A US jury has ordered Parker
Hannifin, the world`s largest
hydraulics manufacturer, to pay
$43.6m to the families of three
people killed in a plane crash in
Indonesia in 1997. The Los Angeles
Superior Court jury decided that
defects in the rudder controls of
the Silk Air Boeing 737 caused it to
plummet from an altitude of more
than more than 10km, killing all 104
people aboard.
The jury`s finding is at odds with
that of the US National
Transportation Safety Board, which
concluded that there were no
mechanical defects and that the Silk
Air pilot crashed the plane
deliberately.
The jury put all of the blame for
the crash on Parker Hannifin and
none on Silk Air or Boeing, which
manufactured the 10-month-old plane.
Parker Hannifin has denied that
there was a mechanical malfunction
and says the crash was the result of
"manual intervention". It is
appealing against the decision.
Following the LA court decision, the
families of 30 other crash victims
have now filed for a trial. If they
are successful, they could win a
combined payout of £500m.
Last remains from crash of Dominican-bound
flight are places in crypts
NEW YORK (AP) - The last unidentified
remains of people killed in the 2001 crash
of an American Airlines flight to the
Dominican Republic have been placed in two
crypts, officials said Saturday.
Families of the 265 victims of the crash
in the quiet neighborhood of Belle Harbor,
Queens, were invited to a dedication
ceremony Sunday at Woodlawn Cemetery in the
Bronx, said Susan Olsen, a cemetery
official.
Olsen said the unidentified remains, in
four caskets, were entombed Friday at a
mausoleum in the cemetery.
The bodies of all the crash victims had
been identified, but the medical examiner's
office was left with some remains that could
not be matched, said Ellen Borakove, a
spokeswoman for the medical examiner.
She said that to her knowledge, these
remains, 889 bone fragments and other
pieces, were the last from Flight 587.
The cemetery space was purchased by the
city.
Flight 587 crashed in the Belle Harbor
neighborhood after taking off from John F.
Kennedy International Airport. Many of the
victims were Dominican-born New York
residents on their way to visit the country.
The Nov. 12, 2001, crash killed 260
people on board and five people on the
ground, rattling a city still shaken by the
attacks on the World Trade Center just two
months earlier.
The National Transportation Safety Board
determined that part of the tail assembly of
the Airbus A300 had fallen off, and it
blamed pilot error, inadequate pilot
training and overly sensitive rudder
controls.
In November, on the fifth anniversary of
the crash, Mayor Michael Bloomberg dedicated
a memorial wall bearing the victims' names
and overlooking the ocean about 15 blocks
from the crash site. The $9.2 million
memorial was funded with private and public
money.
Judge May Quit
Air India Bombing Case
February 20,
2007
The head of a Canadian inquiry into
the 1985 Air India bombing
threatened to quit on Monday unless
the government declassified
documents it has claimed must be
kept secret for security reasons.
The commissioner, former Supreme
Court Justice John Major, said the
issue hampered his examination of
the security lapses that allowed the
explosion, which killed 329 people
in history's deadliest bombing of a
passenger airliner.
"If the documents remain, in a
manner of speaking, blacked out,
there is no way I can carry out my
mandate, and if this remains I will
communicate my view to the prime
minister after assessing the state
of affairs on March 5," Major said.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper,
who appointed Major last year, told
Parliament that federal law
prevented the release of a limited
number of documents.
But he said that, as a result of
Major's statement, he had given
instructions that government
departments apply the law in as
"non-restrictive" -- or uncensored
-- a manner as possible.
Air India Flight 182, originating
in Canada, blew up off the Atlantic
coast of Ireland on June 23, 1985. A
near-simultaneous attack aimed at a
second Air India flight killed two
Tokyo airport workers.
The attacks were believed to be
the work of Sikh militants in
revenge for India's storming of the
Golden Temple in 1984.
Major's inquiry is not to find
the perpetrators but to find out
what went wrong to allow the
bombings.
Two Vancouver Sikh separatists
were found not guilty in 2005 of
murder charges in the case. Their
trial heard that fighting between
Canada's spy agency and the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police hampered the
investigation.
Relatives of the victims demanded
the inquiry after the trial.
Airline In
Cyprus's Worst Crash To Stop Flying
October 30, 2006
A Cypriot
commercial airline, which changed
its name after Cyprus's worst
aviation disaster, said it would
terminate flight operations.
AJet,
successor company to Helios Airways,
will end its flight schedule within
three months, said holding company
Libra Holidays in a statement
released to the stock exchange on
Monday.
Libra said
the decision was based on financial
considerations. AJet will remain a
legal entity because of financial
claims against third parties, it
said.
The carrier
has suffered a barrage of bad
publicity over its safety track
record since its Boeing 737-300
crashed into a Greek hillside on
August 14, 2005, killing all 121
people on board.
In one of
the most mysterious disasters in
aviation history, the aircraft flew
on autopilot for more than two hours
after taking off from Larnaca in
Cyprus for Prague. It crashed from
lack of fuel as a flight attendant
with rudimentary pilot's training
and the only person apparently
conscious on the aircraft grappled
with the controls.
Greek F-16
fighter pilots, which scrambled to
intercept the aircraft after it
failed to respond to radio calls,
saw the attendant in the cockpit and
oxygen masks hanging in the cabin.
A Greek
investigator's report released in
early October blamed the crash on
deficient technical checks, the
pilots' failure to pick up on
compression warnings regulating
oxygen supplies and shortcomings in
the safety culture at Helios.
It also
blamed Cyprus's regulatory authority
for an inadequate execution of its
oversight responsibility and
planemaker Boeing for failing to
respond to previous pressurization
incidents.
The carrier
has challenged the report, saying it
offered no adequate or plausible
explanation of how its alleged
shortcomings could be linked to the
accident.
US
FAA
tests
runway
incursion
systems
The
US
Federal
Aviation
Administration
has
completed
a
five-year
evaluation
of a
system
of
runway
and
taxiway
ultraviolet
emitters
designed
to
detect
incursions.
The
developer,
Maryland-based
Norris
Electro
Optical
Systems,
says
its
system
is
ready
for
production
and
could
be
installed
within
12
to
18
months.
The
Autonomous
Runway
Incursion
Prevention
System
(ARIPS)
uses
UV
light
emitted
from
modified
runway
and
taxiway
lights,
along
with
corresponding
detectors,
to
create
“trip
wires”
at
runway
thresholds
and
crossings.
Unaffected
by
rain
and
fog,
these
can
automatically
detect
moving
aircraft
and
other
vehicles.
An
incursion
would
be
reported
to
the
affected
pilots
by
changing
the
state
of
runway
status
indicators.
An
ARIPS
prototype
with
18
emitter-sensor
pairs
was
installed
on
selected
runways
and
taxiways
at
Providence,
Rhode
Island’s
Green
airport.
The
system
was
tested
against
six
runway-incursion
scenarios,
based
on
actual
incidents,
including
a
potential
collision
on
two
intersecting
runways
and
an
aircraft
blundering
onto
an
active
runway
from
a
taxiway.
GA
Accident Rate Up Slightly In 2005
Aviation fatalities from all sectors
dropped a bit last year, according to
preliminary figures released this week
by the NTSB, while GA deaths were up
slightly, to 562 from 558 the year
before. The number of people killed in
all aviation accidents in 2005 dropped
to 616, from 652 in 2004. Airline
fatalities increased from 14 to 22,
while air-taxi deaths dropped sharply
from 64 in 2004 to 18 last year. General
aviation fatal accidents amounted to 1.3
for every 100,000 hours of flying,
according to the NTSB's estimate. "It is
very disturbing to see transportation
fatalities rising," said NTSB Chairman
Mark V. Rosenker. "We need a concerted
effort by government, industry and the
traveling public to establish a strong
downward trend in the number of fatal
accidents." The full
aviation accident statistics are
available online.
INFORMATION ON
THE RESULTS OF ICAO SAFETY OVERSIGHT AUDITS
Based on a recommendation of the Directors
General of Civil Aviation Conference on a
Global Strategy for Aviation Safety (DGCA/06),
a number of ICAO Member States have
authorized ICAO to publish information on
the result of their safety oversight audit
by ICAO. This information is available on
the ICAO Flight Safety Information Exchange
(FSIX) website.
At: www.icao.int/fsix/auditRep1.cfm
LAPTOP
BATTERY RESTRICTIONS
As a result of the current problems being
experienced by the Apple and Dell Corporations
with some of the batteries fitted to some
of their laptops, as a safety precaution
and with immediate effect, customers wanting
to use an Apple or Dell laptop on board
can only do so if the battery is removed.
Any removed or spare batteries must be individually
wrapped/protected and placed in your Carry
On Baggage. This is limited to two batteries
per passenger.
In cabins where the seats are fitted with
In Seat Power Supplies, leads/adapters will
be offered. Where no ISPS is provided or
no laptop leads/adapters are available,
the use of Apple and Dell laptops is prohibited.
Virgin is in communication with Apple and
Dell. As soon as this safety issue is resolved
these restrictions will be lifted.
Firefighting
plane crash not caused by mid-air break-up
SACRAMENTO
- Investigators determined that
a federal firefighting air tanker involved
in a fatal crash last year did not break
up in mid-air, the National Transportation
Safety Board reported.
The NTSB report, issued on its Web site
Sunday, concluded that the four-engine P-3
Orion did not suffer engine or control problems
but was so close to the ground that a wing
tip smashed into rugged terrain. The crash
in Chico killed three pilots.
The report said the weather was clear,
there was enough light to fly safely and
the crew was healthy and not under the influence
of drugs.
The findings ease concerns regarding the
former Navy submarine attack planes, which
have become the backbone of the federal
aerial firefighting tanker fleet. The big
red-and-white turboprop planes are used
almost daily to fight wildfires.
The plane, manufactured by Lockheed Martin
Corp., was delivered to the Navy in 1966
and later refurbished as a firefighting
plane that carried 3,000 gallons of retardant.
The U.S. Forest Service already has suffered
permanent grounding of other big military-surplus
planes converted to air tankers after several
mid-air breakups.
September 2, 2006 -
Iranian Plane Crash Kills Dozens
MASHAD, Iran – At least 29 people
were killed after a plane burst into flames
on landing at an airport in north-eastern
Iran yesterday in the latest in a string
of disasters that have prompted mounting
concern about the country's air safety record.
The Russian-built Tupolev
154 aircraft caught fire after a tyre burst
on touching down at the shrine city of Mashad.
First reports suggested 80 of the 148 people
on board had been killed, but this figure
was later downgraded by the countries' civil
aviation organisation. The plane, operated
by Iranairtours, was en route from the southern
port of Bandar Abbas. Initial reports suggested
that many of its passengers were pilgrims
visiting the tomb of Imam Reza, one of Shia
Islam's most revered figures, who is buried
in Mashad, about 620 miles from Tehran.
Iranian state television showed the
charred jet beside the runway as firefighters
tackled the blaze. Rescue teams carried
out corpses covered in blankets. A gash
could be seen in the middle of the fuselage,
while the cockpit and rear appeared largely
undamaged. Officials said accident investigators
were at the scene.
Airline safety has become a sensitive
issue in Iran following a spate of crashes
that have killed hundreds of people in
recent years. The country's rulers blame
US sanctions prohibiting the sale of Boeing
and Airbus aircraft to Iran. The embargo
has forced Iran to buy ageing Soviet-made
planes and to scour the black market for
parts for older US-built craft bought
before the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Many of the country's worst air disasters
have involved Soviet-made models. Three
crashes involving such planes killed more
than 400 people in 2002 and 2003.
An incentive package proposed by the
UN security council to settle the dispute
over Iran's nuclear programme offers to
lift the restrictions to allow it to buy
US and European civilian airliners. That
offer now appears in jeopardy after Iran
this week ignored a UN deadline to suspend
uranium enrichment in exchange.
However, the latest crash could renew
pressure on the Iranian government to
tackle airline safety. Last December there
was an outcry after a US-made Hercules
military transport plane crashed into
a block of flats in Tehran, killing all
94 people on board and 22 on the ground.
The crash provoked criticism in Iran's
normally pliant media amid claims that
fears about the plane's safety had been
dismissed.
Earlier this year the head of the revolutionary
guards and 10 other senior officers were
killed when a Falcon jet crashed near
Orumiyeh, in north-west Iran. Iran's worst
air disaster occurred in February 2003
when more than 270 revolutionary guards
were killed after an Ilyushin-76 crashed
in the south-east of the country.
Robert
L. Sumwalt Sworn In As NTSB Vice-Chairman
Robert L.
Sumwalt was sworn in on 21 Aug 06 as a Member
of the National Transportation Safety Board.
His term of office will run until December
31, 2011 -- the first two years of which
he will serve as Vice Chairman of the Board.
Prior to coming
to the Board, Sumwalt was Manager of Aviation
for the SCANA Corporation. Sumwalt was a
pilot for 24 years with Piedmont Airlines
and then US Airways, logging over 14,000
flight hours and earning type ratings in
five aircraft before retiring from the airline
in 2005.
The NTSB says
Sumwalt has extensive experience as an airline
captain, airline check airman, instructor
pilot and air safety representative. For
example, Sumwalt worked on special assignment
to the US Airways Flight Safety Department
from 1997 to 2004, where he was involved
in the development of numerous airline safety
programs, including an enhanced crew awareness
program and a windshear training program.
From 2002
to 2004, he served on the US Airways Flight
Operations Quality Assurance (FOQA) Monitoring
Team. In that time, Sumwalt also served
as a member of Air Line Pilots Association's
(ALPA) Accident Investigation Board, and
also worked with ALPA's Aviation Weather
Committee on improving the quality of weather
products available to pilots.
A trained
accident investigator, Mr. Sumwalt participated
in the NTSB's investigation of the crash
of US Air flight 427 in 1994 near Aliquippa
PA, and the Transportation Safety Board
of Canada's investigation of the accident
involving Swissair flight 111 off the coast
of Nova Scotia in 1998.
Mr. Sumwalt
has written extensively on aviation safety
matters and has published over 85 articles
and papers in aviation trade publications.
He has broad experience in writing aircraft
operations manuals and airline and corporate
aviation policy and procedure guidelines.
He has been a regular contributor to Professional
Pilot magazine.
Sumwalt joined
the faculty of the University of Southern
California's Aviation Safety and Security
Program, where he has been the primary human
factors instructor. In recognition of his
contributions to the aviation industry,
Sumwalt received the Flight Safety Foundation's
Laura Taber Barbour Award in 2003 and ALPA's
Air Safety Award in 2004.
Sumwalt assumes
the vice-chairmanship of the Board from
Mark Rosenker, who was sworn in as NTSB
Chairman earlier this month after serving
as Acting Chairman since March 2005.
A
joint European effort is working on software
that would enable remote control of an aircraft
that could override any attempts by hijackers
to control the plane, and force a safe landing.
"The system would be designed in such
a way that even a computer hacker on board
could not get round it."
If successful, it would resolve various debates
such as those going on in Germany about shooting
down hijacked commercial airliners. The project
is budgeted for 36m Euros.
[Source: Yahoo News, 22 Jul 2006]
link
August 9, 2006
- Swiss Charge 8 in Midair Jet Collision
ZURICH, Switzerland -- Eight
Swiss air traffic control company employees
have been charged with negligent homicide
in a 2002 airliner collision that killed
71 people over southern Germany, a prosecutor
said.
All of the employees, who were not identified,
deny any responsibility for the collision
of a Bashkirian Airlines Tu-154 jet and
a DHL cargo plane in the airspace supervised
by the Skyguide air navigation service,
Winterthur District Attorney Bernhard
Hecht said in a statement Monday.
The victims included 45 Russian schoolchildren
headed for a vacation in Spain.
Hecht said the eight were charged in
the District Court of Belach on Friday.
They have also been charged with negligent
disruption of public transportation.
Hecht said the eight should be given
suspended sentences of six to 15 months
in jail.
The statement said the defendants were
accused of organizational shortcomings
that led to a single air traffic controller
being left in charge of the area where
the crash occurred on July 1, 2002, and
with providing insufficient information
to him about technical work in progress
that decisively affected the communications
and radar systems.
"In the opinion of the district
attorney, the failures to carry out their
duties led to the collision and crash
of the two aircraft," the statement
said.
Investigators
find cause of fatal Utah plane crash
BY MOLLY MCMILLIN
The Wichita Eagle
The National Transportation Safety Board
indicated in a preliminary report Tuesday
that the linkage on an experimental twin-engine
plane that killed two test pilots, including
Wichita State University graduate Nathan
Forrest, was installed incorrectly.
The Spectrum 33 crashed July 25 during
takeoff from Spanish Fork-Springville Airport
at Spanish Fork, Utah. The NTSB report said
the plane's linkage -- which helps control
the plane -- was installed backward.
"It was connected in a manner that
reversed the roll control," the report
said.
Witnesses indicated the airplane entered
a right roll almost immediately after takeoff
and the right wingtip hit the ground. The
airplane -- which was made from advanced
composite materials -- was destroyed by
the impact, but all major components were
accounted for in the wreckage, the NTSB
said.
Spectrum president Austin Blue told Aviation
International News that the company will
continue with the program. First flight
of the next test plane, which will be designed
to ensure that the controls cannot be rigged
incorrectly, will occur sometime next year,
Aviation International said.
Forrest, 25, was a former Olathe resident
who graduated from WSU in 2003. Also killed
in the crash was 53-year old Glenn Maben,
Spectrum's director of flight operations.
Air France
Opts for Honeywell RAAS for Runway
Safety
07-22-2006
Air
France will install Honeywell's
Runway Awareness and Advisory System
(RAAS) to improve the situational
awareness of its pilots during airport
operations and reduce runway incursions.
Installations should begin later
this year.
Working
in conjunction with Honeywell's
EGPWS (enhanced ground proximity
warning system), RAAS compares the
aircraft's GPS-derived location
against an airport database to pinpoint
its location on the surface, and
provide aural advisories to the
pilots - if needed - of the following
situations:
Entering
a runway and when their aircraft
is on a runway.
Runway
distance remaining call-outs
during rejected take-off or
long landings.
An
inadvertent take-off attempt
from a taxiway.
A
take-off from a short runway
or approach to land on a short
runway.
Remaining
on a runway for an extended
period of time.
An
optional advisory identifies the
runway when on final approach.
Boeing
offers package to upgrade C-130s
NEW
YORK (AFX) - Boeing Co (NYSE:
BA
- news)
. on Wednesday unveiled a program
to upgrade existing C-130 military
transport aircraft, extending
the life of one of the world's
most widely used planes by up
to 30 years for a cost of $10
million to $15 million.
Boeing announced the 'C-130 Total
Life Extension Program' at the
Farnborough International Air
Show, outside of London.
The upgrade 'addresses several
aircraft modernization needs,
including avionics, wiring, structures
and systems,' the company said.
The upgrade package includes an
avionics modernization program,
which would make the planes compliant
with requirements that will allow
them to be deployed worldwide.
The avionics system includes digital
displays and the flight management
system used on 737 commercial
models.
The price of a new C-130J, the
latest version of the plane which
entered the Air Force fleet in
1999, is between $65 million and
$75 million, Boeing said.
The original C-130 was produced
for the Air Force in the early
1950s, but the planes are now
used by dozens of militaries around
the world.
We
have been informed of a recent case where
smoke, accompanied by an unpleasant smell,
spread through an A340 aircraft cockpit and
cabin during cruise flight, and sparks also
appeared in the cabin, resulting in an emergency
landing.
The cause was a feeder cable for galley power,
located behind the first class galley ceiling.
This cable shorted, and a 20 - 30cm length
burned.
Around 5 hours before the problems occurred,
a sound was heard above the first class galley,
and fragments of something fell.
Apparently the reason why the cockpit filled
with smoke is because the avionics bay air
pressure was a little lower than in the cabin,
so that the smoke generated above the galley
was sucked into the cockpit.
It is difficult for the installed smoke detectors
to catch all fires on board an aircraft.
At present, the ability of cabin crew to detect
the type of heat, sound, or smell, and details
of the fire's location, is apparently the
most effective method of detecting fires.
Airbus proposes including a section on this
in cabin attendant manuals, because early
detection and extinguishing of fires is so
important.
Did Laptop Batteries
Aboard A UPS Cargo Plane Ignite,
Causing The Aircraft To Catch Fire?
July 13, 2006 -
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (USA)
- The National Transportation Safety
Board began looking into the question
at a hearing Wednesday.
All three crew members on the plane
were treated for minor injuries
after it made an emergency landing
shortly after midnight Feb. 8 at
Philadelphia International Airport.
Several other incidents have occurred
in recent years in which lithium
batteries - used in laptops and
cell phones - have caught fire aboard
airplanes.
Less than two months ago in Chicago,
a spare laptop battery packed in
a bag stored in an overhead bin
started emitting smoke, chief crash
investigator Frank Hilldrup of the
NTSB testified Wednesday.
A flight attendant used an extinguisher
and the bag was removed, but the
bag caught fire on a ramp, Hilldrup
said.
Investigators in the Philadelphia
fire found that several computer
laptop batteries were on board the
plane, and that in many cases portions
of the laptop batteries had burned,
he said. "It is not known at
this time the role these batteries
may have played in the fire,"
Hilldrup said.
Lithium ion batteries are sometimes
referred to as "rechargeable"
or "secondary" lithium
batteries. They, along with primary
or "non-rechargeable"
lithium batteries, can present fire
hazards because of the heat often
generated when they are damaged
or suffer a short circuit.
It is expected to take several months
for the NTSB to reach a conclusion
about the cause of the fire in Philadelphia,
although several hazardous materials
on board the plane have been determined
not to be the cause. The NTSB is
also examining other related issues,
such as what can be done to make
cargo flights safer and the overall
emergency response to the incident.
In 1999, a shipment of lithium batteries
ignited after it was unloaded from
a passenger jet at Los Angeles International
Airport. Another shipment erupted
into flames in Memphis in 2004 when
it was being loaded onto a FedEx
plane bound for Paris.
In the case of the UPS cargo plane,
the crew declared an emergency on
approach into Philadelphia. Fire
and rescue crews met the four-engine
jet, a DC-8 that originated in Atlanta,
when it touched down shortly after
midnight.
Firefighters said the blaze was
under control about four hours later,
although the charred plane smoldered
for hours.
Judge
sets deadline in plane crash case
All
of suits generally allege negligence
by flight crew
A year and a half after the
deadly crash, the courts
are now trying to determine
what those injuries and deaths
are worth in dollars.
Posted: Wednesday, July 05, 2006 at
4:00 PM
A federal judge set a July 31 deadline
to settle a consolidated case involving
the deadly crash of a commuter airliner
in northeast Missouri.
The two-man crew and 11 of 13 passengers
aboard Corporate Airlines Flight 5966
were killed in the October 19th, 2004,
accident.
Most were medical professionals heading
for a conference at the Kirksville
College of Osteopathic Medicine.
The courts are now trying to determine
what those injuries and deaths are
worth in dollars.
All of the suits generally allege
negligence by the flight crew.
Travellers’
safety suffers
The French air and space academy (ANAE) study
concludes that the “dysfunctional” relationship
between the judicial investigation and the
technical/administrative investigation of
accidents has a negative effect on all processes
and parties involved.
The organisation is “concerned about the
possible consequences of these proceedings
on whole sectors of activity in France,
and on travellers’ safety in the sectors
in question; ANAE considers that questions
raised by the victims’ representatives regarding
dysfunctions have not been properly addressed”.
The ANAE recommends a “reappraisal of both
legal procedures and administrative investigations”.
It says independent judicial and technical
investigations can have a “corrosive effect
on the sophisticated and – to passengers
– beneficial systems employed by the aviation
and air transport industry for managing
risk”.
Safety
minded
The
Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB)
has concluded that Australia has a good
safety record after comparing the fatal
aviation accident rate of the country between
1995 and 2004 with rates in Canada, New
Zealand, the United Kingdom and USA. The
ATSB study was prompted by claims in the
local media late last year, after a number
of incidents, of a growing trend in fatal
accidents.
Airlines
record safest year yet
Steve Creedy, Aviation writer
June 08, 2006
FLYING was safer than
ever last year as international airlines defied
financial strife to deliver their lowest crash
rate on record.
Several high-profile crashes did not stop
the industry - which is facing combined losses
this year of $US3 billion ($4 billion) - recording
just one accident for every 1.3 million flights.
Members of the International
Air Transport Association, which account
for most of the world's international airlines,
reported an even lower rate of one accident
for every 2.9 million flights.
IATA director-general
Giovanni Bisignani described the result
as "amazing" but warned that more
needed to be done in some areas, particularly
Africa.
The association has
voted to make a new international safety
system a condition of membership and has
warned that countries that do not comply
will be ejected.
The
National Transportation Safety Board is investigating
an uncontained engine
failure on an American Airlines
B-767 that was undergoing testing, June 2,
at Los Angeles International Airport.
At 12:27 PST, during a ground maintenance
test run, the high-pressure turbine stage
one disk on the number one engine (GE CF6-80A2)
broke into several pieces that were found
embedded in the fuselage, the number two
engine, and scattered as far 3,000 feet
from the airplane.
Numerous holes punched in the wings by
pieces of the engine caused fuel leaks that
led to a ground fire that was extinguished
by airport fire department personnel.
There were no reported injuries to the
three maintenance technicians aboard the
airplane at the time of the accident.
NTSB investigators were at the accident
scene from June 3 to 7. Pieces of the high-pressure
turbine disk were recovered and brought
to the NTSB Materials Laboratory in Washington
DC, for analysis. Initial examination of
the disk pieces found indications of fatigue
cracking.
The failed engine has been brought to the
American Airlines facility in Tulsa OK,
for teardown this week under NTSB supervision.
A new dimension may
have been added to the
10-year effort to prevent
fuel tanks from exploding
in airliners. The right
wing fuel tank on a
Transmile Airlines Boeing
727-200 apparently blew
up while the plane was
on the ground at Bangalore,
India, last week. There
were no injuries or
damage to anything else
but it brought into
sharp focus the NTSB's
10-year battle to prevent
fuel-tank explosions
after the NTSB determined
a belly tank blew on
a TWA Boeing 747 in
1996 off Long Island,
killing everyone aboard.
(Though more people
were killed, that incident
was
not the first of
its kind.) The FAA is
now preparing a final
rule
(from this NPRM)
that may require systems
to prevent fuel-tank
explosions to be retrofitted
on all airliners. But
the rule applies only
to center tanks and
not wing tanks like
the one that cooked
off last week. The proposed
rule is being opposed
by the Air Transport
Association. The ATA
says cash-strapped airlines
can't afford the retrofits.
Rather than trying to
eliminate sources of
ignition, the proposed
rule sets flammability
standards for the vacant
space in fuel tanks
known as the ullage.
The most likely way
of meeting those standards
is to pump inert gas
into that space to displace
the oxygen. Boeing's
working on just such
a system and hopes to
have it certified this
year. There have been
18 documented fuel-tank
explosions in airliners
and the FAA predicts
at least nine more over
the next 50 years if
something isn't done.
NTSB DETERMINES
AIRPLANE CRASHED NEAR HELENDALE, CALIFORNIA
IN 2003 DUE TO LOSS OF CONTROL
************************************************************
Washington, DC-The National Transportation
Safety Board determined today that the probable
cause of a 2003 Learjet accident near Helendale,
California was the loss of airplane control
for undetermined reasons.
On December 23, 2003 a Learjet 24B, N600XJ,
registered to Pavair, Inc., Santa Monica,
California, departed San Bernardino County
Airport, Chino, California and was destined
for Friedman Memorial Airport, Hailey, Idaho.
Twelve minutes after the flight departed,
the crew requested to return to San Bernardino's
airport. However, the first officer
informed the air traffic controller he did
not need to declare an emergency. Less
than two minutes later, the airplane was descending
through 23,000 feet at a rate of
10,000 feet per minute and the first officer
declared an emergency. No further transmission
was received from the airplane before it crashed
near Helendale, California. The pilot
and first officer were killed and the airplane
was destroyed.
The airplane was not equipped with a cockpit
voice recorder or flight data recorder and
Federal regulations did not require them.
Although primary and secondary flight controls
were identified, impact damage precluded any
determination of pre-impact control system
continuity and there were no useful remnants
from the cockpit instrument panel. Impact
damage precluded a determination of whether
the engines were operating at impact.
There was no evidence of an in-flight fire.
"This is another example of where a recording
device - whether a voice recorder, data recorder
or a video recorder - would have greatly helped
investigators determined what happened,"
NTSB Acting Chairman Mark V. Rosenker said.
An opportunity to improve aviation safety
was lost here."
Slovak
military plane crash not
caused by technical failure:
official
BUDAPEST,
May 16 (Xinhua) -- The crash
of a Slovak military transport
plane in Hungary in January,
which killed 42 peacekeeping
soldiers, was not caused
by a technical failure,
Milan Vanga, the spokesman
for the Slovak armed forces,
said on Tuesday.
"Our
investigation produced
no evidence that a technical
failure was behind the
accident," Vanga
said.
He
added that human errors
as a possible cause had
not been ruled out and
a biochemical and psychological
analysis was still underway.
The
AN-24 aircraft, carrying
43 Slovak peacekeepers
from Pristina, Kosovo
to Kosice, Slovakia, crashed
into a 700-meter high
hill in east Hungary on
Jan. 19. Only one soldier
survived the crash.
The
two countries are planning
to build a memorial for
the victims on the hill
where the crash occurred.
FedEx DC-10
damaged by CF6 engine disintegration
A FedEx McDonnell Douglas DC-10
was substantially damaged when
the low pressure turbine of the
General Electric CF6-6D engine
on its left wing disintegrated
mid-flight.
The aircraft, N386FE, was operating
as FedEx flight 597 from Memphis,
Tennessee to Seattle, Washington when
an emergency was declared. It
is understood the aircraft was
still ascent at about flight level
300 (30,000ft/9,150m) when number
three engine blew.
GE says a significant part of
the engine’s low pressure turbine
landed in a rice field in northeastern
Arkansas. The location is defined
in a US Federal Aviation Administration
preliminary accident report as
Walnut Ridge, Arkansas, a town
located 130km (80mi) northwest
of Memphis. No ground injuries
were reported.
However, substantial damage
to the aircraft was reported,
mostly to its left wing. The
pilot was able to safely return
the aircraft to Memphis at 16:30
without further incident.
Flight 597’s CF6-6Ds were among
the first of the CF6 engine
series to be produced more than
30 years ago. Most CF6-6D engines
in service power FedEx DC-10s,
says GE.
According to
Flight's ACAS fleet database,
FedEx’s DC-10 went into service
in 1974 for United Airlines,
and was transferred to FedEx
in 1997. The aircraft was converted
to an MD-10-10F freighter in
2001.
US National Transportation
Safety Board officials are investigating
the incident.
Plane crash in
Miami-Dade lake blamed on maintenance, overloading
Improper maintenance and an overload of
freight caused a cargo plane to crash land
in a Miami-Dade County lake in December,
2004, according to a National Transportation
Safety Board report released Wednesday.
The twin-engine Convair 340, operated by
Miami Air Lease, had taken off from Opa-locka
Airport, headed for Nassau. It was three
miles east of the shoreline when its left
engine failed. The two pilots tried to return
to the airport.
Because the oil system had not been
adequately flushed, they were unable to
stop the left propeller from spinning, which
created drag. Also, the plane was almost
600 pounds over its maximum weight limit,
forcing it to descend, the safety board
said.
The pilots ditched the plane in Maule Lake
[link],
just south of Aventura Mall. Neither one
was hurt.[link]
Flaps set wrongly
on Mandala 737
LEITHEN FRANCIS / SINGAPORE
Investigators say incorrect
configuration meant twinjet was unable
to get airborne when taking off from Medan
Investigations into September’s fatal
crash of a Boeing 737-200 in Indonesia
have determined that an incorrect flap
setting was a contributing factor.
Industry sources in Indonesia familiar
with the probe say investigators from
Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety
Commission (NTSC) have discovered that
the Mandala Airlines aircraft failed to
get airborne because the flaps were set
incorrectly.
The 737-200, registered PK-RIM, took
off from Medan airport on 5 September
and crashed into approach lights at the
end of the runway. It then went through
a fence and on to a street, where it crashed
into residential buildings, resulting
in the death of 99 of the 117 people on
board and nearly 50 people on the ground.
After the crash there were reports that
the NTSC investigators had found a fan
blade in poor condition. But a source
in Indonesia familiar with the probe says
investigators took the suspect Pratt &
Whitney JT8D-15 engine to Indonesian Aerospace’s
hangar in Bandung for examination and
found “there was no indication that the
engine was not working”.
NTSC investigators also determined there
was no fuel contamination, says the source.
The NTSC is still working on its analysis,
but hopes to “come up with a final draft
[report]” at the end of May.
Canada's
Transportation
Safety
Board
released
its
final
report
this
week
on
a
Caravan
crash
in
which
10
people
died
in
January
2004.
Investigators
found
that
the
aircraft
was
over
gross
by
at
least
15
percent
on
takeoff,
freezing
participation
was
falling,
and
ice
was
vi
Aviation fatalities from all sectors
dropped a bit last year, according to
preliminary figures released this week
A new dimension may
have been added to the
10-year effort to prevent
fuel tanks from exploding
in airliners. The right
wing fuel tank on a
Transmile Airlines Boeing
727-200 apparently blew
up while the plane was
on the ground at Bangalore,
India, last week. There
were no injuries or
damage to anything else
but it brought into
sharp focus the NTSB's
10-year battle to prevent
fuel-tank explosions
after the NTSB determined
a belly tank blew on
a TWA Boeing 747 in
1996 off Long Island,
killing everyone aboard.
(Though more people
were killed, that incident
was 
Canada's
Transportation
Safety
Board
released
its