Airplane Safety

The Kiwis aren't the only airline workers with a sense of humor. In the last few years, Air New Zealand has produced several quirky airplane safety videos featuring nude flight attendants, fitness guru Richard Simmons and characters from the "Lord of the Rings" movies. Quiz: Test your knowledge about airport security Last month, Delta Air Lines unveiled its own humorous safety videos, apparently the first by a major U.S. airline. The Delta videos include a robot passenger that turns itself off before takeoff, a warning sign prohibiting playing squash onboard and a passenger with two left feet, among other gags.

The Kiwis aren't the only airline workers with a sense of humor. In the last few years, Air New Zealand has produced several quirky airplane safety videos featuring nude flight attendants, fitness guru Richard Simmons and characters from the "Lord of the Rings" movies. Quiz: Test your knowledge about airport security Last month, Delta Air Lines unveiled its own humorous safety videos, apparently the first by a major U.S. airline. The Delta videos include a robot passenger that turns itself off before takeoff, a warning sign prohibiting playing squash onboard and a passenger with two left feet, among other gags.

The death of an infant in July's airliner tragedy at Sioux City, Iowa, has revived an emotional debate about the safety of the 9,000 babies who fly on U.S. airlines each day. Though accidents are rare and most infants fly on laps without mishap, babies who do so are especially vulnerable in a crash. The force of gravity builds in a crash, turning a tiny child into an 100-pound weight, making it almost impossible for a mother's arms to hold a child.

  Those Kiwis at Air New Zealand are at it again. In the past, they have produced airplane safety videos featuring nude flight attendants, fitness guru Richard Simmons and a plane full of rugby players. Air New Zealand unveiled last week a new video staring the characters - hobbits, wizards, elves, dwarfs and orcs - from "The Lord of the Rings" movies, which relied on New Zealand for most of the outdoor scenery. The video even includes a quick appearance by the films' director, Peter Jackson.

The problems with JetBlue Flight 292 marked at least the seventh time that the front landing gear of an Airbus jet has locked at a 90-degree angle, forcing pilots to land commercial airliners under emergency conditions, according to federal records. No one has been injured in the incidents, which span about a decade. There are more than 2,500 planes from the Airbus 320 family, which includes the Airbus 318, 319 and 321 models, in operation worldwide.

Piper Aerostars, like the one that crashed near John Wayne Airport on Friday, have had a history of engine-failure accidents during takeoffs and can be an unforgiving aircraft in the hands of an inexperienced pilot, according to an aviation magazine specializing in private aircraft. The Aviation Consumer said the Piper Aerostar has the highest accident rate among similar twin-engine small aircraft: with a fatal accident rate of 3.8 accidents per 100,000 hours of flight.

Dutch researchers have developed a new laminate for aircraft that is lighter and stronger than aluminum and should improve airplane safety, the Technical University at Delft announced. Aramide Aluminum Laminate, or ARALL, has been tested by Dutch aircraft maker Fokker and was found to withstand stress better than aluminum materials now in use.

When the engines of a Delta Airlines jet were inadvertently cut off shortly after takeoff from Los Angeles International Airport, sending the plane into a terrifying fall, it may not have been the first time a Boeing 767 pilot made the same mistake, a Federal official indicated Saturday. Ted Lopatkiewicz of the National Transportation Safety Board said by telephone from Washington that both engines of a United 767 shut down after takeoff in San Francisco on March 31, 1986.

In the second accident in little more than a year, a V-22 Osprey crashed Monday as it approached an airfield at the Marine Corps base at Quantico, Va., where it was to undergo flight tests with Marines aboard. The accident casts further doubt on the fate of the hybrid aircraft that has been the object of endless wrangling between Congress and the Defense Department. Marine Corps officials said that the aircraft carried seven people, including several Marines. All were presumed dead.

Monday's crash of an Alaska Airlines MD-83 jetliner marred the record of one of the most widely used aircraft types in the world, a twin-engine jet that has established a solid safety history. Alaska's upkeep of its MD-80 series aircraft has been the subject of a probe by a federal grand jury in San Francisco, and the Federal Aviation Administration last year examined whether Alaska executives falsified records to cover up faulty maintenance of MD-80s. Boeing Co.'

The two north runways at Los Angeles International Airport are "extremely safe" and will remain so even at projected 2020 traffic levels, a panel of six professors said in a report released Friday. The panel said that while other proposals, including widening the distance between the two runways, might make taking off and landing safer, "the risk is so low, reducing the risk by a substantial percentage is of limited practical importance." Five previous studies, performed by groups affiliated with the airline industry, concluded the airport should reconfigure the runways to provide an extra cushion of safety.

As if baggage, security and traffic aren't enough of a hassle for the thousands expected to fly in and out of Raleigh-Durham International Airport this holiday weekend, here's one more thing to worry about: coyotes on the runway. Airport officials have noted a marked increase in recent months in the number of coyotes crossing the paths of taxiing airplanes. The critters can wreak havoc, causing delays in takeoffs and landings. In September, an American Eagle jet struck a coyote on a runway.

The first officer of the Northwest Airlines jet that missed its destination by 150 miles said he and the captain were not sleeping or arguing in the cockpit, but he wouldn't explain their lapse in response and the detour. "It was not a serious event, from a safety issue," pilot Richard Cole said late Friday at home in Salem, Ore. "I would tell you more, but I've already told you way too much." Air traffic controllers and pilots had tried for more than an hour Wednesday night to contact the Twin Cities-bound flight.

White-knuckle airline passengers who are already shaken by news that two Northwest Airline pilots are under investigation for overshooting a Minneapolis airport after possibly nodding off, won't want to hear this: Some pilots say cockpit catnaps happen. "Pilots on occasion do take controlled naps," said Barry Schiff, an aviation safety consultant and retired TWA pilot. "So this is not without precedent." Although the Federal Aviation Administration prohibits pilots from catching a few z's in the cockpit, several airline pilots say they are surprised such napping mishaps haven't happened more often, considering longer work schedules for pilots and advances in aviation that make planes easier to fly. The issue of cockpit siestas came under scrutiny this week after the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board announced they were looking into why Northwest Flight 188, from San Diego to Minneapolis, overshot its airport by 150 miles before turning around.

The sight of airline cabin crews trying to mollify enraged passengers has become all too common. But a recent Air India flight added a twist when crew members mid-flight started punching each other in front of startled passengers. Accounts of what happened differ now that everyone's back on the ground. Exactly who started the brawl and why got a bit lost in the clouds, though one flight attendant has accused a crew member of trying to molest her. What no one disputes is that with New Delhi-bound Flight IC-844 cruising at 30,000 feet over Pakistan around 4 a.m. Saturday, the cockpit and cabin crews broke into fisticuffs.

When the managing director of a small, trouble-prone Iranian airline won official permission in March to lease a couple of aging Russian-made airplanes, the country's small circle of aviation professionals gossiped about the strings he must have pulled to get the government's approval. And when one of the planes burst aflame on the runway in late July, killing the executive, Mehdi Dadpei, his son and 14 others, few in the industry were surprised. "Aria was famous for not adhering to safety standards for years," said an Iranian aviation industry insider, who spoke extensively to The Times on condition of anonymity.

An air traffic controller told federal investigators that last week's Los Angeles airport disaster occurred after she mistook a commuter plane on a taxiway for a similar SkyWest plane that was sitting on a runway, officials reported Thursday. The unidentified controller also told investigators in a three-hour interview Wednesday that she cleared a USAir Boeing 737 for landing on the same runway because she did not see the SkyWest plane.

Citing a series of recent accidents, the Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to ask for a review of airplane safety in the skies over the San Fernando Valley. Councilman Alex Padilla sponsored the motion, which asks the city airports department to meet with Federal Aviation Administration officials and the operators of Burbank Airport to determine if there are policy changes or other actions that can improve air safety.

State lawmakers passed measures Thursday to protect foreign-speaking business patrons and make life tough for waterfowl that imperil airline travelers. Worried that geese and jets don't mix, the Senate approved a bill that would give airports greater authority to avoid run-ins with game wardens if they need to kill birds that could interfere with jets. Meanwhile, the Assembly approved a measure that would prohibit restaurants and other establishments from refusing to serve patrons because they're speaking a different language.

Federal and local officials will unveil a new warning system today that is designed to stop runway incursions that for years have endangered planes taxiing to and from terminals at Los Angeles International Airport. The $7-million system relies on radar that is connected to status lights along a runway and eight taxiways deemed to have the highest risk for aircraft accidents.