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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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Long-awaited approval puts company on track for first deliveries of bigger MAX model in 2024. A Boeing 737-10 aircraft demonstration during the 54th International Paris Air Show near Paris, France, last June.
U.S. air-safety regulators cleared Boeing BA 0.66%increase; green up pointing triangle to begin key flight tests on its 737 MAX 10 jet, a milestone toward preparing the plane for commercial service.
The airborne checks are a preliminary validation for Boeing by the Federal Aviation Administration and put the company on track for its first deliveries next year.
“Our entire team has remained focused on this goal, working with diligence and resilience in a dynamic environment,” Boeing executives said in a message to employees announcing the development.
The 737-10 is Boeing’s biggest offering in the MAX family of single-aisle airplanes. United Airlines, Ryanair, Air India and SunExpress are among the airlines that have placed orders for the jets.
Boeing in recent years has faced a series of delays and setbacks in getting new planes in service and in restarting deliveries of its 737 MAX airplanes after a pair of fatal crashes grounded those planes in 2019.
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Fraud watchdog launches criminal investigation into AOG Technics with dawn raid. Suspected unapproved parts have been found on more than 100 jet engines.
The U.K. has launched a criminal investigation into alleged fraud at an aircraft-parts supplier suspected of selling thousands of jet-engine components with fake safety certificates that have been found in dozens of jets, including some operated by major U.S. airlines.
The Serious Fraud Office said Wednesday it had raided an address and arrested an individual as part of its probe into AOG Technics. The London-based company’s lone director and shareholder is Jose Zamora Yrala.
AOG Technics didn’t respond to a request for comment, and a lawyer who previously represented Zamora said he no longer acted for him.
Aviation regulators in the U.K., U.S. and European Union earlier this year issued notices warning airlines that it suspected AOG of having provided false documentation for engine components. Those parts, ranging from simple nuts and bolts to more critical turbine blades, went into engines manufactured by General Electric and France’s Safran, which are used to power one of Boeing’s best-selling jets.
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Workers say self-inspections increase risks; jet makers and suppliers say self-checks aren’t the problem
Boeing earlier this year paused deliveries of some 737 jets because of incorrectly installed parts. Should airplane mechanics be responsible for checking their own work?
The question is the subject of a long-simmering feud between workers and executives at major aircraft manufacturers. The debate has intensified as the aerospace industry deals with a series of costly manufacturing defects.
Workers say having a separate inspector sign off is critical for quality control in an industry with no margin for error. Union leaders at Spirit AeroSystems, a problem-plagued supplier to Boeing, say the company has put itself at greater risk of making mistakes by calling for self-inspections on certain tasks.
“We have inspectors for a reason,” said Cornell Beard, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers chapter representing workers at Spirit’s Wichita, Kan., factory. “These are airplanes; if there’s a problem, we don’t get to pull over on a cloud and kick the tires.”
Executives at aircraft makers and suppliers say self-inspections are used on a small percentage of tasks and that technological advances have reduced the need for separate inspectors.
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Plane maker wants to avoid supply constraints it has suffered on smaller narrow-body model
LONDON—Airbus SE 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 EADSY -0.44%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.
With the relaxation of most Covid-19 travel protocols, airlines are now facing a dearth of available wide-body jets, leaving carriers trying to bring back into service previously mothballed models. Those include the Airbus A380, the world’s biggest passenger plane. Carriers are also trying to snatch up rentals from aircraft-leasing firms.
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European plane maker had canceled orders for dozens of aircraft after legal fight
LONDON—Airbus SE agreed to revive orders for close to 75 aircraft from Qatar Airways after reaching a settlement with the Middle East airline over a long-running dispute about chipping paint on its A350 wide-body models.
A spokesman for Airbus said it would now go ahead with delivering 50 A321 narrow-bodies and 23 remaining A350 twin-aisles previously ordered by Qatar.
The orders had been scrapped as part of an escalating, multibillion-dollar legal battle over the paint issue, which the airline had claimed could pose a safety concern. Airbus repeatedly denied the claims.
Airbus and Qatar Airways earlier Wednesday said in a joint statement that they had reached an “amicable and mutually agreeable settlement” in relation to the legal dispute. The companies didn’t disclose the details of the settlement other than to say the agreement didn’t amount to an admission of liability from either party. A program to repair the degradation on Qatar’s current fleet is under way, the companies added.
Qatar Airways had previously grounded 29 of its A350 jets and refused new deliveries over the issue, reducing its capacity amid a surge in travel to Doha for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The airline has said the peeling paint was exposing the meshed copper foil that is designed to protect the aircraft from lightning strikes.
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