It seems anunas horriblus is getting more horribuls this year with the loss of another aircraft – this time a Yemenia Air Airbus A310 from on route IY626 Sanaa to Moroni in the Comoros islands.

Picture (c) Baron Inchcap, – http://www.flightglobal.com/airspace/photos/baron_inchcape1/airbus-a310-f-ohpr-yemenia-3198.aspx

It seems the aircraft made one attempt at landing before contact was lost with the aircraft, and from the reports, it seems there conditions were described as “challenging” with high winds.

Prehaps more worryingly, this particular A310 wasn’t excatly praised in it’s last inspection whilst in France, and hasn’t been back since.

From the reports – 1 child has survived. The rest of the 141 passengers and 11 crew (152 souls) are alas being accounted for in bodies.

This year is just not good.

May the souls rest in peace.

Note: I was going to publish this last week but I got distracted by a few other things. A few more updates will appear tonight including my personal 787′s (Yes – I have an armarda of them). Sorry!

Well Seattle. We have a little problem. What was going to be a glorious first flight has resulted in yet another delay for the 787 ZA001′s first flight.

Exhibit 1: Ok . Not a real Dreamliner. I lied a bit.

So what’s happened this time?

In very basic terms, an issue with the centre wingbox and wingsbox seem to at the crux of the matter – requiring enforcement. At the moment, it could be considered safe to fly – but with no meaningful results so once again, the poor bird is sitting on the ground awaiting more work.

For the unitated… the wing box…. oh its where the wing joins the body. As in this badly PS’d picture.

Jon at FlightBlogger has a very nice techinical explanation:

• http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/flightblogger/2009/06/breaking-boeing-postpones-787.html
• http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/flightblogger/2009/06/a-closer-look-understanding-th.html

The fallout from this could be pretty big.

• ANA is seeking further clarification (least of all as the launch carrier)
• Qatar has already made its thoughts clear regarding the 787 programme (sort it or we’ll pull our orders).
• Qantas has dropped 15 of its current orders citing the current downturn for it’s Jetstar unit (whilst retaining the options it has for later – so instead of 787-8′s they are heading straight to 787-9′s)
• Lufthansa is pretty much resigned to a delay in the 747-8 passenger version
• Already there is a lot of companies who don’t want to touch the first 20 787-8′s due to the weight issues (in simple terms these aircraft are over-heavy in desgin – which reduce the range an aircraft can fly.)
• And I’d wager there’s more to come as companies look for easy get outs during this downturn, some more 787 cancellations or “deferals” will occur

Whilst the 787 will probably go on to be a great aircraft, it’s having a troublesome and difficult birth to the skies.

Well, someone had to try and take Deltalina’s crown.

And ladies and gentlemen – we have a winner!

Earlier on, I blogged about one of Air New Zealand’s adverts – well it seems they’ve decided it was a bit successful… and have made a safety video!

All I’m going to say is Well done!!! Excellent work all around. Beat that Deltalina!

At the moment, I’m beginning planning for my October trip to the USA (There’s a little event going in Chicago I’m invited to do the photos in… so it’s rude to say no).

As I still need a fair wodge of miles to hit gold (wodge in this case being about 14k or so), I have to be slightly careful in how to plan this out.

Here was the initial plan

Breakdown:

Hmm. Good – but we can do better than that!

An interesting wrinkle in this is the use of 600 mile minimums for flights under that distance. And of course, there are such things as married pairs…

So lets look at this again -what are the breakdown points between all of these points?

LHR-ORD can be split as LHR-IAD-ORD (3942 vs 4277)
ORD-LAS can be split as ORD-LAX-LAS or ORD-SFO-LAS (1546 vs 2245 vs 2446)
LAS-SFO … it’s not worth splitting alas verses the additional cost. (600)
SFO-LHR can be split as SFO-SAN-LHR (5637 vs 6085)

So with a bit of table magic…

Using LAX

Using SFO

Considering instead of being nearly 2500 mile short, I’d now be 250 miles short of Gold… well the numbers really show off what a bit of planning can do. I’m trying to put an extra segment in… but how this hits the costs…

Notes: All numbers approximate to within 20 miles.
Image credits: Great Circle Mapper – http://gc.kls2.com, Calculation tool MileCalc.com

Please pay attention to this bunny for your safety briefing. Your safety is our number one concern.

Thank you.

Source: http://icanhascheezburger.com/2009/06/23/funny-pictures-exits-on-this-plane/

Yes, I know. The Soapbox is a bit late this week – so it’s a double entry today.

And today’s soapbox entry is about an entry from “Back to Basics Britain, “Middle England,” “Angry from Tonebridge” and “conservative with a small c – honest ” the Daily Mail (also known as the Daily Hate)

Here’s the article that sparked my ire…

URL: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1194937/Terrified-tourists-boycott-flight-home-told-sit-balance-nose-heavy-jet.html

So lets go for the shock horror panic of a badly researched story (what the Daily Mail doing bad research… never. Oh wait. Of course. It’s the Daily Mail!)

Lets work through the choice quotes of this report

“Passengers had been asked to act as human ballast because a jammed door had prevented the rear hold from being used so all the luggage was in the forward hold, making the jet nose-heavy.”

Ok. So there was no engineering support to get the other door open. Luggage was loaded on the from hold. Big whoop. Shift the passengers around for load purposes – not uncommon.

“British tourists feared the plane was not fit to fly them home and refused to board at the airport in Mallorca.”

Well that explains a lot. They’re British! They deserve better service and not being shoved around the plane!

“Some of those due to depart said that holidaymakers who had just landed in the jet warned them not to board it, saying they had just had the worst flight they had ever experienced.”

Hmm. So no news on how weather was, what turbulence there could had been or what actions the pilot and crew took? One sided reporting there possibly?

“A total of 71 people refused to get on the plane at the airport five miles outside Mallorcan capital Palma and instead paid hundreds of pounds for flights with other airlines”

Ladies and Gentlemen.. and chavs – may I refer you to your conditions of carriage that state what can happen. This was within in.

“Rowen’s mother Hazel said: ‘It was like they were being asked to fly in something that was being balanced out like a seesaw.”

Well this happens when they’re loading a plane with cargo and luggage. You need to balance and keep things in trim. A seesaw is probably a better analogy than some. Of course, I haven’t mentioned that a centre of gravity is important.

Now a rebuttal.

“Thomas Cook today said the seating move was routine and posed no safety risk.

A spokeswoman said: ‘It is standard for all airlines to ensure cargo and passengers are evenly distributed on an aircraft and there will be times when passengers will be asked to move to the front or back of a plane.

‘We are disappointed that despite reassurances from the captain and crew, a number of passengers decided not to travel.’”

So basicly what is Standard Operating Procedure has been turned into a farce by the Daily Mail.

Wait – hasn’t this happened before – Ah Yes. When XL had a few issues and posted a picture of a 767 when it was a 737 that had a problem.

You know a little research never hurts. Like this article at wiki about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weight_and_balance

The BBC has gone slightly less sensational, and presents the facts…

See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/8115216.stm

NOW THE DAILY MAIL – YOU’LL TOO LAZY TO READ THIS BUT REPORT THE FACTS AND NOT THE FICTION. LEARN ABOUT A COMPANY BEFORE REPORTING IT.

Something that happened yesterday.. Virgin Atlantic became 25 years old… but more importantly for the geeks amongst us, Virgin made an order for more aircraft – this time more Airbus A330′s.

Hang on. This from the airline that said “4 engines 4 longhaul”.

They’re also on the warpath for Boeing 787-9′s and Airbus 350′s.

Now there is a sign that someone has visited the Strategy Boutique and picked up a new one in a rush. The realist says they’re replacing some of the older 747 capacity and probably some of their older A340-300′s. The actualist realises that these older aircraft burn fuel like it’s out of business and this is a chance to get some new aircraft on the cheap and try and make cheap publicity out of it.

From what they’re mumbling about IFE, it’s looking quite a nice product throughout the plane, but there seems to be telecoms capability that’s being built into the specification to allow text messages and emails to be sent from devices, and USB/Power from the Upper Class/PE seats.

Perhaps Branson inc should stop toying with peoples jobs (as is their habit at the moment when mentioning the long term enemy) and start concentrating on his own companies and getting their houses in order.

Or – I think Richard has spent far too much time with Kate Moss….

Image (c) Getty/Metro/Assiocated Press Ltd -
Source. http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?Branson_manhandles_Kate_Moss∈_article_id=689820∈_page_id=34

The other issue that is now coming to the fore, and perhaps more important is the 787… and the distinct lack of deliveries (and even the wait for first flight). And it’s now starting to bite with companies shopping around for stopgap aircraft and even certain Qatar airlines saying they’re close to pulling out of Project Dreamliner…

Well for us BMI Diamond Club members, the end is finally nearing in the Love-Hate forced takeover of BMI by Lufthansa.

Like any couple heading up the isle, there has been squabbles, backtracking, leagel fights.. leaving the children (in this case, BMI staff and BMI flyers) waiting for the outcome.

But today, it seems “LHBD Holding Limited” exists as a holding company in the UK to start shoring up the shares of Sir Michael Bishop (50%+1) and the existing Lufthansa share (30%-1).

From the looks for it, there has been fiscal fishing and fixings – but it’s all heading to an endgame now.

Additionally, the 20% from SAS needs to be got hold of, but as of today – BMI is basically part of the Lufthansa group.

Better start spending your hard earned BD miles.

For the staff involved – Good luck!

As if I’ve forgotten – Time for some airplane p0rn.

This week – it’s the turn of Alaska Airlines and it’s painted-up 737…

Behold – the Salmon-Thirty-Salmon!

Now that I’m sitting at my desk and for once not cursing CA and their “wonderful” AV products, it’s time to get down to the nitty gritty of Paris 2009 – or “The year when 10 Wide Body jet is considered a big order”

New orders on day 5 -
Olympic Airways join the Dash-8 400 party with an order for 5, option for another 5

So lets put this into graphics.

So what are the scores in terms of class? I’ve split these into 4 categories: Widebody (twin isle jets), NarrowBody (>100 people single isle jets), Regional – Turbofan powered and Regional – Turboprop powered

Sources: Flight, BBC News, Airbus/EADS, Boeing. Graphs show only complete orders – not options or MOU’s. So there.

Perhaps the big winners this year are narrow-bodies, and the regional turbofans. In particular, the A320 design seems to be grabbing new share in terms upgrades. The Wizz-Air MOU for 50 A320‘s is very good news – and will keep a lot of people in jobs hopefully when its signed and converted into a full order.

The Superjet is doing quite well, but to break through to new markets – it needs to find a big “western” operator (for lack of a better geopolitical term) to make it really sell. Again, I’d want to see the performance the jet and how it fits into the new markets well enough. Equally doing well is Bombardier with their CRJs.

We knew it wasn’t going to be a long haul year – so we’ll drink a mug of coffee to an A350XWB orders by Air Asia X and Vietnam Airways – a sign that they’re looking towars the upturn.

In real terms, Boeing has kept very quiet in terms of commerical jets apart three bits of noise -

• The proposed “777-300ER-Plus” which could be a re-winged jet (Boeing – hint – Airbus tried that with the A350 initially), A 787-10 (Much more likey as it could be a simple/slightly complex stretch) or a clean sheet design (is there enough slush money to design a clean sheet aircraft I wonder?)
• The first 787-8 is nearing clearance for first take off at the end of this month
• And Qatar airlines getting very narked off with the delays to 787 project and telling Boeing in so many words “Sort it or we’ll cancel” (and probably saying it for a lot of other 787 recpieants)

This year we all predicted quiet. But there has been noise thankfully – even on the IFE front and more airlines taking on Panasonic’s X Series IFE system, Wireless IFE and a few other neat technologies. In this time of squeeze, some new ideas are sneeking out.

Back to normal next week with irreverent chatter.

And Welcome to Day 4

New Orders:
- China Eastern plump for 20 A320′s
- Afrijet’s order for four ATR 72-500s
- Aigle Azur – 1 A319
- Zest Airways Inc (ZestAir) of the Philippines – 1 A320
- Possible big order from WizzAir of 50 A320′s.
- MC Aviation Partners (lessor) has ordered 2 737-800′s

Alas, more important things are happening in the air today – with the death of a Continental captain whilst in the cockpit. Whilst the reserve pilot was able to take the spare seat, there was no other incident involved.

From the looks of things, no information (other than a doctors request) was made during flight so there was surprise.

Good work to the 3rd pilot for taking the left hand chair, our thanks to the doctor for trying to help, and my condolences to the family