All six people on board an Airbus H125 (AS350B3e) civilian helicopter that crashed in northern Norway on Saturday afternoon have died, the police reported on Sunday. According to reports, the helicopter was operated by the Norwegian company Helitrans. There were five passengers from Norway, all in their early twenties, plus a Swedish pilot. One survivor found at the crash site southwest of Alta later passed away at the hospital.
The crash occurred in Skoddevarre, near Alta, Finnmark. The helicopter was operating local sightseeing flights during the “Høstsprell” local music festival.
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Daimler has cut its earnings outlook for this year after lifting provisions for issues related to its diesel vehicles by “a high three-digit million euro amount”, the carmaker said on Sunday.
Group earnings before interest and tax for 2019 are now expected to be at last year’s level. Previously, the carmaker had expected the figure to be “slightly higher”.
The revision is related to an increase in expected expenses linked to “various ongoing governmental proceedings and measures with regard to Mercedes-Benz diesel vehicles,” the company said.
A spokesman declined to elaborate on the nature of those issues.
However, Sunday’s profit warning follows news over the weekend that Daimler must recall 60,000 Mercedes diesel cars in Germany after regulators found that they were fitted with software aimed at distorting emissions tests.
The transportation ministry said it was expanding its investigation into further models.
The company also said it was reducing its forecast for the return on sales for Mercedes-Benz vans.
It now sees a return between minus 2% and minus 4%, below its previous forecast of a return on sales of 0% to 2%.
BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Hungarian rescue officials said there was little chance of finding survivors after a boat with South Korean tourists on board sank on the Danube River in Budapest, with seven people confirmed dead and 21 missing.
The boat was cruising when it collided with a larger luxury passenger boat during a rainstorm on Wednesday evening, causing it to capsize and sink with 33 South Korean tourists and tour guides and two Hungarian crew aboard.
“I wouldn’t say there is no hope, rather that there is a minimal chance (of finding survivors),” Pal Gyorfi, a spokesman for the Hungarian national ambulance service, told the M1 state broadcaster.
“This is not just because of the water temperature, but (also) the strong currents in the river, the vapor above the water surface, as well as the clothes worn by the people who fell in,” he added.
Police said the smaller boat turned on its side and sank within seconds of the collision under a bridge near Hungary’s parliament building.
They said a criminal investigation was under way to determine the cause of the accident. Police declined to say if the bigger vessel, the 135-meter (443 ft) Viking Sigyn, put out any signals for help.
Police said its investigation yielded evidence that raised personal responsibility, so it questioned the Viking Sigyn captain, a 64-year-old Ukrainian, as a suspect, and later moved to take him into custody for reckless misconduct in waterborne traffic leading to mass casualties.
Police said it initiated the formal arrest of the captain, identified as C. Yuriy from Odessa.
Officials said the hull of the Mermaid, a 27-meter (89-ft) double-decker river cruise boat, had been found on the riverbed a few hundred meters from its usual mooring point.
A crane ship docked near the wreck on Thursday in preparation for recovery operations and divers prepared equipment. Police said the rescue efforts were hampered by high water levels, strong currents and bad visibility.
“Those who were trapped in the hull or were stuck underneath can be lifted only once the wreckage is pulled out,” a police statement said.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban offered his condolences to Seoul. South Korean President Moon Jae-in said the authorities would work with the Hungarian government to investigate the cause of the accident.
“What’s most important is speed,” Moon said in Seoul.
Some South Korean relatives of those on board started to depart for Hungary. Several family members were seen at Incheon International Airport in Seoul on Thursday night.
South Korean rescue teams and officials including South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha also left for Budapest on Thursday. She will hold a news conference with Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto at 0730 GMT on Friday.
Reporting by Gergely Szakacs, Marton Dunai and Krisztina Than; Additional reporting by Hyonhee Shin, Joyce Lee, Do Gyun Kim and Minwoo Park in SEOUL; Editing by Jon Boyle, Ros Russell and Richard Chang
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – Searchers found the bodies of the last two Alaska seaplane crash victims on Tuesday evening, after a hunt through the debris and frigid waters following a mid-air collision that left a total of six people dead and 10 injured, officials said.
“The last two people were found. They were found deceased,” said U.S. Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Matthew Schofield.
The discovery of the bodies closes the search at the scene where the two seaplanes crashed after colliding over the inlet waters near Ketchikan, in southeastern Alaska, Schofield said.
Work at the crash site will now shift to an investigation into what led the two planes, which were ferrying Princess Cruises passengers on sightseeing expeditions, to strike each other and fall into the waters of George Inlet.
A team of 14 National Transportation Safety Board investigators has been sent to the site and divers will start working on Wednesday to pull up the wreckage of the two planes.
The two missing people, an Australian and a Canadian, were among 14 passengers from a Princess Cruises ship who boarded two seaplanes operated by separate tour companies in the town of Ketchikan on Monday, the cruise line said.
A 14-member team from the NTSB began investigating the crash on Tuesday and is unlikely to determine the cause during the week the team will be at the scene, NTSB board member Jennifer Homendy told a news conference.
Ten people survived but were injured in the collision, which took place over open water during daylight, the Coast Guard said. The dead include one of the pilots. The victims were not immediately identified.
Three of the injured were in serious condition and seven in fair condition, Dr Peter Rice, medical director of the PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center, told a separate news conference.
The water temperature off Ketchikan on Tuesday was 48 Fahrenheit, according to the National Weather Service. Expected survival time in 40-50F (4-10C) is one to three hours, according to the United States Search & Rescue Task Force website.
The investigators will be collecting information from the survivors, the Federal Aviation Administration, any other witnesses who might have been in the area, flight logs, training records and other sources, including the wrecked planes, Homendy said.
“We still have to recover the planes and then we have to look at those. It takes some significant work to really understand how the two came together,” she said.
All of the planes’ passengers arrived in Ketchikan on the cruise ship Royal Princess during a seven-day trip between Vancouver, British Columbia, and Anchorage, Alaska, Princess Cruises said.
Ten passengers and a pilot were aboard one float plane, a de Havilland Otter DHC-3, operated by Taquan Air. Four passengers and a pilot were aboard the second float plane, a de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver, run by Mountain Air Service of Ketchikan.
The crash site, at Coon Cove about 300 miles (480 km) south of Juneau, Alaska’s capital, lies near a tourist lodge that runs excursions to the nearby Misty Fjords National Monument.
Ketchikan-based Taquan Air said the plane was returning from a sightseeing tour of Misty Fjords when the crash occurred.
Reporting by Yereth Rosen in Anchorage; additional reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta and Barbara Goldberg in New York; Editing by Bill Tarrant, Cynthia Osterman and Leslie Adler
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Aviation Administration said on Tuesday it had convened a multi-agency Technical Advisory Board to review Boeing’s proposed software fix on the grounded 737 MAX.
The board consists of experts from the FAA, U.S. Air Force, NASA and Volpe National Transportation Systems Center that were not involved in any aspect of the Boeing 737 MAX certification. The board’s recommendations will “directly inform the FAA’s decision concerning the 737 MAX fleet’s safe return to service.”
The plane was grounded worldwide in mid-March after two Boeing 737 MAX crashes in October and March killed 346 people.
Boeing, which has yet to formally submit the software fix to the FAA for approval, did not immediately comment Tuesday on the new review.
Some in Congress have urged the FAA to conduct an independent review into the anti-stall system at the center of investigations into two deadly plane crashes before allowing the planes to resume flying.
The board known as TAB will assess Boeing’s proposed fix to the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), the FAA said.
“The TAB is charged with evaluating Boeing and FAA efforts related to Boeing’s software update and its integration into the 737 MAX flight control system. The TAB will identify issues where further investigation is required prior to FAA approval of the design change,” the FAA said.
The world’s largest planemaker, facing its worst crisis in years and the worldwide grounding of its top-selling jetliner, has said its software upgrade and associated pilot training will add layers of protection to prevent erroneous data from triggering MCAS.
The system activated in the Ethiopian Airlines crash in March and also during a separate Lion Air crash in Indonesia in October.
There are a number of other reviews ongoing, including a blue-ribbon committee appointed by Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao looking at the FAA’s aircraft certification process.
Federal prosecutors, the Transportation Department’s inspector general and lawmakers are investigating the FAA’s certification of the 737 MAX 8 aircraft.
A separate joint review by 10 governmental air regulators started last week and is expected to last about 90 days, but the FAA has said that a decision on ungrounding the plane is not contingent on that review being completed.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
We know lives depend on the work we do, and our teams embrace that responsibility with a deep sense of commitment every day. Our purpose at Boeing is to bring family, friends and loved ones together with our commercial airplanes—safely. The tragic losses of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 and Lion Air Flight 610 affect us all, uniting people and nations in shared grief for all those in mourning. Our hearts are heavy, and we continue to extend our deepest sympathies to the loved ones of the passengers and crew on board.
Safety is at the core of who we are at Boeing, and ensuring safe and
reliable travel on our airplanes is an enduring value and our absolute
commitment to everyone. This overarching focus on safety spans and
binds together our entire global aerospace industry and communities.
We’re united with our airline customers, international regulators and
government authorities in our efforts to support the most recent
investigation, understand the facts of what happened and help prevent
future tragedies. Based on facts from the Lion Air Flight 610 accident
and emerging data as it becomes available from the Ethiopian Airlines
Flight 302 accident, we’re taking actions to fully ensure the safety of
the 737 MAX. We also understand and regret the challenges for our
customers and the flying public caused by the fleet’s grounding.
Work is progressing thoroughly and rapidly to learn more about the
Ethiopian Airlines accident and understand the information from the
airplane’s cockpit voice and flight data recorders. Our team is on-site
with investigators to support the investigation and provide technical
expertise. The Ethiopia Accident Investigation Bureau will determine
when and how it’s appropriate to release additional details.
Boeing has been in the business of aviation safety for more than 100
years, and we’ll continue providing the best products, training and
support to our global airline customers and pilots. This is an ongoing
and relentless commitment to make safe airplanes even safer. Soon we’ll
release a software update and related pilot training for the 737 MAX
that will address concerns discovered in the aftermath of the Lion Air
Flight 610 accident. We’ve been working in full cooperation with the
U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of Transportation
and the National Transportation Safety Board on all issues relating to
both the Lion Air and the Ethiopian Airlines accidents since the Lion
Air accident occurred in October last year.
Our entire team is devoted to the quality and safety of the aircraft
we design, produce and support. I’ve dedicated my entire career to
Boeing, working shoulder to shoulder with our amazing people and
customers for more than three decades, and I personally share their
deep sense of commitment. Recently, I spent time with our team members
at our 737 production facility in Renton, Wash., and once again saw
firsthand the pride our people feel in their work and the pain we’re
all experiencing in light of these tragedies. The importance of our work
demands the utmost integrity and excellence—that’s what I see in our
team, and we’ll never rest in pursuit of it.
Our mission is to connect people and nations, protect freedom,
explore our world and the vastness of space, and inspire the next
generation of aerospace dreamers and doers—and we’ll fulfill that
mission only by upholding and living our values. That’s what safety
means to us. Together, we’ll keep working to earn and keep the trust
people have placed in Boeing.
Dennis Muilenburg Chairman, President and CEO The Boeing Company
BUCHAREST, March 14 (Reuters) – Romania’s Blue Air will make a decision on its order for 12 Boeing 737 MAX 8 jets only after an investigation into a fatal crash of one of the planes in Ethiopia at the weekend, CEO Marius Puiu told Reuters.
Puiu said his company was “monitoring the situation very carefully.”
“We
trust the world-wide precautionary suspension of flights, a decision
that puts civil aviation transport safety first,” said Puiu, adding the
first 737 MAX 8 plane was planned to arrive in Romania this summer.
“We
are in permanent contact with the manufacturer, with EASA (the European
Union’s aviation safety regulator) and the Romanian civil aeronautical
authority,” he said.
Currently, Blue Air operates 25 Boeing 737 series aircraft – 737-300, 737-400, 737-500, 737-700 and 737-800, with capacities ranging from 120 to 189 seats.
(Reporting by Radu Marinas; Editing by Mark Potter)
(Reuters)
– The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is investigating Southwest
Airlines Co for widespread failure to accurately track the combined
weight of checked bags loaded onto its jets, the Wall Street Journal
reported on Monday.
The
U.S. aviation safety agency’s year-long civil probe found systemic and
significant mistakes with employee calculations and luggage-loading
practices, resulting in potential discrepancies when pilots compute
takeoff weights, the Journal reported, citing government officials and
internal agency documents
The
FAA has not decided whether to impose fines or any other punishment,
the report cited people familiar with the investigation as saying.
The
inaccuracies ranged from a few dozen pounds to more than 1,000 pounds
(450 kg) in excess of what the paperwork indicated, sparking disputes
between the company and some agency inspectors about potential safety
consequences, the report said.
A
company spokeswoman said there was an open Letter of Investigation
(LOI), which is a common mechanism for the FAA to document and share
safety interests or concerns with an airline.
The
airline has not been issued fines and faces no enforcement action
regarding its weight and balance program, Southwest spokeswoman Brandy
King said.
“In
this case, the LOI addresses an issue that Southwest voluntarily
reported to the FAA last year and since that time, Southwest has
implemented controls to address weight and balance program concerns, and
shared those measures with the FAA,” King said.
The FAA said in a statement it initiated a probe against Southwest in 2018 regarding weight and balance performance data.
“Since
that time, the FAA has directed the development of a comprehensive
solution to the methods and processes used by Southwest Airlines to
determine this performance data,” it said in the statement. “The FAA
will not close its investigation until it is satisfied that Southwest’s
corrective actions are consistent and sustained.”
(Reporting by Rama Venkat in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Peter Cooney)
Nov 14 (Reuters) – The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is set to hold an investigative hearing on Wednesday about a midair incident in April during which an engine on a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 exploded over Pennsylvania, killing one passenger.
Dallas-based Southwest has been under intense scrutiny in the months since an engine on a flight headed from New York to Dallas blew apart, shattering a plane window, flinging shrapnel and killing passenger Jennifer Riordan, one of 149 people aboard.
The episode, which has raised concerns about the safety of similar engines, was the first fatality on a U.S. commercial passenger airline since 2009.
The all-day hearing in Washington will focus on the fan blade design and development history of the engine type that failed, a CFM56-7B made by CFM International, a transatlantic joint-venture between General Electric Co and France’s Safran SA, the NTSB said.
The hearing will also focus on engine fan blade inspection methods and engine fan blade containment design and certification criteria, the NTSB said.
Representatives from Chicago-based planemaker Boeing, CFM, and Southwest Airlines are due at the hearing.
The companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The hearing comes as Indonesian authorities investigate last month’s deadly Lion Air crash involving a newer version of Boeing’s best-selling single-aisle aircraft, the 737 MAX.
