Ouch A “suspicious device” uncovered at the checkpoint April 19 at Hartsfield- Jackson Atlanta Int’l Airport (ATL) (Air Safety Week, April 24), resulting in a couple of hours of service delays, turned out to be a “false” image. The TSA screener who first saw the device pushed a button to check if it was just […]
Icing, Not Crew Incompetence, Caused Roselawn Crash, U.S. Board Says French petitions did not produce substantive changes to original report Basic conclusions will not be changed about the fatal 1994 crash of an ATR twin-turboprop in icing conditions while flying over Roselawn, Indiana. The case is yet another where U.S. accident investigators find themselves at […]
A310 Loses Rudder, Prompts Fleetwide Inspections, Inquiry An Air Transat A310 lost its rudder on March 6, prompting manufacturer Airbus to issue a directive calling for field inspections of rudders on both A310 and A300-600 models. About 400 aircraft worldwide are affected by the inspection mandate. This is a two-fold improvement over the handling when […]
Ice Dazzle Russian investigators March 23 said the blinding whiteness of the snow disoriented the pilots, who banked suddenly on the approach to Varendei. The resulting crash killed 29 of 52 aboard the AN-24 (see ASW, March 21). The flight data recorder revealed no technical cause for the crash. [Copyright 2005 Access Intelligence, LLC. All […]
Humor for the Week “Now I know what a dog feels like watching television.” A captain of a DC-9, an aircraft with “steam gage” cockpit instrumentation, while in training to check out on the “glass cockpit” of an A320. [Copyright 2003 PBI Media, LLC. All rights reserved.] COPYRIGHT 2003 PBI Media, LLC COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale […]
Defending the Cockpit The latest guidance to pilots enjoining them to resist hijackers basically concedes that the previous philosophy of “going along to get along” could get one killed. With the debate over non-lethal weapons and firearms unresolved, what means are at hand to resist? Well, the crash axe, for one. Here’s a recent tidbit […]
On track, sort of The fatal accident rate for scheduled airline operations in 2001 suggests that the industry may well achieve its goal of an 80 percent reduction over a 10-year period ending in 2007 (see ASW, March 17, 1997). However, if the number of fatalities shapes public perceptions, 2001 comes across as the worst […]
Next Year ‘Crucial’ For Safer Skies Accident Reduction Programs Government and industry officials are confident that airline and general aviation accident rates can be reduced substantially within the next six years. These announcements at last week’s Aviation Safety Expo, hosted by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), were uttered three years into a 10-year collaborative effort […]
Lithium Battery Fire Could Burn Through a Cargo Hold Halon extinguishing agent has no effect on fire intensity Lithium batteries may represent the ultimate hazardous material, especially when shipped in bulk as cargo, with the potential to breach all defenses should they catch fire. That is the principal finding of a June report of lithium […]
Safety and Technology Trends Enhancing Philippine Air Traffic Operations EADS Defence & Security together with its local partner Integrated Energy Systems & Resources Inc (IESRI) has been awarded a contract to deliver an advanced secondary radar systems for air traffic control purposes to the Philippine Air Transportation Office (ATO). The system, which will be delivered […]