This Eritrean Airlines Boeing 767 obviously has its front door un-latched at the time of landing. Click photo for larger view and check the door handle. Photo by Ken Fielding.
Airline enthusiast Ken Fielding caught an interesting shot while spotting in Manchester (MAN) on December 27, 2004. He took this photo of an Eritrean Airlines Boeing 767-300ER being ferried from Paris-de Gaulle (CDG). At the time, he did not realize the significance of the photo and took a closer look when he recently uploaded it to Flickr. Take a close look near the front of the plane and you will notice that the front door (1R) is unlatched (click on the photo, zoom in and you can easily see the handle in the up position).
It appears that the door was put into that position while at CDG and that the pressurization of the cabin kept the door closed during flight. Fielding reports that since the aircraft was on a ferry flight, there were no passengers on board. Still, that doesn’t give the crew a pass at not completing a simple task of flying safely: make sure all the doors are shut and locked. The crew should have noticed when arming the doors (which they obviously did not do) and/or there should have been an indicator in the cockpit.
I tried to reach out to Eritrean Airlines, but their website is not very helpful for finding contacts and since they are high-lighting stories from 2004, I am guessing it is not the most accurate. The airline went out of business in 2008, but started up again on July 16, 2011 with a pretty slick new livery.
United Airline's first Boeing 787 Dreamliner (line number 45) on the factory floor on September 25, 2011.
A few weeks ago there were rumors that United’s first 787 Dreamliner might have gone into the paint booth. As an airline geek, this is exciting news. It would mean that we get to see the 787 in a United livery and we get to find out if United is going to dress their first 787 in a special livery.
As time passed and no 787 in United livery came out of the paint booth, I started to wonder… where the heck is United’s first Dreamliner?
I reached out to United and they said that their plane was out of the factory, but has not gone into paint. “We are quite excited for this revolutionary aircraft to join our fleet,” Mary Ryan with United Airlines communications explained to AirlineReporter.com. “As for the status of our first 787, unfortunately the rumor is untrue: the aircraft is out of the assembly process but has not yet gone into paint.”
Bummer, but my guess is that we won’t miss it since I expect United to celebrate their first aircraft.
There were other rumors that aircraft #45 might not be going to United Airlines anymore. No worries Boeing confirmed to me that, “there has been no change to the customer who will take delivery of [L/N45].”
The last rumor is that United is planning to paint their Dreamliner in a special livery. Although it is likely, my bet is do not expect a revolutionary change. My guess is that the globe will still be apart of the 787 and that United is not planning on an entirely new livery for their entire fleet. I know there are some of you hoping that United will unveil an entirely new livery starting with the 787 Dreamliner, but they have spent millions on transitioning to the globe and I highly doubt they will work towards another look.
The livery rumors will have to remain out there for the time being. We might just have to wait until the big unveil, which at this time no one knows when it will be.
One of Air Inuit Boeing 737-200s (C-GMAI) taken in Montreal. CLICK FOR LARGER.
Air Inuit was founded in November 1978 and is based in Dorval, Quebec, Canada. The airline operates north — way north into Nunavik and Nunavut. Many of their destinations are isolated and cut off from the rest of the world. The airline becomes an integral part of many communities being able to survive.
When Air Inuit started operating up north, there was almost no aviation infrastructure and the airline had to get creative. From their website:
“When we first began flying to remote communities along our coasts, we faced many unique challenges. In the beginning, winter ice strips were built with community participation. In summer, improvised tundra strips had to be marked out. Dispatchers or pilots often radioed ahead, alerting the people to illuminate the community’s landing strip with the headlights of their ATV’s or snowmobiles.”
The photo shown on this post highlights Air Inuit’s new “goose livery.” Their older livery was not too shabby with some simple lines, but this new one is pretty darn slick and the orange really stands out against the snow.
Are you able to see the three geese on the tail?
Edit: Thanks to reader Ken Fielding for pointing out the gravel deflector not being a ski, “Airlines operating regularly into gravel strips, as Air Inuit do, fit them to stop the nosewheel kicking up stones which can be ingested by the engines. Quite a few MD-80’s had them fitted too for the same reason.”
Every once in a while a video pops up that embraces the spirit of aviation — this is one of them. This video takes you inside an Avianca Airlines Airbus A320 while flying around South America in one of the best cockpit videos I have seen to date. Man, now I want to go flying.
Emirates and Alaska Airlines are now working together with a shared mileage plan.
During an Emirates press conference today held in Seattle, WA, Alaska Airlines announced a mileage partnership with the Dubai based airline. Passengers will be able to earn and redeem miles on either airline, plus miles accumulated while flying on Emirates will count towards Alaska MVP elite level program. From March 1, 2012 to May 31st Alaska will offer double miles on any Emirates flight.
“As part of our commitment to Seattle, we are launching our service by partnering with Seattle’s hometown airline to offer customers the convenience of a frequent flier partnership as well as one-stop check-in and through checked baggage,” said Nigel Page, Emirates Senior Vice President of Commercial Operations for the Americas.
As reported previously, Emirates will start non-stop service from Seattle (SEA) to Dubai (DXB) starting on March 1, 2012. The new flight will help connect the northwest to the Middle East, Africa and India. Emirates new flight (#’s EK229 and EK230) will depart daily from Seattle and Dubai and take 14.5 to 15hrs to complete. Emirates Boeing 777-300ER will we set up in a three class layout and the price for a first class suite will cost $15,279.00, while business will cost $9479.00 and economy will be around $1448.00. With Seattle having so many large companies and a decent demand for people to visit their families in the middle east and India, the airline expects their new route to do quite well.
When asked if Emirates might be interested in upgrading their 777 service to Seattle to an Airbus A380 Nigel stated, “As we build the business up we will certainty look at that.” However, he stated that they have not been in talks with the Port of Seattle about bringing the A380 to SEA. Previously, Perry Cooper with the Port of Seattle communications told AirlineReporter.com that, “We can handle the A380 in emergencies, however we do not have facilities for regular use, such as the multiple gate loading ramps, for the aircraft. At this time, if an A380 were to arrive and need to access a gate, safety guidelines would require all traffic to stop until the aircraft stopped at its gate, due to the width of taxiways and safety zones next to the runways.’
Currently, the Airbus A380 is not able to make it from Dubai to Seattle non-stop and Emirates stated that they are working with Airbus to increase the range to handle cities, like Los Angeles non-stop.
Emirates will also be starting service to Dallas starting February 2nd and has voiced interest in expanding to Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia and Washington, DC. The fact the airline has so many aircraft currently on order (70 Airbus A350s, 70 Airbus A380s and 87 Boeing 777s), my guess is all these cities will be seeing Emirates service soon.
