Salon.com > Joan Lowy

787 remains grounded, but their batteries can fly

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 20:23:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (AP) — At the same time the government certified Boeing's 787 Dreamliners as safe, federal rules barred the type of batteries used to power the airliner's electrical systems from being carried as cargo on passenger planes because of the fire risk.

Now the situation is reversed.

Dreamliners worldwide were grounded nearly three weeks ago after lithium ion batteries that are part of the planes led to a fire in one plane and smoke in a second. But new rules exempt aircraft batteries from the ban on large lithium ion batteries as cargo on flights by passenger planes.

In effect, that means the Dreamliner's batteries are now allowed to fly only if they're not attached to a Dreamliner.

The regulations were published on Jan. 7, the same day as a battery fire in a Japan Airlines 787 parked at Boston's Logan International Airport that took firefighters nearly 40 minutes to put out. The timing of the two events appears coincidental.

Pilots and safety advocates say the situation doesn't make sense. If the 787's battery system is too risky to allow the planes to fly, then it's too risky to ship the same batteries as cargo on airliners, they said.

Congress poised to act on highways, student loans

Fri, 29 Jun 2012 14:47:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (AP) — After being derided as a "do-nothing" Congress, the House and Senate moved Friday toward passage of a massive legislative package that overhauls highway and transit programs, salvages an estimated 3 million jobs and spares millions of students from higher interest rates on college loans.

Congressional leaders anticipated voting on the package, which also would financially shore up the federal flood insurance program, by early Friday afternoon. Two deadlines are looming: Federal highway and transit aid programs and the government's authority to levy federal fuel taxes expire on Saturday, and interest rates on new student loans are set to double on Sunday. Lawmakers also were anxious to begin a weeklong recess.

The burst of legislating comes just four months before the November elections, giving lawmakers achievements to show off to voters who have increasingly held Congress in low esteem.

"It's a jobs bill," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who led Senate negotiations on the transportation portion of the package. She estimated the bill would save about 1.8 million jobs by keeping aid for highway and transit construction flowing to states and create another 1 million jobs by using federal loan guarantees to leverage private sector investment in infrastructure projects.

FAA chief suspends dozing air traffic controller

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 17:14:22 +0000

The nation's top aviation official says he's suspended a control tower supervisor while investigating why no controller was available to aid two planes that landed at Washington's Reagan airport earlier this week.

Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Randy Babbitt said Thursday in a statement that the controller has been suspended from his operational duties. He said he was "personally outraged" that the supervisor -- the lone controller on duty in the airport tower at the time -- failed to meet his duties.

An aviation official who spoke on condition of anonymity because an investigation is underway said the supervisor fell asleep.

NTSB urges shoulder belts for all small planes

Tue, 11 Jan 2011 20:49:00 +0000

Federal safety officials urged Tuesday that aircraft owners be required to retrofit small planes with shoulder-lap seatbelts, but stopped short of calling for the installation of air bags.

A three-year study of small plane accidents released by the National Transportation Safety Board found several cases in which air bags prevented serious injuries or fatalities. But investigators said that since only about 7,000 planes have air bags, there haven't been enough accidents yet to judge whether they should be required on all planes.

Although airbags have been mandated in automobiles for over a decade, the aviation industry has no such requirement for small aircraft.

"The good news is that over 30 manufacturers have stepped up to the plate and offer air bags as standard or optional equipment," NTSB chairman Deborah Hersman said.

There are more than 200,000 general aviation aircraft, mostly small, single-engine planes, NTSB officials said. The average age of the planes is about 40-years-old, officials said.

A second study, also released by NTSB on Tuesday, concluded that fatalities and serious injuries are 50 percent more likely to occur in accidents where pilots and passengers are wearing lap-only belts, rather than shoulder-lap belts. The study looked at 37,000 accidents involving single-engine planes between 1983 and 2008.

Dangerous runway incidents drop 50 percent

Fri, 08 Oct 2010 16:10:00 +0000

Transportation officials say the number of runway incidents that pose a danger of planes colliding dropped by half over the last 12 months.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Federal Aviation Administrator Randy Babbitt said Friday that there were six incidents during the federal budget year ending Sept. 30 in which a plane on the wrong runway or crossing a runway risked colliding with another plane. There were 12 such incidents in the 2009 budget year.

That's a dramatic drop from 67 incidents in 2000.

Reducing such incidents has long been a top safety priority for FAA. The deadliest aviation accident in history was a 1977 runway collision between to airliners at Tenerife (ten-uh-REEF'), one of the Canary Islands.

Pilots may get longer breaks

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 17:02:00 +0000

Some airline pilots would fly fewer hours and others would fly longer under proposed rules to help prevent dangerous fatigue, transportation and labor officials said Friday.

The proposal would set different requirements based on the time of day, number of scheduled flight segments, flight types, time zones and likelihood that a pilot is able to get enough sleep, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in his blog. The proposal is being released Friday.

It would also require that pilots be given nine hours of rest between work days, an increase of an hour over current rules.

Pilots have complained that the current eight-hour rest period often results in only a few hours sleep. The period begins as soon as pilots leave the plane. They still have to leave the airport, check into a hotel, prepare for bed and then rise early enough to dress, eat and be on time for the next flight.

The proposal is an attempt to prevent tired pilots from making errors that can cause crashes. It would update decades-old rules governing pilot work schedules with more flexible, scientifically based standards.

However, an increase in work hours for some pilots -- a concept promoted by airlines -- is likely to draw opposition from pilot unions.

Congress OKs bill to make commuter airlines safer

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:46:00 +0000

Congress on Friday approved far-reaching aviation safety legislation that was developed in response to a deadly commuter airline crash in western New York last year.

The Senate approved the measure without debate, following similar action by the House late Thursday night. That sends it to President Barack Obama for his signature.

The safety measures are an attempt to force airlines to hire more experienced pilots, investigate pilots' previous employment more thoroughly and train them better. The legislation requires a major overhaul of rules governing pilot work schedules to prevent fatigue.

The impetus for the safety measures was the crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407 near Buffalo-Niagara International Airport on Feb. 12, 2009. All 49 people aboard and one man in a house were killed. A National Transportation Safety Board investigation faulted actions by the flight's pilots and deficiencies in pilot hiring and training by Colgan Air, the regional carrier that operated the flight for Continental Airlines.

All of the past six fatal airline accidents in the U.S. involved regional carriers. Pilot performance was a contributing factor in four of those cases.

Senate passes bill to update air traffic system

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 23:21:00 +0000

The Senate passed a bill Monday that would speed modernization of the nation's antiquated air traffic control system, a major source of airline delays.

The $34.5 billion bill to fund the Federal Aviation Administration through Sept. 30, 2011, also contains several measures to boost safety in response to last year's crash of a regional airliner near Buffalo, N.Y., which took 50 lives.

The bill requires key elements of FAA's NextGen program -- it replaces World War II-era radar technology with GPS technology -- to be in place at the nation's busiest airports by 2014.

The new system is projected to cost the FAA as much as $22 billion through 2025. Airlines would have to spend as much as $20 billion more to install equipment in their planes.

In the long term, the system is expected to save airlines money by allowing planes in crowded air corridors to take more direct routes and fly closer to each other without safety risks, reducing delays, saving energy and cutting down on pollution, including greenhouse gas emissions. Pilots will have real time information on the location of other aircraft.

The system is crucial to handling the expected growth in air traffic from about 700 million passengers in 2009 to the more than 1 billion annually by 2023.

FAA halts air traffic to Haiti, no room for planes

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:27:00 +0000

U.S. officials say they've stopped all civilian flights from the United States to Haiti at the request of the Haitian government, because there is no room on the ground for more planes and not enough jet fuel for planes to go back.

A U.S. official said the Federal Aviation Administration imposed the "ground stop" on flights bound to Haiti Thursday morning and the Haitian government was no longer accepting planes into Haitian airspace. The official was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official says when flights were halted there were 11 planes circling the earthquake-damaged airport in Port-au-Prince, but no room to store more planes on the ground once they landed.

The official said there was only limited jet fuel for planes leaving Haiti.