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Tag: <span>EgyptAir</span>

EgyptAir Flight Makes Emergency Landing in Cairo

EgyptAir flight 802 made an emergency landing in Cairo, Egypt, on August 29th.

The plane was flying from Charles de Gaulle Airport, France, when the crew declared an emergency due to an issue with the wheels.

The plane landed safely. All passengers and crew members remained safe.

EgyptAir Flight Makes Emergency Landing in Greece

EgyptAir flight MS-748 had to return and make an emergency landing in Athens, Greece, on March 12th.

The Boeing 737-800 plane took off for Cairo, Egypt, but had to turn back due to a technical issue with the equipment used in meal preparation.

The plane landed back safely. All 103 people aboard remained unharmed.

Aviation Industry: Time for a Black Box Upgrade

Woodland Hills, CA — (ReleaseWire) — 07/07/2016 –No one is saying that aircraft tracking doesn’t need an overhaul. It does. Examination of plane crash events demands it.

Aviation experts have been asking for pinger battery improvements since a month after the crash of Air France 447 on 1 June 2009, when the pinger battery ran down in July. Air France 447 was not recovered from the ocean floor until May 2011, nearly two years after it was lost. Debris from the accident was recovered in the interim, but if the pinger had been louder, or the battery designed to last longer, then there’s a good chance that the plane would have been discovered sooner. One of the outcomes of this terrible event was a determination to design a pinger system with longer lasting batteries. EASA amended requirements for flight recorders and underwater locating devices in its 2013-26 amendment(RMT.0400 & RMT.0401 (OPS.090(A) & OPS.090(B)) — 20.12.2013) but implementing these requirements takes a prohibitively long time.

Aviation experts have been asking for better tracking technology since Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared on 8 March 2014 while flying from Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Malaysia, to Beijing Capital International Airport in China. Because this plane departed from its planned route, finding where it came down has been a unique challenge. Inmarsat’s satellite communications network concluded that the flight continued until at least 08:19 and flew south into the southern Indian Ocean. Triangulation of Inmarsat’s satellite communications has been the only credible source searchers depend on to develop the search area.

Aviation experts have been suggesting the blackbox be water-activated (or have water-activated duplicates) with flotation of some kind so the blackbox can be found faster. More recently, aviation experts have wondered about EgyptAir Flight 804 which crashed into the Mediterranean Sea on 19 May 2016. It was known fairly precisely where it came down, and yet salvage and rescue units were unable to be on the scene in time to help any survivors—if survivors there had been. We will never know because no one was there. And while tracking the location of the blackbox fell within the thirty day battery limit, if the technology had more power, it could have been located sooner. Finding the wreckage sooner means less money spent on the search, and a shorter time for the families agonizing over their losses.

So here is what is new: Inmarsat provides SwiftBroadband service for plane’s inflight Wi-Fi on many aircraft. Immarsat is developing a streaming system described as a “blackbox in the cloud.” This streaming system they are working on will allow crucial data to be streamed off a plane on the occasion of specified trigger events like a course deviation or disappearance from radar.

One only need consider a few factors to realize that a cloud-based system is a crucial development that current technology can easily handle. We need only to look at the cost of the search for a missing plane. According to France and Brazil, those two countries spent more than $40 million over two years to recover the black boxes from Air France Flight 447. Bloomberg reported the recovery cost of Air France 447 was $100 million. According to the South China Post, the cost of the (as yet unfound) MH370 will be as much as ten times more than AF447. Like the expense of MH370’s search, the cost of finding EgyptAir Flight 804 is still ongoing.

Even when Inmarsat’s streaming system will be available, the aviation industry is going to be resistant, mostly because it is going to be costly. Is this a cost that we must afford? I think it is.

Let me know your thoughts on this crucial topic at https://twitter.com/GeorgeHatcher

EgyptAir: Wreckage, Blackboxes located by “John Lethbridge”

The Egyptair Airbus A320 known as flight MS-804 that departed May 18th from Charles de Gaulle airport and disappeared over the Mediterranean in Egyptian airspace apparently has been found. Jun 15th 2016 Egypt’s Civil Aviation Authority reported that the “John Lethbridge” identified A320 wreckage locations. Currently the area in question is being mapped, part of the planning process of wreckage recovery.

Fifty-six passengers and ten crew died in the wreckage.

* Update: Black boxes both recovered.

Egypt’s announcement:11

Egypt’s announcement:10

Egypt’s announcement:9

Egypt’s announcement:8

Pinging for Egyptair MS 804 as the Clock Runs Out

When a plane goes down in the ocean, the black boxes aboard have enough juice to ping for thirty days. The pingers on flight data recorders AKA “black boxes” last a minimum of 30 days. After 30 days, the devices are still active, but the sound on which searchers hone is expected to die out. The pinger is located by a “pinger locater,” a device that listens for the sound of the black box. It is towed within the search area but it’s listening radius is usually around 2 miles. The pinger’s sound is not very powerful, and the pinger is towed at 3 knots.
220px-ULBeacon

After AirFrance 447, legislation was underway to increase the battery life to 90 days. The technology exists, but because implementation of that transition has been slow, EgyptAir MS 804’s pinger battery is expected to expire at around 30 days.

EgyptAir Flight Makes Emergency Landing after Bomb Threat

EgyptAirEgyptAir Flight 955 made an emergency landing in Urgench, Uzbekistan, on June 8th.

The plane, heading from Cairo, Egypt, to Beijing, China, was diverted after the authorities received a bomb threat.

The plane landed safely. All 118 passengers and 17 crew members remained safe.

No explosive material was found upon inspection.

EgyptAir: 3 Alerts Before the Plane Left Radar. Fire on board.

Several different alerts on this plane went off immediately prior to the plane disappearing from the radar, including 1) issues with the windows on the co-pilot’s side of the plane; 2) two smoke alerts, the first one “SMOKE LAVATORY SMOKE” at 00:26 a.m. local time; 3) the second one “AVIONICS SMOKE” at 00:27 a.m. The second alert refers smoke in the avionics bay, which is located below the cockpit, and is where the electronics are housed.

This is also the same plane that was vandalised two years ago at Cairo Airport. In Arabic someone, presumably Cairo Airport workers, wrote on its belly, “We will bring this plane down.”

It is a special concern that the plane had flown to Eritrea.

The US State Department has a standing travel warning for Eritrea, and is quoted as saying “security at the Asmara airport ‘can be unpredictable,’ and had a ‘lack of efficiency and consistency” in screening passengers.'”

The search for Egyptair is still underway.

On the search for Egyptair Flight MS804

According to AV:

on 2016/06/01, Egypt’s Civil Aviation Authority reported “Laplace” located pings presumably from one of MS804’s black boxes. The vessel “John Lethbridge” of DOS will be joining the search team to retrieve the black boxes. The BEA (FR)confirmed that Egyptian Authorities have confirmed a “signal that may come from one of the recorders” of flight MS-804. The BEA did NOT confirm that a black box has been located.

Debris has been found.

EgyptAir Flight #MS804 Located off Karpathos Island

Before the wreckage was located off Greece’s Karpathos Island, search and rescue services picked up the ELT signal around 8:25, four hours after dawn. Greece reported two red and white plastic objects floating in the sea, and two orange objects, apparently life vests. Civilian ships are heading into the area to assist. France is assisting the search, with ships and aircraft. Several bodies were found floating in the area, according to RT.

The EgyptAir A320 disappeared May 18 over the Mediterranean.

When planes cross from one country’s airspace into another, the Air Traffic Control transition at those points is called the ‘hand-off.’ The crew was engaging with Greek ATC but when they attempted to hand the aircraft off to Egypt ATC, the crew made no response.

EgyptAir released that the crew was comprised of the captain, first officer, five cabin crew and three sky marshals. The passengers included 30 Egyptians, 15 French, 2 Iraqis, 1 British, 1 Belgian, 1 Kuwaiti, 1 Saudi, 1 Sudanese, 1 Chadian, 1 Portugese, 1 Algerian and 1 Canadian. The 56 passengers included three children.

Journalists have been barred by Airport security from the area in the Cairo airport where family and friends of the passengers are waiting.

EgyptAir Statement on MS804

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Seven EgyptAir Planes Divert and Make Emergency Landing in Egypt

EgyptAirEgyptAir flights 631, 650, 664, 834, 921, 959, 969 had to divert and make emergency landing at Sharm El-Sheikh and El-Ghardaga Airports, Sinai Peninsula, Egypt, on April 3rd.

According to sources, the planes en-route to China, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Eritrea and India were mid-air when they were told to divert due to low visibility in the air.

All seven planes landed safely. The passengers onboard remained unharmed.

Bird-Hit Egyptair Plane Makes Emergency Landing at Heathrow Airport

EgyptAirEgyptair flight MS-779 had to make an emergency landing at Heathrow Airport in London, United Kingdom, on March 11th.

The Boeing 737-800 plane was on approach to the airport when a bird penetrated its nose, prompting the crew to declare an emergency. The plane was flying from Cairo, Egypt, at the time.

The plane landed uneventfully. There were 71 passengers aboard at the time; all of the remained safe.

EgyptAir Passenger jet with Cracked Windshield Landed Safely

EgyptAirThe windshield of the EgyptAir Airbus A320-200, registration SU-GBC, cracked midair due to hail storm on September 8.

The flight MS-859, heading from Cairo, Egypt to Juba, South Sudan, continued its journey and landed safely at its scheduled destination.

None of the 76 passengers aboard were injured, however, the aircraft’s nose cone sustained some damage.

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