Another photo from a layover in Perth, Western Australia.
April 7, 2011
April 6, 2011
A Newsworthy Week in Aviation
It's been an interesting week in aviation.
First there was the Southwest decompression that occurred after the loss of a large part of the fuselage. The crew managed to land the plane safety at an air force base and by all passenger accounts both the pilots and flight attendants dealth with the situation in a textbook manner.
The incident has now sparked a massive inspection regime ordered by the manufacturer of Boeing 737 aircraft of a certain age and model type due to fears of further metal fatigue.
(I do disagree with the use of the term "sucked out" in the article; more accurately, people would be "pushed out" by the flow of departing air)
Then we had the dramatic landing of a United airlines flight after the pilots reported smoke in the cockpit. Eventually, air traffic controllers had to assist the aircraft by verbally guiding them to the airport, as the pilots could not see well enough to land. All passengers and crew onboard were evacuated after the aircraft made a safe (if somewhat hair-raising) landing back at New Orleans airport.
In a disturbing twist, the preliminary report into the crash of a UPS cargo plane in Dubai last year was published by the GCAA, aviation authority of the UAE. This flight also suffered issues with smoke in the cockpit & visibility of instruments. The report makes sobering reading, with a few key points being:
- Emergency oxygen systems were inadequate
- The captain was forced out of the cockpit to find alternative oxygen at a critical phase of flight
- An extremely short amount of time between the flight recorder noting the first 'fire event' in the forward main deck, and then three minutes later, a 'fire event' in the aft of the main deck cargo area. That is very rapid & sad to say probably an impossible situation for those pilots.
(You can read the full PDF file of the report here.)
Thankfully the United pilots had the advantage of daylight and the correct radio frequency to be able to communicate with air traffic control. The UPS crew could not tune to change frequency and thus had to rely on other aircraft in the area to relay messages.
The crash has also highlighted shortfalls in packing & shipping guidelines for lithium batteries, something which was of concern prior to the accident, and even moreso now. The abundance of these batteries for sale at online auction websites is no doubt adding to the problem, with many sellers totally unaware that some everyday goods are actually classified as hazardous for carriage by air.
Lastly, in an unexpected yet welcome development, investigators have uncovered further wreckage from Air France flight 447, which disappeared nearly two years ago amid speculaton and mystery as to the cause.
Hopefully this new development will finally yield the black boxes and the answers the aviation industry has been waiting for with bated breath. Once and for all we will know if it was the weather, the aircraft or something else entirely which led to the loss of the plane and all on board.
PHOTOS: SWA- AP/Ross D. Franklin, AF447- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute
First there was the Southwest decompression that occurred after the loss of a large part of the fuselage. The crew managed to land the plane safety at an air force base and by all passenger accounts both the pilots and flight attendants dealth with the situation in a textbook manner.
The incident has now sparked a massive inspection regime ordered by the manufacturer of Boeing 737 aircraft of a certain age and model type due to fears of further metal fatigue.
(I do disagree with the use of the term "sucked out" in the article; more accurately, people would be "pushed out" by the flow of departing air)
Then we had the dramatic landing of a United airlines flight after the pilots reported smoke in the cockpit. Eventually, air traffic controllers had to assist the aircraft by verbally guiding them to the airport, as the pilots could not see well enough to land. All passengers and crew onboard were evacuated after the aircraft made a safe (if somewhat hair-raising) landing back at New Orleans airport.
In a disturbing twist, the preliminary report into the crash of a UPS cargo plane in Dubai last year was published by the GCAA, aviation authority of the UAE. This flight also suffered issues with smoke in the cockpit & visibility of instruments. The report makes sobering reading, with a few key points being:
- Emergency oxygen systems were inadequate
- The captain was forced out of the cockpit to find alternative oxygen at a critical phase of flight
- An extremely short amount of time between the flight recorder noting the first 'fire event' in the forward main deck, and then three minutes later, a 'fire event' in the aft of the main deck cargo area. That is very rapid & sad to say probably an impossible situation for those pilots.
(You can read the full PDF file of the report here.)
Thankfully the United pilots had the advantage of daylight and the correct radio frequency to be able to communicate with air traffic control. The UPS crew could not tune to change frequency and thus had to rely on other aircraft in the area to relay messages.
The crash has also highlighted shortfalls in packing & shipping guidelines for lithium batteries, something which was of concern prior to the accident, and even moreso now. The abundance of these batteries for sale at online auction websites is no doubt adding to the problem, with many sellers totally unaware that some everyday goods are actually classified as hazardous for carriage by air.
Lastly, in an unexpected yet welcome development, investigators have uncovered further wreckage from Air France flight 447, which disappeared nearly two years ago amid speculaton and mystery as to the cause.
Hopefully this new development will finally yield the black boxes and the answers the aviation industry has been waiting for with bated breath. Once and for all we will know if it was the weather, the aircraft or something else entirely which led to the loss of the plane and all on board.
PHOTOS: SWA- AP/Ross D. Franklin, AF447- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute
April 5, 2011
The Red Shoes
Jaunted ran a story about the "uniform refresh" at Virgin Atlantic. This week, VS has had a few 'news' items including new routes, the launch of their first Airbus A330 aircraft and the arrival of the red shoes on female cabin crew.
Apparently, the highly successful James Bond-style ad campaign from last year, which featured crew in red patent heels, resonated so much with the travelling public that they came to expect the new level of 'glamour' on the crew serving them on flights.
The new shoes will be of a lower heels and different shape to those in the adverts, naturally, as stilettos don't exactly lend themselves to a long-haul flight.
While I did like the look in the tv spot, something about the shoes for the crew just doesn't seem quite right to me. I think the style of the new crew shoe just doesn't work in patent red. Also, with a red suit I personally think it's a bit too much red. Of course, with just a skirt and white blouse it might look fine, but I think they'd have done better to go with black. Either way, those shoes won't last two weeks before "cart toe" takes over. I hope the crew are supplied with (non patent) cabin shoes as well!
Photo: Virgin Atlantic via Jaunted.
Apparently, the highly successful James Bond-style ad campaign from last year, which featured crew in red patent heels, resonated so much with the travelling public that they came to expect the new level of 'glamour' on the crew serving them on flights.
The new shoes will be of a lower heels and different shape to those in the adverts, naturally, as stilettos don't exactly lend themselves to a long-haul flight.
While I did like the look in the tv spot, something about the shoes for the crew just doesn't seem quite right to me. I think the style of the new crew shoe just doesn't work in patent red. Also, with a red suit I personally think it's a bit too much red. Of course, with just a skirt and white blouse it might look fine, but I think they'd have done better to go with black. Either way, those shoes won't last two weeks before "cart toe" takes over. I hope the crew are supplied with (non patent) cabin shoes as well!
Photo: Virgin Atlantic via Jaunted.
Blog Changes
Hi everyone!!
Just a quick post to let you know I am trying out some changes to the blog layout this week. It's been coming for awhile but until now I haven't had much chance to sit down and play with how everything looks.
The first change I've made is to add tabbed pages to the top of the page. Before I remove the headings on the side bars, I'd like to know if you prefer the new 'Pages', or the old Blog List style.
I know the Pages option isn't dynamic, so it won't show which blog is most recently updated, but on the other hand it will clear up the sides of the blog a bit for easier reading.
I'm also considering a template change to make everything easier to read.
Do you have anything else you'd like to see regarding the blog design/layout?
I'm working on some new posts to go up in the next week or so. I know it's been a little light on posts around here lately, but you can also catch me when I'm on the road at my Facebook Page or my Twitter feed.
Just a quick post to let you know I am trying out some changes to the blog layout this week. It's been coming for awhile but until now I haven't had much chance to sit down and play with how everything looks.
The first change I've made is to add tabbed pages to the top of the page. Before I remove the headings on the side bars, I'd like to know if you prefer the new 'Pages', or the old Blog List style.
I know the Pages option isn't dynamic, so it won't show which blog is most recently updated, but on the other hand it will clear up the sides of the blog a bit for easier reading.
I'm also considering a template change to make everything easier to read.
Do you have anything else you'd like to see regarding the blog design/layout?
I'm working on some new posts to go up in the next week or so. I know it's been a little light on posts around here lately, but you can also catch me when I'm on the road at my Facebook Page or my Twitter feed.
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