Does the Cutting Edge Cut too Far?

Bombardier is promising their new C series planes will “cut greenhouse gas emissions, ensure substantial fuel savings and be four times quieter .”

Let’s hope all these cuts don’t also sacrifice safety along with heavier materials. As far as safety is concerned, will the new planes made of “lightweight composite and aluminum lithium materials, built to accommodate stricter environmental standards and” well-built airplane(s) … capable of withstanding turbulence” be sacrificing the safety of sturdier construction and time-tested safety features to reach optimistically green standards?

How will these new lighter planes fare when subjected to unexpected turbulence, which is commonplace in realistic day to day flying conditions? I have no answers, only questions.

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    George’s Point of View

    Commerce and business growth is the sign of a healthy economy. However, news that …“groundwork has started on a wing assembly facility for Airbus 320 aircraft in the northern municipality of Tianjin” brings up the question:

    Do we really NEED more Airbuses in the world?

    Whether it is A380 design flaws, rudder problems, Airbus wiring flaws, , faulty Airbus latching system, with all of these hidden flaws coming to light, do we really need another Airbus Factory?

    OF course it is insulting to the Edsel to make this comparison, because the Edsel was a well designed vehicle of its time. It was marketed badly, but it was not a lemon. But the Airbus…

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    Fly Keystone Cops, no, I mean Fly India

    George’s Point of View

    Once upon a time, there were two runways: Runway 27 and Runway 14. They crossed each other. It didn’t matter that they crossed each other because the KING of the runway (Air Traffic Control) never allowed planes in a collision course. In Air Traffic Control school, they teach that a collision course would be a very bad thing.

    So one day, an Air India A310 was on Runway 27, and waiting for input from Air Traffic Control. And, simultaneously, a Jet Airways Boeing 737-800, flight was waiting on Runway 14.

    Somehow, both planes started to take-off.

    Air Traffic control recognized that the very bad thing was about to happen, and cancelled one of the take-offs.

    Fortunately both pilots were awake, saw the what was happening and both pilots rejected takeoff.

    (Fortunately, they teach that a collision course is a bad thing in Pilot school too. Nice juxtaposition, that.)

    It’s a good day when no one dies from the accident that could have happened.

    It’s not a happy ending yet, because it won’t be over until the investigation is over. No one died…but it remains to be seen if heads may still roll.

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  • A December 23rd Spin on the American Airlines Crash in Jamaica.

    While last night’s American Airlines Boeing crash landing in the Jamaican rain with limited visibility, with significant tailwinds on ungrooved pavement, with patches of residual tire rubber no less, was catastrophic for the plane, it is rather amazing that even though the Boeing was subjected to forces powerful enough to split the plane into at least three pieces, it neither caught fire, hydroplaned 10 more yards to end up in the bay, nor lost even a single one of the passengers.

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    I hope that someone out there is appreciating how different this crash is from the Tam (Airbus) crash in Brazil, where a bad landing in rainy conditions on an ungrooved surface was exacerbated by a malfunctioning thrust reverser, and the plane ended up crashing a perimeter fence, crossing a thoroughfare and causing a blazing fire that annihilated a warehouse across the street from the runway.

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    Some families in Jamaica will be hugging their loved ones just a little bit harder this season. Anyway you look at it, we had a little bit of a Christmas miracle this time.

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    The Callous Abandonment of Air France Flight 447

    It’s difficult for me to comprehend why we cancelled earlier searches. I’m certain we do not have any new technology now that we didn’t already have 2 years ago. The subs used have been gradually fine-tuned, but not significantly in the past two years.

    It is common knowledge now that the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute team, running a couple of AUVs (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) Remus 6000’s were barely a week into the fourth search when they discovered the location of pieces of the wreckage of the fallen Airbus, flight 447 in an area thought of as an underwater “Himalayas”. Mike Purcell, Senior Engineer of the Woods Hole team, has attributed the discovery to the ability of the Remus being able to submerge to 6000 meters (which means being able to follow the underwater mountain range cliffs, ravines, and slopes); and to the decision to start close to the last known position of the plane.

    I do wonder why this was the fourth search; there should have been only one— a single search that continued until the wreckage was found.

    Maybe there is no correct time to be critical, and if I am critical, it is not of the search team who did a splendid, if not all but impossible job, in finding the wreckage. It is entirely the human effort that made the difference, because although the AUVs are autonomous, they are not truly intelligent. They had to be daily programmed, and with three units running, this means three times the (sonar) data had to be daily downloaded, processed and analyzed. The team learned how to deal with managing the challenging demersal topography, and reading the visual output which were sonar abstractions that look like etch-a-sketch scribbles. The expert on board analysts had 15 years of experience in interpreting this data.

    For the search team, I have only praise.

    My point of criticism is for the decision makers, and it is founded on behalf of concern for the families.

    We are hearing how well preserved the remains were, due to the temperature and water pressure. We are hearing about how only some of the remains were retrieved.

    Why only some?

    All the bereaved families should have the right to retrieve their loved ones. All of the families should have the right to place their loved ones in a known and tangible resting place.

    It is a chilling callousness on behalf of the planners to advise their team to knowingly leave behind even so much as a single hair, if that hair was known to be that of one of the victims. The decision betrays a chilling callousness; an act of deliberate abandonment. It reminds me of those all fallen into a “deep place…where the sun is silent”, in Dante’s hell. “Abandon all hope, all ye who enter here.”

    And now, we’re back to where we started, only worse. Many bodies were not recovered. Are they lost forever?

    I can all but guarantee you that the future holds some grisly Titanic/Disney-esque treasure-seeking macarbre (or sugared) revisitation of the tragic ground, private touring expeditions seeking out the latitude and longitude, with camera, wallet, and catching net in hand. Movie rights and treasure hunters-a marriage made in hell, or Hollywood.

    This is no Dante’s tale. For the bereaved families there will be no poetic justice. They will live knowing forever that their loved ones were found…came this close to being returned…and left behind, if not in the nine circles of hell, then across the oceans in that “deep place…where the sun is silent” and all hope abandoned.

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    Houston Tire Fire


    View Large at Airliners.net
    Contact photographer Mark Kopczak
    What: Southwest Airlines en route from New Orleans to Houston
    Where: HOUSTON, TEXAS at Hobby Airport
    When: May 12 Tuesday evening 8 pm
    Who: 47 passengers 5 crew
    Why: When a tire caught on fire after landing at Hobby Airport in Houston Texas, passengers debarked via emergency slide and waited on the runway for transport to the terminal. Several injuries were sustained on the slide. The fire occurred apparently because of a flat incurred on landing.

    George’s Point of View

    I know it’s unfair to pick on airline company that has gone way out on the limb to keep the price of flying low and fair, but, maintenance is a must, there can’t be any cost-savings in maintenance.

    Including the tires!

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    Hazards of Winter: Another Ground Crew Death

    What: Turkish Airlines Airbus A340-300 from Istanbul Ataturk Turkey to Bangkok
    Where: Istanbul
    When: Jan 24th
    Who: assistant de-icer
    Why: After de-icing, the airplane’s wing hit the de-icing hydraulic lift, struck the vehicle’s operator and knocked the lift on the assistant who died on the scene.

    George’s Point of View

    De-icing isn’t something we normally think about. Not for planes. Maybe those of us who have wintered in Chicago or New York have considered it. Those of us who have had to get up extra early to scrape the outer skin of ice and snow off of the car, even those of us who have had the forethought to stack a layer of cardboard over the windshield to limit the ice buildup, who turn on the heat inside so the commute will be tolerable. But frankly, scraping the windshield with the ice scraper, or knocking snow off headlights–with a car, it is usually not that hazardous–albeit sometimes slippery. Obviously de-icing a plane is significantly more dangerous. After all, the instructions on the back of an ice scraper fit on the ice scraper.

    The aircraft ground anti-icing operations manual available from ICAO runs 37 pages and cost $25. So there are 37 pages worth of established procedures to follow.

    News of a death makes me remember the ground crew who is working out there de-icing the plane while the passengers sit inside, all warm and cosy. It’s cold out there; and dangerous. More dangerous than we think about, but maybe we should.

    It’s only by learning from our mistakes, in aviation, and in every other industry that we progress. It’s too late for these two ground crewmen, one in Calgary, one in Thailand. But it’s not too late for us to learn from our mistakes–if mistakes there were.

    It has been just over a month since another de-Icing crew member in Calgarydied on the job. In that case, it was a Servisair ground worker who fell out of a cherry picker.

    In this latest instance, we haven’t really heard much yet. We know that the death occurred in Thailand, and that it was snowing heavily. The investigation will reveal the details of what happened. Who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. If the operator or crewman weren’t following guidelines–or the flight crew. The investigation will reveal who acted carelessly, or if it was simply an accident, and the plane just following the path of least resistance.

    I respect winter.

    And I respect ground crews. They brave the elements, just to make plane travel just a little bit safer. When you think about it, it’s a little bit heroic, and maybe a little bit sad how the ground crew works on plane after plane. It’s a little bit like a pastry chef who makes delicacy after delicacy, but never gets to eat them himself. The ground crew stays behind when the plane soars away.

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