Slippery when wet: Rio's Santos-Dumont airport

Pilots flying for TAM, Gol and Varig, three of Brazil's largest carriers, have been told not to land at Santos-Dumont Airport (SDU), Rio de Janeiro's domestic airport, while it is raining. An International Herald Tribune story about the landing prohibition reports that the carriers were responding to an alert from the Department for Airspace Control. Flights inbound to SDU will be rerouted to Rio's international airport.

"The note to pilots says that the runway of Santos Dumont is slippery when wet," said a TAM press officer who asked not to be identified in accordance with company policy. "So TAM ordered its pilots not to land there in the rain."

The official quoted by the Associated Press also said that TAM pilots are not to land on rainy days on the main runway at Congonhas until the grooving on that runway has been completed.

Commenting on the new rainy day rule, Flight Global.com notes that the ruling made by the Department for Airspace Control on 28 August comes as a result of the TAM A320 crash at Sao Paulo Congonhas Airport on 17 July where it sped off the runway, crashed into a gas station and exploded killing 199 people.

[Photo Source]

Stranded passengers on diverted flights: Let them eat pizza!

Joe Sharkey says in his On the Road column in the New York Times that the best choices for places for air passengers to be stranded are Syracuse and Albany. His choices were strongly influenced by some pizza deliveries.

His story begins with the tale of Delta Air Lines Flight 424, which was en route from Phoenix to New York's JFK airport on August 17, when it was diverted to Syracuse because of severe weather in the New York City area. That was the bad news.

The good news, according to a passenger who was on the flight, was that immediately after announcing the diversion, the captain added: “I’m not going to keep you on the plane. I’m going to pull up to a gate where you can get off, as long as you wait there in case we have to leave. I know you’ve only had cheese and crackers. So I called the Sbarro in the terminal and asked them to keep sending pizzas out until the whole plane gets fed.”

The passenger who told the story to Joe Sharkey said that tables were set up in the gate area, and flight attendants helped serve, while the pilot made repeated announcement to keep everyone informed about their prospects for getting underway again.

“Finally, he said, ‘All right, everybody back on the plane, we have a slot,’ ” [the passenger] said.

“On the plane, the flight attendants kept saying, ‘If anybody needs anything, just ask and we’ll do the best we can. We’re all in this together.’ ”

The two pilots on Flight 424 were Gary Hale and Ty Rhame. The flight attendants were David Evans, Nancy Grimshaw and Melisa Walker.

Lynn Casey, a Delta customer service agent, paid for the pizza at the Syracuse airport — and did the same thing for another flight from the West Coast that had been diverted there the same afternoon, a Delta spokeswoman said.

The same day, there was another pizza service for a different group of stranded passengers. This time it was at Albany, where a Continental Express flight en route to Newark had been diverted due to the same weather system.

In this instance, the heroes were John O’Donnell, the airport’s chief executive, and Doug Myers, the airport’s public affairs director. Having been stranded in a grounded aircraft for five hours themselves one time, they decided to put a plan in place to feed long-stranded passengers at their airport, should the situation arise.

On August 17, that plan was activated, and pizza was delivered to the Continental Express aircraft when the pilot had to return to the gate for refueling.

“We’d already heard all the talk” about stranded passengers on crowded planes for 3, 6 and even 10 hours, often without food or water, Mr. Myers said, adding,

“We decided we can’t let this kind of thing happen in Albany.”

Could this be the start of a new trend?

Recorders retrieved from Adam Air Flight 574 crash site

Remember Adam Air Flight 574, the Indonesian airliner that disappeared on New Year's Day? The aircraft's flight recorders -- the so-called 'black boxes' -- finally have been recovered from the seabed where the wreckage of the Boeing 737-400 has lain since January. Both the flight data recorder (FDR) and the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) were retrieved from a depth of 1800 meters off the western coast of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.

An article on Flight Global.com about the recovery of the devices quotes Indonesian National Transportation Safety Commission (NTSC) chairman Tatang Kurniadi who said that the recorders were retrieved by Phoenix International, an American marine services company.

“According to the preliminary information there is only a little bit of physical damage but it is too early to say [if data can be retrieved].”

He adds: “I hope that we will be able to get the data so that we can finish the job [investigating] as soon as possible.”

Kurniadi says the recorders will be sent to the USA for attempted data retrieval by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Adam Air Flight 574 disappeared mysteriously during a domestic flight between Surabaya, Java, and Manado, on Sulawesi island. All 96 passengers and 6 crew members were lost in the accident. Despite a huge search over a wide area, no debris was found until 10 days after the aircraft disappeared. No bodies were ever recovered.

In late January, a US oceanographic vessel reportedly located the area on the seabed where the aircraft's recording devices lay, but retrieval required specialized equipment that was not readily available at that time. Over the ensuing months, the Indonesian government and officials at privately owned Adam Air disagreed over who should bear the cost of the recovery operation. FlightGlobal.com now reports that insurance underwriters are believed to have agreed to pay for the recovery costs.

Let's hope that the CVR and FDR data can be read so that the cause of this terrible accident can be determined, and the mystery solved.

Related: Click here to view all posts on this blog about Adam Air Flt 574.

Air India merger officially complete

The merger between India's two state-owned airlines, first announced early this year, finally is complete -- at least as far as the legalities are concerned.

The intended merger between Air India and Indian Airlines was approved in March of this year by the government of India, and a new company called the National Aviation Company of India Limited (NACIL) was formed. The Certificate to Commence Business was obtained in May of 2007. Now, as a final step in the bureaucratic process, an Order of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs has been issued, approving the merger of the two airlines, with NACIL as the holding company.

The newly merged carrier will operate as Air India. The Corporate Office of NACIL will be at Mumbai.

The new Air India is undergoing a corporate image makeover. A statement about the merger issued by the airline said:

It has been decided that post merger, the new entity will be known as “Air India” while “Maharaja” will be retained as its mascot. The logo of the new airline will be a red coloured flying swan with the “Konark Chakra” in orange placed inside it. The flying swan has been morphed from Air India’s characteristic logo “The Centaur” whereas the “Konark Chakra” was reminiscent of Indian’s logo.

As a part of the image makeover effort, cabin crew and ground personnel will be getting fashionable new uniforms created by one of India's most well-known designers designers, Ritu Beri.

An article about the finalization of the Air India merger on FlightGlobal.com notes that actual integration of the two airlines’ operations will probably take around two years to complete. The enlarged carrier will have combined fleet size of over 112 aircraft. Already faced with a pilot shortage, the airline has come up with a plan to help finance the training of new pilots.

FAA issues emergency airworthiness directive for Boeing 737

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued an emergency airworthiness directive (AD) for Boeing Model 737-600, -700, -700C, -800, -900, and -900ER series aircraft. The AD arose from the discovery of loose or missing parts from the main slat track downstop assemblies on these aircraft, "which could result in a fuel leak and consequent fire" if not detected and corrected.

Emergency AD No. AD 2007-18-51 was issued on August 25, 2007, and is effective immediately upon receipt.

The FAA provides this background information:

We have received reports of parts of the main slat track downstop assembly coming off the main slat track.

In one case, a nut fell into the slat track housing (referred to as “slat can”) and, during a subsequent slat retraction, the track made contact with the nut, pushing it into the wall of the can and puncturing it. That operator reported finding fuel leaking from the drain hole in the slat track housing at the No. 5 slat track position.

In another case, an initial investigation revealed that following retraction of the slats after landing on a Model 737-800 airplane, loose parts of the main slat track downstop assembly punctured the slat can, which resulted in a fuel leak and a fire that ultimately destroyed the airplane.

The emergency AD requires:

...repetitive detailed inspections of the slat track downstop assembly to verify that proper hardware is installed, one-time torquing of the nut and bolt, and corrective actions if necessary.

Corrective actions include installing a new or serviceable part; and doing a detailed inspection of the inside of the slat can for foreign object debris (FOD) and damage, and removing any FOD and repairing damage that is found.

Here is the link to the full text of FAA AD 2007-18-51 (5 page 'pdf' file).

UPDATE August 29, 2007: In a relatively unusual move, the FAA has issued another Emergency AD about the same problem, just 3 days after it issued the first. Apparently the FAA has received still more reports of parts coming off the main slat track downstop assemblies and ending up in the slatcan. So, the new EAD reduces the time for compliance from 24 days to 10 days.

Here's the link: FAA Emergency Airworthiness Directive No. 2007-18-52 - 6 page 'pdf' file

Video: And the award goes to...

I don't know which ad agency was responsible for this Brussels Airlines TV commercial, but if they didn't win an award for it, they should have!

Don't worry that it's not in English. You definitely will get the message by the end of the video, I promise.



If the video does not play or display properly here, you can see SN Brussels Airline TVC on YouTube.

Although I had never seen it until today, apparently this video has been around for awhile. I notice that YouTube user vinko posted it in 2005! (So much to see on YouTube, so little time!)

I first saw the video on the Aviation Movies section of the airlinecrew.net forum. There are lots more great aviation videos posted there. Check it out some time.

Colgan Air pilots reject ALPA

Pilots at Colgan Air have rejected a bid to unionize by the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA). The representation results were tallied by the National Mediation Board in Washington, D.C.

In a news release issued by the Colgan Air, airline president Mike Colgan said "We greatly respect our pilots and the choice they have made. Now, we turn our entire focus to taking advantage of the growth and opportunities we have planned, creating more jobs and prosperity for all of us here at Colgan."

Colgan Air, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Pinnacle Airlines, is currently recruiting first officers for its fleet of Beech 1900 and Saab 340 turboprop aircraft. Colgan Air operates as Continental Connection, United Express and US Airways Express.

Gulf Air increases pilot pay and benefits

Pilots at Gulf Air will be getting larger paychecks soon. Captains will have their pay increased up to 50%, and first officers will receive raises of up to 70% in a plan approved by the Gulf Air board earlier this week.

According to an article in the Gulf Daily News about the new pay package for Gulf Air crews, this will give captains a basic monthly salary of BD 3,000, and first officers BD 2,100. The new pay package for pilots includes significant increases to housing and schooling allowances as well.

The Gulf Daily News reports:

It is understood that 100 to 150 pilots and first officers have resigned for better packages with rivals, since Gulf Air announced its cost-cutting recovery plan in April, to curb losses of at least $1 million a day (BD 378,000).

A new seniority system will be introduced, along with a performance appraisal system. Cabin crew pay and allowances will increase as well.

Mahmood Al Kooheji, chairman of Gulf Air, said, "We are moving ahead full steam with the realignment of Gulf Air and this improved package is our appreciation for the flight deck and cabin crews' hard work, dedication and commitment to further strengthen the Gulf Air brand."