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Germanwings Crash

Cockpit Recording Hoped To Unravel Germanwings Crash Riddle
Investigators have retrieved cockpit voice recordings from the Germanwings plane that crashed into the Alps and expect a preliminary read-out of their content in days. The development came as French President Francois Hollande, Germany's Angela Merkel and Spain's Mariano Rajoy visited the crash site in a remote French Alpine region to pay tribute to the 150 victims, mostly Germany and Spanish.
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Investigators arrive at Germanwings A320 crash site
Lufthansa has sent a team of pilots and technical experts to the site where a Germanwings Airbus A320 crashed yesterday, to support the air accident investigation effort. The safety pilot at Lufthansa's mainline operation, his counterpart at the budget subsidiary, an aircraft software expert from the group's IT division and a maintenance engineer have arrived at the location near the commune of Barcelonnette in the French Alps, said Germanwings chief executive Thomas Winklemann during a press conference in Cologne today.
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Commercial

Airbus raises stakes in move to divest Dassault
Airbus is accelerating its bid to sell off non-core holdings with the placement of a second tranche of shares in Dassault Aviation, taking its stake in the maker of Rafale fighters and Falcon business jets down to about 27%. The sale – of up to 1.61 million shares, amounting to up to 17.5% of Dassault's share capital for an expected €980 per share – could be sealed as early as Thursday 26 March, when bookbuilding closes. Earlier on 25 March, Airbus had announced that it would sell 1.38 million shares – about 15% of Dassault's share capital – with the subsequent increase understood to have been prompted by strong interest from institutional investors.
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Boeing looking to build research center in Atlanta
Boeing is looking at sites in Atlanta for a research center in partnership with Georgia Tech, sources say. Other aerospace companies with facilities in Georgia include Lockheed Martin and Gulfstream.
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Boeing S.C. machinists to vote on unionization in April
The National Labor Relations Board set an April 22 election date for Boeing Co. machinists in South Carolina to decide whether they want to be unionized, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said on Tuesday.
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Airlines

American, US Airways to merge frequent flier programs
American Airlines and US Airways plan to combine their loyalty programs on March 28. The two carriers merged in 2013, and members of US Airway's frequent flier program will be transferred to American's AAdvantage program. "Advantage has done a superb job with the merger," said Randy Petersen, former editor of InsideFlyer magazine.
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El Al Q4 Loss Widens After Gaza War
El Al's net loss widened in the fourth quarter after the summer conflict with Palestinian militants in Gaza hurt incoming tourism. Israel's flag carrier said on Wednesday its net loss in the quarter was USD$14.8 million from USD$3.7 million a year ago. Revenue fell 1.2 percent to USD$493 million as revenue from its cargo business fell 8.2 percent. El Al said tourism to Israel fell by 20 percent in the second half of 2014 in the wake of the Gaza fighting.
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Germanwings draws on external resources to operate schedule
Germanwings is operating 40 flights with aircraft and crews from Air Berlin, Lufthansa and TUIfly today. The Cologne-based Lufthansa subsidiary has chartered 11 aircraft from other airlines. Some crew members are unable to work due today as a result of grief and emotional effects from yesterday's crash of a Germanwings Airbus A320 in the French Alps, says the airline. Noting that some employees lost "good friends", it adds that it sympathises with the affected staff.
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Hawaiian Airlines estimates Q1 metrics
Hawaiian Holdings projected an improvement in its operating revenue per available seat mile for the first quarter. The parent company of Hawaiian Airlines, Hawaiian Holdings estimated a 1.5% to 3.5% drop in the metric.
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JetBlue steps up for cheerleaders after flight is canceled
Winthrop High School cheerleaders had just won a national championship in Myrtle Beach, S.C., but were stranded when their Spirit Airlines flight home was canceled. JetBlue Airways heard about the plight of the cheerleaders and stepped in to help. The carrier provided a van to transport the team to Richmond, Va., and then flew them home to Massachusetts.
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United Airlines aims to reduce costs at Okla. airport
United Airlines is cutting 79 union jobs at Will Rogers World Airport as part of a companywide effort to cut costs through outsourcing. Three management and two administrative staff positions in Oklahoma City are also part of the jobs cuts. The cuts affect United airport operations staff at Will Rogers, which will be handled by an outside contractor. The cuts will affect 34 United customer service workers and and 40 ramp workers at Will Rogers, according to a layoff notice the company sent to the Oklahoma Commerce Department.
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Airports

S.C. airport receives approval to upgrade IT system
As part of the ongoing terminal makeover at Charleston International Airport, project planners are updating the airport’s information technology system to accommodate potential expansion in the future. The Terminal Redevelopment and Improvement Program Committee, which helps oversee the terminal renovation project, approved a $385,000 change order Monday to distribute the IT system at locations throughout the airport. Original plans called for the IT system to be based on one central system. The decision to move equipment requires an additional cost in the design and implementation, according to Trip Committee Chairman Hernan Pena.
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Military

India accepts first upgraded Mirage 2000s
India’s first two Dassault Mirage 2000 fighters have completed extensive upgrade activity in France, with the conversion programme now to move to Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) in Bengaluru. Modified by Dassault and Thales at Istres air base, the programme’s lead aircraft were formally accepted on 25 March. Originally flown in the T/TH configuration for India, the pair – a single-seat fighter KF107 and a two-seat trainer KT201 – are now redesignated as I/TI models, respectively.
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Swedish air force receives its last Gripen C
Saab has delivered its final Gripen C ordered for the Swedish air force, with the fighter having been flown from its Linköping final assembly site to Kallinge air base near Ronneby on 19 March. Aircraft 39294 is now assigned to the air force’s F 17 wing at the base, which is located in southern Sweden.
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USAF starts researching helmet-mounted cueing for F-22
The US Air Force has moved a step closer to equipping the Lockheed Martin F-22 cockpit with a helmet-mounted cueing system. A market research study launched on 23 March by the Air Force Lifecycle Management Command begins a potentially multi-year acquisition effort to equip an air force fleet consisting of about 180 F-22s, including about 150 combat-coded aircraft.
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General Aviation

Daher opens new North American TBM headquarters
Daher has moved the North American headquarters for its TBM aircraft business to a much larger facility nearby, in response to the growing demand for new aircraft after-sales support for its high-speed single-engined turboprop from within its largest market. The new base in Pompano Beach, Florida boasts 3,000m2 (32,000ft2) of hangarage, compared with less than 1,000m2 at its former home in Fort Lauderdale. “We will able to handle eight TBMs at a time now and improve our maintenance offering to include avionics upgrades and full aircraft overhaul,” says Daher.
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Aviation Quote

Buddy of mine once told me that he'd rather fly a jet than kiss his girl. Said it gave him more of a kick.

— Jerry Connell, in the 1951 movie Air Cadet

On This Date

---In 1859…1st sighting of Vulcan, a planet thought to orbit inside Mercury.

---In 1922... One of the first small commercial transport aircraft built upon experience from passenger flying and the requirements of airline operators, makes its first flight from Edgware, near London. The 10-seat passenger D. H. 34, with a top speed of 128 mph and a cruising speed of 105 mph has a range of 365 miles.

---In 1931…Swissair is formed after a merger between Balair and Ad Astra Aero, and would last for just over 73 years.

---In 1934... Piloted by John Lankester Parker and with three passengers on board, the first landplane derivative of the Short Kent flying boat takes off to the air for the first time. Named Scylla (G-ACJJ), the big biplane is followed by Scyrinx (G-ACJK) for the busy Imperial Airways routes into continental Europe.

---In 1936… 200" telescope lens shipped, Corning Glass Works, New York-Cal Tech.

---In 1938... Arthur Clouston and Victor Ricketts land their D. H. 88 Comet Australian Anniversary at Gravesend in Kent, England to complete a 26,500-mile flight from England to New Zealand and back in a record 10 days 21 hours.

---In 1950…A North American B-25 Mitchell that was converted to an executive transport configuration and being flown around the country to promote possible sales, breaks-up in midair, presumably due to severe weather conditions. All 6 people on the aircraft perish.

---In 1950…First flight of the Douglas XA2D Skyshark.

---In 1955…Pan am Flight 845/26 ditches into Pacific Ocean off of the Oregon coast after its #3 engine failed. The Boeing 377 Stratocruiser (N1032V) experiences the difficulty after departing Portland International, and floats in the water for two hours, until the USS Bayfield arrives for rescue. Of the 19 on-board, 4 die.

---In 1958…The United States launches its third satellite, Explorer III.

---In 1969… Soviet weather satellite Meteor 1 launched.

---In 1971…A JamAir Douglas DC-3 (VT-ATT) collides with terrain after failing to follow the prescribed flight plan, killing all 15 occupants. The crash site is located after 6 days.

---In 1971…First flight of the CASA C.212 Aviocar.

---In 1979…An Interflug Ilyushin IL-18 (DM-STL) overruns the runway in Luanda, Angola, killing all 10 occupants after slamming into the ILS localizer antenna.

---In 1987… NASA launches Fltsatcom-6, it failed to reach orbit.

---In 1989…Binter Canarias commences operations.

---In 1989…Austrian Airlines begins international flights for the first time in almost two decades on a flight from Vienna to New York’s JFK on an Airbus A310 (OE-LAA), aptly named “New York”.

---In 1991…Singapore Airlines Flight 1117, an Airbus A310 (9V-STP), is hijacked by four male passengers, who demand the release of Asif Ali Zardari, who today is the Pakistani President. After 8 hours and saying they are five minutes away from killing a hostage every ten minutes, commandos storm the aircraft and kill all four hijackers with no other fatalities.

---In 1992…First flight of the Saab 2000.

---In 1996…Pace Airlines is founded after approval from the FAA and the US Dept. of Transportation. Their operation would last until they suspend operations on September 11, 2009.

---In 2001…A Merpati Nusantara Airlines Fokker F-27 (PK-MFL) crashes on landing during a training flight after completing 8 touch-and-go’s throughout the day. The aircraft mysteriously banks to the right and struck the ground moments from touching down.

---In 2005…West Caribbean Airways Flight 9955, crashes a few hundred feet from the end of the runway after departure from Providencia-El Embrujo Airport in Colombia, killing 9 of the 14 aboard. The Let 410 Turbolet’s #1 engine failed near V1 speed, and the aircraft impacts the ground at a 40-degree inverted angle after failing to climb.

---In 2006…In Hooters Air (operated by Pace Airlines) ends service to both Orlando and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

---In 2009…An Arrow Air McDonnell Douglas DC-10 loses engine parts while flying over Manaus, Colombia. Twelve houses are damaged and the aircraft safely lands at El Dorado International Airport. No fatalities or injuries are reported.

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