Formålet med bloggen er å bidra til informasjon om luftfart av alle slag. Også litt om ubåter og forsvarsspørsmål. Nyheter vil du finne her også, en del på engelsk som er det mest brukte luftfartsspråket. Har du selv noe som bør komme ut, så send meg en mail til per.gram@hesbynett.no
"Over the coming days, we will work closely with our customers to implement a recommended inspection plan for certain airplanes in the fleet," the company told the BBC in a statement.
"This issue does not affect any 737 Max airplanes or the P-8 Poseidon."
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionBoeing said it has contacted operators of its 737 NG aircraft
The BBC has asked Boeing for more details about the cracks, and where they are located, but there has been no response so far.
In its statement, the FAA said it would "instruct operators to conduct specific inspections, make any necessary repairs and to report their findings to the agency immediately".
Boeing grounded its entire global fleet of 737 Max aircraft in March this year following two fatal plane crashes.
Media captionWatch what a former Boeing engineer told the BBC's Panorama about the production of the 737 Max
The 737 Max has not flown commercially since an Ethiopian Airlines aircraft crashed shortly after take-off on 10 March, killing 157.
It followed a Lion Air crash on 28 October last year which killed 189. The FAA must decide if the plane is safe.
Ving: 9.000 nordmenn berørt av Thomas Cook-konkurs
Volume 0%
Video: Konkursmeldingen rammer også
rundt 9.000 norske Ving-kunder totalt.
Over 9.000 nordmenn og 34.460 personer fra hele
Norden er på reise med selskaper som er eid av Thomas Cook. Selskapet opplyser
at alle fly mandag er innstilt.
Litt over klokka 3
natt til mandag opplyste Thomas Cook selv på sine nettsider at forhandlingene
med den britiske staten om en avtale for rekapitalisering av selskapet hadde
brutt sammen. Fra det øyeblikket var selskapet teknisk sett konkurs, og det går
derfor mot en styrt avvikling av selskapet.
I Norge er Ving heleid
av Thomas Cook. Søndag kveld opplyste informasjonssjef Siri Røhr-Staff i Ving
til E24 at 9.156
nordmenn er på reise med reiseselskapet på ulike destinasjoner i hele verden.
– 8.685 av kundene
er på tradisjonelle charterreiser. De fleste er i middelhavsområdet i land som
Hellas, Tyrkia, Bulgaria, Albania og Spania, uttalte hun til NTB søndag kveld.
Har ikke oversikt
Hva som nå vil
skje med disse reisende, var ikke avklart ved 6-tiden mandag morgen.
Informasjonssjefen i Norge svarte ikke NTB på gjentatte henvendelser etter at
konkursen var et faktum.
– Vings eier
Thomas Cook Group søkte konkurs tidlig i dag morges. Da flyselskapet som flyr
flertallet av Vinggruppens gjester i Norden eies av Thomas Cook Group, vil
reisende på mandag bli berørt av kansellerte flyreiser som et resultat av
konkursen, skriver Ving på sine norske nettsider
mandag morgen.
– Vi regner med å
ha mer informasjon i løpet av dagen, men har foreløpig ikke alle svarene på
hvordan Thomas Cook Groups konkurs vil påvirke oss, skriver Ving.
Fly innstilt
mandag
Alle flyginger med
selskapet Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia er mandag innstilt, noe som direkte
vil berøre 457 nordmenn som enten skal hjem eller reise ut på ferie. I alt tre
charterfly skulle gått fra Norge mandag. I alt blir over 6.000 mennesker i
Norden direkte berørt av konkursen mandag.
For hele Ving
Norden er 34.460 reisende rammet av konkursen, opplyser Ving
Norden som har hovedkontor i Sverige. Vinggruppen i Norden
består av merkene Ving, Spies, Tjäreborg og Globetrotter.
– Helt til det
siste har vi forsøkt å sikre våre reisendes flyreiser, men har innsett at det
ikke er mulig, og vi har derfor inntil videre måttet innstille alle avganger
mandag, sier Vinggruppens nordiske konsernsjef Magnus Wikner på selskapets
svenske nettsider.
Reisegaranti
– Vi beklager
virkelig situasjonen som har oppstått og besværet dette vil medføre for våre
kunder, skriver Wikner.
Det var ved
6-tiden mandag fremdeles mulig å bestille reiser på Vings norske nettsider.
Ved en konkurs kan
kunder søke om erstatning hos Reisegarantifondet på
deres nettsider ved å legge fram reisedokumenter og kvittering på betalt reise.
Video:
Reisende hevder de ikke fikk forlate hotellet: – Gjester ble holdt som gisler:
Breaking
News: HMS Prince of Wales’s First Sailing
Attn: Per Gram
Just published on Warfare.Today: HMS Prince of Wales’s First Sailing
Milestone for Royal Navy’s Second New Aircraft Carrier The second of the
Royal Navy’s new aircraft carriers, HMS Prince of Wales, has sailed for the
first time.
Eight years after she was laid down – and two after her sister ship HMS Queen
Elizabeth sailed from the very same site – the …
For the full story click this link http://www.warfare.today/2019/09/20/hms-prince-of-waless-first-sailing/
Feel free to forward this email to your friends and contacts.
Best wishes,
Liam
Thomas Cook asks government for bailout in funding race
20 September 2019
Image copyrightGetty Images
Thomas Cook has approached the government in a bid to plug the gap in funding it needs to satisfy lenders.
The travel company could fall into administration this weekend unless it finds £200m in extra funds needed to secure its future.
Banks, including RBS and Lloyds, insist the firm comes up with the new contingency funds in case it needs extra money during the winter months.
A collapse would leave 150,000 UK holidaymakers stranded.
Sources insisted there were still "reasonable prospects" of a deal and suggested the government could help.
But they added that the coming 24 hours were crucial to the travel group's survival.
"We do not speculate on the financial situation of individual businesses," the Department for Transport said in a statement.
Currently there are 600,000 Thomas Cook customers on holiday, of which 150,000 to 160,000 are from the UK.
The troubled operator hoped to seal a rescue led by China's Fosun this week. But the creditor banks issued a last-minute demand that the travel company find an extra £200m.
Sources have confirmed the Civil Aviation Authority is on standby with a repatriation contingency plan called Operation Matterhorn. The potential cost of bringing home passengers is put at about £600m.
The CAA said it would not comment on the financial situation of individual businesses.
Thomas Cook, one of the world's largest travel companies, was founded in 1841 to operate temperance day trips, and now has annual sales of £9bn.
One woman's £8,000 decision
Image copyrightJacqui Cunningham Image caption Jacqui Cunningham and her partner Angus McNair are unsure whether they should pay the outstanding balance on their holiday Teacher Jacqui Cunningham and her partner, train driver Angus McNair, from Brentwood, Essex, have booked a holiday to the Maldives with Thomas Cook for December. The luxury trip is to celebrate Ms Cunningham's recovery from cancer.
They have paid a deposit of £500 and the balance of £8,000 is due by midnight on Friday.
Thomas Cook is, of course, still operating. But their predicament underlines the anxiety many customers are feeling.
Ms Cunningham and Mr McNair called the customer service helpline and asked if they could delay paying the £8,000 until they know that the tour operator is not going to fall into administration. But they were told the deadline remains, or they would lose their £500 deposit.
"We were going to pay on debit card, but now I think we'll put it on the credit card if we go forward," Ms Cunningham told the BBC. Thomas Cook employs 22,000 staff, 9,000 of those in the UK. It serves 19 million customers a year in 16 different countries.
But Thomas Cook's financial difficulties have mounted over the past year, culminating with the agreement in August of a rescue deal led by its biggest shareholder Fosun, that would see the Chinese firm back refinancing of the 179-year-old British firm.
In July, Thomas Cook produced a business plan saying that it needed £900m in refinancing, up from a previous estimate of £150m. The £900m would come from Fosun, the group of creditors and some other investors.
The group of lenders then commissioned an independent investigation. Its financial advisers said Thomas Cook would require an additional £200m on top of the £900m already required, which would bring the total refinancing needed up to £1.1bn.
Thomas Cook succeeded in finding a backer to provide the additional £200m, but the BBC understands that the backer has now pulled out and the group of creditors will not come back to the table unless that additional funding is found.
A final vote on that deal was due to take place this week, but it has been delayed until next Friday in the face of the latest demand for extra standby funding.
Earlier this week, Thomas Cook said it was "focused on completing" the deal. It is believed to be negotiating with its banks, bondholders and Fosun in an attempt to keep the rescue on track.
In May, the operator reported a £1.5bn loss for the first half of the year. It has also issued three profit warnings over the past year and is struggling to reduce its debts.
It has blamed a series of problems for its profit warnings, including political unrest in holiday destinations such as Turkey, last summer's prolonged heatwave and customers delaying booking holidays because of Brexit.
What are your rights?
If you are on a package holiday you are covered by the Air Travel Organiser's Licence scheme (Atol).
The scheme will pay for your accommodation abroad, although you may have to move to a different hotel or apartment.
Atol will also pay to have you brought home if the airline is no longer operating.
If you have holiday booked in the future you will also be refunded by the scheme.
If you have booked a flight-only deal you will need to apply to your travel insurance company or credit card and debit card provider to seek a refund.
When Monarch Airlines collapsed in 2017, the government organised to bring home all the stranded passengers, whether they were covered by Atol or not. Here is more information on Atol protection and Your questions answered It has also suffered from competition from online travel agents and low-cost airlines.
The winter months can put a strain on travel companies' finances as typically there is less revenue coming in, while suppliers need to be paid for services provided over the high summer season. Image copyrightAFPMark Burgess, chief investment officer of Columbia Threadneedle Investments, told the BBC that Thomas Cook's creditors were "being very careful" about extending lines of credit, because the firm was "in a precarious financial position".
RBS said: "As one of a number of lenders, RBS has provided considerable support to Thomas Cook over many years and continues to work with all parties in order to try and find a resolution to the funding and liquidity shortfall at Thomas Cook."
If the rescue deal goes ahead, it would be majority owned by Fosun, which is also a majority shareholder in Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club and French resort operator Club Med.
Her fra den store basen Sigonella like vest av Catania og Etna.
Undertegnede skal besøke Scicli, Marsala og Palermo denne gang. Jeg vil forsøke å holde bloggen oppdater, men i barokkbyen Scicli er det elendige wifi muligheter.
Leonardo Helicopters delivered the 1,000th example of its AW139 to
Italian law enforcement agency Guardia di Finanza today at an event at its
Vergiate, Italy production plant near Milan. Powered by two Pratt &
Whitney Canada PT6 turboshaft engines and co-produced in Vergiate and
Philadelphia, the AW139 is now in operation with 280 operators in 70 countries
and has attracted a total order book of more than 1,100 units.
Leonardo CEO Alessandro Profumo told those gathered for the
celebration, which included a display by an AW139 and an AW609 tiltrotor
prototype, that it was “a huge milestone…the company had hoped [at launch] to
sell 400 and now it’s 1,000…in 15 years…and the order book is packed.”
He committed to continue to develop the product to stay ahead of coming
competition, looking forward to the 2,000th or even 3,000th AW139 delivery. “We
now have 25 percent of the market for twin-engine helicopters,” he said.
The first AW139 was unveiled at the 1999 Paris Air Show, initially as
the AB139 when Bell was still involved, and made its maiden flight on Feb. 3,
2001, leading to certification and first delivery in 2004.
Pilot Chuck Yeager, Who Broke Sound Barrier, Sues Airbus for Trademark
Infringement
Chuck Yeager, the retired U.S. Air Force pilot who
broke the sound barrier, has sued Airbus SE, accusing the aerospace company of
using his name and likeness without permission to promote a new high-speed
helicopter.
In a complaint filed on Wednesday that refers to him as "one
of the most, if not the most, famous pilots of all time," the 96-year-old Yeager
objected to a June 2017 piece on Airbus' website about making the Airbus Racer a
fast and cost-effective way to fly.
The piece quoted Guillaume Faury, now
Airbus' chief executive officer and at the time Airbus Helicopters' CEO, as
saying: "Seventy years ago, Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier," and Airbus
was now "trying to break the cost barrier. It cannot be 'speed at any
cost.'"
Yeager accused Airbus of trademark infringement and taking away
his right of publicity through "fraudulent" conduct, in which it deceived the
public into believing he endorsed it.
"This is not a company that sells
burritos," Yeager's lawyer, Lincoln Bandlow, said in a telephone interview on
Thursday. "It sells aircraft, and you can't find a man more valuable to
associate with aircraft than Chuck Yeager."
Airbus spokesmen said the
company, which is headquartered in Toulouse, France, had no comment on pending
litigation.
Yeager is seeking unspecified compensatory, punitive and
reputational damages, as well as restitution, in a lawsuit filed in the federal
court in Santa Ana, California.
He has filed similar lawsuits against
other defendants in the past.
Yeager became the first person to break the
speed of sound, known as Mach 1, piloting his rocket engine-powered Bell X-1
over southern California on Oct. 14, 1947.
He became familiar to a
younger generation 36 years later when the actor Sam Shepard portrayed him in
the movie, "The Right Stuff," based on the Tom Wolfe book.
Yeager said
the website piece was not Airbus's first use of his name and likeness without
permission, saying it previously used an unauthorized video of his 2008 visit to
the company.
He said Airbus Helicopters had asked for permission to use
his name in press releases, but rejected his demand for more than $1 million and
veto power over how it was used.
"There were some negotiations but they
fell through, and litigation was unfortunately the next course," Bandlow
said.
FAA waiting for more software details before 737 MAX can
return to service
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Boeing Co (BA.N) still
has a series of steps to complete before the 737 MAX can return to service,
including submitting a pre-production version of a software update, Federal
Aviation Administration chief Steve Dickson said.
FILE PHOTO: Grounded Boeing 737 MAX aircraft are
seen parked in an aerial photo at Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington, U.S. July
1, 2019. REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson/File Photo
Dickson met with Boeing
executives in Renton, Washington on Thursday and tested revised software in a
simulator. Next week, he will meet with around 50 aviation safety regulators in
Montreal to discuss the status of the plane, which has been grounded worldwide
since March in the aftermath of two fatal crashes.
The FAA has been
reviewing proposed software and training changes from Boeing Co (BA.N) for
months and it remains uncertain when Boeing will conduct a certification test
flight, a step needed before its best-selling plane can fly again.
In a
telephone interview with Reuters, Dickson laid out a series of steps that must
happen before the certification test flight, adding it should then take about
another month before the FAA could allow flights to resume absent unforeseen
circumstances.
"I am not going to sign off on the plane until I am
personally satisfied," he said.
Some government officials have told
Reuters they do not believe Boeing will conduct the certification flight until
at least mid-October. Asked if there are at least several weeks of work to be
done before that flight can occur, Dickson said he thought that was a "fair
statement," but did not want to set a specific date.
Asked about reports
that the FAA has at times been frustrated with a lack of information from
Boeing, Dickson said he is satisfied that Boeing has been responsive to him and
added the FAA had made clear what it expected.
"We've had conversations
about the importance of making sure that we are looking at complete
documentation and not piecemeal documentation," Dickson said.
"It's
really better to be very methodical and very detailed rather than try to rush a
partially completed product and then say, 'We'll get back to you with the rest
of it.'"
Boeing has repeatedly said it hopes to resume flights early in
the fourth quarter. The company reiterated Thursday it remains "committed to
working collaboratively" with the FAA and other regulators.
FAA still
needs to see Boeing's "final system description" - a "500-ish page document that
has the architecture of the flight control system and the changes that they have
made," Dickson said, adding that the software changes must be in a
"pre-production" code and not a "beta version".
"We need to see that
level of refinement and there has been a good bit of back and forth and some
constructive discussions," he said.
"Until it is locked down, we've got
to go make sure that there aren't any new fault trees that have developed that
need to be mitigated."
Once the system description is completed, the FAA
will work with Boeing to develop the "integrated system safety analysis" - a
step that will take a few days.
Then the FAA will move to the next phase
- the pilot workload management scenarios. Once that is done, the agency will be
"much closer to a predictable timeline for when the actual certification test
flight will occur."
The FAA plans to get input from international
regulators EASA, Canada and Brazil. "We've got U.S. and international pilots
that have to be scheduled to come out and actually go through the scenarios,"
Dickson said, adding it must also finalize training requirements.
Boeing
plans to revise the 737 MAX software to take input from both angle-of-attack
sensors in the anti-stall system linked to the two deadly crashes.
Australia may ban Boeing 737 Max even if US gives it
all-clear
Civil Aviation Safety Authority says it will make its
own call on the 737 Max, which was grounded after two crashes left 346
dead
Grounded 737 Max planes at Boeing's
facility The Boeing 737 Max has been grounded since March. Casa says
it may still ban the plane even if the US Federal Aviation Administration gives
it the all-clear. Photograph: Lindsey Wasson/Reuters Australia's air
safety regulator may refuse permission for Boeing 737 Max planes to fly even if
its US counterpart revokes an order grounding the aircraft, which has crashed
twice, leaving 346 people dead.
A Civil Aviation Safety Authority
spokesman said that the decision of the US Federal Aviation Administration would
be an important factor in deciding whether to allow the Max to fly, but Casa
would also take into account other information before making its
decision.
"As the certifying authority for the aircraft type, obviously
the FAA is central to the decision as to whether the aircraft flies or not but
in this case due to the nature of it there is focus on the aircraft from
authorities around the world," the spokesman said.
He said Casa had been
sharing information with other regulators including the European Union Aviation
Safety Agency and the Canadian regulator, Transport Canada, both of which have
said they will do their own assessments of the Max.
"Those views will
form part of our thinking when we make a decision," he said.
He said
there was no set timeframe in which Casa would make its call.
National
aviation safety bodies usually accept the decision of a manufacturer's home
regulator - in this case the FAA - but the deadly Max crashes have raised
concerns the US authority failed to properly oversee Boeing.
Global air
safety authorities, including Casa, are due to meet on Monday in Montreal to
discuss the Max issue at a meeting called by the FAA.
No Australian
airlines currently fly the Max, but Virgin has 48 on order and Qantas has also
expressed interest in buying the plane. Until Casa banned the planes from flying
on 13 March it was used by on flights in and out of Australia by two overseas
airlines, Fiji Airways and Singapore's SilkAir.
The Max, which was
Boeing's fastest-selling model, was attractive to airlines because it has larger
engines than the standard 737, giving it a longer range and greater
capacity.
But the planes were grounded in March after Ethiopian Airlines
flight 302 crashed in Kenya, killing all 157 people on board.
It was the
second lethal Max crash in six months. In October 2018, a Lion Air flight from
Jakarta to Bangka Island plummeted into the Java Sea, killing all 189 passengers
and crew.
The day after the Ethiopian Airlines crash the FAA defended the
airworthiness of the Max, but within two days it was forced to ground the fleet
by Donald Trump.
Investigations have focused on an automated system that
under some circumstances can compensate for the extra lift generated by the
bigger engines by pushing the nose of the plane down.
The crashes have
also raised concerns that engineering quality at Boeing may have suffered as the
company pursued profits in competition with its European rival,
Airbus.
In early April, the FAA set up a joint technical review team with
other aviation authorities, including Europe's Easa and Australia's
Casa.
A fortnight ago, the FAA said the team was "taking additional time
to finish documenting its work".
"We expect the group to submit its
observations, findings, and recommendations in the coming weeks," it
said.
Lone 737 MAX criss-crossed Canada for pilot checks during
grounding
MONTREAL/PARIS (Reuters) - While the world's Boeing
(BA.N) 737 MAX fleet remains grounded after two fatal crashes, a solitary Air
Canada (AC.TO) plane has been spotted in the skies, shuttling between Quebec and
Ontario.
Grounded Boeing 737 MAX aircraft are
seen parked in an aerial photo at Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington, U.S. July
1, 2019. Picture taken July 1, 2019. REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson In a
rare exemption, approved by Canadian aviation regulator Transport Canada, the 11
flights in August and September were partly to maintain the qualifications of
senior training pilots, Air Canada told Reuters in response to a query about
flight tracking data.
A spokesman for Air Canada said the airline was not
able to use similar 737s within its fleet "to maintain check pilot authority in
alignment with (Canadian aviation regulations)".
"So we are utilizing the
737 Max during planned maintenance movements to maintain
qualification."
Between Aug 28 and Sept 8 the Air Canada MAX plane
criss-crossed between Montreal, Val d'Or, Quebec and North Bay, Ontario, data
from Tracking website FlightRadar24 shows.
Then last week, it was flown
to Pinal Airpark in Arizona to be parked in a desert storage site.
Although unusual
after the grounding imposed worldwide in March amid concerns over an anti-stall
system, the flights highlight growing pressures facing some airlines as they
prepare for the return to service of the 400-plane Boeing fleet.
The
planes have been sitting idle since March following two crashes in the space of
five months.
For airlines like Air Canada, which did not have earlier
versions of Boeing 737s in their fleets, this has made it difficult to make sure
pilots can demonstrate the skills required to retain their licenses.
As
North America's sole MAX operator which had not flown the earlier 737NG, Air
Canada cannot use that model to maintain the qualifications of its check or
trainer pilots, the company said.
So regulator Transport Canada
authorized a select group of Air Canada's check pilots to fly the grounded jet,
which was also conducting maintenance flights, the airline said.
All the
jets have the same control software suspected of contributing to the accidents,
which Boeing is now in the process of revising to smooth its impact. However,
some pilots have said existing procedures can prevent similar
accidents.
Boeing declined to comment.
MARKET
BATTLE Transport Canada said in an email that it authorized the flights
"because the carrier does not operate the Boeing 737 NG aircraft, but the pilots
still need to maintain currency."
However, one U.S. carrier questioned by
Reuters said such flights would not be possible in the United States where pilot
training was not included in a list of exemptions to the ban issued by the
Federal Aviation Administration.
"Pilot currency isn't a listed exemption
in the U.S. order," an FAA spokeswoman confirmed.
North American MAX
operators, including Southwest Airlines (LUV.N), American Airlines (AAL.O),
United Airlines (UAL.O) and Canada's WestJet Airlines (WJA.TO), said they would
only move their MAX jets for maintenance and storage purposes.
Air
Canada's position as a newly-converted 737 operator follows a seven-year battle
between Boeing and Airbus over the introduction of airplanes offering bold new
fuel savings.
The introduction of the MAX, an upgrade of earlier 737
models with advanced new engines, coincided with a bitter contest for market
share between Boeing and Europe's Airbus (AIR.PA), which was offering its
similar A320neo.
The feud saw both planemakers use the transition to a
new generation of jets to try to poach each other's customers, and traders said
Air Canada's 2013 decision to switch from Airbus's A320 family to Boeing's 737
MAX stood out as a major defection.
Now, the decision to switch suppliers
potentially weighs on some of those same airlines as they cope without a 737
fleet.
Boeing has predicted that the 737 MAX will be cleared to take
passengers early next quarter.
The FAA, facing growing international
scrutiny over its certification processes, has said it cannot give a precise
date for the approval of software and training changes carried out in the wake
of the two accidents, which killed 346 people.
FAA chief Stephen Dickson
plans to fly to Seattle this week to test modified 737 MAX software in a
simulator..
GETTY IMAGES
GETTY IMAGES
