Aircraft

Category Archives for Aircraft.

The FAA Is Not to Blame for Letting Boeing Self-Certify the 737 MAX

airplane flying
Nov 02 2019

Self-certification dates to 1956. It is not part of a deregulatory push. It’s a system that has worked remarkably well. The FAA has approximately 400 engineers to work on aircraft certification. Boeing has 45,000 engineers. The FAA cannot possibly do all of the work themselves and we wouldn’t want to shift the best engineering minds away from creating product to oversight.

Delegation isn’t a strictly-U.S. practice, or one which was limited to the MAX.

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American Airlines CEO Doug Parker: His Boeing 737 MAXs Are Safe Today – Other Airlines’ May Not Be

inside plane
Sep 23 2019

American Airlines CEO Doug Parker says that the plane is safe to fly today – with American’s 737 MAX and using American’s pilots – suggesting that the delay in bringing the plane back into service is so that it’ll be safe even when operated by other airlines.

He dishes on how they’re scheduling the plane’s return to service, and whether or not delays have been the result of politics.

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Germs: Window Seats are Dirtier Than Aisle Seats

airplane seats
Sep 02 2019

We all know (or should know!) not to stick our hands down inside seat back pockets. Those are bigger germ farms than the monkey in Outbreak. All seats have them though, usually even bulkhead seats. So those seat back pockets don’t differentiate one seat from another.

The question is, if you want to avoid the plague, which seats are the most infected on an aircraft? Which ones do you want to avoid?

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The Universal IT Fix – Turn Power Off and On – Works for Planes, Too

power socket
Jul 27 2019

In 2015 we learned that Boeing 787s needed to be turned off and on every 248 days. The problem was that the plane’s generators, powered on for over 8 continuous months, could fail and cause lack of control. The FAA issued an airworthiness directive to use the universal IT fix and Boeing went to work on a more permanent solution.

Now though we learn that the Airbus A350 needs to be turned off an on too.

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Is Airbus Doing Enough to Stop the Fumes that are Making People Sick?

Jul 22 2019

There are scores of Airbus narrowbody fume incidents across diverse carriers — including some fume occurrences leading to flight diversions and hospitalized passengers and crew — across JetBlue, Austrian, British Airways, American Airlines, Spirit, Lufthansa, easyJet, Aer Lingus, Jetstar, Germanwings, Turkish, Air France, Delta and others.

Airbus, airlines, the FAA and international regulators are familiar with and have paid attention to these events and yet they keep occurring. We don’t hear about them as a systematic issue, and I have to wonder if Airbus is doing enough, proactively enough, about it?

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Loophole to Buy Some Southwest Flights Over Half Off Through End of Month

southwest plane
Mar 16 2019

Southwest Airlines does not charge customers change fees. However if you change your flight you take your original ticket cost and use it as a credit to buy a new flight. Southwest is apparently now waiving any increase in fare when you change flights.

And that lets you buy a cheaper ticket than the one you want to fly, and just change to your preferred trip — but that original booking must be in March.

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Smuggler Turned Boeing 777 Lavatory Into a ‘Pot’ of Gold

gold bangladesh
Mar 15 2019

12kg of gold was found behind the mirror in the lavatory of a Biman Bangladesh flight from Dubai on arrival in Dhaka on Monday. You might even say that lavatory was a pot of gold.

Smuggling gold into Bangladesh is incredibly common. Spot prices are high and it’s a common destination for illicit funds being taken out of the Gulf region and also parts of Asia as we learned when a North Korean diplomat was discovered trying to bring $1.4 million in gold into Dhaka.

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Consequences of Grounding the Boeing 737 MAX for the American Airlines Operation

plane tv
Mar 13 2019

As American took the first 14 of their 24 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft out of service following President Trump’s grounding, planes were left sitting in Barbados, Cancun, Boston, Orlando, St. Croix, Tampa, Santo Domingo, Port of Spain, Santo Domingo, Miami and Puerto Plata.

The first 36 MAX flight cancellations affected schedules of 5500 passengers. Roughly speaking we’ll be looking at perhaps twice that many flights on an average day.

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