Planes are not supposed to catch fire while sitting waiting eight hours between flights. Yet this is what happened to An Ethiopian Airline’s Boeing 787 at 1550h (330pm) on Friday in London while the aircraft was parked at a remote stand. There were no passengers aboard the plane. Heathrow Airport closed both its runways for 90 minutes. 42 short haul flights were cancelled and some flights were delayed for six hours. It is just on six months since fire broke out aboard an empty Japan Airlines 787 whil it was standing in Boston on January…
Aeroplane News (Saturday)
Category Archives for Aeroplane News (Saturday).
ANA downgrades their 787s
I wondered how long All Nippon Airways would maintain their roomier international 787 Econom Class. Unlike every other 787 operator , ANA and Japan Airlines opted for an a eight across 2-4-2 Economy layout. Everyone else (Ethiopian, Qatar and United) puts their passengers into a nine across 3-3-3 layout. ANA’s international 787s currently can carry 158 passengers: 46 in business and 112 in economy. On its new 787s, ANA are adding a Premium Economy class with seven across seating arranged 2-3-2 The room will come from Economy shrinking from 14 rows of 8 across to…
What will we be flying in 2023
The Paris Air Show sales give a good indication as to what the fleets of the world will look like in a decade. It looks like the airlines were buying -with plane orders for over $US140 billion dollars being placed. Airbus, the European plane maker announced orders at the show for 466 planes worth $US68.7 billion including numerous orders for their new A350 (pictured below). The deals include options for 225 aircraft worth US$29.4 billion and firm purchase orders for 241 aircraft worth US$39.3 billion. There was strong interest in the A320neo ( New Engine…
I am excited about the Airbus 350
I have to admit I am very excited by the Airbus 350. It has been built on the technologies developed for Airbus A380 with a similar cockpit and fly-by-wire systems layout. I am seriously in love with the A380, a plane that just feels like it wants to fly. I expect, therefore, to be wowed by the 350. And I have seen myself up to recently, as a Boeing man! The 350 is designed as a direct competitor to the Boeing 787 for the 250 to 400 seat market. Yesterday the 350 enjoyed it’s first…
China Southern’s messy A380 situation
The delivery last Sunday of a Boeing 787 to Guangzhou based China Southern airlines makes the carrier the first in the world to fly both the 787 and the Airbus 380. China Southern are now the largest passenger airline in Asia, carrying over 85 million passengers last year. The carrier is rated a four star airline by Skytrax. The status of orders of the two craft by Chinese carriers is: At first, China Southern will use the 787 on the Guangzhou – Shanghai services. By the end of the year the carier plans to have five…
Introducing the British Airways A380
Revealed this week an A380 for the tenth operator of the A380 British Airways. The plane is due to be delivered by July, 2013 followed by three more this year and then another eight after that to make a grand total of 12 for the carrier. The plane will be flying initially between – London and Los Angeles from 15th October (as BA268 and 269) – London and Hong Kong from 15th November as BA25 and BA26 The BA A380 will have 469 seats in a four class set up: 1. BA First Class –…
No 787 for a long, long time
The fire and smoke from the event were so intense that firefighters couldn’t see even a few inches in front of themselves when they entered the electronics bay containing the burning battery, the report said. A fire captain on the scene told investigators that the battery was “hissing loudly and liquid was flowing down the sides of the battery case” before it “exploded.” Those words taken from the interim report of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) into the January 7 JAL 787 fire released March 7, may have killed off Boeing’s chances to have the 787 in the air soon. The…
All 787s grounded-airline by airline
After a series of highly publicised problems including an ANA emergency landing on Wednesday 16 January, all 50 of the 787s across the world have been grounded. On Wednesday 16th January, 2013, US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered the grounding of all US-registered 787s and recommended other jurisdictions do the same: As a result of an in-flight, Boeing 787 battery incident earlier today in Japan, the FAA will issue an emergency airworthiness directive (AD) to address a potential battery fire risk in the 787 and require operators to temporarily cease operations. Before further flight, operators of U.S.-registered, Boeing 787 aircraft must demonstrate to…
787 Safety “Concerns”
Boeing has now delivered 50 of their 787s over the last year. There have been some recent safety incidents which have got high profile attention: the most worrying was a fire that ignited last Monday in the battery pack of an auxiliary power unit of an empty Japan Airlines 787 30 minutes after it had landed at Logan International Airport in Boston. The fire took 40 minutes to contain. Glad it was on the ground. Last December, a United Airlines 787 flying from Houston to Newark made an emergency landing in New Orleans after the pilots got…
Qatar and United 787 Electrical Problem
Seems there is an issue with Qatar’s third 787. The plane just handed over to them on December 9 was forced to make an emergency landing at Heathrow after it developed a faulty generator. This follows a United 787 having a generator failure on Dec. 4 forcing a landing at New Orleans. Boeing is quoted as saying that it isn’t certain that it was an identical issue with a faulty generator. Akbar Al Baker, Qatar Air CEO was quoted as saying , “Definitely we will demand compensation. We are not buying airplanes from them to put in a museum.” The…
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