Word: aircrafting
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...Aircraft makers are adding improved safety equipment of their own. Boeing is developing a wind-shear detector that it will install on new jetliners starting this summer. The device includes a warning voice that proclaims, "Wind shear! Wind shear!" once the plane enters the deadly turbulence, and provides guidance on how to respond. Boeing is also working with the FAA and United on a program to teach crews to cope with wind shear more effectively...
...vital equipment. Nonetheless, flyers have raised objections to practices at some U.S. locations. The Airline Pilots Association has asked Los Angeles officials to stop allowing planes to take off with the wind, a practice the group considers dangerous. It argues that the procedure may make it harder for the aircraft to gain altitude. Federal authorities rejected the pleas and have approved taking off downwind for night flights...
Passenger cabins are also becoming safer. Under FAA orders, all U.S. airlines will equip their fleets with more fire-retardant seat cushions over the next two years. By next spring the aircraft will have improved fire extinguishers and smoke detectors, and by year's end they will get emergency floor markings designed to enable passengers to escape dark, smoke-filled planes. Still more improvements are on the way. The FAA plans this week to require airlines to carry medical kits for any doctors on board to use in emergencies...
...whole, the air-transport system can be proud of a fine safety record. The scheduled airlines of the Western world have suffered 138 fatal accidents in the past 25 years while flying 135 million aircraft hours--a rate that works out to one accident for the industry for every 978,000 hours in the air. Most planes are well maintained and skillfully operated. Yet there is room for improvement. Says C.O. Miller, president of System Safety, a Virginia consulting firm that has frequently been critical of airline practices: "Overall, I would say that the general quality of aviation...
Loud outcries greeted Mulroney's decision last month to sell De Havilland Aircraft of Canada, Ltd., the unprofitable manufacturer of the Dash-8 commuter aircraft, to the Boeing company. Workers and leaders of both opposition parties would have preferred to see the government find a Canadian buyer for the company. Quebecers protested when the government allowed Ultramar, a British owned oil firm, to close down a Montreal refinery. Suzanne Blais-Grenier, who had already been demoted from her post as Environment Minister, used the controversy as an excuse to resign...