All Safety News – Page 1303
-
News
Navajo gear
The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has recommended the US Federal Aviation Administration to require recurrent inspections of Piper PA-31 Navajo inboard door hinge assemblies until they are replaced by a stronger hinge unit. The NTSB's advisory results from a 1997 regional airline incident in which a Cape Smythe ...
-
News
Emery examines 767 and A300 freighters as DC-8 replacements
Max Kingsley-Jones/LONDON Emery Worldwide Airlines is evaluating the Airbus A300 and Boeing 767-200 as potential replacements for its fleet of McDonnell Douglas DC-8 freighters. It expects to finalise its long-term fleet plan during 1999. The Dayton, Ohio-based airline division of US freight forwarder Emery Worldwide (itself a division ...
-
News
Delays continue for Europe's air traffic
Air traffic delays in European airspace during the summer were "among the worst on record",according to the Association of European Airlines (AEA). The figures, which reveal that 25.9% of intra-European flights were delayed by more than 15min, come despite traffic growth being 2% less than the predicted 7%. ...
-
News
Rulebreaking revealed as most deadly factor in air accidents
David Learmount/CAPE TOWN Pilot disregard of rules has been revealed as the most common primary cause of civil transport aircraft approach and landing accidents (ALAs), according to a just-published report from the Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) Approach and Landing Accident Reduction (ALAR) task force. This exhaustive study of some ...
-
News
Alitalia and KLM take step closer to global alliance
Julian Moxon/PARIS Alitalia and KLM will sign a "master co-operation" agreement by the end of this month, almost a year after signing their original memorandum of understanding on a wide ranging commercial alliance. The deal was conditional on the opening of Milan's new Malpensa airport hub, which is ...
-
News
US DoT stalls alliance frequent-flier tie-up
The US Department of Transportation has blocked Northwest Airlines and Continental Airlines from merging their frequent-flier programmes until at least early December while it continues to review all provisions of a planned wider tie-up. Meanwhile, the USA's second-largest pilots' union has asked the Clinton Administration to block Northwest from ...
-
News
Green light shows for Quiet Skies 707 hushkit
The first Quiet Skies-developed Stage 3 hushkit for a Pratt & Whitney JT3D-3B-powered Boeing 707-300 is due to be delivered to the inaugural customer, a private European owner, by the end of this month. The delivery follows the award of a supplemental type certificate (STC) by the US Federal ...
-
News
US association predicts record profits for 1999
Major US airlines are expected to earn record profits this year and surpass them in 1999, predicts David Swierenga, chief economist for the US Air Transport Association (ATA). He says ATA's member airlines will post $5.4 billion in net profits in 1998 and record as much as $6.5 billion ...
-
News
Virtual reality
The European Commission's proposal of a "virtual NASA" to coordinate aeronautical research across Europe is a welcome move in a market where such research is vulnerable to local-market politics. Until recently, Euro-pean governments have proved tardy, however, in encouraging their aerospace industries to cooperate. But the question remains: will they ...
-
News
EC proposes 'virtual NASA' for research
Julian Moxon/BRUSSELS The European Commission is considering a new approach to aeronautics research in Europe aimed at streamlining the acquisition of technologies and improving co-ordination of research activity. Herbert Allgeier, chairman of the aeronautics task force at the EC's DG12 research directorate, says the idea is to create ...
-
News
American races to Reno Air
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC American Airlines has acquired Reno Air in a deal worth $124 million. The acquisition is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 1999, after which the airlines will begin integrating the route networks and work forces. American, the second-largest airline in the USA, plans to ...
-
News
Amakusa takes Dash 8 for island link
Amakusa Airlines, a new Japanese regional carrier, is to start operations with a recently ordered Bombardier de Havilland Dash 8, according to Bombardier Aerospace. Delivery of the 39-seat Dash 8-100 will take place next October, but the airline does not plan to launch revenue services until early 2000. Amakusa ...
-
News
Litton flight tests gyro retrofit on Boeing 727
Litton Aero Products is flight testing its LTR-97 fibre optic gyro-based system on a Boeing 727-200 as a strap-down replacement for potentially thousands of aircraft equipped with older electro-mechanical, vertical and directional gyros. The market, estimated to be for around 5,000 systems, includes McDonnell Douglas DC-8s, DC-9s and MD-80s, ...
-
News
Sticky problems tar Malpensa operations
The latest in a stream of mishaps and malfunctions to have plagued Milan Malpensa Airport since its 25 October "relaunch" as Milan's primary international airport is the melting of the newly laid surface of runway 1. Aircraft were disabled on 5 and 6 November when lumps of tar stuck to ...
-
News
767 instrument system mystery failure traced to battery faults
David Learmount/LONDON AN Almost total failure of a Boeing 767's electronic flight instrument system (EFIS) during a transatlantic flight has been attributed to battery installation faults, according to a US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report. The 28 May, 1996, Martinair Holland 767-300ER flight from Amsterdam Schiphol to ...
-
News
SAirGroup buys 49% of LTU and eyes full access to EU market
Andrew Doyle/DÜSSELDORF SAirGroup has finally completed its long-awaited acquisition of a 49.9% stake in German tour operator LTU as the latest step in its plans for a major expansion of its operations in the European leisure travel market. The deal comes as senior executives at the Swissair parent are expressing ...
-
News
Winnipeg consortium launches Canada's first scheduled cargo operation
Canada's first scheduled widebody cargo flights are being launched by Winnport Logistics, a consortium of 43 transportation companies. The Winnipeg, Manitoba-based consortium has leased a Boeing 747 freighter from Evergreen International Airlines, and will operate three flights a week between Winnipeg and the Chinese cities of Nanjing and Shenzhen. ...
-
News
BA realigns fleet after pre-tax profits fall
British Airways is reacting to disappointing first half results and an impending economic downturn by realigning its fleet and route network. Pre-tax profits for the airline dropped 10.5% to £385 million ($639 million) for the first six months to 30 September as a downturn in the world economy and ...
-
News
Common theme
Graham Warwick WASHINGTON DC Can airlines agree to buy a standard aircraft, in the hope of reducing costs, or will each continue to demand hundreds of custom changes that set its aircraft apart from any other carrier's? That is the question facing an airline task force which is to ...
-
News
Airbus may ditch A3XX thrust reversers to slow down costs
Andrew Doyle/LONDON Airbus Industrie is discussing with airlines a plan to remove the thrust reversers from its A3XX ultra-high capacity airliner design as part of efforts to further reduce the aircraft's direct operating costs. Airlines have generally reacted favourably towards the idea of dropping the system from the outboard engines ...