Back in 1980, singer Mac Davis had a hit with his song Texas in My Rear View Mirror and I’m guessing down at the Continental United base in Houston a few pilots are feelin’ that way about their erstwhile careers flying the Boeing 787. N26902 in New Orleans photo courtesy Marc A Wessels Because, as I reported for Mary Kirby‘s excellent APEX Editors Blog earlier this week, a good number of those pilots who were headed to the 787 cockpit have been diverted back to their old airplanes. And FAA grounding of the Dreamliner notwithstanding, United has canceled all 787 flights until June. The United PR… Read More…

Japanese investigators are making a remarkable claim in the most recent update into the burning battery on an All Nippon Airways Dreamliner; the ship, JA804A was one of only three Boeing 787s to retain a wiring design the planemaker later revised.  In the original design, both of the Dreamliner’s lithium ion batteries were connected to each other, according to a review of the report, written in Japanese and released by the Japanese Transport Safety Bureau on Wednesday.  Since I do not read Japanese, I rely on the rough translation of my man in Tokyo, Takeo Aizawa, and the very good illustrations and photographs in the… Read More…

Pel-Air medical evacuation airplane. Photo from ATSB I am not one to encourage politicians to start sticking their noses into matters of aviation safety. It is WAY too tempting for them to grandstand. But in the case of the Australian Senate and the ditching of a medical transport plane in November of 2009, how could they not? After all, it is not often that government bureaucrats behave so badly that the politicians wind up looking moderate, but that is just what’s happening in Canberra. Worse, the unfolding scandal seems to indicate that the two agencies that should be more attuned than the average Joe to… Read More…

Nobody likes a diversion, least of all the airline.  But despite their desire for destination-focused business plans, for the last few years, United, American Airlines and US Airways have had their attention hijacked as they concentrate on the industry’s latest craze, consolidation.  Perhaps that’s soon to be in the past, with the announcement on Valentine’s Day that American and US Airways have pulled the trigger on their anything-but-shotgun wedding.  Delta Air Lines on the other hand has been there/done that. Having completed the process early – its merger with Northwest was completed three years ago – the airline has been heads up and focused on growth… Read More…

Over the phone, I could hear reporters’ eyes glazing over during the latest Dreamliner teleconference when NTSB chairman, Deborah Hersman said these oh-so-unsexy words; “certification review”. Alright, the words do land with a thud, but that’s better than a crash, which is what you can get when FAA certification is not reviewed.  That is the theme of a 2006 Safety Board report examining the many ways hazards slip on to airplane designs when the certifiers aren’t paying attention. I’ve written before about the similarities between Boeing‘s “we’ll eliminate all risks” approach to using a volatile flavor of lithium ion battery in its newest plane and the “we’ll eliminate… Read More…

Contending for eww story of the month, and certainly a contender with this event in Sharjah for  the 2012 “say WHAT?” award, an air traveler on an Avianca flight from Bogota to Barcelona was arrested for smuggling approximately 3 pounds of cocaine implanted in her breasts. News reports say the 28-year old Panamanian woman attracted the interest of customs officials on Tuesday when she gave conflicting answers to routine questions about the purpose of her trip. A law enforcement spokeswoman said the passenger was wearing blood soaked bandages and reported to the agents that she’d undergone cosmetic implant surgery. The woman was taken to a… Read More…

Denzel Washington in Flight Photo courtesy Paramount A selection of small servings of alcoholic beverages, flavored vodkas maybe or micro brewed beers, is called a Flight. That’s something to keep in mind as you watch the new movie of the same name, staring Denzel Washington, Kelly Reilly, John Goodman and Don Cheadle. And I say this because if you think this is a movie about the other kind of flight, the kind that takes us from place to place safely through the air in relative comfort, you’d be wrong, wrong, wrong. Nora Marshall, steeped in aviation since her early days as a flight attendant through her 28… Read More…

The contrast is like day and night. In the span of 24-hours I have written about two countries with vastly different views of the importance of aviation to their national future; Turkey and India. In my story in today’s International Herald Tribune, I interview folks who are agog over the rapid growth and ambitious plans of the formerly overlooked Turkish Airlines. Of Turkish, Ralph Anker of anna.aero writes Istanbul is “the most diverse hub in Europe.” While Turkey keeps sending its Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to soothe trouble spots around the world maybe he ought to plan a stop in New Delhi and explain… Read More…

CRAZY STUFF! Despite scarey decompressions, a you-can-not-make-this-up event on a commuter flight to New York, the inexplicable but global trend of attacking pilots with lasers, an elevation of rhetoric in politics and in aviation and some truely appalling carrying-on by air travelers who really should know better (Gerard! Alec! Leisha! what got into you?) aviation was blessed this year with many, many happy landings. SAFE FLIGHTS! Let’s start with the publication of the International Air Transport Association‘s new statistics that show commercial aviation around the world has never been safer. Statistics being slippery, I don’t normally tout this kind of thing, but Gunther Matschnigg IATA’s… Read More…

A sky as blue as one found in a child’s storybook greeted the New York City area after Hurricane Irene, but missing from the picture early this morning was the normally ubiquitous presence of airplanes. To people living in this region – home to three major commercial airports and four major airports for business, charter and general aviation – the last time aviation shut down to this extent was September 11, 2001. Sure, Irene had the airlines cancelling thousands of flights – running 24/7 they’ve got experience and manpower to handle it. (See this spooky shot of JFK Airport from Frank Van Haste‘s blog here.)… Read More…