Aircraft in the News and Odd Stories

FAA to order safety checks on 400 Boeing 767 jets

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/faa-order-safety-checks-400-boeing-767-jets-wsj-2D11999556#

Thomson Boeing 763 diverted to East Midlands airport after minor technical fault. The flight originated in Barbados and was flying directly to Birmingham. After the aircraft was checked it was then cleared to fly onto Birmingham.

Sochi 2014 Olympic official plays down attempted plane hijacking, calling it a "minor incident."

Light Aircraft makes emergency landing on frozen lake Huron...

http://www.weather.com/news/plane-lands-frozen-lake-huron-michigan-20140217?hootPostID=72f8298b9a766138bb9da11928b3ec56

Severe turbulence injured crew members and “a number” of passengers on a flight from Colorado to Montana.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/02/17/travel/united-airlines-turbulence/index.html

Qatar Airways, which plans to start flying the Airbus A380 to Europe this summer, may expand its order for the airliner but is not interested in using it on the world's longest routes, its chief executive said on Thursday. The Gulf carrier has already ordered 10 A380s and is getting ready to take delivery of the first three. It has options to increase its order to 13 aircraft but has time to make a decision, chief executive Akbar Al Baker said. "We could even order more (on top of existing options) if we feel that this aircraft is a really good performer," Akbar Al Baker said on the sidelines of the ITB Berlin tourism fair.

"We want to take delivery and see how it is operating in our environment with our yields and our traffic pattern." But although Qatar Airways has USD$50 billion of other models at list prices on order, its support for the A380 will remain eclipsed by that of Dubai's Emirates, which has ordered a total of 140, making it by far the double-decker jet's biggest customer. Explaining why Qatar had decided against flying to Los Angeles while introducing three new US routes, Al Baker said, "I will only go if I cover my costs... I would not necessarily want to make a big profit but at least I don't want to lose.

"If you go those long distances, especially with an A380, you will lose your shirt, because the A380 is a very expensive airplane to operate on ultra-long haul. Unless you get the right yield, you won't make a profit on the airplane," he said. "This is why we have a very small number of A380s. The A380s were very good when the fuel price was 30, 40, 50 dollars a barrel, but when you have to spend 100-120 dollars for fuel it becomes very difficult," he told reporters. Al Baker said that, at current order levels, he was not interested in tentative proposals to update the 525-seater's four engines in an effort to boost both performance and sales.

"You cannot buy 10 or 12 airplanes with one engine and then get planes with a different engine. If I bought 50 more, then I would consider, but I don't think I will order 50 A380s." Al Baker said he was "very happy" to operate A380s on flights to Europe, for example. The airline expects to receive its first three in June and will inaugurate services starting with London and then two other "probably European" destinations that Al Baker declined to name.

(Reuters)

Japan Airlines plane makes emergency landing in Honolulu

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/09/us-japan-airlines-idUSBREA2809H20140309

Fastened Seatbelt sign goes off and then this happens... woah.

DEVELOPING: News helicopter crashes, burns in Seattle.
UPDATE (11:20am) At least two dead one injured.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/news-helicopter-crashes-seattles-space-needle-killing-2-n55666

More photos of the accident...

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/news-helicopter-crashes-seattles-space-needle-killing-two-n55666

Lufthansa's cargo unit has postponed a decision on whether to convert the first of five options for Boeing 777F freighters due to the current tough market conditions, the unit's chief executive said on Tuesday. Lufthansa Cargo placed firm orders for five 777Fs, with four to be in service this year. The planes were originally to be used to expand its fleet, but now they will instead replace its older MD-11 freighters after an expected pick-up in air freight markets did not transpire last year.

Lufthansa Cargo was originally due to make a decision on whether to firm up the first option in the second half of this year, but has agreed with Boeing to postpone the decision by 13 months, Karl Ulrich Garnadt said on Tuesday at the group's annual press conference. However, the package of five options still exists, he added.

(Reuters)

(Reuters) - An Avianca Airlines passenger jet safely made an emergency landing in Brasilia on Friday after its front landing gear failed to deploy, authorities said.

None of the 49 passengers and crew of five on the Fokker 100 jet were injured when the plane landed on its rear wheels before lowering the nose onto the runway, the Brazilian Air Force said. Airport fire crews foamed the plane to prevent fire.

The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it is studying the possibility of live-streaming flight data recorders amid calls for the technology following the disappearance of a second airliner in five years. Joe Kolly, director of research and engineering for the NTSB, declined to comment on the nearly three-week search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which vanished on March 8 less than an hour into a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The mystery surrounding the disappearance of the Boeing 777 has rekindled discussions about in-flight streaming of black box data that could help locate missing aircraft and let authorities launch accident investigations sooner. Kolly said discussions about live-streaming black box data began heating up after it took nearly two years to recover the flight data and voice recorders from an Air France jet that crashed in the Atlantic Ocean on a flight from Brazil to France in 2009.

He said NTSB officials, along with other national safety investigation bodies, the ICAO, equipment manufacturers and airlines were looking at possible requirements for a system that could stream a limited amount of flight data. "You're looking for what is the most important information," he said. "If the airline industry goes to that in the future, what would be those requirements?" Kolly said governments were also increasingly interested in the possibility of streaming flight data to ensure security. "We have our staff involved in technical meetings and discussions and working groups on just what type of data you would need... what are the rates at which those data need to be transmitted," Kolly said. "And also... what is going to trigger the data download." Kolly said aviation authorities are always looking at new technologies to help improve safety.

Among companies developing such new technology is Canadian FLYHT Aerospace Solutions, which builds a satellite and Internet based system used by 40 airlines, business jet operators and others to monitor aircraft systems, map flight paths, and provide voice, data and text services. FLYHT's Automated Flight Information Reporting System can also stream black box data in emergencies, providing a possible model for the talks under way by aviation officials. Kolly declined to comment on the FLYHT system. "There are technologies that can fill all sorts of gaps, and they are constantly being assessed," he said.

Richard Hayden, a company director with FLYHT, said there was growing interest in his company's technology, which grew out of a development project initiated by the Canadian government in 1998, largely because it can help airlines operate their fleets more efficiently and save money on fuel. He said the system had not caught on as well as expected given airlines' resistance to anything that increased costs. But he said it cost less than USD$100,000 to install a new system on a plane, and a few dollars per flight hour to receive the data.

The system is in use on 350 aircraft today, including many that fly over remote areas such as Alaska, Canada, Africa, Afghanistan and Russia. FLYHT also recently won a deal to provide the system for a Chinese aircraft operator, Hayden said. "This isn't expensive, and we don't have to build any infrastructure since we use the Iridium satellites," Hayden said, noting that FLYHT was also exploring opportunities to increase its work with military operators. He said the company's system could not replace existing flight data or cockpit voice recorders since it was not built to survive a crash, but the system's ability to provide data in emergencies offered a big benefit for airlines.

(Reuters)

A Kosovo man took a flight attendant hostage on a Lufthansa flight on Tuesday but surrendered to police after a brief standoff, police said. German media said a 50-year-old flight attendant suffered cuts after the man put her in a headlock and held a razor blade to her throat minutes after takeoff from Munich airport. Other crew rushed to the assistance of the flight attendant and there was a scuffle, Bild online said. When no one understood the man's demands, he barricaded himself in a toilet with the flight attendant. The pilot turned the plane around and returned to the airport.

All 76 passengers disembarked from the Lufthansa plane, which had been bound for Budapest. Only the flight attendant, pilots and the Kosovo man stayed on board. Police, with help from a translator, persuaded the 28-year-old, who spoke Albanian, to surrender. His petition for asylum had been rejected and he was being sent back to Budapest, they said. Three flight attendants suffered injuries, police added.

(Reuters)

A bit of video on this here...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/02/rear-wheel-emergency-landing_n_5078569.html?utm_hp_ref=travel

Ahh you got to it before me! The lipstick defintely wouldn't work anymore.

How would you feel to hear this on your flight...

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/04/16/monarch-airlines-plane-watery-grave_n_5157714.html?1397636193

AirAsia X, the long-haul arm of Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia, has signed a USD$1.5 billion deal with GE Aviation for the supply of engines for up to 28 new aircraft. GE Aviation will supply CF6-80E1 engines for the airline's order of 25 A330-300 aircraft from Airbus, AirAsia X said in a statement on Monday. Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak, US President Barack Obama and AirAsia chief executive Tony Fernandes were present at the signing ceremony for the deal.

(Reuters)

US aircraft component maker Spirit AeroSystems' quarterly profit nearly doubled, partly helped by strong demand for large commercial aircraft. The company's net income rose to $USD153.6 million in the first quarter ended April 3, from USD$81.2 million a year earlier. Revenue rose 20 percent to USD$1.73 billion. Spirit, which makes fuselages and wings for aircraft, has been able to increase revenue as aircraft makers ramp up production.

Boeing and Airbus expect aircraft demand to reach over USD$4 trillion over the next 20 years and have raised their production rates. Boeing is currently producing 42 737s a month, up from 38 in October, and expects to raise that to 47 by 2017.

Spirit provides aerostructures for 737s.

(Reuters)