Planes // Current TV

FedEx Cargo Plane Crashes in Japan

A FedEx cargo plane crashed on landing at Tokyo's Narita International Airport... more

toreyray
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3 years ago
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1 comment

Airlines lose million bags each year

One million passengers' bags are now being lost by airlines every year.

ClareW
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3 years ago
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Watch 24 Brilliant Hours of U.S. Flights

The map displays the flight paths for more than 205,000 aircraft the FAA tracked on... more

dank420
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3 years ago
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Easyjet flight "within seconds" of crashing

It has been reported that an Easyjet plane came within seconds of crashing into... more

ClareW
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3 years ago
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FAA fines Southwest Airlines $7.5 million in safety violations

Southwest Airlines will pay a fine of $7.5 million for flying planes that had missed critical safety checks — $2.5 million less than government regulators initially ordered.

The agreement announced Monday by the Federal Aviation Administration also gives the Dallas-based airline nearly two years to pay the fine in three installments of $2.5 million each. The first installment is due in 10 business days from the signing of the agreement.

Last year the FAA ordered Southwest to pay $10.2 million, which would have been the largest fine in the agency's history. The airline protested the fine and had been in negotiations with FAA for the past year.

The largest fine against an airline by FAA remains a $9.5 million penalty against Eastern Airlines in 1987 that wasn't fully paid because the airline went bankrupt. The $7.5 million settlement agreement with Southwest marks the next largest, FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said.

The airline was fined for flying 46 airplanes on 59,791 flights without performing mandatory inspections for fuselage cracks. The planes, mostly Boeing 737s, carried an estimated 145,000 passengers.

Federal investigations revealed that FAA's cozy regulatory climate with airlines led to the suppression of whistle-blower complaints against Southwest. Once uncovered, the complaints led to stepped-up inspection efforts of all carriers' maintenance records and hundreds of planes being grounded in early 2008.

The settlement agreement also requires Southwest to pay an additional $7.5 million if it does not accomplish 13 safety-related steps, including:

Increasing by eight the number of on-site technical representatives the airline has at companies that perform major maintenance on its airplanes.
Allowing FAA inspectors improved access to information used for tracking maintenance and engineering activities.
"This agreement furthers aviation safety by requiring important improvements to the airline's safety program. Some of those safety measures exceed FAA regulations," said FAA Acting Administrator Lynne A. Osmus.

Southwest said in a statement: "This settlement with the FAA will allow us to focus on safety going forward, rather than on issues that are behind us and that have since been addressed. "

I'll be flying Delta...Southwest Airlines will pay a fine of $7.5 million for flying planes that had missed... more

AwesomeJosh
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3 years ago
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Pilots landing at Seattle-Tacoma airport report lasers

Pilots on 12 jetliners landing at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport reported a... more

nazbags
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3 years ago
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Calculate and offset the environmental cost of your travel

WWF Travel Helper, developed by Swiss firm routeRANK, will help you to make the right... more

alternativechanneltv
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3 years ago
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Planes, Flying and Aviation

All About planes, flying, aviation. A growing database of planes and flying. Theory of... more

aviationearth
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3 years ago
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0 comments

Baby chimp flies on commercial jet

A baby chimpanzee was a passenger on a recent commercial flight from Birmingham to... more

ClareW
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3 years ago
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7 comments

Dude, wheres our engine?

Crews searching the frigid, murky Hudson River for debris from US Airways Flight 1549... more

KefKef
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3 years ago
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2 comments

New Zealand veggie oil jet

A passenger jet powered in part by vegetable oil successfully completed a two-hour... more

NFUSA
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3 years ago
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13 comments

Don't mess with animals, they are cool dudes.

So me and my roommate have been going back and forth with the idea of getting one of... more

BenDorries
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3 years ago
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2 comments

Pentagon closer to air laser wars

The Pentagon has launched first tests of laser-firing planes, furthering the US... more

purplefox
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3 years ago
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10 comments

Military Aircraft Boneyards

The 3rd largest Air Force in the world is sitting here on the ground. It's also the only U.S. Air Force unit that actually makes a profit. It's difficult to understand the size of the Boneyard and the number of aircraft stored there. Simply the precision in the way the aircraft are parked is impressive. Of course, the important thing to remember is that they are all capable of being returned to service ever needed.

The US Air Force AMARC (Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center), is the central repository for all US military aircraft that are pulled out of service and put into storage. The most recent fleet to arrive at AMARC is the F-14 Tomcat, the former front-line Navy carrier plane, which has been all but retired these days. Other aircraft that are arriving in quantity are the C-141 Starlifter and the A-10 Warthog. Beyond that, you will see just about every kind of airplane that the military has flown since WWII. Even some very new aircraft are in storage. For example, a few B-1 bombers have been pulled from front line duty, some went to the Air National Guard, others went to AMARC. Congress is now considering pulling those B-1 back into front line service. The most dramatic use of AMARC was the B-52 fleet reduction to meet the terms of the SALT treaties. Hundreds of the giant B-52 bombers were set out in the desert. A huge guillotine was used to chop off the wings, then chop the fuselage into pieces. The parts were then piled up neatly and left in place for months to allow Soviet satellites to verify the destruction of these strategic bombers.

AMARC is located on the grounds of Davis Monthan Air Force Base near Tucson, Arizona. The base itself is not open to the general public. However, there is a road that circles the perimeter of the base and allows a pretty good view of the stored aircraft. There is also a highway that crosses the base, with either an overpass or underpass that allows for a good view. The Pima Air & Space Museum is located just south of the base. This museum has a large collection of historic aircraft that were rescued from AMARC. The museum offers a weekly tour of the AMARC storage area. Oh, and you may want to contact the museum for hours and reservations since the tour times and rules change with the terrorism threat level.The 3rd largest Air Force in the world is sitting here on the ground. It's also... more