More Evidence Supports Theory That Jet Broke Up In Flight

The latest evidence suggests that Air France Flight 447 broke up in flight, possibly because of faulty air-speed indicators, The New York Times reports. There were initial indications that the A330 went into an aerodynamic stall because the jet was flying too slowly into turbulence. Now it appears that the jet may have been flying too fast, possibly because the air-speed indicators were malfunctioning.

Less Competent Pilots Mean More Crashes

Eight of the nine serious regional airline crashes in the past 20 years involved pilots who had failed “check rides” multiple times, USA Today reports this morning. 

Some commenters reponded that the tests are so difficult that qualified pilots frequently fail them, but the article backs up its point. It cites fewer crashes on major airlines and much lower rates of failure among pilots involved in those crashes.

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Theory Suggests Air France Jet Stalled At High Altitude

An aerodynamic stall at 35,000 feet may have caused the crash of Air France Flight 447 early Monday over the Atlantic, Britain’s Times Online and other news outlets are reporting. 

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Hope Fades For Missing Air France Flight

The Air France A330 that has gone missing between Rio and Paris “has almost certainly crashed with no survivors,” Britain’s Guardian reports. Air transportation has become so safe that we are now shocked when these things happen, but no human enterprise is entirely safe and so these things will happen.

Turbulence Hits Lufthansa Flight, 14 Injured

I’ve been sitting at a Delta gate at Bradley, checking out the news, and I just saw a story about turbulence injuries over the weekend in Switzerland.

A Lufthansa A321 flying from Munich to Lisbon hit clear-air turbulence over the Alps that sent passengers, cabin crew and food service carts flying. Several passengers who were not belted in hit the ceiling.

The plane made an emergency landing. Fourteen people were injured, four of them seriously enough to require hospital treatment.

I think I’ll keep my seat belt on today.

Northwest Jet May Be Beyond Repair After Hard Landing

There are reports online, including one from The Aviation Herald, that a Northwest A320 was so damaged by a hard landing in Denver on Monday that it will probably be written off.

The jet, completing a flight from Minneapolis, hit the runway hard with a tailstrike — the back of the jet struck the pavement.

Tailstrikes usually don’t cause such grievous damage. Here’s a photo showing sparks from an MD-80 dragging its tail on takeoff last month from Gdansk, Poland. The aircraft was barely scratched.

The Denver incident was more severe, apparently. The aircraft is 19 years old, and that’s certainly a factor in deciding whether to repair it.

The jet was flying a Northwest route but there are also several reports online that it had recently been repainted in Delta livery. D’oh.

Data Released On Planes Hitting Birds — And Other Critters

On Sept. 9, 2007, a Southwest Airlines 737 taxiing at Bradley International Airport ran over a skunk.

This is not exactly the kind of data I was expecting from the National Wildlife Strike Database, which everyone has been calling a “bird-strike” database, but it sure is interesting. Turns out that in the past 17 years, pilots have also reported 13 encounters with white-tailed deer in Connecticut, although mostly at small, general aviation airports. In some cases the aircraft didn’t actually hit the animal but had to abort a takeoff or swerve on the runway.

The FAA released the complete wildlife strike database online this morning, after abandoning the ridiculous argument that some of the details should be kept confidential. Aggregate information had been released previously, but airlines and airports were not identified.

The bird-strike data is interesting. Very few incidents at Bradley have involved any damage to aircraft, although the last 12 months of data (through November 2008) show an incident in which a bird strike cracked the windshield of a United Airlines A320 and a seagull bent the fan blades of a Southwest 737.

It’s not easy, though, to get a complete picture of the problem or to compare data. Reporting looks uneven. For example, in the last 12 months of data from Bradley, Southwest reported eight strikes and Delta, the other big carrier there, reported only one. Whether this reflects luck or differences in reporting protocols is hard to say.

Also, in many cases the only report comes from the discovery of a carcass, yielding no information about what hit it. If anybody wants to own up to hitting that raccoon … 

Woman Paralyzed By Turbulence Injuries

A woman who was slammed into the ceiling of the lavatory on a Continental 737 by turbulence last week remains in a Texas hospital, paralyzed by her injuries, the Houston Chronicle reports.

Seat belts should be worn as the default position for any passenger on any aircraft at any time, regardless of whether the seat belt sign is lighted. (It was.)

But the reason this woman wasn’t wearing her seat belt is obvious.

Some heartless commenters on message boards blame her for being out of her seat but, really, if you had to go, you’d go.To those who believe better “planning” will allow everyone to regulate these needs perfectly, can you really swear that you were never, ever in your life seized by the urgent need for a bathroom?

I didn’t think so.

Bird Strikes On The Increase

Here’s the worst excuse in an open society for not releasing public information to the public: people wouldn’t understand the data. 

That was essentially the FAA’s excuse for withholding statistics about aircraft bird strikes from the media. Turns out, USA Today reports, the FAA had already released the information to some individuals who requested it.

And so USA Today got the data and, yes, aircraft collisions with large birds are on the rise. Engine damage from bird strikes is still rare, but the number of incidents has increased.

OK. Are we confused? Are we freaking out? Didn’t think so …

AA Engine Failure: Debris Or Maintenance Problem?

American Airlines says the engine that failed and came apart — “grenaded” was the word one commenter applied — on one of its MD-80s may have been damaged by debris sucked up from the runway at LaGuardia, Newsday reports. Which would be a lot better for the airline than another theory involving maintenance problems. Of course, they’re not mutually exclusive. An inadequately maintained engine could suck up debris.