In response to suspicion of missed inspections, the FAA is arguing that they are prioritizing needed checks based on “risk analyses” and no critical inspections were missed. FAA spokesperson Diane Spitaliere states, “It is our position that the critical safety issues have been dealt with and are always dealt with first. Some of the less critical ones may not have been accomplished, but we’re currently working to accomplish them.”
The renewed interest in the FAA missed inspections come in the wake of the tragic crash of Continental Express Flight 3407 on February 12th.
The missed inspections are being reported by a government watchdog. They state that the FAA has missed safety inspections at major airlines and that some of the inspections were already two years overdue. Calvin Scovel, the Transportation Department’s inspector general, states, “We have found that these missed inspections were in critical maintenance areas.” Scovel had previously mentioned missed inspections at Southwest.
A Boeing 767-300 will employ fuel-saving measures and GPS navigation on a trans-Atlantic flight.
American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami on Thursday will be the first trans-Atlantic flight to test several fuel-economy measures and GPS navigation.
Strategies to save fuel and reduce carbon emissions, which American and other airlines have been testing individually for awhile now, include one-engine taxi and gradual (as opposed to incremental) take-off and landing.
The Boeing 767-300 will also use GPS technology for a more direct route than typical jetliner highways, again saving fuel and reducing emissions.
And with the Flight 447 tragedy fresh in our minds, it’s important to note that GPS will eventually be able to track planes’ locations far beyond the accuracy of radar.
I know this might be a bit old for some of you who have seen it on other sites, but maybe it has been long enough where you can once again enjoy it :).
An ad for Air New Zealand showing they have nothing to hide, not even their bodies.
EasyJet Airline, Airbus A319-111, landing at Edinburgh 21st April 2009
Believe it or not, British budget airline EasyJet has been asked on more than one occasion if they could marry people at 30,000 feet. They always had to say “no,” but they wanted to say “yes.” EasyJet wanted their pilots to be able to officiate weddings during flight. If sea captains can, why not pilots?
The Borough Council told EasyJet “no” but they would be happy to let people marry at the airport.
The idea sounds pretty cool, but I wonder how annoying it would be for frequent flyers who can no longer take naps because EasyJet keeps hosting weddings on their flights.
Work in progress: The tunnel has been dug underneath the airfield of Terminal 5
As part of Heathrow’s £900m (roughly $1.5 billion) overhaul of their luggage system, The British Airports Authority (BAA) is building a massive underground tunnel to transport bags between two terminals. The tunnel will run for over a mile, evading subway lines and underground fuel tanks.
Currently luggage transfer between Terminals 3 and 5 can take over an hour ’“ the new tunnel will save about 20 minutes.
You may remember Heathrow had major luggage problems last year with the opening of Terminal 5, but this very public upset did not prompt the tunnel plans, supposedly, nor will it entirely prevent lost luggage in the future. A BAA spokesperson said, ’œThere are so many different reasons why bags can go missing’¦. Baggage is a very complex world.’
Construction is happening 24 hours a day, with the hope of opening the tunnel by the end of 2011.
I don’t know, but spending multi-million dollars to shave an hour-long baggage wait down to 40 minutes seems a bit wasteful to me, especially in these harsh economic times. And people don’t even get to go down into the tunnel which seems like the coolest part!
In response to suspicion of missed inspections, the FAA is arguing that they are prioritizing needed checks based on “risk analyses” and no critical inspections were missed. FAA spokesperson Diane Spitaliere states, “It is our position that the critical safety issues have been dealt with and are always dealt with first. Some of the less critical ones may not have been accomplished, but we’re currently working to accomplish them.”
