Editorials

Air Safety

KANGAROO VALLY RESCUE

Twenty years ago today, we did 60 radio, TV and press interviews worldwide after the Kangaroo Valley Rescue, and received the Air Safety Award from ASFA and the President's Award from AOPA.

Here is a reprint of an article from Flight Safety Magazine from 2001.
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THE JUNIOR PILOT DILEMMA

The industry has got away with it for too long.

On the front page of the flight manual it says:
“This is a two-crew Regular Public Transport (RPT) airliner.”

It doesn’t say
“Single-pilot turbo prop with a seat for a ‘paid-passenger’ to sit next to the pilot.”

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MH370, ET302 & CHARLIE

Here’s to Charlie, *clink*, the victims of ET302, MH370 … and us.

Compared to the poor bastards in ET302, and the shocked witnesses who saw a magnificent machine disappear in front their eyes, Charlie was lucky.

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ETHIOPIAN ET302

Second Boeing 737 Max

The Airbus mantra is that the if aircraft is not doing what you expect, press the red button on the side-stick and fly manually. It is encoded in the 'GOLDEN RULES' card given to all new Airbus pilots.

Rule #1 is
"THE AIRCRAFT CAN BE FLOWN LIKE ANY OTHER AIRCRAFT."

Whoever imagined that Boeing would be the ones to break it?
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LION AIR JT610

737 crashed from 5,000 feet doing 340 knots.

A LION AIR 737MAX crashed in to the sea after takeoff from Jakarta on Monday 20th October, after flying for 13 minutes. Read More…

AIR ASTANA KC1388

Loss Of Control After Maintenance

An Air Astana E190 suffered a loss of control event during a ferry flight back to Kazakhstan on Sunday 11th November.
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UNITED AIRLINES MAYDAY

What causes low fuel on a long haul flight?

Today a United Airlines 787 flight declared a Mayday upon arrival into Sydney due to low fuel.

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MH370 FINAL REPORT

Unable to find cause

This is why we should continue to search. Never Stop Searching.
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CONTAMINATED AIR IN AIRCRAFT

"It’s unsafe. This is not all about health…"

… This is also about flight safety. If air crew are incapacitated in flight, everyone is at risk.”

One
‘fumes event’ every 2,000 flights. With 104,000 a day (IATA 2014) that makes 51 cases a day.

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EMIRATES CREW CHANGES

Affected EK Ultra Long-Haul Sectors

I've always thought that a flight with Two Captains and Two F.Os is preferable to One Captain, One F.O. and Two Second Officers (who never actually land real aeroplanes). Read More…

MELBOURNE FOG

Waking-Up In A Cloud

Melbourne sits at sea-level. Melbourne Airport is
434 feet above it. So if you wake up just under a cloud, they are in it at the airport. Read More…

SOUTHWEST 737

Engine Failure, Emergency Descent & Diversion.

The aviation industry has a serious training job to do ... it better get on with it. Read More…

ROLLS ROYCE TRENT 1000 ENGINE ISSUE

Grounds Some Boeing 787 Dreamliners

These days, many airlines lease the engines on a ‘power-by-the-hour’ basis, leaving the supply and maintenance to Rolls-Royce. So, for many airlines, it is up to Rolls to fix the problem.
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BEN SANDILANDS HAS LEFT US

And Now We Are Really Stuffed

Stricken with cancer, he refused to allow it be publicised:
"... my plan is to fade away when the time comes, and not make a big deal of it ...". Read More…

THE U.S. BAN IS INSANE

Consigning Electronic Items To The Cargo Hold Is Dangerous.

Both ICAO and FAA recommend that lithium batteries should NOT be placed in checked baggage. So why is Trump demanding it? Read More…

ENGINEER HIT BY LIGHTNING

Australia: The Cleanest Third-World Country On The Planet

Ground Engineers use wireless headsets to talk to Pilots. In Perth, Australia they use last century's technology —attaching the Engineer by a wire. Cheap and effective. Until a plane gets hit by lightning when the Engineer is attached.

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THE WHITE RAT

Qantas Troubles Reach A Peak

To save Qantas from certain death Alan Joyce had to undertake radical surgery. I outline what I thought he should do.

After his new business plan was released, we examine what he did.
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A PRINCESS DIANA MOMENT

From tragedy — an opportunity to teach.

When Princess Diana was killed in the Parisian car crash we had a great opportunity to save hundreds and thousands of lives.
Instead we did nothing. Now we have another opportunity after the crash of the ABC Helicopter. Let's not make the same mistake again. Read More…

QANTAS' ANNUS HORRIBILIS

Celebrating its 90th year … Qantas has a string of heart-stopping incidents.

Congratulations must go to all the crews, who despite the bad publicity for the brand during their 90th birthday celebrations, stick to the procedure and perform inflight and on ground returns —thereby adding to the media speculation.
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FIRST OFFICERS UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT

Paid Passengers

First Officers are members of the crew. They are not meant to be
paid-passengers. It’s about time the public demanded to know just how qualified the people sitting up front really are. Read More…

FIRE IN THE SKY

'Fire in the Sky'

Channel Nine's SUNDAY program ran a story on Kapton wiring, entitled
'Fire in the Sky'. This transcript is being reproduced because of its great contribution to aviation safety. Read More…

WHY JETS FALL FROM THE SKY

'REVEALED: WHY JETS FALL FROM THE SKY'.

Fairfax newspapers published a story on Kapton wiring, entitled
'REVEALED: WHY JETS FALL FROM THE SKY'. This transcript is being reproduced because of its great contribution to aviation safety. Read More…

DIE BY WIRE

Die By Wire

BBC Panorama TV ran a story on Kapton wiring.
This transcript is being reproduced because of its great contribution to aviation safety. Read More…

ON A WING AND A PRAYER

Mentioning The Unmentionable

An examination on the beginning of Qantas' demise, and how Kapton wiring is the silent cancer in nearly all airliners. Read More…

AFFORDABLE SAFETY?

In the old days, we'd have an idea … now we have none.

Police in Victoria's southwest are looking for a plane after a man saw one emitting smoke, and heard a loud bang, before losing sight of it. The Police Sergeant said
"At this stage we’re just going through the motions making sure we haven’t missed anything."
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QF32 SINGAPORE

When you try to turn an Airbus 380 into a Boeing 747, things happen.

We have seen an email from one of the Qantas Pilots on the QF32 Flight Deck.
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QANTAS A380

'Parts from a Qantas jet have landed on a school'

The Twitter-world went crazy with reports that a Qantas A380 had crashed into an Indonesian island. Reports were dispelled after a very tense hour. I had just flown the Emirates A380 from Sydney to Dubai, and had just arrived at my home when the first reports came in.
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PAID PASSENGERS – AT WHAT COST?

When a Captain has a heart attack, in an aircraft that may be carrying numerous defects, on the proverbial ‘dark and stormy night’; how well is the cadet F.O. under training going to perform? Read More…

A 747 CRASHES AND NO-ONE KNOWS.

The first crash caused by Lithium Batteries

A well-maintained and operated Boeing 747-400 owned by the world's largest parcel service, UPS, crashed in Dubai on a weekend … and no-one in Australia heard about it.
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TAKEOFF “TOGA” CALL

Not happy? Call "TOGA!"

We should have a standard call in all aeroplanes for takeoff.

“TOGA” (It means Takeoff / Go Around)

Upon hearing it, from anyone on the flight deck ... even an augmenting pilot looking out the side window and noticing the runway lights are not speeding-up at the right rate ... just yells “TOGA!” and the operating pilot selects the full power settings.

Instant power, and ask questions later.
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TAIL-STRIKE TROUBLE

Don't trust humans to make the calculation.

The Airbus LPC module can be modified so that it generates the Take Off Weight automatically.
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TWEETING ON A JET PLANE

It's not hard to do your job correctly.

Two pilots have had their licences revoked for failing to keep an adequate listening watch, being out of radio contact for 91 minutes.
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DON’T BLAME THE AEROPLANE

Who flew into a thunderstorm?

Don't blame the Airbus A330 for the Air France 447 crash. Blame the pilots who flew into two active thunderstorms.

Why doesn't Airbus design AUTO AVOID, in which the aircraft warns the pilots, then diverts the aircraft upwind of red radar returns?
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PILOTS ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL

Uncontrolled Rest.

Two international airline pilots fell asleep at the controls, waking to see
two Slovakian Air Force fighters that had been sent up to investigate. Read More…