American Eagle plans to appeal a Dallas jury's decision to award $10 million to a former pilot who said he was wrongfully terminated for refusing to fly in icing conditions. The airline said Michael LaGrotte was fired for his ``failure to follow procedures,'' and accused him of lying on his employment application regarding prior drug use and other infractions.
AOPA-Australia is coordinating a class-action suit against Mobil in the wake of that country's fuel contamination crisis in late 1999. The group is working with Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority and the oil giant to bring about a quick solution to the problem that resulted in an AD grounding nearly 5,000 piston aircraft. The suit stems from tainted fuel produced at Mobil's Victoria refinery.
Sikorsky's ongoing efforts to sell its new S-92 Helibus apparently have met with success, in the form of preliminary sales agreements with two Canadian operators. Cougar Helicopters of St. Johns, Newfoundland has signed a letter of intent to acquire up to five of the 19-passenger helicopters, while Vancouver-based Helijet has signed an agreement ``leading to the placement'' of an undisclosed number of S-92s into its airline operation.
We're victims of our own success -- speeding up the pace of business, I mean. It started with the Wrights. Trains, ships and cars weren't fast enough -- we had to have airplanes.
Litton Industries is selling its Weather Services International (WSI) subsidiary to privately held Landmark Communications for $120 million. WSI, which supplies aviation weather briefings under a service known as PILOTBrief, as well as weather forecasting for other industries, will remain in suburban Boston under current President Mark Gildersleeve. Landmark owns the Weather Channel, two television stations and other media interests, and is a WSI customer.
John Lawson, Bombardier Aerospace's president for business aircraft sales, has retired, but will continue to serve in what the manufacturer calls a ``senior advisory capacity.'' In announcing his retirement, Lawson cited the launch of the Global Express as the ``thrill of my career in aviation.'' Lawson is being replaced by Peter Edwards, Bombardier's senior vice president for international sales. Edwards has been with the company since 1995, when he joined as vice president for international sales for the Challenger and Global Express.
Danish regional SAS Commuter welcomes the first of 19 ordered Bombardier Dash 8 Q400s with a traditional ``christening'' by water cannon at the airline's Copenhagen facilities. The 76-seat aircraft averaged 360 knots on its flight from Bombardier's Toronto plant to Denmark, via Goose Bay, Labrador and Keflavik, Iceland. The Q400 received FAA certification in February, JAA certification in December 1999, and Transport Canada certification in June 1999.
Users of Microsoft's new Flight Simulator 2000 will see a couple of familiar aviation faces when they begin flying: John and Martha King. The husband and wife team appears in the ``getting started'' portion of the simulation software. John King says he hopes the software and a new video the school has produced for Microsoft help encourage more people to participate in general aviation.
Extex will now accept direct orders for parts it makes for the Allison 250 engines that power various light helicopters and turboprop aircraft. Called Extex-Direct, the new program is a response to supply-partner Aviall's signing of an exclusive, 10-year supplier arrangement with Rolls-Royce in November 1999. Previously, Aviall was the sole source of Extex-made A250 parts.
The FAA has certified UPS Aviation Technologies' MX20 multi-function display. The MX20 is intended to increase pilots' situational awareness, with ground proximity warnings and graphical representation of terrain and navigational aids. UPS says the MX20 also can display navigation data for IFR operations, thunderstorm detection system data and uplinked weather information, and is certified for ADS-B reports. The FAA will use the new unit on 130 aircraft in the Alaska Capstone program to demonstrate ADS-B.
Business aviation is much in the news in Silicon Valley, most recently in the well-publicized, unanimous decision by the Apple board of directors to give chairman Steve Jobs a Gulfstream V in recognition of the turnaround he engineered over the last two and one-half years.
Mercury Air Center plans to dedicate its new FBO facility at Burbank Airport (BUR) in California on March 10. The culmination of several years of planning and construction, the design incorporates a new terminal, a new hangar and more than one-half million square feet of ramp space.
As a result of an alliance with Echo Flight, Garmin International's GNS 430 and GNS 530 GPS/Comm units soon will be capable of providing NEXRAD weather radar data and e-mail service in flight. Using a new transceiver to interface with the GARMIN units, Echo Flight will provide current location weather, en-route weather and destination forecasts on a subscription basis. Service is planned for the second quarter. Price: $2,495, transceiver; $40/month (est.), subscription Garmin International 1200 E. 151st St. Olathe, Kan. 66062
Kestral Aviation has acquired Alma, Mich.-based Hansen Flying Service and XL Leasing. Hansen, an aircraft charter and management company, operates a Cessna Citation Bravo and a Citation 501.
Air Canada is planning to consolidate its regional airline subsidiaries -- Air Nova, Air Ontario and AirBC -- into a single carrier. Joseph Randell, Air Nova's president, will head the new entity. Canadian Regional Airlines will join the consolidated carrier if its sale does not go through, Air Canada says.
The largest pilot union is upset over a television network's use of cockpit voice recorder tapes from a fatal airline crash. In a January 18 program relating to the English language proficiency of air traffic controllers and pilots, ``Dateline: NBC'' broadcast the final words of the pilots of an American Airlines aircraft that crashed into a mountain near Cali, Colombia in 1995.
Edited by Paul RichfieldPaul Richfield, in Las Vegas
Conspicuous at this year's HAI convention -- a show best known for displays of the latest helicopter hardware -- was one of the earliest rotorcraft: the 1945 Gazda Model 100 Helicogyro. The brainchild of Antoine Gazda, an Austrian World War I flying ace who designed the Oerlikon 20mm cannon used by both sides in World War II, the Helicogyro em-ployed a number of advanced features.
Ibis Aerospace is pricing its proposed AE270P turboprop at $1,895,500. The pressurized, single-engine turbine can be configured to carry up to 10 passengers in commuter configuration or six to seven as a corporate aircraft. The AE270P is a joint venture of Ibis and Czech manufacturer Aero Vodochody. Ibis plans to display the aircraft at this year's Farnborough, Experimental Aircraft Association and NBAA shows. The AE270P will compete with such aircraft as the Pilatus PC-12 and New Piper's Malibu Meridian.
Edited by Paul RichfieldBy David Rimmer, in Las Vegas
Despite predictions of a moribund civil helicopter market to come, the recent Heli-Expo 2000 show in Las Vegas was the site of much commercial activity. Eurocopter logged the first U.S. sale of an EC155 twin-turbine helicopter, an order for eight AS350B2 AStars from the Los Angeles Police Department and several other orders from law enforcement, EMS and sightseeing operators.
Edited by Paul RichfieldBy Mike Vines, in Birmingham, England
British Aerospace (BAe) has begun flying its corporate shuttle BAe 146-100 in the livery of its newly created support arm, BAE Systems. Leased from British Aerospace Asset Management, the 66-seat jet is one of eight aircraft the company bases at Warton, Lancashire. The aircraft is configured with a double club-four seating arrangement forward, and 58 passenger seats in the rear.
NTSB members and investigators believe fatigue could be the most significant factor in human error, and, of course, human error is a causal factor in 80 to 100 percent of accidents depending on how you keep score. Interestingly, fatigue is a killer regardless of the transportation mode -- air, rail, highway or marine. In 1999, the NTSB issued Safety Report SR-99-01 in which it urged the FAA and other transportation oversight agencies to step up research and education on operator fatigue.
