March 2nd, the crew of a Singapore Airlines Boeing 747-400 freighter, registration 9V-SFK performing freight flight SQ7344 from Nairobi, Kenya to Amsterdam Schiphol, Netherlands, declared an emergency reporting a fire alert and automatic activation of the cargo fire suppression system and diverted to Munich, Germany.

The aircraft landed safely, and the crew remained on board while the emergency services checked the aircraft after which they could not determine if there has been any fire or not.

The airplane was subsequently towed off the northern runway and subject to a detailed inspection. As per Singapore Airlines, the airplane was carrying flowers, mangos, other fruit and vegetables. It appears that the emanations by the mangos caused the smoke detectors to trigger, resulting in a false alert.

The airplane was allowed to take off again and reached Amsterdam with a delay of approximately 8 hours.

In India, the mango is the king of fruits and thousands of tons are grown, sold, and consumed each year. The Alphonso mango is a prized export in markets as far as the United States. No reported problems with Indian mangos or their emanations.

May be the Dutch importer should buy Indian mangos instead of African ones.

Read the incident report at AVHerald.

A Northwest Airlines Boeing 747-400, registration N676NW performing flight NW2 from Manila, Philippines, to Tokyo Narita, Japan, with 408 passengers and 14 crew, was in a holding pattern near Chiba, 40nm south of Narita, about 30 minutes before landing with seatbelt signs turned on, when the airplane encountered severe turbulence and suddenly dropped from its assigned altitude of 15000 feet.

Image courtesy Lin Y.C.

A number of passengers, who had not fastened their seatbelts, were thrown out of their seats and hit the ceiling.

The crew reported about 2-3 injuries via radio, but did not declare emergency. The landing 30 minutes later at 12:19 local (03:19 GMT) was safe.

A total of 43 passengers were injured in the upset and were brought to hospitals. Initially reported two serious injuries turned out less severe. However, Japanese officials reported later, that one passenger received a serious injury (neck fracture).

Report by AVHerald

Over 20 years ago I watched a fascinating video on the Discovery Channel program Wings. I recorded the show on to VHS tape, but the tape lost its quality over the years. This program was re-christened as the "Great Planes" series.

Thanks to Jon at Flightblogger, I re-discovered my favourite video. On this the 40th anniversary of its first flight, I cannot offer a better tribute to the Boeing 747, the "Queen of the skies". The audio may be poor, but the sheer audacity, grit and achievements, of the folks at Boeing come out in this video. I hope you enjoy it, as much as I do.

Post your tribute via a comment.

Even as Boeing grapples with problems and assembles the first 747-8, it is quietly celebrating of the first flight of the 747 which took place today, 40 years ago, on Feb. 9, 1969.

With 1,412 delivered, the 747 launched the wide-body era and for nearly four decades has steadfastly remained the "Queen of the skies".

At Paine Field in Everett, Washington, on a cold day with snow on the ground and broken clouds overhead, thousands had gathered to watch.

The plane, built at the casual request of Juan Trippe of Pan American, by 50,000 Boeing people called "The Incredibles", who made aviation history by building the 747 -- the largest civilian airplane in the world at that time, two and half times bigger than any existing airliner.
-- in less than 16 months, was powered by newly developed fanjet engines by Pratt and Whitney.



26 airlines around the world including Air India, were the early adopters of the behemoth.

Stewardesses from the 26 early adopting airlines. Air India is 4th from left.

The 747 was flown on its maiden flight by test pilot Jack Waddell, co-pilot Brien Wygle, and flight engineer Jess Wallick.

Cockpit of a Boeing 747-230

As today, the program faced technical and schedule pressures. Even though the test program was eight weeks behind schedule, grit, determination and a grueling 1,449 hours test effort, involving five aircraft, ensured that deliveries to launch customer Pan American began on time, in December 1969.

Even the most normally unfazed of media icons gushed "The Giant Takes Off".

Congratulations Boeing.

Images courtesy Wikipedia and Boeing.

An era came to its end as Australian carrier Qantas retired its last Boeing 747-300.

The fleet of six, which entered service between 1984 and 1987, clocked more than 524,000 flying hours.

Along with the retirement of the fleet, comes another retirement -- flight engineers. Modern airliners with their "glass cockpits" have eliminated the flight engineers' station. Qantas will no longer have need for flight engineers in any of its remaining aircraft's cockpits.

The last serviceable Qantas B747-300 VH-EBW, will depart Sydney today at 1900 local (AEDT) 0800 GMT bound for the jets graveyard in Marana, Arizona, USA, pending sale.

Farewell.

Air New Zealand, the launch customer, of the much awaited, and much delayed, Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, in a statement announced

"Boeing confirmed yesterday a further 12 month delay could be expected with the first 787-9 aircraft to be delivered to Air New Zealand in the first quarter of 2013,"

Air New Zealand has eight 787-9 on order. Originally deliveries were expected to commence towards the end of 2010. Thanks to the various problems at Boeing, deliveries were delayed to early 2012, and now 2013.

Boeing photo

Jon Ostrower of FlightBlogger, explains in an analysis of an internal Airbus dossier, the 787-9 is the killer application for the Dreamliner project. Many customers are expected to switch to, or order, 787-9's.

Naturally, the airline is incensed. Both Reuters and Bloomberg report, the airline is seeking compensation from Boeing.

On the positive side, Boeing's maintenance plan, a key component of the Dreamliner's economic positioning, has been approved by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Boeing has been promoting the 787 as

requiring less maintenance, less often than comparably sized jets, which allows the 787 to be more available for revenue service for airlines, leading to significant financial and scheduling opportunities for airlines.

In related airline news, Air New Zealand announced it will proceed with its bio-fuel test, along with Boeing, on December 30th, originally scheduled for December 3rd, but delayed due to the crash of its Airbus A320 off the coast of France.

As per the announcement

The two-hour test flight is scheduled to take off from Auckland airport on Tuesday morning 30 December, with the jatropha biofuel blend powering one of the Air New Zealand Boeing 747-400's Rolls-Royce RB211 engines.

The pilot in command of the test flight is Air New Zealand 747 Fleet Manager Captain Keith Pattie. During the flight Captain Pattie and his crew will undertake a number of fuel tests confirming and measuring the performance of the engine and fuel systems at various altitudes and under a variety of operating conditions.

The test flight is a joint initiative between Air New Zealand, Boeing, Rolls-Royce and UOP, with support from Terasol Energy, as part of commercial aviation's drive for more sustainable air travel for future generations.

Read more Bangalore Aviation articles on the 787, bio-fuel, Air New Zealand, Boeing.

Deliveries delayed 9 months; deliveries of 747-8 Freighter to begin third quarter of 2010; deliveries of 747-8 Intercontinental passenger model to begin second quarter of 2011. Company working with customers to minimize disruption.

Boeing [NYSE: BA] today announced an adjusted schedule for production and delivery of the 747-8 Freighter and Intercontinental airplanes.

Source Boeing via Bloomberg
The delays have been caused by delays in the supply chain due to design changes, and the recent Machinists' strike which halted production at the company's factories.

Boeing had planned to ship its 787 Dreamliners to customers starting in May and then divert those engineers to the 747-8 program, its biggest plane and a competitor to the Airbus A380 superjumbo.

That plan has gone up in smoke since the Dreamliner, is already more than 15 months behind schedule, and the 57-day machinists strike, has only added to Boeing's woes.

As if that were not enough, engineers are in contract talks this week and are also threatening a walkout.

At best, deliveries have been pushed back 9 months. Delivery of the first 747-8 Freighter will move from late 2009 to the third quarter of 2010. The first 747-8 Intercontinental passenger jet delivery moves from late 2010 to the second quarter of 2011.

"Our entire team has worked hard to mitigate growing schedule risk on this program but have been unable to overcome the collective impact of work statement increases to the original design, a tight supply of engineering resources, and the recent Machinists' strike," said Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Scott Carson.

"The remaining work on the 747-8 program is well defined," said Ross R. Bogue, vice president and general manager -- 747 Program and Everett site. "This schedule adjustment provides the time we need to finish that work and bring both airplanes to market successfully for our customers."

This announcement has clearly impacted Boeing's stock prices, which are down 4.5% at the time of this story.

Qantas jumbo makes emergency landing after mid-air drama

Image from BBC News

MANILA (AFP) — A Qantas Boeing 747 flying to Melbourne made an emergency landing in Manila on Friday after a dramatic mid-air rupture that left a "gaping hole" in its fuselage, officials and passengers said.

Stunned passengers reported how the jumbo, which originated in London and made a stop in Hong Kong, plunged 20,000 feet (6,000) metres in an "absolutely terrifying" ordeal.

A Qantas spokeswoman said the plane, carrying 346 passengers and 19 crew, diverted to Manila where it was now undergoing inspection on the ground.

"There was a terrific boom, and bits of wood and debris just flew forward into first (class) and the oxygen masks dropped down," June Kane, a passenger from Melbourne, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"We were told that one of the rear doors, a hole had blown into it, but I've since looked at the plane and there's a gigantic gaping hole in the plane. "It was absolutely terrifying, but I have to say everyone was very calm," she added, speaking from the Philippine capital.

Qantas chief executive officer Geoff Dixon said initial inspections showed the aircraft had sustained a hole in its fuselage, and it was currently being inspected by engineers. He said the flight crew performed emergency procedures after oxygen masks were deployed and there were no reports of any injuries. Dixon said the Australian Transportation Safety Bureau and Civil Aviation Safety Authority had been notified.

Manila airport operations officer Ding Lima said the aircraft lost cabin pressure shortly after leaving Hong Kong bound for Melbourne. "The captain of the aircraft immediately called the (Manila) control tower for an immediate landing," Lima told local radio. "There is a big hole in the belly of the aircraft near the right wing about three metres in diameter," he added.

Flight QF30, which took off from Hong Kong at 9:00am (0100 GMT), had been due to arrive in Melbourne at 1145 GMT, according to the Qantas website. Lorena Dimaya, a Qantas assistant supervisor in Manila, said the aircraft had landed safely just after 11:00am local time and the incident had not been "life threatening." She said the plane had taken off from Hong Kong when it "encountered some technical problems and requested to be diverted to Manila, where it made an emergency landing."

Passenger June Kane said the problem seemed to centre on the baggage compartment of the plane. "I'm looking at the plane now and on the left-hand side, just forward of the wing, there's a gaping hole from the wing to the underbody," she said. "It's about two metres by four metres and there's baggage hanging out so you assume that there's a few bags that may have gone missing.

Passengers praised the crew for landing the plane safely. "We heard a very large bang, the oxygen masks came out. But the crew was very calm and everything was fine," said Phil Rescall, a 40-year-old man from England travelling to Australia for work. "I think we were all very lucky."

"The crew were terrific, they did a great job," another passenger, Brendan McClements, said. "Everyone gave them a round of applause as we landed."

Source : AFP