It’s not just that they’re sending American jobs out of the country. There’s another question here: Is outsourcing maintenance endangering passengers because the lack of federal oversight?
Forty percent of maintenance is being sent to third world countries which are documented to have lower standards and security lapses. Saving money may be the intent, but is the savings as important as the performer of the maintenance being able to read the manuals and order forms of the machines he is working on. The work is termed “typically inadequate.” To see Video, Click below.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
A SONERAI II LT Experimental plane flying out of Centennial Airport crashed in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, at about 3pm on March 29.
After the pilot suffered difficulty maintaining control, the plane went down in flames in a nose dive away from populated areas.
The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office has confirmed that the pilot was killed in the incident.
The workers at a nearby car wash centre declared the pilot to be a hero as he apparently tried to steer the plane away from local shops and road, before it finally crashed.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
The FAA released a legal interpretation, which finds that directing a laser beam into an aircraft cockpit could interfere with a flight crew performing its duties while operating an aircraft, a violation of Federal Aviation Regulations. In the past, the FAA has taken enforcement action under this regulation against passengers physically on-board an aircraft who interfere with crewmembers.
Today’s interpretation reflects the fact that pointing a laser at an aircraft from the ground could seriously impair a pilot’s vision and interfere with the flight crew’s ability to safely handle its responsibilities.
The maximum civil penalty the FAA can impose on an individual for violating the FAA’s regulations that prohibit interfering with a flight crew is $11,000 per violation.
This year, pilots have reported more than 1,100 incidents nationwide of lasers being pointed at aircraft. Laser event reports have steadily increased since the FAA created a formal reporting system in 2005 to collect information from pilots. Reports rose from nearly 300 in 2005 to 1,527 in 2009 and 2,836 in 2010.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
What: Atlantic Southeast/Delta Airlines Canadair CRJ-900 en route from Atlanta to White Plains, New York Where: New York When: Sept 25 2010 8:20 pm Who: 60 passengers 4 crew Why: Approaching White Plains, the crew realized the right landing gear was jammed. The pilots diverted to JFK, and made an emergency landing described as being “a shower of sparks” on the tarmac but no fire ensued. The plane skidded to a stop leaning to one side, after utilizing only 2/3 of the landing gear.
Passengers rode a bus to terminal three, and told reporters about their terrifying landing, full of praises for the captain and crew. Delta apparently provided a bus to take them to their correct destination.
Shower of Sparks amateur Video
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
What: Canadian CanJet Airlines Flight 918 Boeing 737 Where: Montego Bay’s Sangster International Airport. When: Hostage crisis began at about 10:20 p.m. local time Sunday and ended near 6:40 a.m Who: Initially 159 (out of 174 expected) passengers and eight crew ; six crew members hostage for eight hours by gunman Stephen Fray Why: A “mentallly challenged” 20-year-old Jamaican gunman having relationship problems boarded the plane during a layover and demanded to be flown to Cuba. A passenger said “… took our money and we just, like, left our purses and our passports and everything just in the plane because we didn’t want to take any chances. We just put the money in a bag and we ran out of the plane.”. The flight was stormed by the Jamaica Defence Force Counter Terrorism Operations Group
George’s Point of View
Fortunately the situation was resolved with no injuries, but it is obvious the poor kid had issues. Who in their right mind would leave Jamaica for Cuba?
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
Rolls said in a statement that the failure was confined to a specific component in the turbine area of the engine. This caused an oil fire. The British company added that it would replace the faulty part. Safety continues to be Rolls-Royce’s highest priority. See their statement
Qantas is grounding its Airbus A380 superjumbos until further notice, and Singapore Airlines is grounding 3 of its A380s. EASA is calling for inspections. See the directive.
What Happened
The cause of the Rolls Royce engine failure has been pinned down to a faulty bearing box, the underlying cause of the oil leak. The bearings allow the drive shaft to move. The leaking bearing box dripped oil into the QANTAS A380 whose engine exploded (uncontained) into the wing, and dropping its turbine onto a house in Batam. The wing damage included electrical cables and hydraulic lines inside the wing, so that pilots were dealing with hydraulic damage (inability to close the landing gear doors), and electrical damage (trouble shutting down the engine beside the damaged one.)
The Qantas meltdown is one of at least five documented A380 engine malfunctions.
Qantas A388 near Singapore on Nov 4th 2010
Lufthansa A388 near Frankfurt on Aug 6th 2010, engine shut down in flight
Emirates A388 near Zurich on Jul 13th 2010, engine shut down in flight
Singapore A388 near Krakow on Sep 27th 2009, engine shut down in flight
Singapore A388 near London on May 25th 2009, engine failure
Newer Trent 900 engines have a different bearing box. Although the new box promises to eliminate the problem, newer models also have system software to shut down the engine before the leak causes a meltdown similar to the QANTAS A380 event over Singapore.
George’s Point of View
Although one might say that regulators did not adequately check the engine before approving it for commercial use, I think of Boeing’s response to its recent 787 test flight, and I point out that no one made Boeing step back and pull the 787 back on to the drawing board for more tests and adjustments. Boeing did that, because such remediation is what testing is all about. It is part and parcel of the paradigm of safety in design. It is up to each manufacturer that every item off of their assembly lines be as well designed and as safe as humanly possible. This includes fixing design flaws as soon as they are known. So I wonder, if newer Trent 900 engines have an improved bearing box, this of course begs the question why the older ones were not replaced.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
Rolls-Royce claims the Trent 900 problem is confined to a specific part in the turbine area. 21 of 38 A380s operated by Singapore Air, Qantas and Lufthansa use Rolls-Royce Trent 900 series engines. Singapore Air may have to replace 24 engines. Qantas is inspecting 14 engines which may shared among six planes—which may explain some of the strain evident in so many recent Qantas incidents. Six grounded super jumbos are costing Qantas a million dollars a day.
On the Airbus A380, bound for Sydney from Singapore, which was carrying 433 passengers and 26 crew members, an engine exploded over Batam, sending turbine shrapnel flying out of the plane’s engine, severing cables in the wing, taking out flight control systems and narrowly missing the fuel tank. With fuel gushing out of the fuel tank there and hot components, passengers are lucky the wing did not ignite.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
