An Air India flight from Mumbai to Frankfurt had a little scare after the cockpit got warning of a possible fire in the cargo hold.
The pilots of the Boeing 747-400 turned on the fire extinguishers and made an emergency landing back to Mumbai.
It was determined that a 6.5lb of curry that was checked by one of the flight’s passengers had set off the alarm. After a 12 hour delay, the bag was removed and the flight continued .
LAX, which is known for their “close calls” and poor safety record, announced a new warning system aimed at preventing runway accidents.
The $7 million project uses a combination of a runway status light system, radar, and traffic controllers to maintain the safety of all the aircraft and support vehicles.
Lights on the pavement will flash when radar detects a possible conflict between planes or ground vehicles. Once the lights flash, all parties must contact the tower and get clearance before proceeding.
The light system has previously been tested at the San Diego and Dallas-Fort Worth airports. The system caused the number of close calls to drop from 10 to 3 in similar 2.5 year periods before and after the installation.
Currently the system is installed on one of LAX’s four runways and only 8 of its taxi ways.
Have you ever wanted to see what it takes to upgrade the cabin of a Boeing 747-400? Do you have 1 minute and 37 seconds of spare time? Well then, United Airlines has a video for you. United Airlines posted a video on YouTube showing a remodel of first and business class cabins on a Boeing 747-400.
The exact JetStar Airbus A300-200 involved in this incident: VH-EBF. Taken 10/08
On June 11th, a Jetstar Airbus A330-200 (same model as the AirFrance flight 447) was at cruising altitude heading from Japan to Australia when a loud bang and a flash of white came from the co-pilot’s windscreen.
Luckily, at the time of the incident, the aircraft was only about 20 minutes from Guam, but getting there wasn’t an easy ride.
The cockpit started to fill with smoke and the pilots put on oxygen masks while trying to put out the fires. After about a minute, it seemed the flames were out.
The passengers had no idea there was an emergency, since both pilots in the cockpit had their masks on and were unable to inform others aboard the plane of their condition.
At this time, there doesn’t seem to be any similarities between the malfunctions on this flight and those on AirFrance Flight 447. Hopefully people won’t start thinking the Airbus A330 is an unsafe plane.
Weight equals money and when a fully loaded Airbus A380 can weigh over a million pounds, airlines don’t want to be adding any unnecessary weight. The airline industry has become very creative with adding new fees to bring in additional revenue, but they are also looking at creative ways to lessen weight and save money.
Northwest Airlines (err, I guess Delta) is now cutting spoons on their flights to help save weight. Sure one little spoon might not seem to make a big difference, but a Northwest Boeing 747-400 holds more than 400 people — that’s a lot of spoons (why don’t they just bring back the spork?)
They aren’t the only airline considering utensil overhaul. Japan Airlines has decreased the size of their cutlery (which not only saves money in weight, but for purchase price of the actual product). Other airlines are cleaning their planes more (dust = weight), not supplying magazines and carrying less water on board.
I am sure this concept will catch on. From cutting pillows, to the type of fabric being used in seats, to having less gadgets (boo), to maybe even someday accounting for passengers’ weights (hopefully not, but RyanAir might be crazy enough), the airlines will probably continue to look for cost-cutting measures, especially as they move toward better fuel-efficiency.
