22 APR 2009 _______________________________________ *United jet leaving BWI for Denver hit by lightning *Toy plane causes havoc on passenger jet flight path *Flight at Newark Airport is delayed after woman boards with small knives *TSB: No follow-up on Air Canada A320 emergency *Boeing Assembles First Set of 747-8 Wings **************************************** United jet leaving BWI for Denver hit by lightning LINTHICUM, Md. (AP) - A United Airlines official says an airliner leaving BWI for Denver was hit by lightning as storms swept across the Washington area. United Airlines spokesman Rahsaan Johnson says flight 593 was struck after leaving Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport about 7 p.m. ET Tuesday with 143 passengers. Johnson says the 757's captain thought the front of the plane was hit and headed for Dulles International Airport as a precaution. Airliners are designed to withstand the strikes and they are said to occur an average of once a year to each airliner. http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2009-04-22-united-jet-lightning_N.htm ************* Toy plane causes havoc on passenger jet flight path Aviation authorities in Australia are investigating whether a model plane rigged with a video camera was deliberately flown into the path of a passenger jet. Experts are examining the footage of the incident which has been posted on the internet. It's claimed the model plane came within 30 meters of the jet before being sucked into the plane's wake and crashing. Police have questioned witnesses who say they saw the model plane almost hit the jet. http://www.3news.co.nz/News/InternationalNews/Toy-plane-causes-havoc-on-pass enger-jet-flight-path/tabid/417/articleID/100677/cat/61/Default.aspx *************** Flight at Newark Airport is delayed after woman boards with small knives A Continental Airlines flight from Newark Liberty International Airport to Las Vegas was delayed today because a woman boarded the plane carrying two small knives, according to a spokesperson for the Transportation Security Administration. Continental flight 768, which was scheduled to depart at 7:30 a.m., was forced to return to the gate at about 9:40 a.m., and all the passengers had to leave the plane so that authorities could do a precautionary sweep of the plane, said Ann Davis, TSA spokeswoman. The entrance to a TSA passenger checkpoint at Newark Liberty International Airport. The female passenger was checking her carry-on luggage when she observed that she was carrying a Swiss army knife with a 1 1/2 inch blade and another knife with a 2 1/2 inch blade, Davis said. The crew was made aware of the knives and turned the plane around. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey interviewed the passenger and subsequently released her, Davis said. The plane is still at Newark airport. Davis said TSA will investigate how the knives, which are banned from planes, were able to go through security checkpoints. Davis said they will interview the officers who screened her baggage and order additional training to those officers if necessary. Davis could not say if there would be any punishment for the officers. "No single layer of security offers a 100 percent guarantee," David said. "Given the additional layers of security on the aircraft itself, these small knives did not present a risk." Davis cited the armed federal air marshals flying on thousands of flights. Past security lapses at Newark Liberty have gotten supervisors in hot water and prompted remedial training for screeners. There were at least two reported cases cases of knives slipping by in 2006, and screeners also failed to detect knives hidden by TSA officials in test runs. In October 2006, Newark Liberty screeners missed 20 of 22 fake explosives and other weapons that testers attempted to sneak past checkpoint and baggage screeners, according to federal security officials at the time. A report issued late last year by the U.S. Government Accountability Office -- the investigative arm of Congress -- found that investigators smuggled parts of bombs past TSA screeners at 19 airports during 2007. http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/04/flight_at_newark_airport_delay.html ************** TSB: No follow-up on Air Canada A320 emergency The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) has categorized a 14 April in-flight emergency of an Air Canada A320-200 (C-FTJQ) enroute from Montreal to Fort Lauderdale as a "class 5" event, the lowest priority in the agency's classification system. A spokesman for the TSB says the aircraft's crew received a hydraulic oil pressure fault for the aircraft's inboard spoilers about 30min into the flight and decided to return to Montreal after discussing the situation with airline maintenance personnel. Flight tracking data from FlightAware.com shows that the aircraft was flying at 36,000ft (10,973m) at the time. After receiving the fault, the crew slowed down and reversed course. On short final to Montreal, TSB says the pilot felt "some vibration" and declared an emergency" but the aircraft landed normally and there were no further problems. After a maintenance visit, the aircraft was put back into service, says the TSB. Audio from LiveATC.net however reveals that crew was less than confident during the final phases of the flight, telling controllers after landing that "it got very rough on the bottom end of the approach" and that they had "lost some of the controls". Pilots asked that the airport fire and rescue trucks follow the aircraft to the ramp "to err on the safe side." The Aviation Herald publication is reporting that TSB yesterday said the aircraft's ground spoilers had been deactivated during earlier maintenance and had not been restored to service before leaving maintenance, allowing the control surfaces to "flutter" after the landing flaps had been deployed on final approach. Air Canada could not be immediately reached for comment. As a class 5 event, the TSB says the incident will captured as a statistic in its database but no follow-up will take place. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news ************* Boeing Assembles First Set of 747-8 Wings Another Jumbo Heads For Assembly Boeing Company has completed major assembly of the first set of wings for the 747-8 Freighter. The new 135-foot 3-inch wings incorporate the latest aerodynamic technologies to fly farther and more efficiently. The advanced airfoil provides improved overall performance and greater fuel capacity. This latest family of the 747 jetliners meets airline requirements for a passenger airplane that serves the 400- to 500-seat market between the 555-seat Airbus A380 and the 365-seat Boeing 777-300 Extended Range airplanes, and a freighter that continues the leadership of the 747 Freighter family in the world cargo market. Boeing launched the airplane on November 14, 2005, with firm orders for 18 747-8 Freighters; 10 from Cargolux of Luxembourg and eight from Nippon Cargo Airlines of Japan. The combined list price value of the orders is approximately $5 billion. Boeing had been studying the market feasibility of a new 747 for some time, working with operators to establish their requirements for an incrementally larger 747 to continue the profitability of current 747 fleets. By working together with customers and applying the innovative new technologies of the 787 Dreamliner, Boeing was able to create the 747-8 family. In fact, the designation 747-8 was chosen to show the technology connection between the 787 and the new 747. Both the passenger and freighter versions of the 747-8 will allow operators to maximize their profitability. Seat-mile costs for the 747-8 Intercontinental are 13 percent lower than the 747-400, with 2% lower trip costs. The 747-8 Intercontinental is more than 10 percent lighter per seat than the A380 and consumes 11 percent less fuel per passenger. That translates into a trip-cost reduction of 21 percent and a seat-mile cost reduction of more than 6 percent compared to the A380. The 747-8 is the only large airplane that fits today's airport infrastructure, giving airlines the flexibility to fly to more destinations. The 747-8 will build on the current 747's capability to fly into most airports worldwide, using the same pilot type ratings, services and most ground support equipment. With a range of 14,815 km (8,000 nmi), the 747-8 Intercontinental can connect nearly any major city pair in the world. The 747-8 family provides new revenue opportunities that will allow airlines to maximize profits. For example, the passenger airplane has 51 additional seats to accommodate 467 passengers in a typical three-class configuration and also offers 26 percent more cargo volume. The 747-8 Freighter offers a range of 4,390 nmi and has 16 percent more cargo volume than the 747-400, which allows it to hold seven additional pallets with the same nose-door loading capability, industry-standard 10-ft-high pallets and real-world cargo density capability at 9.9 lb/cu ft. FMI: www.boeing.com aero-news.net *************** Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC