New Report Indicates AF447 Did Not Break Up In Flight

Reports indicate that the plane did not break up in flight, but instead crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil in a nearly vertical position.

"The plane went straight down, almost vertically, towards the surface of the water, very very fast."

The Airbus A330 was unable to fly on autopilot at the time of the crash, air accident investigator Alain Bouillard told reporters in Paris.

That was because the autopilot was not receiving speed, wind or direction information, he said.

"These tell us that the plane has to be, in this case, directed by the pilot," he said. He did not immediately say if the pilots were in control of Air France 447.

Investigators will continue searching for the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder -- commonly known as "black boxes" -- until July 10, he said.

"They normally give a signal for 30 days. We will keep listening another 10 days," he said.

Flight 447 went down in stormy weather while flying from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.

Brazil called off the search for bodies on June 27, having found 51 of the 228 people who died when the plunged into the sea June 1, according to the military.

Airbus is facing serious trouble over this incident, and the crash this week of another Airbus plane flown by Yemeni Airlines that killed 153 people and had a single survivor, a 13 year-old girl.

Some are calling for Airbus to ground all its long range aircraft.

That's the headline from a story today on the website of the Times of London. The publication writes "Airbus is expected to face calls to ground its worldwide fleet of long-range airliners tomorrow when French accident investigators issue their first account of what caused Air France Flight 447 to crash off Brazil on June 1." The Times writes French officials are likely to cite weather as a factor, but will say that "faulty speed data and electronics were the main problem in the disaster that killed 228 people."

The European Aviation Safety Agency "has a legal and moral obligation to get to the bottom of this problem now. If there is a defective system and the aircraft is unsafe then it should be grounded,"James Healy-Pratt of Stewarts Law in London says to the Times. The firm represents the families of 20 of the victims of Flight 447 and specializes in aviation issues, according to the Times. Despite the Times' report, however, a universal grounding of long-range Airbus jets is unlikely

The issues relate to faults within the air data systems, including the pitot tubes used in determining air speed.

Suspicion over the air data systems on the Airbus 330 and 340 series has increased after the disclosure that the aircraft had experienced 36 episodes similar to the one that brought Flight 447 down as it flew from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

Airbus first reported problems with the speed sensors — known as pitot tubes — in 1994, it emerged this week. The company advised remedies, but no mandatory action was taken.

Last weekend, the US National Transportation Safety Board, began looking into two incidents in which Airbus A330s flying from the US suffered critical episodes apparently similar to that of AF447.

This raises the prospect of a possible US order on modifications to the Airbus.

The first US incident occurred on May 21 when a TAM Airlines flight from Miami to Sao Paulo, Brazil, lost primary speed and altitude information while in cruise flight. The other was on a Northwest Airlines flight, on June 23, from Hong Kong to Tokyo.

Accounts on the internet from the pilots report a desperate struggle to keep the jet in the air.

The fate of Flight 447 would probably have remained an eternal mystery had the aircraft not automatically transmitted data back to the Air France maintenance base.

Meanwhile, there is a call for an international blacklist of airlines with substandard safety records, which would cull those airlines that don't follow international mandates and required safety upgrades. However, the Yemeni crash was likely the result of weather as the wind near the airport at the time was blowing at near hurricane force (71mph).

Too Soon To Tell If Terror Ties Doomed Air France Flt. 447

The New York Post is reporting that two passengers on board the doomed Air France Flight 447 had ties to terror groups.

Two passengers with names linked to Islamic terrorism were on board the Air France flight which crashed with the loss of 228 lives, it has emerged.

French secret servicemen established the connection while working through the list of those who boarded the doomed Airbus in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on May 31st.

Flight AF447 crashed in mid-Atlantic en route to Paris during a violent storm.

While it is certain that there were computer malfunctions, terrorism has not been ruled out.

Without actual evidence from the plane itself - wreckage indicating an explosion or sabotage, there's no way to rule in or out this particular theory of why the plane crashed. Remains of passengers and debris continues to be collected from the crash site, more than 100 miles off the coast of Brazil.

Investigators continue searching for the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, which would shed more light on the flight systems and what was going on in the cockpit and on board the plane. Voice recorders have been handy in the past in determining whether there was an explosion on board aircraft, including decompressions that render the crew and passengers unconscious before they had the ability to react.

In the meantime, airlines around the world are racing to replace speed sensors on Airbus A330s, because experts believe that may have contributed to the crash.

A key part of the investigation relies on a burst of 24 automatic messages the plane sent during the last minutes. The signals showed the autopilot was not on, officials said, but it was not clear whether the autopilot had been switched off by the pilots or had stopped working because of conflicting airspeed readings.

The L-shaped metal pitot tubes jut from the wing or fuselage of a plane, and are usually heated to prevent icing. The pressure of air entering the tubes lets internal sensors measure the speed and angle of flight. A malfunctioning tube could mislead computers controlling the plane to dangerously accelerate or decelerate.

The largest Air France pilots union, SNPL, said Tuesday at a news conference that Air France had "guaranteed" that no Airbus A330 or A340 planes would leave the ground without at least two of three updated pitot tubes.

The Grim Recover of Air France 447

The grim task of recovering the passengers from doomed Air France flight 447 continues. 17 bodies have been recovered, and search and rescue has come across the debris field. They are not only trying to recover the remains of the passengers but are seeking the flight data recorder and cockpit voice records so that investigators can figure out what happened to the place to cause it to crash.

Working theories on the cause of the crash include faulty speed sensors that caused the plane to fly too fast or too slow - too fast and the plane breaks up at altitude and too slow, and the plane crashes because it can't maintain lift. Throw in the severe weather in the vicinity of the crash at the time the plane lost contact, and the ever-present consideration for terrorism, and the need to obtain that information is crucial to rule out problems that might affect other planes in use today.

The exact location of the crash has not been determined, since ocean currents likely caused the bodies and debris to drift in the six days since the crash. And two key pieces of evidence -- the flight data and cockpit voice recorders -- remain missing, and could lay on the ocean floor. Map of Flight 447's flight path »

The part of the ocean where the debris and bodies have been found ranges between 19,685 and 26,247 feet (6,000 and 8,000 meters) deep. The search area covers 77,220 square miles (200,000 square km), an area nearly as big as the country of Romania.

Fourteen aircraft -- 12 Brazilian and two French -- were participating in the recovery efforts, along with five Brazilian ships and one French frigate. In Washington, a U.S. defense official told CNN the U.S. Navy will contribute two high-tech acoustic devices to listen for emergency beacons still operating in deep water.
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The "towed pinger locators" help search for emergency beacons on downed aircraft to a maximum depth of 20,000 feet, and will be placed aboard two French tugs that are part of the search efforts, the official said.

Recovery of bodies and debris is significant not only for families, but for crash investigators, said Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation.

"Even if they don't find anything else they can get some very important clues from the pieces that they do find and from the human remains," Schiavo told CNN Saturday.

She said investigators would be able to discern if there was an explosion from possible residue on the bodies or other items. Or, if water is found in the lungs of victims, investigators would know the plane went down intact, she said.

Investigators in Paris said Saturday that the Air France flight sent out 24 automated error messages lasting about four minutes before it crashed. The error messages suggest the plane may have been flying too fast or too slow through severe thunderstorms it encountered before the crash, officials said.

BREAKING: US Airways Plane Crashes In Hudson River

1010 Wins Radio in New York City is reporting that US Airways flight 1549 to Charlotte North Caroline from LaGuardia Airport has crashed in the Hudson River in New York City. Details are sketchy, and more will follow.

UPDATE [lawhawk]:
It appears that the plane had multiple bird strikes upon takeoff, causing the engines to flame out. WCBS 880 has details.

Officials tell CBS 2 the airplane is Flight 1549, an Airbus 380 that took off from LaGuardia Airport. There are reports that there were about 60 people on board.

Passengers could be seen standing on the wing of the plane and entering a rescue boat.

There are reports that a bird strike may have caused the plane to go down, meaning a bird may have entered the engine, causing a malfunction.

City officials have called a massive casualty emergency, though it's not yet known if there are any deaths.

The plane appears to have crashed relatively intact near the Intrepid Sea Air Space Museum, which puts Circle Lines ships in a good position to provide assistance, in addition to emergency crews on the way.

UPDATE:
NY Waterways was also quick to render assistance as seen from photos. CNN has streaming video.

UPDATE: 1010 wins is reporting that the pilot is claiming that geese are the cause of the accident. Eye witnesses are reporting blue flames from the planes engine. As Hawk posted, NY Waterways is always quick to render assistance and was on scene during 9/11 to evacuate victims.

Update: MSNBC is reporting:

NEW YORK - A US Airways passenger jet taking off from LaGuardia airport in New York en route to Charlotte, N.C., crashed into frigid Hudson River on Thursday.

New York City firefighters are responding to the crash. It was not immediately clear if there were injuries.

WNBC's Tim Minton quoted an unidentified government source as saying that a flock of birds may have hit the plane, disabling both engines.

The plane is an Airbus A320. NBC News identified it as Flight 1549, which departed at 3:20 p.m. ET with about 145 passengers and five crew members aboard. It was a scheduled flight to the Charlotte-Douglas, N.C., airport.

Witness Barbara Sambriski, a researcher at The Associated Press, said, "I just thought, 'Why is it so low?' And, splash, it hit the water."

N.Y. Waterway ferries responded to the crash and were assisting in the rescue.

1010 Wins is also reporting some leg injuries but they believe that everyone has left the plane and that according to one survivor, it truly was women and children first.

UPDATE:
148 passengers, with 5 or 6 crewmembers. The plane has been slowly sinking, and a FDNY fireboat is on the scene attempting to keep some semblance of control.

There's a simple reason why NY Waterways and other ferries were quick to render assistance - their routes transverse that area on a regular basis.

UPDATE: It is reported that at least 41 employees of Bank of America were on the plane and the Intrepid Museum has graciously offered to serve as a base for Bank of America employees to call their families and to tell them they are ok and to stay there until arrangements can be made for their return.

UPDATE: FAA is reporting that all passengers and crew have been accounted for and are alive. Only relatively minor injuries have been reported. Hypothermia remains one of the gravest concerns.

UPDATE: It is being reported by the National Air Traffic Controller's Union that the pilot lost both engines, radioed for vectors to return to LaGuardia, passed over the George Washington Bridge -- clearing the bridge by a mere 900 feet, YIKES! -- and then requested permission to divert to Teterboro. The pilot was given clearance to land at runway 1 at Teterboro but that there were no further communications from the pilot.

It is amazing that the pilot was able to land in the river, and that he missed the city, the bridge, Weehawken, the Intrepid and everything else. If that plane would have hit a building or the west side highway or the bridge, we would be reporting on 150+ deaths.

Mayor Bloomberg is about to address the press. Possibly the pilot will give a statement. Bloomberg states that the pilot walked the aisles twice to determine that no one was left on board.

The Ripple Effect

Recall that I warned about more stories exposing the problems with airport delays. Well, the latest such story has been published by USA Today, and it focuses on JFK Airport.

None of the overall problems should be a surprise. Lack of airspace and NIMBY have prevented changes to the traffic corridors that could open up more airspace and reduce delays. Construction of reinforced taxiways to accomodate the Airbus 380 closing key areas and reducing overall flow in the airport.

There are no simple solutions, even as jetBlue prepares to open a brand new terminal to accomodate more planes at one time but even jetBlue sees the need to limit flights into the airport.

I can recall that Mrs. Lawhawk and I flew out to Salt Lake City on jetBlue from JFK last year. We had to transverse the entire airport to just line up for takeoff and that took nearly a half hour. It was then that we had to queue in a long stream of planes awaiting takeoff. The flight was surely going to be delayed, but for the pilot on board being notified that someone on board needed to get to Salt Lake City because their wife was in labor and expected to give birth at any moment. Within minutes, we were jumped to the front of the line, which appeared to be a dozen planes long, and we were able to arrive on time. Had we not been able to cut the line, we would have been more than an hour late. That experience showed that the flight schedule was padded to take into account the flight delays on the ground. Expect to see more flight schedules padded so as to take into account delays - just so the airlines can claim better on time performance.

The airport simply can't handle more flights, and minor delays snowball into huge problems causing gridlock. The airport has managed to improve vehicle flow through the airport with the construction of the AirTrain, which also links to long term parking, car rental locations, and the Jamaica LIRR station.

The region had a reprieve of 5 years following 9/11 when air travel was significantly down from the prior period. That reprieve is over, and expectations are that traffic delays will continue to rise as there are no solutions in place or expected to make a dent anytime soon.

Putting the Blues in jetBlue

JetBlue, the upstart discount airline that was wowing investors and customers alike, hit major turbulence this past week and is still struggling to recover. Last week's nor'easter resulted in planes being grounded at JFK airport for more than 9 hours with hundreds of passengers aboard. The situation got progressively worse as the airline struggled to figure out what to do next.

JetBlue has been struggling to recover from an ice storm on Wednesday in the eastern United States that stranded hundreds of passengers. The airline, which is the biggest carrier at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, has canceled at least 861 flights since the storm; the 133 flights canceled each day over the weekend represent 23 percent of its schedule, the airline said.

“It was turning from an operational problem to a safety and security problem for our workers,” a JetBlue spokeswoman, Jenny Dervin, said yesterday. “We canceled late departures, upset more customers, met overnight and said, ‘This has just got to stop.’ ”

Irving Fain, a New Yorker who said that his 6:05 p.m. flight Friday from J.F.K. to San Diego was delayed many times and then canceled at about 10:30 p.m., described a scene at gate 16 in the JetBlue terminal with angry passengers crowding around the gate podium, a gate agent calling security, and then passengers and a security officer exchanging heated words.

“It was really a disaster,” said Mr. Fain, who is 26 and works for a radio station. “Passengers screaming, ‘We pay your salary.’ The security guy screaming back. Fifteen minutes into this ruckus, they finally canceled the flight.”

Ms. Dervin of JetBlue said that scenes like the one described by Mr. Fain “happened at a number of gates and at the baggage claim, too.”

The cancellations raise new questions about whether JetBlue’s management is equal to its ambitions. Early last year, after fuel prices had wiped out profit at the airline, it was forced to curtail an aggressive delivery program for new planes and focus more on making its existing operations run more smoothly.

On Friday afternoon, JetBlue’s chief executive, David G. Neeleman, acknowledged that he should have canceled more JetBlue flights on Wednesday to avoid stranding for more than six hours hundreds of passengers on nine planes that could not get to the gates at J.F.K. In an interview, Mr. Neeleman said of the spillover of delays to Friday: “Day three: unforgivable.”

JetBlue said early yesterday that it had scrapped 133 of nearly 600 scheduled flights for both yesterday and today because of a shortage of flight attendants. It essentially grounded its entire fleet of 26 Embraer 190s, which are 100-seat planes, and moved any available flight attendants from those planes to its fleet of bigger Airbus 320s.

I've been a big fan of jetBlue because they've done a good job of getting Mrs. Lawhawk and myself to our destinations with a low fare and with the DirecTV service at our seats. However, this kind of situation would give pause to many casual fliers.

That said, jetBlue wasn't the only airline struggling to deal with cancellations and problems. Delta was also hit with the same problem and was struggling to get back on schedule.

jetBlue has information relating to their ongoing scheduling problems and what they're trying to do to make it up to their customers. Right now, the airline has canceled all flights to certain destinations:

The airline has canceled all flights to and from the following cities through Monday, Feb 19: Richmond, VA; Pittsburgh, PA; Charlotte and Raleigh/Durham, NC; Jacksonville, FL; Austin and Houston, TX; Bermuda; Columbus, OH; Nashville, TN and Portland, ME. In addition, flights to other JetBlue cities may be cancelled, so be sure to check your flight status.

American Airlines Pilots Want Flt 587 Investigation Reopened

group of American Airlines pilots wants the federal government to reopen its probe of the 2001 crash of Flight 587 in the Rockaways, saying newly discovered problems with Airbus jets raise questions about the investigation's conclusions.

The doomed Airbus A300's co-pilot, Sten Molin, got most of the blame for the Nov. 12, 2001, crash of the jet, which killed 265 people.

Molin pushed so hard on the plane's rudder controls that the jet's entire tail section fell off, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded.

But some American Airlines pilots say no plane should break because someone pushes a pedal too hard. And they say Airbus never told anyone pushing the rudder pedals endangered the planes.

Airbus Rudder Problems and NTSB Recommendations

New rudder problems have been found on French-made Airbus jets that could cause disasters like the deadly 2001 crash of American Airlines Flight 587 in the Rockaways, federal safety officials warned yesterday.

The rudders of many Airbus passenger jets are made of composite plastic that appears dangerously prone to disintegrating, the National Transportation Safety Board said.

NTSB officials want airlines to immediately comply with recommendations issued by Airbus earlier this month for checks on its A300, A310, A330 and A340 aircraft.

"This urgent recommendation, if acted upon quickly, will go a long way to prevent a catastrophic failure of the rudder," NTSB acting chairman Mark Rosenker said.

The official NTSB press release contains references to several incidents in 2005 that related to separation of rudder components, and it appears that there might be a relationship between the separations and the appearance of hydraulic fluid.

Further examination of the disbonded area revealed traces of hydraulic fluid. Hydraulic fluid contamination between the honeycomb skin and the fiberglass composite skin can lead to progressive disbonding, which compromises the strength of the rudder. Tests on the damaged rudder also revealed that disbonding damage could spread during flight.

The investigation found that the areas specified in the AOT did not include the areas in which the disbonds were found on the incident rudder. Further, it was determined that tap tests on the external surfaces of the rudder likely would not have disclosed the disbonding of an internal surface.

On March 2, 2006 Airbus issued AOTs notifying operators of applicable A300 series airplanes that large disbonds between the rudder's inner skin and the honeycomb core could go undetected, and providing guidance for inspecting the rudders. The Safety Board is recommending a more stringent compliance time than specified in the AOT and also requesting that FAA make the inspections mandatory.

The NTSB is recommending examinations of the rudders before any further flights of the aircraft and is expected to affect about 400 aircraft.

Flight 587 crashed in Belle Harbor, Queens after the rudder apparently failed shortly after takeoff. 265 people were killed, and while Airbus claims that pilot error/training was to blame, many have pointed to rudder problems as the cause of the accident. Here is the NTSB summary of findings from that accident, which occurred shortly after 9/11 and prompted fears that it may have been another terrorist attack.

Other Airbus aircraft have had problems, including several spectacular landings due to failures of landing gear components.

Technorati: JetBlue, Jet Blue, airbus, A300, A310, and A320.

Accountability

What do the following stories have in common:

Espionage in the White House;

Iran's fingerprints are all over bombs that have blown up in Iraq killing scores of people;

Airbus landing gear problems go back years without resolution;

Ethan Allen, the boat involved in accident resulting in 20 deaths, was unstable;

The investigation continues into Hinrichs' suicide bombing;

Porter Goss will not seek an accountability review for former CIA Director Tenet and others relating to 9/11; and

A summary report of Able Danger will be released in coming weeks.

That list seems pretty disparate, but there is a theme. It's accountability. Or the lack thereof. Are any of the individuals or entities involved in these incidents going to be held accountable for their actions? Is Porter Goss going to let George Tenet and other former high level CIA workers off the hook, despite their failures to detect and/or treat Islamic terrorism as the highest threat to the US before 9/11? Is the Able Danger story going to be whitewashed behind a report that doesn't say anything as to why Able Danger was never mentioned in the 9/11 Commission Report? Will the Commission be chastized and publicly renounced for its failures to detail all relevant information? Will the boating company be held responsible for a boat that appears unsafe to handle the number of passengers it was rated for? Will the federal and state government revise the passenger loading/weight standards because of changes in what average weights are? Will the individuals involved in the spy ring that extended from Washington, DC to Fort Monmouth, New Jersey be brought up on charges of treason or will they be charged under lesser crimes, even though the ultimate goal of the involved individuals was to undermine US national security? In other words, are they going to be held accountable for their actions?

We've been hearing for weeks and months, especially among the blogging elites, that Iran has had their hands all over the bombs blowing up in Iraq. Will someone finally stand up to Iran and tell them flat out that their actions will force a reaction that they would not likely survive? Will the world sit idly by while Iran uses a proxy army of terrorists to undermine a nascent democratic regime in Iraq?

Will we get to the bottom of what happened in Oklahoma and whether Hinrichs acted alone, whether it was a suicide or part of a terror campaign?

So far, I think that we can rate who will be held accountable or not. The owners of the Ethan Allen will face numerous lawsuits, and will probably go out of business as a result. The NTSB tests look pretty damning. The federal government will take another 5 years to modify the weight restrictions to account for the growing waistlines of Americans.

Airbus will face greater scrutiny from the FAA and the FAA will eventually issue an airworthiness directive that forces the A320s to be fixed properly. JetBlue will suffer as a collateral party since they rely solely on the Airbus planes for their fleet of aircraft.

The spies involved in the Filipino spy ring at the White House will face reduced charges, but no one will actually be executed for treason. The incident will be swept under the rug, especially since it occurred during two administrations.

No one will be held accountable for lapses and failures relating to Able Danger or 9/11. And that is the scariest part of all. Nothing has changed among the bureaucrats and those who are entrusted with the solemn duty of keeping this nation safe from all threats, foreign and domestic.

UPDATE:
Captain Ed notes an important clarification in the New York Times:

The New York Times provides important clarification this morning, noting that Aragoncillo did his spying after his security detail at the White House, and that no evidence exists (yet) of any such activity during his tenure as a security staffer for Al Gore and Dick Cheney

. The quick linkage in the media between the White House and the spy case may have been due to partisan politicking, but there is no evidence thus far that Aragoncillo spied while stationed with the White House detail.

Investigators Looking Closely at Airbus Landing Gear

Investigators found signs of a "fault" with the nose-gear shock absorber of the JetBlue plane that made an emergency landing in Los Angeles last month — raising questions about efforts several years ago to fix problems in the devices.
Investigators are studying the apparatus in hopes of figuring out if it actually was the problem, the National Transportation Safety Board says.

At least seven incidents involving the A320 nose gear were known to U.S. aviation authorities before the A320 used in JetBlue's Flight 292 on Sept. 21 couldn't retract its nose wheel, forcing an emergency landing. The problems led Airbus in 2002 to issue new instructions to repair shops on fixing the shock absorber.

JetBlue has said that it followed the Airbus directives.

This isn't good news for the airplane manufacturer. This was a problem that was identified years ago and a fix was supposedly made to the problem. That it continues to present itself as a problem is not a good sign. Also, it's not a good sign that the company claims that the problem isn't serious because there haven't been any fatalities or serious incidents because of the problem.

It takes common sense to realize that Airbus is lucky that the seven prior incidents did not lead to a major incident. I'd call that luck, combined with the skill of the pilots. And that isn't good enough for the safety of the flying public and the safety of those on the ground.

Technorati: JetBlue, Jet Blue, airbus, A320, and Airbus A320.

Airbus Should Be Worried; JetBlue's Worries Not Quite Over

At least seven other landing gear incidents have been identified with the Airbus A320 planes, of which JetBlue Flight 292 was one. JetBlue owns 81 of the A320s and would be one of the biggest customers affected if changes needed to be made to the landing gear on the fleet of A320s worldwide.

A November 2002 incident on a JetBlue flight landing at Kennedy Airport was hauntingly similar to the situation Wednesday aboard Flight 292. That plane also landed with its nose gear turned 90 degrees in the wrong direction.

The incident was blamed on faulty maintenance procedures — but Green suggested investigators might now want to look deeply into the problems. "It seems to me that there's probably a design problem with the nose gear," he said.

The first A320 incidents arose in the mid-1990s and were attributed to problems with O-ring seals in the nose gear's hydraulic system. The problem caused nose wheels to turn 90 degrees upon landing — just like what happened on to JetBlue Flight 292.

A February 1999 incident in Columbus, Ohio involving an America West A320 led the Federal Aviation Administration and French aviation authorities to require modifications to the nose gear.


The problem seemed fixed, Green said — until a pair of A320 nose-gear incidents just a few weeks apart in 2002.

No one was injured Nov. 1 that year when a JetBlue A320 heading from Buffalo to Kennedy Airport landed with its nose wheels turned 90 degrees.

Three weeks later, it happened again — this time in Chicago, to a United Airlines A319, a sister model of the A320.

After those incidents, the National Transportation Safety Board reported, the French nose-gear manufacturer, Messier-Dowty, reported two more similar problems, one involving a Canadian airline, another in Ireland.

This time, the problems were blamed on faulty maintenance procedures — which Green said authorities attempted to fix by issuing new instructions to maintenance crews.

The manufacturer, Airbus, has done a good job shifting the blame to the individual airlines and maintenance crews who work on the planes, but one has to wonder why there are so many problems with the nose gear. Hopefully the FAA will cut through this situation and make sure that the travelling public is safe, though the FAA has a less than sterling reputation on doing what is right versus doing what is best for manufacturers and airlines.

Technorati: JetBlue, Jet Blue, airbus, A320, and Airbus A320.

JetBlue's Happy Ending; Should Airbus Be Worried

Last nite's video moment of the day was watching the JetBlue Flight 292, piloted by Captain Scott Burke, attempt to land with its front landing gear stuck in the wrong direction. Passengers were able to watch the events unfold on their DirecTV video screens. Someone even videotaped the entire episode with a camcorder. Other than sparks flying from the messed up landing gear, the landing was uneventful as the pilot managed to keep the plane on the centerline of the runway at LAX and everyone was safely deplaned through the front door.

I've always been a big fan of JetBlue, particularly because of those video screens, and because they had great prices. I guess we can add great pilots to the list of reasons to fly JetBlue. Oh, and in case anyone wonders, the name of the plane was Canyon Blue (JetBlue puts cute nicknames on every plane it owns - the first JetBlue flight I took was on the plane Bippity Boppity Blue).

The Airbus A320 is the plane that was involved in last night's incident.

Now, why did that landing gear fail, and is this part of some larger problem with Airbus aircraft? An Airbus A330 had rear landing gear problems back in 1994, and seems unrelated to this situation. However, The NYT reports that there was a prior incident with striking similarities to what happened last nite:

... according to the Web site of the National Transportation Safety Board, in 1999, an Airbus A320 operated by America West had a similar problem with its nose wheels rotated 90 degrees. In that incident, the two pilots of Flight 2811 from Newark were able to land the plane at the Port Columbus International Airport in Columbus, Ohio, and the plane was evacuated.

The FAA will definitely be looking into this incident to determine why the landing gear did not retract properly. They will look at the maintenance records for the aircraft, as well as the mechanical and electrical systems that operate the landing gear.

UPDATE:
Airbus should be justifiably worried as it wasn't just one prior incident, but seven others (at least according to a news report I heard on TV - no verification on that total, but we do have at least one confirmed incident of front landing gear failure admitted by the company).

Also according to the same news report, JetBlue had done some kind of repairs to this plane's front landing gear just a day earlier. JetBlue, Airbus, and the FAA have each launched investigations to figure out why this happened.

JetBlue spokeswoman Jenny Dervin said the airline was investigating the incident with the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board. She declined to identify the pilot and first officer.

The cockpit voice recorder and digital flight data recorder — the so-called black boxes — were removed from the airplane and secured by the investigator in charge, the NTSB said Thursday.

And JetBlue dodged another bullet today, as another one of their planes ran into some mechanical difficulty. The plane had an indication that flaps were locked, but the pilot could not verify this. The plane landed normally and investigators will look into this as well.


Technorati: JetBlue, Jet Blue, airbus, A320, and Airbus A320.

JetBlue's Bad Day Gets Worse

First there was news that JetBlue was going to be in the red for the first time. That pales in comparison to a problem with a JetBlue plane:

A JetBlue airliner unsuccessfully attempted to make an emergency landing Wednesday after its front wheels were turned sideways and unable to retract into the plane after takeoff from a nearby airport.

The plane carrying 139 passengers left Bob Hope Airport in Burbank at 3:17 p.m. for New York's JFK airport, said JetBlue spokesman Bryan Baldwin.

JetBlue flight 292 was circling the Long Beach Airport, about 30 miles south of Burbank, as the pilot and aviation officials tried to determine what the best solution was. The Airbus A320 was dumping fuel over the Pacific, said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Donn Walker.

At Long Beach Airport, six ambulances lined a runway, along with a handful of police cars and two fire engines. Planes continued to take off and land while the emergency vehicles remained parked at the runway's edge with their lights flashing.

Here's hoping for a safe conclusion to this episode.

UPDATE:
MSNBC and other media outlets are reporting that the plane is preparing to make an emergency landing at LAX. Photos of the plane on the MSNBC website show that the forward landing gear is 90 degrees off axis for some reason. So far, there is no information provided at the Jetblue website.

UPDATE:
JetBlue Flight 292 landed safely at LAX a little while ago. While there was some fire from the defective front landing gear, the plane was able to come to a safe stop and everyone was able to get off the plane safely and without incident.

UPDATE/Technorati: JetBlue, Jet Blue, airbus, A320, and Airbus A320.

France Issues Emergency Airworthiness Directive On Airbus A300/310 Rudders

First it was voluntary, but it now appears airlines operating A300 and A310 aircraft will be compelled to conduct thorough inspections of the planes' composite rudders. France's civil aviation regulator has issued an Emergency Airworthiness Directive calling for the one-time visual and tap-test inspection to be completed within 550 hours or before June 18. Other countries generally adopt similar Emergency ADs but none had been issued by the FAA at our deadline. France's action comes two weeks after an Air Transat A310 lost almost its entire rudder while at cruise on a trip from Cuba to Quebec.

The plot thickens.

Untold Story of Airbus Emergency

Apparently the pilot never declared an emergency (perhaps he didn't know the severity of the problems), had contacted the higher ups at his airline and determined that the best course of action was to return to Cuba, rather than at the closer Ft. Lauderdale or Miami airports.

The Canadian press however, has said that the US refused to allow the plane to land in the US because of the embargo.

That's patently bogus. Had the plane declared an emergency, the plane could have landed at any airport within its flight radius. That's based on FAA rules.

The plot grows thicker.

UPDATE 9:31AM:
This discussion board has photos of the missing rudder. Not a minor problem from the looks of it. The whole rudder assembly has shorn away from its attachment points.

Also, to be clear, there is absolutely no evidence that the US denied the plane landing rights. The pilot decided to return to Cuba where the company had a maintenance facility, rather than land in the US at either Ft. Lauderdale or Miami, which is where ATC had suggested because Ft. Lauderdale's customs wasn't available.

That's Not Supposed To Happen

At 35 000 feet above the Caribbean, Air Transat flight 961 was heading home to Quebec with 270 passengers and crew. At 3.45pm last Sunday, the pilot noticed something very unusual. His Airbus A310's rudder -- a structure over 8m high -- had fallen off and tumbled into the sea.

It's interesting that this story didn't get wider coverage too. Considering that the A310 is a very popular aircraft, and the use of composites is gaining wider acceptance in the commercial widebody jet business because of its weight to strength characteristics, this is very troubling news indeed.

Also, it is possible that this has repercussions for the investigation into what downed Flight 587 in October 2001. That plane, an American Airlines flight, crashed shortly after takeoff and appeared to have rudder and tail problems.

According to the official report into the crash, the immediate cause was the loss of the plane's rudder and tailfin, though this was blamed on an error by the pilots.

Perhaps, this latest incident will spur a reexamination of the 2001 crash.

The A300/310 is flown by many airlines, including JetBlue, which uses the Airbus design exclusively.

If there is a design defect in the tail, it could mean huge problems for the European company, which has led Boeing in incorporating composites in commercial jetliner design.

UPDATE 11:28AM:
I reread this article, and the following jumped out at me on the rereading:

Despite these and earlier assurances, some pilots remain sceptical. The Observer has learnt that after the 587 disaster, more than 20 American Airlines A300 pilots asked to be transferred to Boeings, although this meant months of retraining and loss of earnings. Some of those who contributed to pilots' bulletin boards last week expressed anger at the European manufacturer in vehement terms. One wrote that having attended an Airbus briefing about 587, he had refused to let any of his family take an A300 or A310 and had paid extra to take a circuitous route on holiday purely to avoid them: "That is how convinced I am that there are significant problems associated with these aircraft."

If pilots think there are serious problems with the aircraft to the extent that they're putting their careers on hold to retrain on other aircraft, it might cause airlines to reconsider their purchases, usage, and maintenance of the aircraft until there is definitive word on the airworthiness of the A300/A310.

UPDATE 1:47PM:
Running a Google search for rudder, Canada, and airbus returns only 14 stories in Google's news search. One would think that this mishap would result in more news than this.