A community portal about Airbus A300 with blogs, videos, and photos. According to Wikipedia.org: The Airbus A300 is a short to medium range widebody aircraft. Launched in 1972, it was the first twin-engined widebody in the world, and the...
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A community portal about Airbus A300 with blogs, videos, and photos. According to Wikipedia.org: The Airbus A300 is a short to medium range widebody aircraft. Launched in 1972, it was the first twin-engined widebody in the world, and the first aircraft created by the Airbus consortium of European aerospace companies, which is now fully owned by EADS. The A300 will cease production in July 2007. Freighter sales are to be fulfilled by a new A330-200F derivative.
Families of the 228 people who died when an Air France jet airliner crashed off Brazil's northeast coast in June held a private memorial service Saturday at an ocean overlook in Rio de Janeiro. European relatives of those who perished on flight AF 447 as it was flying from Rio to Paris arrived Friday on a chartered Air France plane. They met Brazilian kin to pay respects at a new memorial erected in Rio's upmarket beach-side suburb of Leblon. A junior French minister, Alain Joyandet, in... Read Full Story
Two Australian pilots have been suspended for preparing to land a passenger plane without the correct landing gear, in what air safety investigators Wednesday labelled a "serious incident". The Qantas flight from Melbourne was forced to do a second lap above Sydney airport on October 26 after a cockpit alarm went off as the Boeing 767 prepared to touch down, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said. "Passing 700 feet on approach into Sydney, the crew commenced a missed approach due... Read Full Story
ATLANTA (Reuters) - A U.S. lawyer filed suit against planemaker Airbus SA and many aerospace suppliers on Monday seeking unspecified compensation on behalf of survivors of eight of the 228 passengers who died when an Air France flight crashed off the coast of Brazil in June. The lawsuit said the plaintiffs, relatives of some of the dead from Air France Flight 447, have "suffered a loss of support" and other losses as a result of the deaths. The action was brought under the Illinois Wrongful... Read Full Story
In a strongly worded internal memo, Air France has warned its pilots to be more vigilant about safety procedures and upbraided those blaming flight equipment for the crash of Flight 447 into the Atlantic in June. No one knows what caused the accident, which killed all 228 people aboard and was Air France's deadliest crash. Pilots' unions said Saturday the company is trying to distance itself from blame — and shift attention to the possibility of human error — as the investigation drags on... Read Full Story
Airbus knew since at least 2002 about problems with the type of speed sensor that malfunctioned on an Air France passenger plane that went down in June, the Associated Press has learned. But air safety authorities did not order their replacement until after the crash, which killed all 228 people aboard. The tubes, about the size of an adult hand and fitted to the underbelly of a plane, are vulnerable to blockage from water and icing. Experts have suggested that Flight 447's sensors, made by... Read Full Story
Airbus knew since at least 2002 about problems with the type of speed sensor that malfunctioned on an Air France passenger plane that went down in June, the Associated Press has learned. But air safety authorities did not order their replacement until after the crash, which killed all 228 people aboard. The tubes, about the size of an adult hand and fitted to the underbelly of a plane, are vulnerable to blockage from water and icing. Experts have suggested that Flight 447's sensors, made by... Read Full Story
PARIS (Reuters) - European safety officials have ordered checks on certain Airbus speed sensors supplied by U.S. manufacturer Goodrich, weeks after clamping down on alternative parts from France's Thales. Potentially faulty speed readings from sensors made by Thales are at the center of investigations into the crash of an Air France A330-200 jet in the Atlantic on June 1. In an airworthiness directive dated September 22, the European Aviation Safety Agency said there had been reports of... Read Full Story
PARIS (Reuters) - The head of Airbus said in remarks published on Friday that the European planemaker faces two further "difficult" years and does not rule out making further production cuts if necessary to adjust to demand. "I certainly cannot exclude that we will cut back production even more," Chief Executive Tom Enders told the Wall Street Journal in an interview. "I think we still have two difficult years ahead of us." Airbus last year suspended plans to increase production of its top... Read Full Story
PARIS (Reuters) - France wants to launch an expanded international effort to find the missing wreckage and flight recorders of the Air France jet which crashed in the Atlantic in June, the country's top crash investigator said on Monday. Around a thousand fragments of the Airbus A330 which crashed on June 1, killing 228 people, have been examined but most of the aircraft is still missing and it is still too early to say definitely what caused the crash, he said. "We are going to see how we... Read Full Story
Air France Flight 447 slammed into the Atlantic Ocean, intact and belly first, at such a high speed that the 228 people aboard probably had no time to even inflate their life jackets, French investigators said Thursday in their first report into the June 1 accident. Likening the investigation to a puzzle with missing pieces, lead investigator Alain Bouillard said that one month after the crash, "we are very far from establishing the causes of the accident." Problematic speed sensors on the... Read Full Story