National Transportation Safety Board
Washington, DC 20594
September 3, 2010
The National Transportation Safety Board will dispatch an aviation investigator to assist the government of United Arab Emirates in its investigation of the crash of a United Parcel Service (UPS)-operated cargo plane, a Boeing 747-400.
On September 3, the aircraft, en route to Cologne, Germany, crashed near the international airport in the emirate of Dubai shortly after takeoff.
NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman has designated senior air safety investigator Bill English as the U.S. Accredited Representative. His team will include NTSB specialists in
the areas of human performance, fire, operations, and systems. The team will also include technical advisors from the Federal Aviation Administration, Boeing, UPS, GE and
Independent Pilots Association.
The investigation is being conducted by the General Civil Aviation Authority of the United Arab Emirates, which will release all information on the progress of the investigation. The agency’s phone number in Abu Dhabi is (971) 2 405-4501/4445 and the agency’s email address is:
accid@gcaa.ae.
Hay pilots are being urged to attend an important air safety workshop next week.
July 21–How does an airport suddenly go from being 2,000 feet to more than a mile high? Barring a “Hollywood-style” seismic event at your airport, the answer is density altitude; in other words, how high an aircraft “thinks” it is. When density altitude is high as a result of temperatures above standard at a given altitude, the air is less dense than normal. This means an aircraft will perform as if at a higher altitude with degraded climb performance and acceleration; two pretty important factors on a hot, humid day with a short runway and 50-foot pine trees looming at the end.