A door plug blew out of an Alaska Airlines jet midair after moving off a set of stops designed to keep it attached to the plane, investigators said on Monday. United Airlines said it also discovered loose parts on its Boeing 737 MAX 9 jets.
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Aircraft was told to go to a holding point two minutes before a Japan Airlines jet collided with it. All 379 people on board a Japan Airlines jet that burst into flames after a collision at a Tokyo airport managed to escape relatively unscathed. Experts explain how air safety advances and the plane’s design helped to ensure their survival.
Japanese authorities investigating a fiery collision at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport are zeroing in on why a coast guard plane was present on the same runway where a Japan Airlines jet had permission to land.
Just moments before Tuesday’s collision, the coast guard plane inched forward onto the runway, but regulators said they haven’t found any record of it being cleared to do so. Its movements placed it in the path of the descending Japan Airlines Flight 516.
The two planes collided on the runway, and the smaller coast guard aircraft exploded, killing five of the six personnel aboard. The Japan Airlines Airbus A350 caught fire and its 379 passengers and crew escaped with just minutes to spare.
A transcript of control-tower communications released by Japanese regulators shows the Japan Coast Guard plane, a De Havilland Canada Dash 8 turboprop, was instructed at 5:45 p.m. to taxi to a holding point called C5 right next to the runway.
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Plane maker wants to avoid supply constraints it has suffered on smaller narrow-body model
LONDON—Airbus SE decrease; red down pointing triangle, buoyed by its latest deal to sell wide-bodies to Air India Ltd., is planning to boost production rates of its two biggest models as it tries to capitalize on resurgent demand for long-haul travel, according to people familiar with the matter.
The European plane maker is planning to increase its so-called build rate for both of its currently produced wide-body aircraft, the A350 and the A330neo, according to these people. An announcement could come as early as this week, the people said, cautioning that a decision has yet to be finalized.
Airbus decrease; red down pointing triangle slashed production of its wide-body planes at the onset of the pandemic, when travel restrictions and border closures brought international traffic to a near standstill and airlines were clamoring to cancel and defer aircraft orders.
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Engine maker Pratt to recall 1,200 engines over 12 months just as Airbus is trying to cement its supremacy in narrow-body jets.
LONDON—Airbus decrease; red down pointing triangle faces another high hurdle in delivering its bestselling jets as it races to solidify a commanding lead over rival Boeing BA 0.70%increase; green up pointing triangle.
Airbus has been working to rapidly increase output of its bestselling A320 family of aircraft as it seeks to deliver on a backlog that now stretches out into the early 2030s. Many of those planes are powered by a certain type of Pratt & Whitney engine, which the engine maker said earlier this week will need to be recalled and inspected.
Pratt said it would need to inspect 1,200 of its geared-turbofan engines after it discovered a fault in the metal that could lead to cracking. Both Pratt and Airbus have said the issue doesn’t impact the safety of the aircraft.
The recall could further slow Airbus’s plans for higher production rates of the jet. With the affected engines being taken out of service, Pratt will need to hold on to more of its new engines for a spare-engine pool.
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