26 FEB 2008 _______________________________________ *USAF Suspends B-2 Operations Following Guam Accident *Jet Makes Emergency Landing in Tokyo *Smelly cockpit forces Qantas jet down *Venezuela Begins Recovering Bodies from Andean Plane Crash *United Airlines plane slides off runway in Wyoming *New Runway Safety System Being Tested In 2 California Airports *Co-pilot dies on holiday flight *************************************** USAF Suspends B-2 Operations Following Guam Accident Fleet Available To Fly If Needed It's not a "grounding," per se... but for the next day or so, the US Air Force would prefer not to fly its remaining 30-plane fleet of B-2 Spirit bombers, following the weekend crash of one of the stealthy aircraft in Guam. As ANN reported, a B-2 went down shortly after takeoff from Anderson Air Force Base in Guam. Both pilots were able to eject safely. It was the first-ever downing of a B-2. The Air Force describes the move to suspend B-2 flights as a "temporary pause" to review safety procedures. Such a move is standard procedure when a military aircraft crashes for unexplained reasons, the Air Force stated, and gives pilots time to review safety procedures. The fleet is available for immediate deployment if needed, officials told CNN. There's no indication at this time whether the "safety pause" may lead to a stand-down or grounding of the Spirit fleet. FMI: www.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?fsID=82 aero-news.net *************** Jet Makes Emergency Landing in Tokyo TOKYO (AP) — A Northwest Airlines flight made an emergency landing at Tokyo's main international airport Tuesday after smoke appeared inside the passenger cabin, airport officials said. No injuries were reported. NW flight 19 landed safely at the Narita International Airport about half an hour after taking off from the airport for the Philippine capital of Manila, said airport spokesman Masaru Motoyama. The pilot requested an emergency landing because of a possible fire inside the cabin, Motoyama said. Officials, however, only found smoke and nobody was injured. *************** Smelly cockpit forces Qantas jet down A Qantas jumbo jet was given priority landing clearance as it arrived in Sydney yesterday after its flight crew noticed an "odour" in the cockpit. Qantas said flight QF566 from Perth to Sydney was given priority clearance to land last night after it "developed an odour in the cockpit" as it approached Sydney. "The flight crew responded in accordance with their training and notified Sydney's air traffic control that they would require priority clearance to land," a spokesman said. "The aircraft landed and taxied to the gate without incident and the 374 passengers disembarked normally. "We are investigating the incident, which has been reported to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau." The spokesman said the flight landed at 9.59pm but would not provide details of what type of odour the flight crew noticed. He said he was checking if there had been similar incidents on other Qantas flights. - with AAP ************** Venezuela Begins Recovering Bodies from Andean Plane Crash   Forensic and rescue workers work near the wreckage of a plane, in a mountainous area near Merida, Venezuela, 24 Feb 2008 Venezuelan authorities say search teams have retrieved several bodies from Thursday's plane crash in the Andes Mountains that left 46 people dead. Search teams had to be dropped off at the crash site by helicopter because of the steep mountain terrain. The victims included Venezuelans, Colombians and an American citizen. Investigators recovered the black boxes (flight data recorders) from the wreckage Saturday. The voice and data recorders could provide clues about why the plane crashed shortly after it departed the city of Merida on its way to Caracas. Pilots need special training to fly from the Merida airport because the city is surrounded by mountains and planes must ascend sharply at takeoff. http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-02-25-voa27.cfm ***************** United Airlines plane slides off runway in Wyoming      (CNN) -- A United Airlines plane slid off the runway in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Monday evening, a spokeswoman for the airline told CNN. There were no reports of injuries. Flight 267 flew from Denver, Colorado, to Jackson Hole with 119 passengers and six crew on board, arriving at 9:16 p.m. (11:16 p.m. ET), said Megan McCarthy, the spokeswoman. It slid off the runway after landing, she said. Passengers slid down the emergency slides to get of the jetliner, she said. **************** New Runway Safety System Being Tested In 2 California Airports San Diego, CA (AHN) - Red blinking lights embedded on the runways of the San Diego and Dallas/Fort Worth international airports are substantially reducing the number of potential ground collisions between aircraft flying in and out. The red lights warns other planes to keep away from the area. The lights go off when it is safe to approach the runway. It took the U.S. Federal Aviation Authority almost 20 years to develop this warning device. Federal officials had been pushing the FAA to fast track the development of the warning device, which is only on pilot testing, in view of the record high number of close encounters among aircraft using the two airports. Engineers who developed the runway light system explained it took them a long time to finalize the system because it was complicated and required a very high level of precision. It uses three computer technologies and the engineers are still debugging it to make sure the system is error free before it is installed at busy gateways. The long delay is due to fine tuning of a ground radar used by the system to correctly indicate an airplane's exact location. "You need to make sure any indication you give pilots about the status of the runway is correct and timely," Jim Eggert, staff of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory told the Los Angeles Times. But federal authorities are getting impatient over the long wait. Mark Rosenker, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said, "There will be a catastrophic collision in the ground - it's a matter of when - if we don't put a new technology in... I don't want to appear before families and tell them that there are technologies there that could have prevented an accident." Los Angeles Airport is one of the international gateways interested in installing the system soon, expected to cost $5 million. Los Angeles has the most number of close calls among U.S. airports since 2000. About 80 per cent of these near collisions were attributed to pilot decisions. Since the FAA piloted the system at San Diego and Dallas/Fort Worth, runway accidents had decreased by 55 percent beginning 2001, Hank Krakowski, chief operating officer of the FAA recently told the House Subcommittee on Aviation. Another aviation safety system under trial by the FAA at the Long Beach Airport is the Final Approach Runway Occupancy Signal. The FAROS will undergo operational trial at the Dallas/Fort Worth airport late his year. http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7010138507 ************** Co-pilot dies on holiday flight A holiday flight from Manchester had to divert to Istanbul in Turkey, because the co-pilot died during the journey to Cyprus. The GB Airways Airbus A320, with 156 passengers on board, left Manchester at 2.20pm bound for Paphos in Cyprus. The captain landed the aircraft safely at Istanbul airport at 5.45pm on Sunday. The co-pilot, Michael Warren, 43, from Ormskirk, Lancashire, was reported to have died of natural causes. He was married and had two sons, aged five and eight. He was due to celebrate his younger son's fifth birthday yesterday. Passengers, who were not told of the medical emergency, were put up at a hotel in Istanbul as an onward flight was organised. The airline said: "GB Airways confirms that BA6826 from Manchester to Paphos diverted to Istanbul due to a medical emergency on the flight deck. On landing, it was confirmed that the first officer [co-pilot] had died during the flight. At no time was the aircraft, passengers or crew in any danger. "The first officer's next of kin have been informed and our condolences are with his wife and family." The airline said that First Officer Warren had been working with GB Airways, a franchise operator for BA, since August 2005. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/copilot-dies-on-holiday-flight-787279.html ****************