Seats Coming Off Tracks On Two American Airlines Boeing 757's

Passenger seats come loose on an American Airlines flight

(AP Photo/WBZ-TV/WFXT-TV)

What is with full seat sections coming off track after an aircraft has come out of maintenance?

Well American Airlines has been having it's fair share of issues as of late. Two separate incidents of full seat sections becoming dislodged or flat out coming out of the seat tracks while the aircraft is performing a live revenue flight is not a good thing. American Airlines said that improperly installed clamps caused seats to become loose on two planes during flights. Later inspections of Boeing B-757's by American discovered that other planes had similar issues that needed to be fixed. 

"American Airlines said that improperly installed clamps caused seats to pop loose on two planes during flights and an inspection turned up four others with the same problem. The airline said Tuesday that it inspected and fixed the seats on 36 of its Boeing 757 jets and planned to check 11 other planes."
(Read Full Story Here)

American has been going through labor issues with the possibility of merger talks with US Airways looming in their rear view mirror.

Pilots have been accused of writing up more maintenance issues than normal as a form of work slow down which is not unheard of in the airline world. Everything from flying faster and burning up more fuel to knit picking mechanical problems in a station where contract maintenance is the only available support at an inflated cost. Timco Aviation Services and American crews might have installed the seats incorrectly as stated by David L. Campbell, the airline's vice president of safety. Only further investigations of their past work on the aircraft will reveal if this is a isolated incident from a particular maintenance station or is this something more sinister. (Like a work slowdown to get managements attention.)

So is contract maintenance a good or bad thing here in this case? It's a part of the industry that airlines just can't get around do to cost and practicality so it's some what of a necessary evil depending on who you talk to. During my flying days I have seen and used contract maintenance in out-stations and it was not a choice in the matter depending on the severity of the problem. Some days the problem was fixed and we blasted off but other times we cancelled and mechanics from our airline were flown to us and the problem was fixed by company mechanics. However when you have flights outside the U.S. you sometimes have to trust what and who you get if you want to get the passengers on their way.

Labor issues can be a very volatile aspect in a negotiation when the work groups have this ability to affect the operation so directly. It happens and it will continue forever but hopefully not at the cost of passenger safety. This incident definitely scared some people and it does make them (the passengers) aware of any internal issues at any given airline. No airline is exempt from this, it's just a part of doing business. Hopefully this is the last of such incident but I doubt it!

Passengers should watch the news to see what's going on with the airline they are planning to fly to see if there is anything they should be concerned with especially when it comes to labor or union issues. Not just the pilots can slow things down but flight attendants or ground agents can cause delays and or cancellations too! So don't think for one minute that the agents loading the bags or the crew members serving the drinks can't cause a stir. Pilots are just usually the ones who can have the fastest affect on flight operations that make management stand up and take notice. Now I'm not saying it's right but it can be effective in a stalled labor negotiation.

So I hope in the near future this is a thing of the past and not the precursor to what is yet to come. Good luck American Airlines!

"Be Proactive Not Reactive And Enjoy Your Flight!!!"

BlkAv8tor2003

Little X-Plane Pushes Bottom Edge of the Envelope

Flight test programs at Edwards Air Force Base and NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center usually are off-limits to outsiders, but we got a peek at one of its coolest programs, the X-48B, when the Air Force recently threw open the gates for an open house.

The X-48B is the latest in a long line of experimental X-planes, and the joint venture between NASA and Boeing’s Phantom Works is unlike most that came before. The blended wing-body aircraft isn’t some sort of sierra hotel fighter jet, it doesn’t have a pilot on board and it’s not even full-size. Despite being an unmanned scale model, the test pilots who fly it say all the challenges of experimental flight are still there.

Boeing test pilot Dan Wells and the X-48B

“We try to fly very precise data points,” Boeing’s Dan Wells, one of three test pilots flying the X-48B, told Wired.com. “It still requires precision flying; you just don’t have those motion cues. You still feel like you worked hard when you fly it.”

Winglet and control surfaces on X-48B

The X-48B comes in for a landing. Photo: NASA

Pilots and engineers often describe an airplane’s capabilities by referring to the edges of its performance plotted on a graph. These boundaries on the graph define the flight envelope. With the entire aircraft adding to the lift side of the equation, the blended wing-body design provides greater efficiency at high-altitude cruise speeds. But the challenge according to Wells are the airplane’s flying characteristics at the other end of the flight envelope.

“It’s great that it’s more fuel efficient at 35,000 feet,” he said. “But can you land it?”
Airplanes tend to be most challenging to fly at the lower speeds encountered during takeoff and landing. Here an airplane is at risk of stalling, a condition where the smooth flowing air over the lifting surface no longer flows so smoothly. The result is a loss of lift. In order to be safe to fly, an airplane should have good, or at least manageable, stall characteristics allowing a pilot to recover and maintain control. Wells says flying wings typically don’t have good stall characteristics, so the challenge is creating an airplane that will be safe and controllable at low speeds.


Here is one of the X-48B's three small jet engines.

To examine the low-speed characteristics, the team is examining the X-48B’s behavior at a high angle of attack similar to how it might fly during takeoff or landing. With more than 70 flights completed so far, the X-48B has demonstrated the design can overcome some of the challenges that have plagued similarly unusual aircraft.

“This platform and our flight control system allow us to go to a much, much higher angle of attack,” Wells says (an alpha of 23 degrees for you aerodynamics geeks). “So far we’ve shown that we have very good low-speed handling qualities and that’s the whole purpose of this program — to show that this design of an airplane will fly in the low-speed environment.”

Next up for the X-48 team is the transition to the X-48C model. The newer design will have two engines that are more efficient, allowing the crew to conduct longer test flights. But don’t hold your breath waiting to see anything bigger. So far there are no plans for a full-size test vehicle. Aviation analysts say before a company like Boeing would be willing to invest the money required for a full-scale version, oil prices would climb into triple digits to assure a sufficient demand for the fuel-efficient airplane.

Until that happens, Boeing and NASA can continue to push the edge of the envelope with a modest investment in the little X-48B.

First and second photos of the X-48B: NASA. All others: Jason Paur/Wired.com.

A close-up of X-48B cockpit shows all the detail of a full-size airplane.

Indian passengers avoid flying Air France to avoid discrimination at Paris (Flying While Brown)

Hello All BlkAv8tor2003 Checking In!!!

Well here is another story that we may start to see on a reoccurring basis. Here in the U.S. as an African American and as of recent if your Mexican especially here in the border states to Mexico you understand and know the term "racial profiling." Blacks in America have always been subject to racial profiling or better known as "D.W.B." or "Driving While Black" and now the latest change in the terminology here in Arizona especially we are now hearing the term refered to as "Driving While Brown" and it is usually directed at or referring to illegal immigrants from Mexico.

Well here is my addition to the english vernacular, "F.W.B" or "Flying While Brown!" Indian passengers were poorly treated by Air France and by the loop holes of the securities and immagration rules, these passengers were denied food, water (until a protest started), and hotel accomodations that the airline was at fault for. AF025 had some type of mechanical problem with the aircraft and it delayed the flight and caused passengers to miss their flight.

It is looking like as tensions grow more volitale in India, I think we will see more transgretions towards people from India if the situations in India and relationships with other countries if relationships don't get any better.

People of color already understand this type of discrimination here in the U.S. and now it looks like that same type of discrimination is moving abroad!

Remember, Be Proactive, Not Reactive and Don't Be A Victim!!!

BlkAv8tor2003

(read the story below)

Indian passengers complain of discrimination by Air FranceMumbai A fortnight after over 50 Indian passengers alleged they were victims of racial profiling while flying Air France, ten Indians, travelling by the same airline, met a similar fate when they were stranded for an entire night in a Paris airport lounge.



The Indians, flying to Mumbai from Washington via Paris, complained that they were confined to the lounge on Monday with just some water and a sandwich after their plane reached Paris late from Washington and they could not board the connecting flight to Mumbai.

The passengers of the flight AF025 alleged that while they had to remain at the airport, people with American passports were given transit visas, provided accommodation and taken care of.
Complaining of discrimination and insensitivity towards them, a passenger Gwyneth Alphonso said, “We were not put on the immediate connecting flight on the same day. We were told that we have to just adjust within the environment. (Those) who held American passports were given visas and accommodation and were taken care of. But we who had Indian passports were the only ones to be denied any kind of help at that place”.

The passengers said the airline extended an apology to the passengers through an SMS.
Over 50 Indian passengers had on May 12 accused Air France of ‘racial’ profiling at Paris airport where they were stuck while in transit after their aircraft developed a technical problem, a charge denied by the airline.

The passengers said their plane had left Washington three hours behind schedule due to a technical problem and that they had barely 20 minutes in hand after arrival in Paris to take their connecting flight to Mumbai. They said they just could not make it to the connecting flight.
Another passenger Jagdish Patankar, who had to spent the night in the ’sanitised’ area at the airport, said, “It shows total insensitivity towards the incidence. For six hours, we were in that area. We were provided with water, were not provided with juice or food or anything. We were all there just stranded.”

The passengers said they were finally put on a flight to Mumbai after they protested.


Narrating the latest ordeal, Jagdish Patankar, 47, said:


"We boarded flight AF-025 on May 24 at 6:45pm at Dulles Airport in Washington. But the pilot said the flight had developed a snag and we were deplaned."
It took the airline three hours to rectify the snag. The flight with 174 passengers on board finally took off at 9:45pm (7:15am IST), said Patankar, managing director of a Worli-based event management company, MM Activ.
The flight landed at de Gaulle Airport at 10:20am (1:50pm IST) on May 25, but the Indians missed their 10:45am (2:15pm IST) connecting flights to Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore. "Our troubles began soon after," Patankar said.

The airline, he said, told the passengers that the next connecting flight to Mumbai was 24 hours later and they would have to spend the night at the airport. "While our European co-passengers were given hotel accommodation, the airline said the police had denied transit visas to Indians," said Gwyneth Alphonso, 39, another Indian who got stuck in Paris.

No airline official attended to them from 11am (2.30pm IST) to 3 pm (6.30 pm IST) and they had to go without food and water, the Indians said. "It was clearly discrimination against us as Europeans were treated well and we were left to wait at the airport," she alleged.
"There was a cafeteria, but we needed to clear security checks to go there.


Since our passports and visas were with the airline, we couldn't even buy food," Alphonso said. Among the passengers were a diabetic, Dr P Mathew Varghese, and a 65-year-old woman with her 15-month-old granddaughter. "We literally begged for chocolates and other eatables from international passengers who were passing by to get something for Dr Varghese and the baby," Alphonso said.
The Indians then ran out of patience and protested, forcing the airline to give them a 200ml water bottle and half-a-sandwich each.

"We demanded that the airline put us on the next connecting flight to Dubai," Patankar said. Air France put them on flight AF-530 from Paris to Dubai, which was to leave at 11:20pm (2:50pm IST).
"Even this flight had a technical snag and left an hour late. But we reached Dubai around 8:52am local time (10:52am IST), just in time to catch the Emirates EK-506 Dubai-Mumbai flight," Patankar said.
Other Indians took flights to Bangalore and Delhi. Some of the passengers landed at Mumbai airport at 2pm on May 26 but without their baggage. "I got my luggage on May 27, but certain items were missing," Patankar said.

When contacted, an Air France spokesperson blamed the trouble on visa formalities imposed by the French police but said none of the Indian passengers had to spend the night at Paris airport. The spokesperson, in an emailed statement, promised to investigate the matter and try and improve transit procedures at de Gaulle Airport.
(Original Story)
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/national/air-france-passengers-stranded-paris-again-762