Ok, it’s Sunday. Too much to expect for there to be no airline issues to ponder today. But since it’s the end of the week (or the beginning, depending on how you’re counting), here’s a bit of non-disaster opportunity for the air traveler:
Check out this website if you want to see how your airline stacks up against others. Or take some pictures of your airline meal and post it yourself.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Simon Curtis
What: Triple S Aviation McKinnon G-21G Turbo Goose seaplane en route from UAE to US via Riyadh, Saudi Arabi
Where: Taxiway Kilo Al Ain
When: Feb 27, 2010
Who: 4 fatalities
Why: After takeoff, the plane veered left and crashed.
The plane caught on fire on impact. 4 US citizens were killed in the crash, including Triple S owner Landon Studer and the company’s international project manager Joshua Hucklebridge. The other victims were pilots from Nevada and California. Triple S has offices in the Middle East and in Texas. The 4 aboard the flight were crew apparently, although their names have not been released.
The Boeing-737 flight that crashed in Kazan may have done so under the command of a
Pilot In Command (PIC) who had never performed a real go-around. The PIC had 1000 night flight hours and was properly trained, according to authorities—but if that is the case, how is it being reported that the PIC had never performed a go-around? What is verifiable is that there is a large debris field, a nose down crash. Note how windy it is while they are on the field putting out tape and spraying. Also there is a video being posted that shows a nosedive: http://lifenews.ru/#!news/122878 though whether this is actually the Tatarstan Airlines flight in question is, in fact, questionable.
The PIC had 25000 hours and the copilot had 1900 hours. Reports are that the “pilot of Kazan crash had put the plane into nosedive.” The plane hit nose first. We do not know if it was at the steep angle in the video above or in a more normal angle.
The black box has been recovered, and the preliminary report may be available soon.
Six crew members and 44 passengers died. Their bodies have not been identified yet, through the manifest has been released.
Airbus launched a new recruitment initiative in Toulouse, France,and announced handling of the A380s to be coming in for their wing-rib bracket fix. The Airbus solution is to switch to a less brittle aluminum for the replacement parts. The cracks were first discovered on Singapore Airlines’ aircraft in 2011.
The Airbus retrofit plan includes ribs being replaced with all-aluminum components, inspection manholes reinforced and the feet blunted. In 2013 the parts will be available for wing modification and rib design from the end of this year. All A380s in service will require the overhaul. The fault has been blamed on components designed in Filton, Bristol.
What: Superior Pallet Co. Piper PA-32-300 Cherokee Six
Where: Jackson, Miss
When: Nov 13, 2012, 5:00pm
Who: 3 fatalities, 1 injured
Why: Three people aboard the Piper that crashed in Jackson Mississippi died at the scene.
When the plane struck their house, everything Loretta and Roosevelt Jamison owned, including two pets, went up in flames.
Ms Jamison was in her bedroom when the plane struck; first she heard a boom, then voices of someone inside the plane before it exploded. The repercussion knocked her off her feet. As fire engulfed the house, she climbed out of a second story window and was helped down by neighbors.
What: Cessna 172
Where: North Bend, Washington
When: Feb 15, 2012
Who: 3 fatalities
Why: Around 2 a.m. a King County resident heard the sputtering engine of a plane in distress, and called in a 911. Deputies on foot patrol heard the sound of a crash in the same area. The FAA picked up the emergency beacon (transponder). Emergency teams were using portable emergency locator receivers to follow the beacon to find the crash site. At 4:15 a.m., the King County’s Guardian One helicopter crew with night vision goggles assisted in discovering the fuselage from a single-engine Cessna 172 near a sheer face of Little Si mountain. The bodies of three individuals were found by teams of rescue hikers traveling about a mile by foot from the local base of operations.
Two men and a woman were found. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Mike Fergus said the flight was not in contact with ATC.
Two of the three people killed in the small plane crash on Mount Si were swim coaches in King County. 31-year-old “Coach Seth” Dawson’s memorial was held Thursday night. Federal Way’s Decatur High School swim coach, Rob Hill was also killed in the crash, as well as Liz Redling. Hill was pursuing his commercial pilot’s license.
There may have been ground fog at the time of the crash.
Federal agencies in the Washington, DC, area are OPEN under 2 hours DELAYED ARRIVAL and employees have the OPTION FOR UNSCHEDULED LEAVE OR UNSCHEDULED TELEWORK. Employees should plan to arrive for work no more than 2 hours later than they would normally arrive.
