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HAPPY LANDINGS (aircraft)

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« Reply #375 on: October 08, 2016, 01:17:25 pm »


from Fairfax NZ....

Flying has ‘lost its romance’ says aviation veteran Guy Clapshaw

Pilot and author Guy Clapshaw flew for Air New Zealand in the 1960s
 — back when “air travel was dangerous and sex was safe.”

 
By ASHLEY ROPATI | 12:17PM - Saturday, 08 October 2016

Guy Clapshaw has enjoyed an expansive career in aviation.
Guy Clapshaw has enjoyed an expansive career in aviation.

FOR British-born aviation veteran and author Guy Clapshaw, now in his 80s, the “golden years” of air travel are remembered fondly.

“A tremendous amount has changed,” said Clapshaw, on the back of his third book release.

“In those days, flying took training, skill and a little bit of luck. You carried the flight engineer and the navigator, the flight engineer looked after the engine and all of the systems. The navigator kept a track of where you were. Nowadays, if a computer can do that, it gives you an idea of how far we've come,” he said.

“A navigator could fix your location maybe (on average) three times an hour? A modern computer can do it 16 times a second. So although flying was very glamorous in the 1960s, and exciting in those days, nowadays it's boring — but incredibly safe. We have advanced, but the romance isn't quite there.”

In 1965, Tasman Empire Airways Limited (TEAL) became Air New Zealand.

From the early 1940s to 1950, the national carrier operated a single route, from Auckland to Sydney with its Short flying boats. By the mid 1950s, an additional route flying from Christchurch to Melbourne and Wellington to Sydney, were also offered.


“The navigator kept a track of where you were, nowadays, if a computer can do that, it gives you an idea of how far we've come,” said pilot Guy Clapshaw.
“The navigator kept a track of where you were, nowadays, if a computer can do that,
it gives you an idea of how far we've come,” said pilot Guy Clapshaw.


Air New Zealand hostesses way back when the national carrier was called TEAL.
Air New Zealand hostesses way back when the national carrier was called TEAL.

By the early 1960s, flight services to Brisbane from Auckland and Christchurch followed. The carrier extended its route to Wellington and onwards to various parts of the Pacific, establishing the now iconic Coral Route.

The French later restricted air travel to parts of Tahiti, terminating the TEAL flight in Pago Pago. However by 1967, the now re-branded Air New Zealand was permitted once again to continue flying the famous Coral Route.

After an incredible and expansive career in air travel, including a stint in the Royal Air Force, Clapshaw is now firmly focused on his third book release, “Tasman Echo Alpha”, after a 19-year hiatus between his second and third novels.

“I was having such a good time flying,” he said of the downtime between books.

“I showed my book to an accountant friend who said it was ‘a load of rubbish, I wouldn't pay for this’, so I put it away. Later, another friend, who's a children's author, saw the book and told me ‘look, this needs to be published’ and put me in touch with her publisher. The rest is, history.”

Clapshaw's novels detail the adventure, humour, excitement and thrill of air travel during the 1960s from a pilot's perspective. His first novel, 1995's “A Likely Story”, became a fast favourite among aviation buffs.

The novel details Clapshaw's time in the National Service in the RAF in the 1950s: “This is not precisely how it was, but it's how I like to remember it,” he writes.

At the tender age of nine, a student of English public school Charterhouse, Clapshaw enjoyed his first flight shortly after World War II.

“I think fans of my previous books can expect a similar narrative,” he said. “Some technical interest, some humour, some excitement, some romance — and just a good entertaining yarn.”


An Air New Zealand 747 Jumbo jet takes off for Auckland International Airport.
An Air New Zealand 747 Jumbo jet takes off for Auckland International Airport.

Has the business of air travel completely lost its glamour?
Has the business of air travel completely lost its glamour?

As for Clapshaw's advice for young would-be aviators? A little confidence will get you far.

“Have faith in yourself,” he said.

“If anybody tells you that you can't do it, because you've only got one leg or one good eye, I know people who've flown with impairments like that. If you convince yourself that you can do it, you'll convince the people that are hiring you that you can do it, too.”

“So have confidence in yourself and keep on trying.”




http://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/news/85107735
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« Reply #376 on: October 29, 2016, 02:27:15 pm »


from the Chicago Tribune....

20 minor injuries after plane catches fire on O'Hare runway:
Everybody started panicking


Twenty people were taken to hospitals with minor injuries, mostly bruises and ankle
problems, after an American Airlines flight bound for Miami caught fire on a runway
at O'Hare International Airport as it was taking off Friday afternoon, officials said.


By LIAM FORD, WILLIAM LEE and GRACE WONG | 6:39PM CDT - Friday, October 28, 2016



AMERICAN AIRLINES Flight 383 was rolling down the runway at O'Hare International Airport on Friday afternoon, bound for Miami, when the plane skidded to a halt just as it was lifting off.

The pilot got on the radio. “American 383 heavy,” he said, referring to the Boeing 767's weight class. “Stopping on the runway.”

“Roger, roger. Fire,” a traffic controller calmly replied, according to a recording of tower radio traffic.

The pilot asked if the tower controller saw fire.

“Yeah, fire off the right wing.”

Then seconds later, the pilot said, “American 383, we're evacuating.”

The plane's 161 passengers and nine crew members scrambled down emergency chutes on the left side of the plane while flames flared and thick black smoke billowed from the wing on the right side, according to the airline and video from the scene.

Twenty people were taken to hospitals with minor injuries, mostly bruises and ankle problems, according to Fire Chief Juan Hernandez, the EMS chief at the airport.

“The smoke started coming in and the flames just started going along the windows on the right side,” said one of the passengers, Alan Lemery, 62, from the River North neighborhood. “Everybody started panicking at that point.”

People rushed toward the exits. “Then for some reason, everything happened very slowly and orderly,” said his wife, Marta Lemery.

Video of the scene shows passengers sliding down chutes. Many of the passengers can be seen running across a median of grass, some lugging their bags. Some passengers gather a distance away and watch as fire trucks circle the plane.

“Crazy, man,” one passenger is heard saying. “I'm never f------ flying again.” People around him can be heard laughing.

It took fire crews only a few minutes to bring the fire under control, officials said. As the smoke cleared, the blackened right wing could be seen sagging and touching the tarmac.

The FAA said the problem started with a blown tire, but American said the takeoff was aborted "due to an engine-related mechanical issue."

A large rounded piece of metal believed to have come from the plane smashed through the roof of a UPS facility on the airport grounds and bounced off the floor, according to an airport worker. “It looks like a piece of a turbine disk from a jet engine,” the worker said, adding it was too hot to touch.

Few people were inside the building at the time and no injuries were reported. The facility is filled with workers at night. Police secured the scene and turned it over to the National Transportation Safety Board, which was investigating the incident.

The plane had started to take off around 2:35 p.m. on Runway 28R, according to the FAA. Passengers said the plane was just lifting off when it slammed back to the tarmac.

“It was a scary moment,” Marta Lemery said.

Her husband said he saw flames on the right side of the plane as the plane skidded across the runway before finally stopping. The lights went off.

The initial panic quickly faded and “people were not really jumping or pushing” as they made their way down the aisle and the chutes, said Marta Lemery.

The couple applauded the pilot for making sure everyone got out safely. “The way the pilot conducted the situation, he did an excellent job,” Marta Lemery said.

Alan Lemery added, “When you get a little older, excitement is good. It wasn't our day to die.”

They are booked on a Saturday morning flight for Miami, where they plan to catch a cruise.


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-plane-fire-ohare-20161028-story.html
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« Reply #377 on: October 29, 2016, 03:56:01 pm »


from the Associated Press....

Official: Plane in Chicago had ‘uncontained engine failure’

By HERBERT G. McCANN and JOAN LOWY | 8:40PM EDT - Friday, October 28, 2016

In this photo provided by passenger Jose Castillo, fellow passengers walk away from a burning American Airlines jet that aborted takeoff and caught fire on the runway at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on Friday. — Photograph: Jose Castillo/Associated Press.
In this photo provided by passenger Jose Castillo, fellow passengers walk away from a burning American Airlines jet
that aborted takeoff and caught fire on the runway at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on Friday.
 — Photograph: Jose Castillo/Associated Press.


CHICAGO — A federal official pointed to a rare and serious engine malfunction after pilots were forced to abort a takeoff and evacuate passengers from a burning American Airlines flight Friday on a runway at Chicago O'Hare International Airport.

The official, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation, said American Airlines Flight 383 to Miami experienced an “uncontained engine failure,” in which engine parts break off and are spewed outside the engine. The danger of such a failure is that pieces effectively become shrapnel and can cause extensive damage to the aircraft.

Flames and heavy black smoke poured from the side the Boeing 767 jet as it sat on the runway on Friday afternoon, and officials said the incident left 21 people injured. Footage from the scene showed passengers coming down emergency slides and hurrying across grass next to the runway as emergency vehicles surrounded the plane. The right wing was drooping toward the ground and appeared to have partially melted.

Passenger Sarah Ahmed told WLS-TV the plane was speeding down the runway when she heard an explosion and saw flames and black smoke. She said everyone on the right side of the aircraft jumped from their seats and moved to the left side.

“People are yelling, ‘Open the door! Open the door!’ Everyone's screaming and jumping on top of each other to open the door,” Ahmed said. “Within that time, I think it was seven seconds, there was now smoke in the plane and the fire is right up against the windows, and it's melting the windows.”

The pilots reported an engine-related mechanical issue and aborted the takeoff, according to American Airlines spokeswoman Leslie Scott.

The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that the plane made an emergency stop around 2:35 p.m. after experiencing a problem during takeoff. An earlier FAA statement said the plane had blown a tire.

Chicago Deputy Fire Commissioner Timothy Sampey said 20 passengers suffered minor injuries as they used the emergency chutes to evacuate. American, which had earlier said eight people were injured, later confirmed the 20 figure and added that one flight attendant was also injured.

Buses were sent to pick up the passengers and bring them back to the terminal, Scott said. The passengers were to be placed on another flight to Miami on Friday evening.

The National Transportation Safety Board will conduct an investigation into the incident, with investigators expected to arrive on the scene on Friday evening, spokesman Keith Holloway said.

Uncontained engine failures, which the official cited as the cause of Friday's incident, are rare these days due to improvements in design and the metallurgy. They usually are caused by engines sucking in objects like runway debris or a bird, or maintenance crews failing to replace parts that wear out.

Tom Walsh, an airline pilot who also works as a security consultant, said that engines that break apart can be especially serious if the parts end up cutting fuel lines or damaging other vital components of the aircraft.

But he said even such catastrophic failures don't necessarily doom a plane — even if a pilot runs out of runway and must take off.

“Planes are meant to fly with one engine,” said Walsh, who has also flown Boeing 767s. “We are trained so that we can lose the engine at the worst possible time … and then still successfully take off and land.”

One of the best-known incidents of uncontained engine failure occurred in 1989, when 111 people were killed when a United Air Lines DC-10 crashed while making an emergency landing at Sioux City, Iowa. There were 185 survivors.

Such engine failures are taken “very seriously” in the aviation industry, said John Cox, a former airline pilot and aviation safety consultant. It's mandatory that airlines reports the failures to the NTSB, he said.

“It's something everyone in aviation safety tracks very carefully,” said Cox, president of Safety Operating Systems.

The aircraft involved in Friday's incident was built in 2003 and is among American's youngest planes of that model. According to data from FlightGlobal, an aviation news and industry data company, at the start of this year the plane had flown more than 47,000 hours and made more than 7,500 cycles — each takeoff and landing is one cycle. American is flying 767 aircraft that have more than 100,000 hours and 18,000 cycles.


Joan Lowy reported from Washington, D.C., Associated Press writers Michael Tarm and Caryn Rousseau in Chicago also contributed to this report.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_PLANE_FIRE_CHICAGO
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« Reply #378 on: November 30, 2016, 01:14:26 pm »


from The Washington Post....

Tragedy of huge proportions’: Brazilian soccer club's
moment of glory ends in deadly plane crash


Just six survivors were found after a plane carrying 77 people, including the
championship-bound Chapecoense, slammed into a Colombian hillside.


By DOM PHILLIPS, SAMANTHA SCHMIDT and BRIAN MURPHY | 5:13PM EST - Tuesday, November 29, 2016

The wreckage of a chartered BAe146 plane carrying 77 passengers including members of Brazilian soccer team Chapecoense Real which crashed in Colombia while enroute to Medelin. — Photograph: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images.
The wreckage of a chartered BAe146 plane carrying 77 passengers including members of Brazilian soccer team Chapecoense Real
which crashed in Colombia while enroute to Medelin. — Photograph: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images.


RIO DE JANEIRO — It was the culmination of an astonishing climb to the top of South America’s soccer world — a modest club from Brazil heading to the finals of a continent-wide tournament. Then came a distress call from the cockpit of the plane carrying the team to Colombia.

Moments later, late on Monday, radar contact was lost with the charter jet carrying 77 people, including players and coaches from Brazil's Chapecoense soccer club. The wreckage was found wedged in the folds of a muddy and rain-soaked hillside about 50 miles from Medellin — with just six survivors answering the calls of rescuers.

One by one on Tuesday, authorities in white coveralls collected the bodies — scattered over the low brush or inside the splintered cabin — and carried them down the mountain on stretchers.

Among the 71 dead: a player who recently learned he was to be a father, a goalie beloved for his acrobatic saves, and coaches who helped bring Chapecoense to the biggest moment in its 33-year history. Surviving were at least three Chapecoense players, two airline crew members and a journalist, Colombia's civil aviation agency said.

The plane was initially reported to be carrying 81 people, but authorities said later that four did not board. Disaster management officials at the crash scene said on Tuesday afternoon that all of the bodies there had been removed and that one “black box” recorder had been found.

Carlos Eduardo Valdés, chief of Colombia's Forensic Science Institute, said the remains were being taken to Medellin for identification. He said the identification process — through fingerprints and dental records, with DNA testing as a last resort — could take four or five days.


A charter plane carrying 77 passengers, including members of Brazilian soccer team Chapecoense Real, crashed in Colombia on its way to Medellin. — Photograph: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images.
A charter plane carrying 77 passengers, including members of Brazilian soccer team Chapecoense Real, crashed in Colombia
on its way to Medellin. — Photograph: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images.


The tragedy threw soccer-mad Brazil into collective grief and an official three-day mourning period. All matches in South America were canceled for a week in a show of solidarity. Across the globe, the sport paid homage — a moment of silence by Spain's FC Barcelona and Real Madrid clubs before practice, and condolences from current and former superstars including Argentina's Diego Maradona.

“A tragedy of huge proportions,” said Medellin's mayor, Federico Gutiérrez.

Outside Chapecoense's home stadium in Chapeco, about 800 miles southwest of Rio de Janeiro, tearful backers gathered in a spontaneous vigil. And, in a mournful twist of the online age, team websites and players' Twitter feeds were filled with images of joyful Chapecoense players in their last hours as they began the trip to Colombia — including a poignant last video by defender Filipe Machado.




The team's official website changed its logo from green to black.

“This is a very sad day for soccer,” wrote Gianni Infantino, president of world's soccer’s governing body, FIFA.

Meanwhile, aviation experts tried to piece together the cause of the disaster.

Authorities initially suspected a fuel shortage — with the British Aerospace 146 aircraft near the limit of its range — but investigators increasingly began to study a possible electrical failure on board, said an official for the Colombian aviation agency. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity under normal rules to brief reporters.

Colombia's El Tiempo newspaper reported that the pilot requested priority landing because the plane was low on fuel and that it may have subsequently suffered an electrical fault.

A team of British aviation specialists headed to Colombia to join the probe, which will include analysis of flight data recorders recovered from the crash site.

The plane, operated by the charter company LaMia Airlines, left from Santa Cruz de la Sierra, a city in southern Bolivia, where the team had arrived on a commercial flight. The company was originally based in the Venezuelan city of Merida but said it shifted operations to Colombia, the Associated Press reported.




The same plane had carried Argentina's national team earlier this month, Argentine state-run media reported. British Aerospace, now known as BAE Systems, said that the 146 model aircraft began service in 1981 and that about 220 are in use.

“At this sad time that the tragedy falls on dozens of Brazilian families, I express my solidarity,” Brazilian President Michel Temer said in a statement. “We are putting all the means to help families and all the possible assistance.” Temer declared three days of official mourning and promised government help for the families of victims.

Chapecoense had been scheduled to play in the finals of the Copa Sudamericana against Atlético Nacional of Medellin. The first match of a home-away series — to decide the second-most-coveted soccer crown in South America — was set for Wednesday.

In an interview with TV Globo news at Chapecoense's home stadium, the team's vice president, Ivan Tozzo, wiped away tears.

“It is very sad the news we received this morning. We never expected it,” he said, speaking from the team's dressing room. “A team getting international attention, and a tragedy like this happens, it is very difficult and a very big sadness, but we will put faith in God.”

The president of the team's board, Plínio de Nes Filho, said he spoke to team members just before they left Brazil. “They said they were going in search of a dream to turn this dream into a reality for us,” he said, according to the news site O Globo. “The dream ended.”

The aviation authority confirmed on its Facebook page on Tuesday morning the names of the passengers who initially survived the crash. Several members of the soccer team — including Alan Luciano Ruschel, Hélio Hermito Zampier Neto and Jakson Ragnar Follmann — were among those rescued from the crash site.

Goaltender Marcos Danilo Padilha also was found alive, but he later died while receiving medical treatment, the team said.

Two crew members — Ximena Suárez and Erwin Tumiri — were also rescued, along with Brazilian journalist Rafael Henzel.

The club posted a brief statement on its Facebook page: “May God accompany our athletes, officials, journalists and other guests traveling with our delegation.” It said it would have no further comment until it had more details on the crash.


Fans in Chapeco, Brazil, gather to mourn the players of team Chapecoense who were killed in a plane crash in Colombia. — Photograph: Nelson Almeida/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images.
Fans in Chapeco, Brazil, gather to mourn the players of team Chapecoense who were killed in a plane crash in Colombia.
 — Photograph: Nelson Almeida/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images.


The club was seen as a Cinderella story just two years after breaking into Brazilian soccer's first division. It defeated Argentine powerhouse San Lorenzo last week to make it into the two-game championship round. On Sunday, it lost to Sao Paulo team Palmeiras in a game that decided the Brazilian championship.

The team's ascent from the depths of Brazilian soccer was the talk of the South American sporting world.

“It is common for Brazilians to say that the country has 12 clubs with actual chances to win the national title at the start of every season,” the outlet Plus55 wrote of the Chapeco team this week. “A small club, however, is slowly breaking this logic and has a real shot at becoming 2016’s most successful Brazilian club at the international level.”

The team's climb was not sudden, however. It started winning lesser championships in 2010, moving up the ranks of Brazilian soccer from the C division to the A division. It started playing with elite Brazilian teams in 2014, the article noted, “and has not been relegated since, another rare feat as novice teams are likely to head back” to the B division “in the blink of an eye.”

Some players stayed behind because of injuries. A forgotten passport kept the son of the team's coach, Caio Júnior, off the flight that claimed the life of his father.

“We are strong. We will get through this,” the son, Matheus Saroli, posted on his Facebook account, according to the soccer site Lance.

World soccer has been hit by aviation tragedies before.

In 1958, the core of the Manchester United soccer team was among those killed in the crash of a British European Airways plane attempting to take off from Munich-Riem Airport. The team, nicknamed the “Busby Babes”, was returning from a European Cup match in Belgrade and, at the time, was widely hailed as one of the powerhouses in international soccer.


Samantha Schmidt and Brian Murphy reported from Washington. Julia Symmes Cobb in Medellin contributed to this report.

• Dom Phillips is The Washington Post's correspondent in Rio de Janeiro. He has previously written for The Times, Guardian and Sunday Times.

• Samantha Schmidt is a reporter for The Washington Post's Morning Mix team. She previously worked as a reporting fellow for The New York Times.

• Brian Murphy joined The Washington Post after more than 20 years as a foreign correspondent and bureau chief for the Associated Press in Europe and the Middle East. He has reported from more than 50 countries and has written three books.

__________________________________________________________________________

Related stories:

 • We Are MarshalltoAlive’: Plane crashes involving athletes before latest tragedy in Colombia

 • A deep sadness’: Brazilian soccer players who weren't on tragic flight begin to mourn

 • For one shining season, Brazil's Chapecoense tasted glory before tragedy

 • Tragedy of huge proportions’: Plane with a championship-bound Brazilian soccer team crashes into mountainside


https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/tragedy-of-huge-proportions-brazilian-soccer-clubs-moment-of-glory-ends-in-deadly-plane-crash/2016/11/29/4fdd4a74-b648-11e6-959c-172c82123976_story.html
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« Reply #379 on: November 30, 2016, 04:41:51 pm »


from the Associated Press....

A look at British Aerospace plane that crashed in Colombia

By PAN PYLAS and ADAM SCHRECK | 3:23PM EST - Tuesday, November 29, 2016

This is a November 11th, 2012 file photo taken at Birmingham Airport in central England of a BAE 146 aircraft  similar to the one which has crashed in Colombia on Tuesday November 29th, 2016. Colombian officials say that a chartered plane carrying a Brazilian first division soccer team has crashed near Medellin while on its way to the finals of a regional tournament. The British Aerospace 146 short-haul plane,  was operated by a charter airline named LaMia. — File photograph: David Jones/Associated Press.
This is a November 11th, 2012 file photo taken at Birmingham Airport in central England of a BAE 146 aircraft
similar to the one which has crashed in Colombia on Tuesday November 29th, 2016. Colombian officials say
that a chartered plane carrying a Brazilian first division soccer team has crashed near Medellin while on its
way to the finals of a regional tournament. The British Aerospace 146 short-haul plane,  was operated by
a charter airline named LaMia. — File photograph: David Jones/Associated Press.


LONDON — The plane that crashed near Medellin, Colombia, is a short-haul aircraft that was used to land in hard-to-access airports and frequently flew soccer teams across South America.

Among the 71 people reported to have been killed in the crash of the 17-year-old plane on Monday night, which was part of the British Aerospace 146 stable of aircraft, were members of the Chapecoense soccer team from Brazil.

The same plane that crashed is said to have earlier this month ferried world soccer player of the year Lionel Messi and his Argentina team from Brazil to Buenos Aires between World Cup qualifier matches.

Built and sold in 1999, it was part of the stable of British Aerospace 146, or BAE 146, planes. BAE 146s and the related Avro RJ models — of which the crashed plane was one of — can have a range of about 1,700 nautical miles (1,955 miles, 3,150 kilometers), according to David Dorman, a spokesman for BAE.

LaMia, the Bolivian operator of the crashed plane, said on its website — which has since become inaccessible — that its three BAE 146s had a maximum range of around 2,965 kilometers. That's about the same as the distance between Santa Cruz, Bolivia, and Medellin, the route the plane was flying when it went down. The range is not rigid and is dependent on a plane's payload and fuel.

Colombia's aviation authority said initial reports suggest the aircraft was suffering from electrical problems, although investigators were also looking into an account from one of the survivors that the plane ran out of fuel about five minutes from its expected landing at the Jose Maria Cordova airport outside Medellin.

Because they can take a steep approach to landing, the BAE 146 fleet can use very short runways. It has four jet engines suspended from a wing affixed to the top of the plane and typically does not carry much more than 100 passengers.

British Aerospace, which became BAE Systems in 1999, introduced the BAE 146 in 1981 and ended production in 2003 for economic reasons. A little under 400 of the fleet were built, and around 220 remain in service. Major clients have included British Airways, Swiss and Ireland's CityJet.

Civil aviation authorities in Bolivia, where Monday's flight originated, said LaMia got started as an airline promoting tourism in the city of Merida, Venezuela. But with the decline of the Venezuelan economy, it re-established itself in Bolivia, where in November 2015 it was granted permission to operate charter and cargo flights.

Several South American soccer teams have recently chartered flights from LaMia, including Atletico Nacional, the team Chapecoense were to play in a cup final on Wednesday.

Argentina's state news agency said the plane that crashed had earlier been used to transport Messi and the Argentina national team earlier in November. The aircraft has also reportedly transported Venezuela's national squad and several top teams from Bolivia.

Over the years, the model of plane has been configured for uses other than hauling passengers, including as tankers to put out forest fires. Around 30 of the original BAE 146s were built as freighters.

According to Dorman, 22 of the remaining fleet have been converted into firefighting roles, with more likely in coming years. Prominent operators include Canada's Conair and Neptune Aviation Services.

“It's a demonstration of the aircraft's ability to fly in difficult terrain,” Dorman said.

The most notable crash involving the plane was in December 1987, when a Pacific Southwest Airlines flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco was hijacked by David Burke, a disgruntled ex-employee of USAir, which had recently bought Pacific. Burke is said to have shot the two pilots and three others. The plane subsequently crashed in Cayucos, California. All 43 people on board died, including Burke.

The last deadly crash involving the plane occurred in 2009, when a BAE 146 operated by Indonesia's Aviastar Mandiri struck a hill while attempting to land in the eastern Papua province. All six onboard were killed.

Most recently, in April 2014, a BAE 146 carrying 97 people made an emergency landing shortly after takeoff from Perth, western Australia, after one of its engines caught fire. No one was injured.

BAE is responsible for checking the planes' airworthiness and for engineering support.

The U.K. Aircraft Accidents Investigation Branch said it is sending a team to Colombia to assist local authorities with their investigation, since Britain is listed as the “state of manufacture” for the plane.


Adam Schreck reported from Dubai. Associated Press journalist Joshua Goodman in Bogota, Colombia, contributed reporting.

__________________________________________________________________________

Related stories:

 • Brazilian soccer team's plane crashes in Colombia; 71 dead

 • The Latest: Father says God saved son in Colombia crash


http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_COLOMBIA_AIR_CRASH_PLANE_PROFILE
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« Reply #380 on: December 05, 2016, 08:45:57 am »


from REUTERS....

No fuel on board: One of the rarest types of plane crash

By TIM HEPHER | 2:54PM EST - Thursday, December 01, 2016

Rescue crews work at the wreckage of a plane that crashed into the Colombian jungle with Brazilian soccer team Chapecoense onboard near Medellin, Colombia, November 29th, 2016. — Photograph: Jaime Saldarriaga/Reuters.
Rescue crews work at the wreckage of a plane that crashed into the Colombian jungle with Brazilian soccer team Chapecoense onboard
near Medellin, Colombia, November 29th, 2016. — Photograph: Jaime Saldarriaga/Reuters.


COLOMBIAN OFFICIALS probing Monday's crash that killed 71 people including most of a Brazilian soccer team face one of the rarest types of accidents and perhaps one of the hardest for families to comprehend, amid reports that the airplane had run out of fuel.

Some 0.5 percent of accidents on record were blamed on low fuel, according to the U.S.-based Flight Safety Foundation.

“It is not common,” said Paul Hayes, safety director at UK-based consultancy Ascend Flightglobal.

Experts distinguish between fuel starvation, where there is fuel on board but something stops the flow, and fuel exhaustion, where tanks run dry. Colombian officials say there was no fuel on board when the plane operated by charter airline LAMIA Bolivia crashed into a hillside.

Past fuel-related accidents have little in common, but some give clues to the way investigators may approach the task of unraveling this week’s disaster near Medellin in Colombia.

In 1990, an Avianca Boeing 707 ran out of fuel and crashed after missing an approach to New York, killing 73 people. Coincidentally, the jet had flown in from Medellin, followed by an unexpected wait in the holding stack.

U.S. investigators cited the crew's failure to manage fuel or declare an emergency promptly — two possible scenarios likely to be examined in this week’s disaster.

Crew behavior will not be the only focus. Recent probes in Ireland and elsewhere have shown that officials may probe deep into an airline's processes and operating systems and, if necessary, the relationship between companies involved.

“If it is confirmed that there was no fuel, then it will be asked why that happened. Was there a fuel leak? Was the amount of fuel placed on board the same as planned? Were there stronger headwinds than expected?” Hayes said.


FLIGHT DISTANCE

Among key areas for investigation will be the length of flight, reportedly at the edge of the BAe 146's range depending on fuel tank layout, payload and weather. The aircraft had flown the same 3,000-km route in the opposite direction once this year, according to tracking site Flightradar24.

“Judging by the long stage length, investigators will want to look at the way the aircraft was dispatched. What were the management and company processes that led up to the dispatch of this aircraft?” Hayes said.

Experts stress it is too early to be definitive about this accident and that most crashes result from several factors.

In the most recent accident blamed on missing fuel, 16 people were killed in 2005 when a Tunisian Tuninter ATR turboprop was fitted with the wrong type of fuel gauge.

While the full history of Monday's LAMIA flight and crew conversations are not available, experts said leaked recordings suggested the pilot had reported a fuel problem relatively soon after coming near its destination.

Jets should have enough fuel to wait at least 30 minutes in a holding pattern and then divert elsewhere, Hayes said.

UK investigators reading two cockpit recorders — one for voice and the other for data — on behalf of the Colombian inquiry will try to find what technical signals the crew received and whether they discussed the possibility of diverting or declaring a formal emergency earlier.

Not all fuel shortages end in disaster, but such instances are exceptionally rare.

In 1983, 61 passengers had a narrow escape when an Air Canada Boeing 767 glided from 35,000 feet in an incident nicknamed the Gimli glider after the place where it landed.

In 2001, a Canadian Air Transat A330 with over 300 people on board glided for almost 100 miles to touch down in the Azores after the engines stopping working due to a faulty fuel line.


Editing by Hugh Lawson.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-colombia-crash-fuel-idUSKBN13Q5MZ
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« Reply #381 on: December 11, 2016, 02:29:57 pm »


from The Washington Post....

Bolivia defense minister calls Colombia plane crash ‘murder’

By ASSOCIATED PRESS | 12:15PM EST - Saturday, December 10, 2016

Rescuers gather near the wreckage. — Photograph: Raul Arboleda/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images.
Rescuers gather near the wreckage. — Photograph: Raul Arboleda/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images.

LA PAZ, BOLIVIA — Bolivia's defense minister says a plane crash that killed 71 people in Colombia was “murder” because the pilot only had the exact amount of fuel needed for the flight in violation of civil aviation principles.

The Bolivia-based LaMia airline flight was carrying a Brazilian soccer team to the Copa Sudamericana tournament's finals when it crashed outside Medellin on November 28th. Six people survived.

In a recording, the pilot is heard radioing to the control tower that he is out of fuel. Investigations continue, but authorities say he ignored international rules on fuel reserves.

“What happened in Medellin was murder because anyone who dares take passengers, more than 70 people, with the exact amount of fuel is clearly violating the most basic protocols of civil aviation,” said Defense Minister Reymi Ferreira.


__________________________________________________________________________

Related media:

 • PHOTOGRAPH GALLERY: The site of the wreckage after plane carrying a Brazilian soccer team crashes (WARNING: DISTURBING GRAPHIC CONTENT)


https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/bolivia-defense-minister-calls-colombia-plane-crash-murder/2016/12/10/a28885ca-be97-11e6-ae79-bec72d34f8c9_story.html
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« Reply #382 on: January 19, 2017, 10:42:24 am »


BIG DROP
(click on the picture to read the news story)
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« Reply #383 on: January 27, 2017, 02:54:42 pm »



(click on the image to view the video clip)
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