All Safety News – Page 1289
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Escape route
Reducing the number of cabin exits to accelerate emergency passenger evacuation sounds like a contradiction in terms. That is, however, what Airbus Industrie is arguing as it tries to persuade European and US regulators to change the certification rules which affect the exit layout for its stretched A340, the -600 ...
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'Irregularities' ground flying college
Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) grounded China Southern's flying college near Perth, Western Australia, on 27 February, following the resignation of the college's chief pilot/chief flying instructor (CFI). The safety authority says that, although the college had nominated a new CFI, the authority had delayed its approval of ...
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FAA rules out 737 rudder malfunction crash link
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC Recent Boeing 737 rudder malfunctions are not being linked to rudder control unit failures suspected of causing fatal 737 crashes in 1991 and 1994, senior US Federal Aviation Administration officials say (Flight International, 3-9 March, P13). Preliminary rulings refer to a MetroJet Boeing 737-200 incident on ...
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Safety boards act on cockpit recorder safety
Canadian and US safety boards are recommending changes to cockpit voice and flight data recorders (CVRs and FDRs) to prevent power interruptions which have complicated recent accident investigations. Canadian investigators say their efforts to determine the cause of last September's Swissair Boeing MD-11 crash have been compromised by missing ...
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Y2K live test set for US airspace systems
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC The first live test of changes made to the US national airspace system to overcome year 2000 (Y2K) computer problems has been scheduled for the early hours of 10 April, centred on Denver, Colorado. The Federal Aviation Administration says it is on course to complete ...
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ICAO leads way with enhanced proximity warning proposals
David Learmount/AMSTERDAM In a visible break with tradition, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) is set to make mandatory the use of flight data analysis (FDA) and enhanced ground proximity warning systems (EGPWS) even though they have not yet been declared requirements in any member state. Previously, the organisation ...
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Indonesia pushes for transport safety board
Andrzej Jeziorski/JAKARTA The head of Indonesia's Aircraft Accident Investigation Commission is pushing for the formation of a body, modelled on the US National Transportation Safety Board, to take control of air safety issues by 2004. The move is being pursued in the wake of the much-criticised investigation into ...
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Lufthansa plans capacity rise despite decline in yields
Andrew Doyle/BERLIN Chris Jasper/LONDON Lufthansa is planning to buck the European trend and increase capacity by 13% with the introduction of its summer schedules, despite sharing industry concerns over declining yields. Other European - and US - majors have been saddled with excess capacity over the past 12 months ...
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Airbus seeks exit rule changes
Andrew Doyle/MUNICH David Learmount/LONDON Airbus Industrie is trying to persuade European and US regulatory authorities to modify certification rules to allow it to build the A340-600 with the same number of emergency exits as the smaller -300, despite the fact that the new variant seats nearly 100 more passengers. To ...
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Lufthansa eyes new 767 options
Guy Norris/SEATTLE Lufthansa is studying a possible new version of the Boeing 767 being evaluated as a potential spin-off development of the new -400 entering production. The German flag carrier could be interested in a longer-range version of the 767-300ER and an extended-range variant of the -400ER, which ...
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Airline chiefs to be told likely causes of next accident
David Learmount/LONDON The UK's airline bosses are to be told by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) what is the most likely cause of their companies' next fatal accident. The unprecedented safety warning - to come at a meeting scheduled for 19 March - is aimed at ensuring the airlines ...
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Pilot error still main cause of US accidents
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Judgement failures by pilots remain the leading cause of US general aviation (GA) accidents, says the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association's Air Safety Foundation (ASF). A just-completed examination of US accidents in 1997 involving fixed-wing GA aircraft under 5,670kg (12,500lb) gross weight shows that 74% ...
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News in Brief
Allied A340 deal AlliedSignal's 331-600 auxiliary power unit (APU) has been selected by Airbus for the A340-500 and -600 growth versions in a deal worth more than $1 billion over the expected life of the programme. The new APU is based on the 331-500 developed for the Boeing 777 ...
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IATA outlines Y2K plans
Andrzej Jeziorski/SINGAPORE David Learmount/LONDON Fear of year 2000 (Y2K) "bugs" in air traffic services (ATS) computers is almost certain to cause flight delays and cancellations to varying degrees, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has calculated. Plans revealed for Asia-Pacific assume the need to reduce the capacity of ...
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Iberia examines 747 replacements
Max Kingsley-Jones/MADRID Iberia is finalising the last element of its fleet renewal programme to enable it to begin phasing out its Boeing 747-200s in three-four years' time. Last year, the Spanish flag carrier signed deals with Airbus Industrie covering orders for up to 76 Airbus A320 family aircraft ...
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Can or should?
An appeal from Boeing has put extended range twin-engined operations (ETOPS) in the headlines again. It does not take much to regenerate heated ETOPS debate among those within the airline industry or those outside. For some time now Boeing, and Pacific route operators of its 777, have been pressing ...
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Martian gliders
Tim Furniss/LONDON NASA hopes to deploy a fleet of small gliders to explore parts of Mars that other spacecraft cannot reachSwooping through Mars' own grand canyon, the Valles Marineris, would be the ultimate hang-gliding trip. The first aircraft to make that tantalising journey could be the $40 million Mars ...
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Boeing delays 767-400ERX service entry to 2003
Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DC Boeing is pushing back the projected entry into service date of the 767-400ERX to 2003, as American Airlines' interest in the proposed extended range development cools in the face of softening traffic and yields. Initial delivery of the 767-400ERX had tentatively been targeted for March ...
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USA votes against Concorde in hushkit conflict
The US House of Representatives has voted to ban Aerospatiale/British Aerospace Concorde operations into the USA. The decision is a reaction against European Union (EU) plans to restrict hushkitted aircraft in Western Europe. The USA is concerned that the EU's action would harm the exclusively US hushkit industry by ...
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PW4000 operators face surge inspection
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES Operators of more than 560 Pratt & Whitney PW4000-powered Airbus A300/ A310s, Boeing 747s, 767s and MD-11s are starting inspections for potential surge problems. The problems are restricted only to 2.37m (94in)-diameter fan versions of the PW4000. The move follows a suspected double surge event ...