES AIRCRAFT has submitted a re-work plan to Transport Canada which extends the time-scale for completion of the Canadian Automated Air Traffic System (CAATS) by almost two years, to 1998. Canadian progress payments to Hughes have meanwhile stopped, while the negotiations take place. Hughes says that the contract ...
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US airlines dispute timetable and costs for flight-data recorders
THE US AIRLINE Transport Association (ATA) says that a US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recommendation to require more sophisticated flight-data recorders on older Part 121 passenger aircraft is too expensive and unattainable within the time-scale proposed. The NTSB says that each installation would cost between $20,000 and ...
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Eagle TCAS2
American Eagle is installing Rockwell-Collins TCAS traffic-alert and collision-avoidance systems across its fleet, exceeding the regulatory requirement for all ten- to 30-passenger aircraft to be equipped with the less-capable TCAS I by the end of 1995. It cites commonality with its larger TCAS II-equipped aircraft as the reason for its ...
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Rotary groups fight FAA Robinson rules
US AND AUSTRALIAN helicopter associations, are disputing new US Federal Aviation Administration proposals, governing Robinson helicopter-pilot qualifications, as "unnecessary and restrictive." The Australians believe that the rules should apply to all helicopters. The FAA recommends that "...additional specific pilot training is necessary for the safe operation of ...
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Coming together
In a hangar in Marietta, Georgia, the prototype Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 air-superiority fighter stands amid an impressive array of sample parts and prototype components ranging from avionics connectors to fuselage bulkheads. "We were not talking viewgraphs," says F-22 programme general-manager Gary Riley, referring to the critical design-review (CDR), ...
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Violations trigger FAA action to close Arrow
US FREIGHT AND passenger airline Arrow Air is bitterly criticising the Federal Aviation Administration's proposed action to close it down. The carrier voluntarily grounded its 18 Douglas Aircraft DC-8s and Boeing 727s after the FAA reported "serious" violations in maintenance-record-keeping and a failure to show compliance with a ...
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European airports caution on passenger growth
EUROPE'S CONGESTED airports managed to overcome capacity constraints to post an 8% rise in passenger traffic during 1994, but the region's leading hubs at London and Paris warn that growth cannot be maintained without new infrastructure investments. Although passenger growth within Europe was close to the world average, ...
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Boeing notches 737 orders with another due shortly
BOEING HAS won orders for a further 14 737-700s and is virtually assured of at least another six commitments for the new 737 family. German charter operator Germania Fluggesellschaft has ordered 12 aircraft, worth about $512 million, and Bavaria Fluggesellschaft has confirmed an order for two more, which ...
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Airbus settles Boeing suit out of court
AIRBUS INDUSTRIE and its member companies have settled out of court with Boeing over the US Company's lawsuit alleging patent infringement of a slat mechanism. Boeing demanded "an inquiry as to damages" or the payment with interest of Airbus profits related to the device when it sued in ...
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Showdown looms on JAA rules
A CRISIS IS EMERGING over the certification of derivative airliners in Europe as the Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) declines to grant "grandfather rights" for key airworthiness requirements. McDonnell Douglas (MDC) MD-90s and Boeing's new 737 family are the primary aircraft affected by rules introduced since their forerunners gained ...
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BA plans high-capacity fleet to fill Heathrow
BRITISH AIRWAYS has outlined radical plans to raise the size of aircraft, which it flies from London's heavily congested Heathrow Airport. As part of the plan, BA is increasing pressure on Boeing for a stretched, 500-seat, 747 to come into service within the next four years. It is ...
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Long Division
Rather as the UK and USA are described as being divided by the use of a common language, it now appears that Europe's Joint Airworthiness Authorities (JAA) and the USA's Federal Aviation Administration are divided by the use of increasingly common standards. In the old joke about language, there was ...
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Ice and poor management hit Viscount
THE OFFICIAL UK report on 1994's fatal crash of a Vickers Viscount freighter, following multiple engine ice-ingestion, severely criticises the crew's actions and the airline's emergency checklist. Two of the 36-year-old aircraft's four Rolls-Royce Dart turboprops flamed out after ingesting ice at 18,000ft (5,500m). The crew of the ...
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Minister confirms Tarom bomb threat
ROMANIAN TRANSPORT minister Aurel Novak has confirmed that bomb threats against the Romanian airline Tarom had been received from unknown sources during the months before the Tarom Airbus A310-300 crash at Bucharest Airport, Romania, on 31 March at 08.10 local time. On the day of the accident, which ...
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Neil Kinnock
For a former head of the UK Labour party to become the European Commissioner responsible for transport may seem an unlikely move, but Neil Kinnock is no stranger to the political in-fighting posed by the job and has made his mark since taking up the post in January. ...
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Fatalities In Kiwi Crash
A Beechcraft Queenair belonging to Kiwi West Aviation crashed near Hamilton in New Zealand on 29 March, killing all six passengers and crew. The twin-engine aircraft, under contract to Air New Zealand subsidiary Eagle Airways, was heading for New Plymouth when it crashed shortly after taking-off from Hamilton. ...
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Keeping track
The Traxon cargo automation system is now well established, but some significant technical and political obstacles remain. Mark Lyon reports. Air cargo doesn't achieve its potential for most airlines. Industry critics want carriers to work more closely with air freight forwarders so these two partners ...