Yemeni plane crashes off Comoros, 150 on board

An airliner with 150 people on board belonging to Yemeni state carrier Yemenia crashed into choppy seas as it came in to land on the Indian Ocean archipelago of Comoros on Tuesday, officials said.

“The plane has crashed and we still don’t know exactly where. We think it’s in the area of Mitsamiouli. There were 150 passengers on board,” Comoros Vice-President Idi Nadhoim told Reuters from the airport at the main island’s capital Moroni.

A Paris Airport spokeswoman said a Yemenia flight left Paris on Monday morning before landing in Yemen and then taking off for Moroni.

Ibrahim Kassim, a representative from regional air security body ASECNA, said the plane had probably come down 5 to 10 km (3 to 6 miles) from the coast, and civilian and military boats had been mobilized to start searching.

“We think the crash is somewhere along its landing approach,” Kassim told Reuters. “The weather is really not very favorable. The sea is very rough.”

ASECNA — the Agency for Aviation Security and Navigation in Africa and Madagascar — covers Francophone Africa.

The town of Mitsamiouli is on the main island Grande Comore.

“There is a crash, there is a crash in the sea,” said an unnamed official who answered the phone in the Yemenia office in Moroni. He declined further comment.

An airline official in Yemen declined to comment.

COMING TO LAND

Interior Minister Hamid Bourhane told Reuters the army had sent small speedboats to an area between the village of Ntsaoueni and the airport.

“At the moment we don’t have any information about whether there are any survivors,” he told Reuters.

A medical worker in Mitsamiouli said he had been called in.

“They have just called me to come to the hospital. They said a plane had crashed,” he told Reuters.

A United Nations official at the airport, who declined to be named, said the control tower had received notification the plane was coming into land, and then lost contact with it.

Yemenia, which is 51 percent owned by the Yemeni government and 49 percent owned by the Saudi Arabian government, flies to Moroni, according to flight schedules on its Web site.

Yemenia’s fleet includes two Airbus 330-200s, four Airbus 310-300s and four Boeing 737-800s, according to the site.

The Comoros covers three small volcanic islands, Grande Comore, Anjouan and Moheli, in the Mozambique channel, 300 km (190 miles) northwest of Madagascar and a similar distance east of the African mainland.

A hijacked Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767 crashed into the sea off the Comoros islands in 1996, killing 125 of 175 passengers and crew.

(Reporting by Ahmed Ali Amir; Additional reporting by Richard Lough in Antananarivo; Pascal Lietout in Paris; Writing by Andrew Cawthorne and David Clarke; Editing by Jon Hemming)

Qantas Scraps Orders for Boeing 787 Planes

Qantas Airways of Australia said Friday that it would scrap or defer orders for 30 of Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner aircraft, dealing a heavy blow to the American manufacturer and highlighting the intense pressure for cost savings at airlines around the world as the industry struggles to adjust to a sharp drop in passengers and freight.

Qantas, still the largest customer of the long-range, wide-body Dreamliner aircraft that is considered the key to Boeing’s future, is canceling orders for 15 of the 787s, in a move that it said would save the airline $3 billion. It is delaying delivery of 15 others by four years.

Alan Joyce, chief executive of the airline, said in a statement that Qantas’ decision was not linked to news Tuesday that the Boeing 787’s first flight had been delayed to allow further minor modifications to be made to what has been touted as the world’s most sophisticated plane.

Those problems were the latest in a series of delays in the Dreamliner project and ignited concerns about the possible effect on initial delivery schedules. The first delivery, to All Nippon Airways, was scheduled for the first quarter of 2010.

Qantas said it would retain orders for 50 of the new aircraft, including 15 for its low-cost subsidiary, Jetstar. A spokesman for Qantas, Simon Rushton, declined to comment on whether the airline would pay a penalty for the cancellation.

Analysts said the Australian flag carrier’s cancellation was one of the most significant such announcements to date, even in an industry that has already undergone major cost cuts and shake-ups.

“For Qantas to pull or defer deliveries is a major, major step,” said Derek Sadubin, an analyst at the Center for Asia Pacific Aviation, a consulting company in Sydney.

The Qantas decision takes the number of cancellations for the 787 from airlines around the world so far this year to 73, or about 8 percent of total orders for the aircraft, Mr. Sadubin said, adding that more cancellations — of aircraft of all types and makes — are probable.

Mr. Joyce, said, “Qantas announced its original B787 order in December 2005, and the operating environment for the world’s airlines has clearly changed dramatically since then.”

The global economic turmoil has taken a heavy toll on passenger and cargo traffic, with the latest figures from the International Air Transport Association showing passenger numbers in May were 9.3 percent below numbers from a year earlier, and freight demand was down 17.4 percent.

Falling volumes, combined with soaring oil prices last year, forced airlines around the world to reduce staff and flights, park planes and shelve investment plans, including aircraft orders.

Like many of its rivals, Qantas expects sharply reduced profits this year. In April, it announced it would shed 1,750 jobs, in addition to 1,500 job cuts announced last year, and warned it was exploring ways to reduce the number of aircraft it was to receive from Boeing.

“Qantas, like most airlines around the world, is clearly in survival mode,” Mr. Sadubin said.

“We are working Qantas to make changes appropriate to the current climate,” Jim Proulx, a Boeing spokesman in Seattle, told Bloomberg News.

Jet Airways to Join One World Alliance

Jet Airways is likely to join the One World Alliance, sources told the website. Jet officials were also spotted meeting the alliance representatives in London.
Membership of the alliance will give Jet access to 500 airports across 140 countries with Jet passengers enjoying common baggage handling and mileage points.  This will help improve load factor and revenue for Jet Airways. Earlier, Jet had resisted becoming a member of any alliance as yield per seat goes down with alliance partners since passengers come with discounted tickets.
One World is an alliance of 10 biggest airlines. In the fourth quarter of FY09, Jet’s earned over half of its operating revenue from its international business.

Boeing Delays 787 Dreamliner Fifth Time

Boeing Co. said the 787 Dreamliner, already two years behind schedule, will miss its June 30 first- flight target and a new delivery timetable won’t be available for weeks. Boeing shares fell the most since October.

Monitors on the body above the wing showed stresses beyond what models predicted and there was little point flying in a reduced test pattern, Scott Carson, Chicago-based Boeing’s top commercial-plane executive, said on a conference call today.

The 787 was planned for delivery in next year’s first quarter and a delay will be the fifth for Boeing, which has lost more than half its market value since the first postponement in October 2007. Carson had said June 16 at the Paris Air Show the “airplane could fly today” and reiterated the plan to fly by month’s end. Boeing knew about the issue then and didn’t decide until June 19 to scrub the flight, he said today.

“We had been through preliminary analysis of data and were of the mind that we could enter flight test with minor modifications,” Carson said on the call. After the development team’s work narrowed the flight pattern, “we made the call to delay the process.”

“The delay will probably lead to at least several months of push-out on first delivery,” J.B. Groh, an analyst at DA Davidson & Co. in Lake Oswego, Oregon, said in an interview. “The best-case scenario for first delivery may be mid-2010.” He has a “neutral” rating on the stock.

The 250-seat Dreamliner is Boeing’s fastest-selling model based on its 865 orders. It’s also the first airliner to have a fuselage and wings built mainly of composite plastics, making it lighter than traditional aluminum planes. Boeing has blamed disruptions in the 787 development on parts shortages, defects, redesigns and problems with suppliers.

Boeing said today that engineers conducting its ground tests found stresses exceeded the computer models in 36 spots — 18 on each side — along the body above the wing. Each area is about 1 to 2 square inches, Scott Fancher, general manager of the 787 program, said on today’s conference call.

The affected areas are made up of titanium, aluminum and composite material, Fancher said. The fix will involve a “relatively small number of parts and a relatively simple modification” and will not add weight to the aircraft, he said.

Air France flight recorders located in Atlantic

Signals from the flight data recorders of the Air France jet that crashed into the Atlantic killing all 228 people on board have been located, a media report said Tuesday.

The Le Monde newspaper said French naval vessels had picked up a weak signal from the flight recorders at the site of the June 1 crash. The paper did not give the source of the information.

The report said a mini-submarine had been dispatched Monday to try to find the black boxes on the ocean floor. The devices may contain information on what caused the crash of the Airbus A330 en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

‘The search effort has been complicated by the uneven surface of the ocean floor. The depth at the site is almost 5,000 meters (16,400 feet),’ the paper said.

Air France said it could not confirm the report.

Beacons on the recorders send an electronic impulse every second for at least 30 days. The signal can be picked up from two kilometres away.

French vessels involved in the search operation include a nuclear submarine with advanced sonar equipment and a research ship equipped with mini submarines.

Ten of the 50 bodies recovered from the plane have been identified as Brazilians.

Jatropha Helps Air New Zealand Cut Its CO2 Emissions by More Than 60%

Recently, Air New Zealand ran a test flight of a jet plane fueled with a biofuel blend made with jatropha. The results showed a fuel savings of 1.2%, amounting to more than a ton of fuel over the course of a 12-hour flight. The CO2 emissions from the airplane were reduced by an even more impressive amount — in excess of 60%. The flight is one that offers some evidence that perhaps it is feasible for airlines to adopt biofuels in order to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.

Jatropha has been recognized recently as a viable alternative to many biofuels. Gas 2.0 reports on the reasons that jatropha seems to show such promise. Air New Zealand worked with Rolls-Royce, Boeing and Honeywell’s UOP to develop drop-in biofuel technology, which involves a commercial Boeing 747 carrying a Rolls Royce engine. The fuel used is a blend of standard jet fuel and kerosene derived from jatropha oil.

This test proves that Aviation can be a catlyst for cutting greenhouse gases and that the leading carriers of the world are serious about it. Kudos to Air New Zealand for doing this and maybe the airline will pioneer in getting large amount of its fleets on this soon.

Air New Zealand plane flew with cracked windshield

An Air New Zealand plane en route from Auckland to Wellington was forced to turn back this morning after pilots noticed a crack in the cockpit windscreen. A spokeswoman for the airline said the crack had appeared in the outer pane of the Captain’s side cockpit window. ”Pilots followed standard operating procedure and returned to Auckland as a precautionary measure,” she said.

“The aircraft landed without incident at Auckland, with passengers re-accommodated on an alternative aircraft.” The plane is being inspected by engineers and is expected to return to service later today.

Air France reducing capacity to India

Air France has revealed that it will cut capacity to India in its upcoming Winter schedule. Chief amongst them is the reduction of capacity to Mumbai where the flights will not be served on an Airbus A330-200 instead of an Boeing 777-200 ER. Delhi also sees a reduction from a daily Boeing 747-400 to a 4 weekly service on A340-300 and the remaining 3 days on Boeing 747-400. This is expected to correct some of the current over capacity in the Indian skies leading to major loss of revenue and profit.

Jet Airways Launches Second daily flight to Bangkok

Jet Airways has announced that beginning 16th August 2009, it will introduce a second daily direct flight between Mumbai and Bangkok. This comes on the heels of a increasing international network for Jet Airways and strong load factors on the route. The timings are as follows

9W 068 BOM – BKK 1245 1840

9W 067 BKK – BOM 2040 2230

The new flight will be operated by a Boeing 737-800.  This new flight connects well to its London flight both ways.

Turkish Airlines launching Toronto

Turkish Airlines is launching 3 new weekly nonstop flights to Toronto from its Istanbul hub effective July 11th 2009.

The airline will be using an Airbus A 330-200 for this nonstop flight flown on MON / THU / SAT.

Flight timings are as follows:

TK 017 Dep IST 1130 Arr YYZ 1540
TK 018 Dep YYZ 2350 Arr IST 1730

These flight timings allow excellent connections in both directions via TK’s IST hub to Saudi Arabia, Iran, BOM, DEL, AMM, BEY, CAI, DAM, Central Asia, BKK and GCC (DXB/AUH/DOH).

Introductory return fares are as follows:

In peak season (July-August):

YYZ-Middle East-YYZ…C$ 870 + tax
YYZ-BOM/DEL/KHI-YYZ…C$ 1100 + tax

In off season i.e. Sept onward:

YYZ-Middle East-YYZ…C$720 + tax
YYZ-BOM/DEL/KHI-YYZ…C$ 950 + tax

Air India Express launches Trichy-Abu Dhabi

Air India Express launched twice a week service ( Thursday and Saturday) connecting Trichy and AbuDhabi . This is the third overseas destination being served from Trichy.

The flight will depart Chennai at 12.50 p.m. and arrive here at 1.40 p.m. It would leave for Abu Dhabi at 2.30 p.m.

In the return direction, the flight will arrive at Tiruchi from Abu Dhabi at 11.55 p.m. and depart for Chennai at 12.50 a.m. It will reach Chennai at 1.40 a.m.

The airline offers attractive one way fare starting from Rs.6,439 from Tiruchi to Abu Dhabi.

Flight Operations in Chennai to be hit from July 2009

With the Airport Authority of India (AAI) all set to start work on runway expansion from July, flight operations are expected to be crippled in Chennai for over two months when the main runway will be closed between 11 am and 5 pm.
After much deliberation over the issue, AAI chairman and his committee decided to stick to its original plan, which was highlighted in the Express issue dated March 16.
According to the plan, AAI had decided to close the main and secondary runways alternatively. The main runway 07/25, will now be closed to facilitate work on linkways and taxiways that connect the main and secondary runways for over two months from July, a senior AAI official said.
“There is no other option as connectivity between the main and secondary runways at various points is crucial. And if the secondary runway is to be made functional before the main runway, there must be proper exit and taxiways to minimise the flight occupational time on the operating runway. In this case, it would have not been feasible,” an AAI source said.
As per the current plan, work on link taxiways 1 and 2 will be taken up simultaneously and the main runway will be completely closed between 11 am and 5 pm. Airlines have been given a few options of closure time before the NOTAM (notice to airman) is issued. During this closure time, the secondary (RWY 12/30) will be available for operation and wide-bodied aircraft will have to reduce their payload – called payload penalty – for landing and take-off,” said a senior AAI official.
As none of the wide-bodied aircraft will be able to function at full capacity, most international airlines like Singapore Airlines, Air India, Emirates, Lufthansa, British Airways and Jet Airways will be affected. “On the international routes, the damage will be minimal because they operate mainly in the wee hours, except for some of them who have to take a penalty and flights have to be rescheduled,” an airport source said. Airlines are now trying to minimise their damage by rescheduling flights.
However, since all cargo flights operate on wide-bodied aircraft, they will struggle to find slots along with the passenger flights.
The entire runway expansion and modification plan is expected to cost Rs 500 crore. “To go ahead with the plan now is crucial as the parking bays are becoming a necessity for all the flights that have a night halt. We already have 20 parking bays between the two runways and about 11 more will be built now along with the link taxiways,” an AAI source said.

Boeing moves second 787 to flight line

Boeing has moved its second 787 Dreamliner to the flight line in Everett as the company closes in on first flight.

“Momentum continues to build with each milestone achieved,” said Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of the 787 Dreamliner program, in a statement.

The second 787 sports the livery of Dreamliner launch customer All Nippon Airways. Boeing will begin fuel tests immediately on the second Dreamliner.

Boeing still plans to fly the first Dreamliner by the end of the month and make its first 787 delivery to ANA early next year.

Airbus denies planning to ground A330/340 fleet

Airbus denied on Wednesday a French newspaper report that it is considering grounding its fleet of A330 and A340 planes in the wake of last week’s Atlantic plane disaster, saying they are safe to fly.

Le Figaro reported in its early Thursday edition that Airbus does not exclude the move after the Air France plane, an A330, crashed during a storm.

Responding to the report that Airbus may ground the fleet of almost 1,000 jets and order airlines to change speed sensors, Airbus spokesman Stefan Schaffrath told Reuters: “We are not considering grounding the fleet because it is safe to operate.”

The report appeared on the front page of Le Figaro’s Thursday edition, which was released before publication.

The twinjet A330 and four-engine A340 come from the same family of aircraft and have many shared components. The longer-distance A340 has four engines instead of the A330’s two.

There are 605 A330s and 359 A340s in operation, according to the planemaker, part of European aerospace group EADS.

These include 340 of the variant involved in last week’s disaster, known as the A330-200.

French crash investigators have said the Air France jetliner sent out 24 error messages including one suggesting that its speed sensors, known as pitot tubes, were giving inconsistent readings. But they have stressed it is too early to say whether this was linked to the cause of the crash.

The sensors on the Air France plane were built by Thales which has declined to comment pending investigations.

According to Airbus, the Thales sensors are an optional alternative to the sensors in the basic design of the A330, which are made by Goodrich of the United States.

They are among many components on an aircraft for which airlines can choose between alternative suppliers.

The French media and the media in general seem to be cornering Airbus at almost every stage. Doesn’t speak well of Airbus as it ends up looking like it’s covering up.

New Signs That Air France Jet Broke Up in Flight

Two pieces of evidence have emerged that lend new credence to the theory that the Air France jet that crashed more than a week ago broke up in flight.

The Brazilian Air Force released information on Tuesday night showing that bodies from Flight 447 had been recovered from locations that were more than 50 miles apart. And Airbus, the plane’s manufacturer, sent its airline customers a bulletin saying a re-analysis of the stricken plane’s last automatic transmissions reinforced the idea that many parts malfunctioned, but that the parts that measure air speed may have failed first.

A faulty air speed indicator could mislead pilots into flying faster than the aircraft could withstand, or faster than it should be flown into turbulence — two circumstances that could lead to the craft coming apart in flight.

The theory will remain just that, however, until more evidence is collected. The black boxes that contain data and voice recordings are likely to be the key to resolving the mystery of what happened to the plane, which was carrying 228 people. According to news service reports, the French nuclear attack submarine Émeraude, with a crew of 72 men, has joined two sonar-detecting surface vessels in the search for the boxes. Each vessel is able to sweep a narrow strip of ocean for the “pings” emitted by the boxes and audible for a distance of no more than three miles under ideal conditions.

In its message sent to airlines this week, Airbus said that no data was available beyond the automatic transmissions from the Air France jet, but it appeared that the manufacturer was fitting those messages into a scenario that began with the air speed problem. It said those messages “indicate that there was unreliable air speed indication” and that that situation was “consolidated” by messages indicating other failures that would be consequences of such a failure.

The Web site of The Wall Street Journal, WSJ.com, first reported on the Airbus bulletin.

Airbus evidently did not fit all the messages into a clear sequence. It said one message showed a change of cabin pressure equal to an altitude change of greater than 1,800 feet per minute “which remains to be explained.” One explanation would be cabin depressurization.

Perhaps to reassure airlines, Airbus said the data did not suggest a loss of the computerized instrument display, or the Air Data Inertial Reference Unit, which helps planes locate their positions and which has had problems on other A330s.

Long before the crash, Airbus had recommended that airlines replace parts, called Pitot tubes, that scoop in air to help planes measure their air speed. The company said in its new message that for now, airlines could continue flying with older Pitot tubes.

The Federal Aviation Administration sometimes makes such manufacturer recommendations mandatory, as air worthiness directives, but Laura J. Brown, an agency spokeswoman, said “we don’t think we’re at the point where we can issue an air worthiness directive.”

“We don’t have data to indicate an unsafe condition exists,” she said.

A Delta Air Lines spokeswoman, Betsey Talton, said Delta had replaced the tubes on some models and was replacing them on its A330s, the model in the accident.

Flying behind doomed jet, a Spanish aircraft avoided disaster

A Spanish plane bound for Madrid on Monday was closely following the Air France aircraft when it disappeared with 228 people on board. The Iberia flight crew tried to contact their French colleagues, in vain. s the doomed Air France jetliner plunged into the storms above the Atlantic Ocean, Flight IB 6024, bound for Madrid, decided to change its itinerary to avoid the ominous clouds. As they circled the storms, its pilots heard the last messages emitted by Brazilian air traffic controllers to the jetliner, the Spanish press reports.

The Iberia aircraft took off from Rio de Janeiro at 00:07am (Madrid time – GMT+2), seven minutes after the Air France jetliner, according to the website of the Spanish daily ABC.

Silence

The IB 6204 crew members — who prefer to remain anonymous — explain that they were flying in the same air corridor as the French aircraft, ten minutes behind it, at a distance of about 128 km.

Facing difficult weather conditions, much like the AF 447, the captain and co-pilot decided to reroute 56 km to the east. “That’s how we navigated the storm, in order to avoid turbulence and electrically charged clouds,” says one of the Spanish pilots.

The Spanish pilots never saw the Air France jet, but they did hear the unanswered messages sent by Brazilian air traffic controllers trying to establish contact with the French pilots.

Worried, the IB 6024 pilots tried to contact their French colleagues, without success. They also tuned into the aircraft emergency frequency, but heard no distress messages.

The Air France jet stopped emitting automatic messages at 3:33 am on Monday morning.

False readings

French air safety investigators said that automatic messages broadcast by the Rio-to-Paris flight just before it plunged into the Atlantic had shown that the plane’s systems were giving false readings.

“Airbus sent a reminder overnight to all the companies using its planes about procedures to follow in the case of inconsistency in speeds measured,” a spokesman for the French-based manufacturer told AFP.

The French daily Le Monde reported Thursday that the pilots of the Air France jet — which is still missing, along with the 228 people on board — may not have been flying at the right speed for dangerous weather.

Airbus declined to comment on the report.

The Iberia jet was an Airbus A340-300.

Airport tanker on fire, close shave for 268

Two hundred and sixty-eight passengers on board a Singapore Airlines flight had a narrow escape at Kolkata airport late Wednesday night when a tanker caught fire seconds before it was to start refuelling the plane.

Thanks to a quick-thinking Indian Oil driver, who put his life at risk, no one was hurt.

The plane had touched down at 10.30 pm. Passengers were disembarking via an aerobridge when a truck carrying 14 kilolitres of aviation turbine fuel rolled under one of the plane’s wings. It was about to link up with the fuel ports when flames suddenly erupted from the tanker at 10.50 pm, possibly due to a short circuit.

An Air India technical staff in the apron area was the first to spot the fire and alerted the tanker driver, who did not hesitate a second before clambering on to the flaming vehicle. He drove it to a safe distance from the plane. Eyewitnesses said the driver managed to jump out of the cabin a second before it went up in flames.

The passengers, who were unaware of the drama till then, were drawn by the fire. It was the aerobridge that provided them protection from the blazing vehicle. Had a step-ladder been used for disembarkation, the fire would have led to panic among passengers and caused serious injuries, airline staff said.

And, had the driver not risked his life to drive the truck away, the Boeing 777-300 aircraft would have caught fire, triggering a major disaster.

The fire brigade rushed to the spot and sprayed foam but the tanker had been completely gutted by then. “The fire in the tanker was out of control for several minutes but passengers were safe all the while as they were either in the aerobridge tunnel or inside the aircraft. The apron control alerted fire officials who brought it under control within 25 minutes,” an airport official said.

The incident delayed the return flight to Singapore by 30-45 minutes. “We had to requisition a new oil tanker to refuel the aircraft,” an Indian Oil official said.

Though a short circuit in the electronics system of the tanker seems to be the likely cause, the fire department at the airport will investigate the incident and submit its report to the airport authority and Directorate General of Civil Aviation

AirAsia to launch direct flights from Penang to Chennai

Malaysia’s low cost airline, AirAsia, will start direct flights from Penang to Chennai by October.

AirAsia chief executive officer Tony Fernandes said Malaysia’s Transport Ministry had approved the plan, and currently the airline is ironing out the details.

“We hope to have a daily flight there. It will take us three to four months to finalise the details,” he said after a ceremony to mark the inaugural of Singapore to Penang direct flight at the Penang International Airport (PIA) yesterday.

Retrieving Air France black box will be epic task

 

The first sighting off Brazil’s coast of possible wreckage from a missing Air France jet signals the start of what could be one of the most challenging operations ever mounted to retrieve the tell-tale “black box.”

The box, which is in fact two separate devices containing cockpit voice recordings and instrument data, offers the best chance of finding out why the Airbus jetliner vanished in an Atlantic storm en route to Paris with 228 people on board.

The devices are designed to send homing signals when they hit water, but merely locating them presents one of the most daunting recovery tasks since the exploration of the Titanic and barring good fortune, could take months, experts said.

If they are in waters as deep as some people fear, 4,000 meters (13,100 ft) or more, unmanned submersibles would be tested to their limits. Yet past disasters have led to advances in equipment which do give hope for finding out what happened.

“There is a good chance that the recorder would survive but the main problem would be finding it,” said Derek Clarke, joint managing director of Aberdeen-based Divex, which designs and builds military and commercial diving equipment.

“If you think how long it took to find the Titanic and that the debris would be smaller, you are looking for a needle in haystack. You are very quickly looking at a large area to survey and could spend months running sonars down to a deep depth.”

Black boxes have an underwater beacon called a pinger which is activated when the recorder is immersed in water. The beacon can transmit from depths down to 14,000 feet, according to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board.

RECORD DEPTHS

Clarke spends time preparing for the unthinkable as part of an industry network on stand-by to help rescue submarines.

But the depths in this stretch of ocean far exceed the 600 meter maximum at which any navy could attempt a useful submarine rescue, a senior diving expert at Britain’s Royal Navy said.

Brazil said on Tuesday its military planes had spotted wreckage 400 miles off its northern coast.

Speaking beforehand, based on reports of the plane’s probable location, Neil Wells, senior lecturer in oceanography and meteorology at Britain’s National Oceanography Center, said the black box could be more than 4,000 metres below the surface.

“There is no doubt about it; you will be pushing the limits of the technology. It is not a straightforward operation.”

The oil industry has significant unmanned deep-sea capability but only operates down to 3,000 metres, Clarke said.

Such depths are well below the reach of manned craft.

A handful of deep-sea prowlers such as the U.S. Navy’s Alvin, which surveyed the wreck of the Titanic at 4,000 metres below the Atlantic in 1986, could be equipped for such depths.

A U.S. Navy report based on similar disasters, released under the Freedom of Information Act late last year, found it was possible to recover aircraft wreckage including the black boxes from depths of up to 6,000 metres.

It cited advances since the 1980s in technology such as sonar for combing rugged sea floors, new software and acoustic beacons or “pingers” which indicate a position under water.

Both recorders were recovered from the crash of Air India Flight 182, which was blown up off the Irish coast in 1985.

They were recovered from some 2,000 metres in a search which lasted more than two weeks.

Two years later, South African Airways Flight 295 crashed into the Indian Ocean near Mauritius, triggering the deepest hunt for an airliner yet undertaken, with investigators recovering the cockpit voice recorder after a three-month search from a record depth of more than 4,200 metres.

Whatever the challenges, industry experts say the stakes are too high to give up on the search. “Not knowing would be totally unacceptable to Airbus and to aviation in general,” said David Learmount, safety and operations editor of British-based aerospace magazine Flight International.

The first sighting off Brazil’s coast of possible wreckage from a missing Air France jet signals the start of what could be one of the most challenging operations ever mounted to retrieve the tell-tale “black box.” The box, which is in fact two separate devices containing cockpit voice recordings and instrument data, offers the best chance of finding out why the Airbus jetliner vanished in an Atlantic storm en route to Paris with 228 people on board.

The devices are designed to send homing signals when they hit water, but merely locating them presents one of the most daunting recovery tasks since the exploration of the Titanic and barring good fortune, could take months, experts said.

If they are in waters as deep as some people fear, 4,000 meters (13,100 ft) or more, unmanned submersibles would be tested to their limits. Yet past disasters have led to advances in equipment which do give hope for finding out what happened. ”There is a good chance that the recorder would survive but the main problem would be finding it,” said Derek Clarke, joint managing director of Aberdeen-based Divex, which designs and builds military and commercial diving equipment.

“If you think how long it took to find the Titanic and that the debris would be smaller, you are looking for a needle in haystack. You are very quickly looking at a large area to survey and could spend months running sonars down to a deep depth.”

Black boxes have an underwater beacon called a pinger which is activated when the recorder is immersed in water. The beacon can transmit from depths down to 14,000 feet, according to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board.

Brazil said on Tuesday its military planes had spotted wreckage 400 miles off its northern coast.

Speaking beforehand, based on reports of the plane’s probable location, Neil Wells, senior lecturer in oceanography and meteorology at Britain’s National Oceanography Center, said the black box could be more than 4,000 metres below the surface.

The oil industry has significant unmanned deep-sea capability but only operates down to 3,000 metres, Clarke said. Such depths are well below the reach of manned craft. A handful of deep-sea prowlers such as the U.S. Navy’s Alvin, which surveyed the wreck of the Titanic at 4,000 metres below the Atlantic in 1986, could be equipped for such depths. A U.S. Navy report based on similar disasters, released under the Freedom of Information Act late last year, found it was possible to recover aircraft wreckage including the black boxes from depths of up to 6,000 metres.

It cited advances since the 1980s in technology such as sonar for combing rugged sea floors, new software and acoustic beacons or “pingers” which indicate a position under water. Both recorders were recovered from the crash of Air India Flight 182, which was blown up off the Irish coast in 1985. They were recovered from some 2,000 metres in a search which lasted more than two weeks. Two years later, South African Airways Flight 295 crashed into the Indian Ocean near Mauritius, triggering the deepest hunt for an airliner yet undertaken, with investigators recovering the cockpit voice recorder after a three-month search from a record depth of more than 4,200 metres. Whatever the challenges, industry experts say the stakes are too high to give up on the search. “Not knowing would be totally unacceptable to Airbus and to aviation in general,” said David Learmount, safety and operations editor of British-based aerospace magazine Flight International.

Emergency at Edinburgh Airport over Air France plane alert

 

A FULL scale emergency was declared at Edinburgh Airport tonight after an Air France flight reported engine trouble.

The plane with 28 passengers and six-crew aboard had been delayed from departing from Edinburgh bound for London City Airport for almost an hour.

But shortly after taking to the air the pilot reported hearing a “clunking” noise from the engine and abandoned the flight.

The stricken aircraft was forced to circle overhead having lifted off at 6.34pm – 49 minutes late – before landing safety at 7.30pm.

No reason was given for the delay.

Witnesses say a convoy of fire-trucks and ambulances were in attendance just hours after the airline confirmed the tragic loss of a larger aircraft to the Atlantic ocean with 228 souls north-east of Brazil.

Last night a spokeswoman for airport operators BAA said: “The crew reported a rough running engine and a full emergency was declared.”

“They reported a clunking type noise coming from the engine.

“The aircraft has now landed and a full investigation is underway. The passengers have disembarked and were taken to the terminal building.”

The aircraft involved in the incident was a Dornier 7328.

In the confusion BAA had initially stated the flight was inbound from City.

Emergency

But the spokeswoman confirmed: “It was an Air France flight that had been outbound but was forced to turn back.

“It had to circle overhead for a time before landing.”

She added: “The passengers have now all been allocated seats on flights operated by Air France and BMI to Heathrow and transport will be laid on to take anyone to London City who needs it.”

None refused to board the replacement flights and no-one was injured, she said.

She said three were staying in Edinburgh overnight “because it suited their travel arrangements”, 20 were flying to London with BMI and 11 on another Air France flight tonight.

Lothian & Borders Fire & Rescue Service declared the incident “a full emergency “ and confirmed its crews had been on stand-by.

Lothian & Borders Police had also shut off parts of Glasgow Road to aid the arrival of the emergency vehicles.

The flight was due to depart at 5.45pm but was delayed until 6.34pm.

Only last week BA announced it was cutting 25 jobs on the City to Edinburgh route.

It said it had “surplus” staff after one of its planes was written off on landing at the London airport.

A full scale emergency was declared at Edinburgh Airport tonight after an Air France flight reported engine trouble.

The plane with 28 passengers and six-crew aboard had been delayed from departing from Edinburgh bound for London City Airport for almost an hour. But shortly after taking to the air the pilot reported hearing a “clunking” noise from the engine and abandoned the flight. The stricken aircraft was forced to circle overhead having lifted off at 6.34pm – 49 minutes late – before landing safety at 7.30pm. No reason was given for the delay.

Witnesses say a convoy of fire-trucks and ambulances were in attendance just hours after the airline confirmed the tragic loss of a larger aircraft to the Atlantic ocean with 228 souls north-east of Brazil. Last night a spokeswoman for airport operators BAA said: “The crew reported a rough running engine and a full emergency was declared.” “They reported a clunking type noise coming from the engine. “The aircraft has now landed and a full investigation is underway. The passengers have disembarked and were taken to the terminal building.”

The aircraft involved in the incident was a Dornier 7328. In the confusion BAA had initially stated the flight was inbound from City. But the spokeswoman confirmed: “It was an Air France flight that had been outbound but was forced to turn back. “It had to circle overhead for a time before landing.” She added: “The passengers have now all been allocated seats on flights operated by Air France and BMI to Heathrow and transport will be laid on to take anyone to London City who needs it.” None refused to board the replacement flights and no-one was injured, she said.

She said three were staying in Edinburgh overnight “because it suited their travel arrangements”, 20 were flying to London with BMI and 11 on another Air France flight tonight. Lothian & Borders Fire & Rescue Service declared the incident “a full emergency “ and confirmed its crews had been on stand-by. Lothian & Borders Police had also shut off parts of Glasgow Road to aid the arrival of the emergency vehicles. The flight was due to depart at 5.45pm but was delayed until 6.34pm. Only last week BA announced it was cutting 25 jobs on the City to Edinburgh route. It said it had “surplus” staff after one of its planes was written off on landing at the London airport.