FORT WORTH, Texas, Jan. 24, 2011 – American Airlines and Sabre have agreed to put the litigation between the two companies on hold until June 1, 2011.
American Airlines and Sabre will begin work shortly in an effort to reach a new agreement. Both parties will return to operating as they were prior to Jan. 5, 2011, in terms of Sabre displays, American Airlines content and economic terms.
Officials at American Airlines and Sabre will not have any further comment on this announcement at this time.
Credits: NASA Photo / Carla Thomas
NASA’s remotely-piloted Ikhana aircraft, based at the agency’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, successfully flew its first mission in the National Airspace System without a safety chase aircraft on Tuesday. This historic flight moves the United States one step closer to normalizing unmanned aircraft operations in the airspace used by commercial and private pilots.
Flying these large remotely-piloted aircraft over the United States opens the doors to all types of services, from monitoring and fighting forest fires, to providing new emergency search and rescue operations. The technology in this aircraft could, at some point, be scaled down for use in other general aviation aircraft.
“This is a huge milestone for our Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration in the National Airspace System project team,” said Ed Waggoner, NASA’s Integrated Aviation Systems Program director. “We worked closely with our Federal Aviation Administration colleagues for several months to ensure we met all their requirements to make this initial flight happen.”
Flights of large craft like Ikhana, have traditionally required a safety chase aircraft to follow the unmanned aircraft as it travels through the same airspace used by commercial aircraft. The Ikhana flew in accordance with the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Technical Standard Order 211 — Detect and Avoid Systems — and Technical Standard Order 212 — Air-to-Air Radar for Traffic Surveillance.
The FAA granted NASA special permission to conduct this flight under the authority of a Certificate of Waiver or Authorization on March 30. The certificate permitted Ikhana’s pilot to rely on the latest Detect and Avoid technology, enabling the remote pilot on the ground to see and avoid other aircraft during the flight.
NASA successfully worked with its industry partners to develop a standard for Detect and Avoid technologies, complied with the requirements of the FAA Technical Standard Orders, and garnered flight approval from the FAA.
The Ikhana aircraft was equipped with detect and avoid technologies, including an airborne radar developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., a Honeywell Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System, a Detect and Avoid Fusion Tracker, and an Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast capability – a surveillance technology where the aircraft determines its position via satellite navigation and periodically broadcasts this information so other aircraft can track it.
The flight took off from Edwards Air Force Base in California and entered controlled air space almost immediately. Ikhana flew into the Class-A airspace, where commercial airliners fly, just west of Edwards at an altitude of about 20,000 feet. The aircraft then turned north toward Fresno, requiring air traffic control to be transferred from the Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center to the Oakland Air Route Traffic Control Center. On the return trip, the pilot headed south toward Victorville, California, requiring communication control to be transferred back to Los Angeles.
During the return flight, the pilot began a gentle decent over the city of Tehachapi, California, into Class E airspace — about 10,000 feet — where general aviation pilots fly. The pilot initiated an approach into Victorville airport at 6,000 feet, coordinating in real time with air traffic controllers at the airport. After successfully executing all of these milestones, the aircraft exited the public airspace and returned to its base at Armstrong.
“We are flying with a suite of sophisticated technology that greatly enhances the safety capabilities of pilots flying large unmanned aircraft in the National Airspace System,” said Scott Howe, Armstrong test pilot. “We took the time to mitigate the risks and to ensure that we, as a program, were prepared for this flight.”
Tuesday’s flight was the first remotely-piloted aircraft to use airborne detect and avoid technology to meet the intent of the FAA’s “see and avoid” rules, with all test objectives successfully accomplished.
American Airlines flight AA-63 made an emergency landing at Shannon Airport, Ireland, on November 29th.
The Boeing 777-200 plane heading from Charles de Gaulle Airport, France, to Miami, Florida, was diverted due to an engine issue.
The plane landed uneventfully. All two hundred and six passengers and thirteen crew members remained safe.
National Transportation Safety Board
Washington, DC 20594
Throughout the 2011 calendar year, the NationalTransportation Safety Board has been conducting a study ofExperimental Amateur-Built (E-AB) aircraft to evaluate thesafety of this growing and innovative segment of general aviation. In addition to using the information gathered during its accident investigations, the NTSB has been working with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), and individual owners and builders to evaluate a range of issues unique to this popular segment of general aviation.
“The cooperation we have received from EAA and the E-AB community has been tremendous,” said NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P Hersman. “Through this study, we hope that we’ll be ableto give the innovators and aviators in the community
information about accidents that will result in a real and immediate safety payoff for them when they are flying these aircraft.”
As part of the study, NTSB investigators have conducted in-depth investigations of 222 E-AB aircraft accidents that occurred during 2011. Fifty-four of these accidents resulted in 67 fatalities. Most of these accidents (93%) involved
amateur-built airplanes, the remaining accidents involved gyroplanes (4%), helicopters (2%), and gliders (1%). These accidents occurred in 44 states, with California (18 accidents), Texas (16 accidents), and Florida (14 accidents)
accounting for the most. More than half (53%) of the E-AB accidents investigated in 2011 involved E-AB aircraft that were bought used, as opposed to having been built by the current owner.
The EAA has supported the study by conducting a web-based survey of E-AB owners and builders. More than 5,000 E-AB owners and builders responded to EAA’s survey, and 4,923 of these responses were sufficiently complete to use in
analyses. Most respondents (97%) described E-AB airplanes, while gliders, gyrocopters, and helicopters were each described by slightly less than 1% of the respondents. Sixty-three percent of respondents had already built their
E-AB aircraft, 13% were currently building their E-AB aircraft, and nearly 24% had bought used E-AB aircraft. More than 340 distinct makes of amateur-built aircraft were reported, although kit manufacturers accounted for more than 55% of the reported aircraft.
“The NTSB is extremely pleased with the number of respondents who participated in the survey,” said Dr. Joseph Kolly, Director of the Office of Research and Engineering. “The survey data provides us with quantifiable, factual
information that enriches our understanding of how E-AB aircraft are built and operated.”
The safety study is scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2012.
American Airlines flight 611 had to make an emergency landing at Piedmont Triad International (PTI) Airport in Greensboro, North Carolina, on March 12.
The flight, heading from Philadelphia to Atlanta, had to be diverted after a passenger Shaniqua Cherry, of Minnesota, went into labor mid-flight.
The plane landed uneventfully at PTI airport and Cherry gave birth to a baby girl.
The flight resumed and reached Atlanta safely.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Alejandro Ruiz
What: American Airlines Boeing 767-300 en route from San Francisco to Chicago O’Hare
Where: en route
When: Jun 14 2010
Who: 225 passengers and 7 crew
Why: When the first officer became ill aboard 1612 from San Francisco, a fight attendant with a commercial pilots license stepped in as copilot (taking the first officer’s seat) for the landing.
Ride ’em cowboy, American Airlines. Way to go.
American Airlines flight 550 had to make an emergency landing at Syracuse Hancock International Airport, New York, on October 5.
The co-pilot of the Airbus A320, en-route from Phoenix to Boston, diverted to Syracuse after the the pilot, Capt. Michael Johnston, 57, of Utah, suffered a heart attack and passed away mid-air.
The plane landed safely. There were 147 passengers aboard at the time; all of them remained unhurt.
The airline said in a statement, “Unfortunately, our pilot passed away…We are incredibly saddened by this event, and we are focused on caring for our pilot’s family and colleagues.”
