U.S. law firm seeks records from Malaysian Airlines, Boeing

Tue, Mar 25 21:45 PM EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Malaysian Airlines and Boeing Co are facing a potential lawsuit over the Beijing-bound flight that disappeared more than two weeks ago with 239 people on board, according to a law firm representing passengers' families. A petition for discovery has been filed against Boeing Co, manufacturer of the aircraft, and Malaysian Airlines, operator of the plane, Chicago-based Ribbeck Law said in a statement on Tuesday. The Boeing 777 vanished while flying to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia said on Monday that the missing jetliner had crashed into remote seas off Australia, citing satellite data analysis. Airline officials on Monday said all on board were presumed dead. The petition for discovery, filed in a Cook County, Illinois Circuit Court, is meant to secure evidence of possible design and manufacturing defects that may have contributed to the disaster, the law firm said. The court filing was not immediately available. The filing initiates a multimillion dollar lawsuit against the airline and Boeing by the passengers' families, the firm said. "We believe that both defendants named are responsible for the disaster of Flight MH 370," Monica Kelly, the lead Ribbeck lawyer in the case, said in the statement. The petition was filed on behalf of Januari Siregar, whose son was on the flight. Additional pleadings will be filed in the next few days against other potential defendants that designed or manufactured component parts of the aircraft that may have failed, Kelly said. Ribbeck is also asking that U.S. scientists be included in the search for wreckage and bodies, the firm said. A spokesman for Boeing declined comment. A spokesman for Malaysian Airlines could not immediately be reached for comment. Ribbeck is also representing 115 passengers in the crash of in San Francisco in July. The law firm's petition is asking the judge to order Boeing to provide the identity of manufacturers of various plane components, including electric components and wiring, batteries, emergency oxygen and fire alarm systems. It is also seeking the identity of the company or person who last inspected the fuselage and who provided maintenance. The petition also asks the judge to order Malaysian Airlines to produce information about crew training for catastrophic incidents, security practices, safety training and crew evaluations. (Reporting By Dena Aubin; Editing by Cynthia Osterman) ================== Dutch firm Fugro to lead search for MH370 off Australia Wed, Aug 06 13:23 PM EDT image By Lincoln Feast SYDNEY (Reuters) - Dutch engineering firm Fugro will lead the search of the Indian Ocean seafloor where missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 is believed to have crashed, hoping to unlock the greatest mystery in modern aviation. Australia on Wednesday awarded Fugro the lead commercial contract for the search, after months of hunting by up to two dozen countries revealed no trace of the missing Boeing 777. The jetliner, carrying 239 passengers and crew, disappeared on March 8 shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing. Investigators say what little evidence they have to work with suggests the aeroplane was deliberately diverted thousands of kilometers before eventually crashing into the Indian Ocean off the coast of Western Australia. The next phase of the search is expected to start within a month and take up to a year, focusing on a 60,000 sq km (23,000 square miles) patch of ocean some 1,600 km (1,000 miles) west of Perth. Australian Transport Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said Fugro was selected after "offering the best value-for-money technical solution" for the seafloor search. "I remain cautiously optimistic that we will locate the missing aircraft within the priority search area," he told reporters in Canberra. Fugro will use two vessels equipped with towed deep water vehicles carrying side scan sonar, multi beam echo sounders and video cameras to scour the seafloor, which is close to 5,000 m (16,400 ft) deep in places. The Dutch company is already conducting a detailed underwater mapping of the search area, along with a Chinese naval vessel. "We haven't completed the mapping, so we are still discovering detailed features that we had no knowledge of, underwater volcanoes and various other things," said Martin Dolan, the head of the Australian Transport Safety Board, which is heading the search. "We are finding some surprises as we go through." Malaysia will provide four vessels and gear to aid seafloor mapping and the search of the storm-lashed and isolated area. Truss said he would talk to his Malaysian counterpart later this month about sharing search costs. Australia has set aside up to A$90 million ($83.66 million) and estimates a 12-month search of the area will cost around A$52 million. The search is already the most expensive ever undertaken. China, which had 153 nationals on board MH370, has been heavily involved, providing ships, aircraft and satellite technology. One Chinese vessel will stay in the search area until mid-September, but Truss said China had shown no sign that it would cover any of the commercial search costs. Dozens of ships and planes scoured vast areas of ocean in the months after the plane disappeared but found only rubbish. The search was narrowed in April after a series of acoustic pings thought to be from the plane's black box recorders were heard near its last location shown by satellite data analysis. But officials now say wreckage from the aircraft was not in the area they had identified, requiring the search to be expanded and moved further to the southwest. Malaysia Airlines has been battered this year by the tragic unprecedented loss of two of its airliners, after Flight MH17 was shot down over a conflict zone in eastern Ukraine. With a long maritime history and seafaring expertise, Dutch companies are leaders in the field of complex, large-scale undersea search and salvage operations. (1 US dollar=1.0749 Australian dollar) (Additional reporting by Matt Siegel; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) ======================

Timeline: Boeing's 787 Dreamliner woes

Passengers eye legal action against Boeing, Asiana over crash Tue, Jul 16 20:52 PM EDT By Jessica Dye (Reuters) - Asiana Airlines Inc and Boeing Co are facing potential legal action by passengers who were on board a flight that crashed in San Francisco on July 6, killing three and injuring more than 180, according to U.S. court filings. The Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 had more than 300 passengers and crew members on board when it crashed while landing at San Francisco International Airport. The National Transportation Safety Board is currently investigating the causes of the crash. A petition for discovery has been filed against Boeing in Chicago court, where the airplane manufacturer is headquartered. The petition begins the legal process against the maker of the Boeing 777, according to a statement from Ribbeck Law Chartered, a law firm representing the passengers. The firm announced the petition, filed Monday, in a press release on Tuesday. The passengers are seeking design, manufacturing and safety information, as well as maintenance records and other relevant evidence, in order to determine legal liability for the crash, according to their lawyers. Similar requests may be filed against other companies, including Asiana Airlines and several unnamed makers of component parts, in the coming days, the law firm said. A spokesman for Boeing declined to comment. On Monday, South Korea-based Asiana Airlines was sued in federal court in California by a Korean woman, Younga Jun Machorro, and her son, who were passengers the Asiana Airlines flight. The lawsuit alleged that the Asiana flight crew committed "an extensive litany of errors and omissions" and were improperly trained and supervised, causing the crash. They are seeking at least $5 million in damages for "extreme bodily and mental injuries and economic damages" allegedly suffered as a result of the crash, according to the lawsuit. A spokesman for Asiana Airlines declined to comment. (Reporting by Jessica Dye in New York) ============ Fri, Jul 12 19:42 PM EDT (Reuters) - Boeing Co's 787 Dreamliner was set to be a game-changer for the commercial airplane industry as its use of lighter materials and new construction methods promised huge savings in fuel and maintenance costs. On Friday, a 787 Dreamliner operated by Ethiopian Airlines caught fire at Britain's Heathrow airport in a fresh blow for the U.S. planemaker. A series of delays and mishaps have plagued the aircraft since its launch in 2004: 2004 April 26 - Boeing launches the 787 Dreamliner, the first commercial jetliner to extensively use both lightweight carbon composite construction and powerful electrical systems with lithium-ion batteries. 2007 September - Boeing delays planned first flight of the 787 Dreamliner, citing out-of-sequence production work, including parts shortages, and software and systems integration arising from its new production technique. The company has outsourced Dreamliner production to about 50 suppliers from the United States and around the world. Boeing retrieves the completed components and assembles the aircraft in Everett, Washington. October 10 - Boeing delays first flight and deliveries of the 787 due to challenges in assembling the passenger jet. Deliveries are now slated to begin in late November or December 2008, versus an original target of May 2008. (http://r.reuters.com/sef69t) 2010 Nov 9 - A 787 test airplane is forced to make an emergency landing after fire breaks out in an electronics bay during flight trials. 2011 September - Japan's All Nippon Airways Co receives its first 787 Dreamliner, delayed from 2008. 2012 July - A General Electric Co engine on a 787 in North Charleston, South Carolina, breaks during a preflight test. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) stops short of grounding planes for inspections. December 4 - A United Airlines 787 is forced to make an emergency landing in New Orleans after experiencing electrical problems. December 5 - U.S. regulators ask airlines flying the 787 Dreamliners to make extra inspections to ensure the planes do not experience engine failure or fire due to a manufacturing fault in the fuel line. December 13 - Qatar Airways grounds one of its three 787s after finding the same electrical problem that affected the United flight. December 17 - United Airlines and Boeing confirm that a second plane in United's fleet of Dreamliners had suffered electrical problems. 2013 January 7 - A parked 787 operated by Japan Airlines catches fire at Boston Logan International Airport after a battery in an auxiliary power system explodes. January 8 - A second Dreamliner operated by Japan Airlines leaks fuel at Logan, forcing it to cancel its takeoff and return to the gate. January 8 - United Airlines finds the same wiring problem on one of its 787 jets that caused the January 7 fire on the Japan Airlines' jet, the Wall Street Journal reports. January 9 - Japan's ANA cancels a 787 flight scheduled for a domestic trip within Japan due to brake problems. January 11 - The U.S. Department of Transportation says the 787 will undergo a comprehensive review of its critical systems. January 13 - The Japan Airlines 787 that leaked fuel in Boston on January 8 experiences another, separate fuel leak while undergoing checks in Tokyo. January 14 - Japan's transport ministry launches an investigation into the cause of the fuel leaks on Japan Airlines' Dreamliner jets. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says it is analyzing the lithium-ion battery and burned wire bundles as part of its investigation of the January 7 Japan Airlines fire. January 15 - ANA grounds all 17 of its 787 jets after another aircraft is forced to make an emergency landing. Japan Airlines suspends all 787 flights scheduled to leave Japan. January 16 - The FAA temporarily grounds all 787s after the January 15 ANA emergency landing. Europe, Japan and India join the United States in grounding the jets. January 17 - Japan Transport Safety Board says the battery onboard the ANA flight was blackened and carbonized on the inside, Kyodo News reports. January 18 - Aviation safety officials wrap up their initial investigation of the badly damaged battery and say further checks could take a week to complete. Boeing halts deliveries of the jet. January 22 - U.S. Senate says it will hold a hearing in the coming weeks to examine aviation safety oversight and the FAA's decision to allow Boeing to use highly flammable lithium-ion batteries on board the 787. January 23 - Japanese regulators join their U.S. counterparts in all but ruling out overcharged batteries as the cause of recent 787 fires. January 24 - The NTSB says systems designed to prevent battery fire aboard the Dreamliner passenger jet did not work as intended. February 4 - Boeing asks the FAA for permission to conduct test flights of the 787 Dreamliner. February 6 - Boeing is working on battery design changes that would minimize fire risks on the 787 and could have the passenger jet flying again as soon as March, the Wall Street Journal reports. February 7 - U.S. agencies clear Boeing to restart test flights of the 787 in order to get more data on potentially faulty batteries. February 8 - Boeing warns two European airlines of delays in Dreamliner deliveries. March 12 - The FAA approves Boeing plan to certify a redesigned battery system on the 787 Dreamliner and will permit two aircraft limited flights to test it. April 19 - The FAA approves the revamped battery system for the 787 Dreamliner and allows Boeing to immediately begin making repairs to the fleet of 50 planes owned by airlines around the world. (Compiled by Sagarika Jaisinghani in Bangalore; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) =============== Boeing Dreamliner catches fire at London's Heathrow airport Fri, Jul 12 19:42 PM EDT 1 of 3 By Rhys Jones LONDON (Reuters) - A Boeing 787 Dreamliner operated by Ethiopian Airlines caught fire at Britain's Heathrow airport on Friday in a fresh blow for the U.S. planemaker whose new model was grounded for three months after one high-tech battery caught fire and another overheated. Boeing shares closed down 4.7 percent at $101.87, knocking $3.8 billion off the company's market capitalization after television footage showed the Dreamliner surrounded by firefighting foam at Heathrow. Heathrow briefly closed both its runways to deal with the fire which broke out while the aircraft was parked at a remote stand. There were no passengers aboard the plane. It was not clear if the fire was related to the batteries, which led to the grounding of the Dreamliner in January. Pictures from Heathrow showed an area just in front of the tail that appeared to be scorched. The Dreamliner's two batteries are in electrical compartments located low down and near the front and middle of the plane, while the visible damage to the Ethiopian plane appears to be on top of the fuselage, further toward the rear, according to video from the scene. (Graphic of key areas of the 787: http://link.reuters.com/zed69t) "A Boeing 787 Dreamliner suffered an on board internal fire," a Heathrow spokeswoman said. "The plane is now parked at a remote parking stand several hundred meters away from any passenger terminals." Former U.S. National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Mark Rosenker said the Heathrow incident was extraordinary news, coming so soon after the fleet had returned to service, but he cautioned against jumping to conclusions. "It's very early. No one knows where the fire started at this point," Rosenker told Reuters, adding it could be something as simple as a coffee pot left on in a galley. Boeing said it was aware of the fire and it had people on the ground working to understand the causes of it. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said it was in contact with Boeing. BIG BET The 787 is Boeing's biggest bet on new technology in nearly 20 years. It cost an estimated $32 billion to develop and Boeing plans to use hundreds of innovations such as its carbon-fiber composite skin and electrical system to enhance other jets. Boeing never disclosed the cost of the three-month grounding, but said it absorbed most of the expense in the first quarter while still posting a 20 percent rise in profit, and its shares are up 35 percent this year, even with Friday's loss. The plane which caught fire in London was the first of the 787 fleet to resume flight after the battery-related grounding. "This is terrible for the Dreamliner, any event involving fire and that airplane is going to be a PR disaster for Boeing," Christine Negroni, an aviation writer and safety specialist based in New York, said in a telephone interview. "Because of the battery issue, the public is even more sensitive to events that happen to the Dreamliner. Even if they are normal, benign teething problems, that subtlety is going to be lost on the public," she said. Another Boeing Dreamliner operated by Thomson Airways returned to the United Kingdom due to technical issues on Friday as a precaution, TUI Travel said. Ethiopian Airlines said its aircraft had been parked at Heathrow for more than eight hours before smoke was detected. Richard Aboulafia, a senior aerospace analyst at the Teal Group in Virginia, said early evidence, including images of the jet, suggest the battery is not the issue because of the location of the fire. Another person familiar with the aircraft's configuration said the damaged area appears close to galleys and environmental control systems, but added that it was too early to link the fire to any specific equipment. BATTERY FIX Boeing's 787 Dreamliner was grounded by regulators in January after batteries overheated on two of the jets within two weeks, including a fire in a parked Japan Airlines plane in Boston. Boeing was forced to halt deliveries of the jet while it was grounded and airlines stopped ordering the plane during that period. Orders have since resumed and Boeing has logged 83 787 orders this year, bringing its current order book to 930 planes. The Dreamliner resumed flying in April, with Ethiopian Airlines being the first carrier to put it back into passenger service. The high-tech jet came under intense scrutiny and Boeing redesigned the battery system to add more layers of protection against fire. Teams of engineers were dispatched by Boeing worldwide to install the stronger battery casing and other components designed to prevent a repeat of the meltdowns that led to the first U.S. fleet grounding in 34 years. The plan approved by the FAA called for Boeing to encase the lithium-ion batteries in a steel box, install new battery chargers, and add a duct to vent gases directly outside the aircraft in the event of overheating. The NTSB has still not issued a final report on the cause of the 787 battery issues but Boeing said its redesign addressed more than 80 potential causes. The NTSB said it would send a representative to assist in the Heathrow investigation. The 787 uses a powerful electrical system to drive air conditioning and replace hydraulic functions, taking less power from the engines than traditional aircraft designs. That electrical system experienced fire during its development which also prompted changes in its electrical panels. The Dreamliner which caught fire at Heathrow on Friday was delivered to Ethiopian Airlines in November last year. It arrived at Heathrow from Addis Ababa in the early hours of Friday, according to the Flightradar monitoring web site. The plane was due to make the return journey later on Friday. Asked whether the incident could lead to the renewed grounding of Dreamliner jets, a spokesman for Britain's Civil Aviation Authority said decisions on the airworthiness of particular models of plane were made by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). An EASA spokesman said it was too early to say whether the aircraft would be grounded again. Several airlines said they were continuing to operate their 787s, including United Continental, Polish airline LOT, Japan Airlines and ANA, the world's biggest operator of the Dreamliner. Ethiopian Airlines Dreamliners are powered by General Electric GEnx engines. (Reporting by Rhys Jones, Estelle Shirbon, Mark Anderson, Michael Holden in London; Additional reporting by Andrea Shalal-Esa in Washington, Alwyn Scott in Seattle and Tim Hepher in Paris; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge and Kate Holton; Editing by Jane Barrett, David Evans and Tim Dobbyn) ================ No evidence of link between Dreamliner fire and batteries: AAIB Sat, Jul 13 13:21 PM EDT LONDON (Reuters) - There is no evidence at this stage that a fire that broke out on a Boeing Dreamliner at London's Heathrow Airport on Friday was linked to the aircraft's batteries, Britain's Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) said on Saturday. "There has been extensive heat damage in the upper portion of the rear fuselage, a complex part of the aircraft, and the initial investigation is likely to take several days," the AAIB said in a statement. "However, it is clear that this heat damage is remote from the area in which the aircraft main and APU (Auxiliary Power Unit) batteries are located, and, at this stage, there is no evidence of a direct causal relationship." (Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; editing by Patrick Graham) Ethiopian Airlines says to continue flying Dreamliners Sat, Jul 13 06:35 AM EDT ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopian Airlines said on Saturday it would continue to operate its fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners after one of them caught fire at London's Heathrow airport. "We have not grounded any of our aircraft," the carrier's public relations department said by email. "The incident at Heathrow happened while the plane was on the ground and had been for more than eight hours and was not related to flight safety." Asked whether the airline has determined the cause of the fire, Ethiopian Airlines said: "There is no new development. No safety issue. The incident is being investigated to determine cause of smoke." (Reporting by Aaron Maasho; Writing by James Macharia, Editing by Mark Trevelyan) =============== Qatar grounds a 787 as glitches pile up on Boeing jet Fri, Jul 26 11:49 AM EDT By Praveen Menon and Siva Govindasamy DUBAI (Reuters) - Qatar Airways said on Friday it had taken one of its Boeing 787 Dreamliners out of service following what it described as a "minor" technical issue, as pressure mounted on the plane maker over possible new electrical problems with the advanced jet. The airline and Boeing Co declined to give further details but industry sources said they were treating seriously reports that the aircraft had been grounded for days after smoke was seen near an electrical panel. The 787 has suffered a spate of mishaps in recent weeks, including a spontaneous fire on an Ethiopian Airlines-owned 787 that broke out while the plane was parked at a remote stand at London's Heathrow airport for eight hours on July 12. According to Web-tracking service Flightaware, the Qatar Airways aircraft, registered as A7-BCB, has not flown since Sunday, an unusually long downtime for a long-haul jet designed to save on fuel bills. Qatar Airways confirmed an aircraft had been taken out of service, but said no flights had been canceled as a result. "This is a minor issue for us, and not an incident, so we are not commenting," an airline spokeswoman said. A spokeswoman for Boeing said, "We request that you channel all your enquiries to Qatar Airways." Two people familiar with the matter, asking not to be identified, said smoke had been reported near an electrical compartment while the jet was on the ground in Doha. A failure in a similar bay caused a fire during a test flight in 2010, and three of the jets, including one owned by Qatar Airways, had electrical problems last December. A fire-brigade supervisor in Doha said it did not have any record of an incident with an airport-related call last week. India's aviation regulator said earlier it had started an investigation after an oven in a 787 operated by Air India overheated during a domestic flight, causing smoke. There was no interruption to services. Japan's ANA Holdings Inc, which operates the world's biggest fleet of Dreamliners, also said on Friday it had found damage to the battery wiring on two 787 locator beacons, made by Honeywell International Inc. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing instructed airlines to inspect or remove the beacons, after UK investigators found two wires pinched together in the beacon inside the Ethiopian Airlines Dreamliner at Heathrow. The resulting fire caused extensive damage to the plane. PAST PROBLEMS Last December, three 787s had electrical problems that were made public. United Airlines experienced problems with electrical panels on two 787s, one of which diverted to another airport during a flight from Houston. Qatar Airways said that month that it grounded one of its 787 jets because of the same problem United had experienced. Boeing later traced the problem to faulty circuit boards in the panel. In January, regulators grounded the global fleet of 50 Dreamliners after batteries burned on two jets within two weeks. Regulators lifted the grounding in April after Boeing redesigned the battery system, which supplies backup power to the jet and is unrelated to the emergency beacon, known as an emergency locator transmitter, or ELT, that is designed to send out a signal to help rescuers locate an aircraft wreckage. Qatar Airways Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker said in May that the airline had to forego $200 million in lost profit because of the grounding of 787 planes, but has received compensation from Boeing for the losses. At least one other airline says it is still seeking compensation. BOEING 'HIGHLY CONFIDENT' Aviation experts say it is common for the reported number of incidents to rise when an aircraft is in the spotlight, and that all new aircraft models have incidents when they first enter service. The 787 began service in the fall of 2011. Even aircraft with decades of service regularly suffer glitches that go unreported and rarely pose a direct threat to safety. However, aviation experts say U.S. and British authorities investigating the previous fires may seek to establish whether anything can be learned from a pattern of reported incidents connected in various ways to the jet's electrical systems. Boeing Chief Executive Jim McNerney said this week he remained "highly confident" in the future of the 787 Dreamliner program and the integrity of the company's newest airplane. The 787 incorporates a raft of changes in the way passenger jets are designed, including greater use of electrical systems that save weight compared with older hydraulics. It is the first passenger jet built mainly from lightweight carbon-composites. Boeing shares were down 0.9 percent at $105.76 late on Friday morning on the New York Stock Exchange. (Additional reporting by Siva Govindasamy, Tim Hepher, Tim Kelly, Devidutta Tripathy, Regan Doherty; editing by Christian Plumb, Alwyn Scott and Matthew Lewis) =============================== امیرالمومنین امام علی علیہ السلام کا خطبہ نمبر ۵۰ حق و باطل کی آمیزش کے نتائج فتنوں کے وقو ع کا آغاز و ہ نفسانی خواہشیں ہوتی ہیں۔ جن کی پیروی کی جاتی ہے اور وہُ نئے ایجاد کردہ احکام کہ جن میں قرآن کی مخالفت کی جاتی ہے اور جنہیں فروغ دینے کے لئے کچھ لوگ دین الٰہی کے خلاف باہم ایک دوسرے کے مدد گار ہو جاتے ہیں تو اگر باطل حق کی آمیزش سے خالی ہوتا، تو وہ ڈھونڈنے والوں سے پوشیدہ نہ رہتا اور اگر حق باطل کے شائبہ سے پاک و صاف سامنے آتا ، تو عناد رکھنے والی زبانیں بھی بند ہو جائیں ۔ لیکن ہوتا یہ ہے کہ کچھ ادھر سے لیا جاتا ہے اور کچھ ادھر سے اور دونوں کو آپس میں خلط ملط کر دیا جاتا ہے ۔ اس موقعہ پر شیطان اپنے دوستوں پر چھا جاتا ہے اور صرف وہی لوگ بچے رہتے ہیں جن کے لئے توفیق ِ الٰہی اور عنائتِ خدا وندی پہلے سے موجود ہو۔

Boeing lands first blow in tense air show battle

Mon, Jul 09 19:36 PM EDT 1 of 4 By Tim Hepher and Andrea Shalal-Esa FARNBOROUGH, England (Reuters) - U.S. planemaker Boeing landed the first blow at this week's Farnborough Airshow, winning an order worth up to $7.2 billion from U.S. Air Lease Corp, as a market share battle with its European rival Airbus plays out. Flamboyant leasing entrepreneur and ALC founder Steven Udvar-Hazy marked the deal by ringing the opening bell for the New York Stock Exchange by satellite - underscoring the joy ride recently felt by many aerospace firms in the face of recession. Boeing said on Monday the order was for 75 of its fuel-efficient 737 Max jets - a model that is key to its attempted fightback against Airbus's rival A320neo short-haul aircraft. Although economies are stuttering, aircraft demand remains relatively strong as airlines modernize fleets to survive high fuel costs and the balance of growth shifts towards Asia, prompting Boeing to raise forecasts last week. Nonetheless, Airbus and Boeing are locked in their fiercest battle for up to a decade, slashing prices to win orders for their latest narrowbody jets and storing up potential trouble for future profit margins. And although jetmakers predict hundreds of orders this week, day one had an air of anti-climax amid suggestions that an unexpectedly strong order cycle may soon be peaking. "There is a 'fin de siecle' quality about this show unless there truly is a raft of orders, although you do always see some surprises," said analyst Nick Cunningham of Agency Partners. Boeing chief executive Jim McNerney has predicted the U.S. planemaker, helped by the 737 Max, will outsell Airbus for "a number of years" having trailed its European rival since 2006. Airbus also expects Boeing to make up ground this year. Hazy's endorsement was a boost to the newly-appointed head of Boeing's commercial division, Ray Conner, a former sales chief thrust into the spotlight at his first high-profile event in the job after Jim Albaugh's unexpected decision to retire. "We have a terrific machine now," said Conner, a laid-back former mechanic who worked his way up from the production floor to become chief executive of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. NOT TIED TO NUMBERS Conner wasted no time in tackling suggestions that Airbus, which beat Boeing by a record margin in 2011, could hold onto its gains and redraw a traditional 50-50 duopoly. He said Boeing, which had some 40 percent of the market in 2011, was confident of increasing its market share, but refused to name a specific target. "I am not going to be tied to market share numbers; ... we are focused on producing and winning," he told reporters at the event, which was attended by UK Prime Minister David Cameron. Boeing flew its elegant stiletto-winged 787 Dreamliner, its upswept wings piercing a slate-grey sky, in its first civil air show display in over 20 years as a mark of renewed optimism. But Airbus, which had 1,000 orders at last year's Paris air show, insisted it would not concede ground easily. "Last year was exceptional as we had just announced the launch of the A320neo, but this year I believe will be a good show and will help us to achieve what we expect this year, which is around 650 new orders," Airbus Chief Executive Fabrice Bregier told Reuters Insider TV. "I am pretty sure that, since we launched the neo (December 2010) by the end of 2012, we will still be ahead of Boeing with their product." Conner and Bregier bring a relaxed, but steely, posture to the air show, a yearly jamboree alternating between Farnborough and Paris at which billions of dollars of jets and arms are promoted over glasses of champagne. It was the first outing as commercial jet leaders for both men, pitting the ex-mechanic against a former French missiles boss - two publicity-shy figures who have made a significant mark on their organizations in the background. Conner's decision to clamp down on specifics and make a little less noise than usual under the roar of jet fighters is meant to keep Airbus guessing on a number of fronts. He also declined to repeat a date for making a decision on two key widebody plane developments, a stretched 787 Dreamliner and a redesign of its most profitable jet, the 777 mini-jumbo, but stressed Boeing was "absolutely committed" to the projects. Airbus said it had improved the design of its A330 to increase its range, anticipating the possible new 787-10. SHOPPING FOR WEAPONS David Joyce, the president and chief executive of GE Aviation predicted there would not be as many orders as in previous years at Farnborough amid a faltering global economy. "I think this show will be a little more subdued relative to 2011 but still a very, very positive outlook going forward. Production rates of airplanes on the commercial side are all on their way up. Our order books are full," he said. Even in the arms chalets, budget cuts and economic uncertainty have not entirely put a damper on this year's show despite the absence of some U.S. contractors' senior officials. UAV contractor Northrop Grumman is staying at home. Delegates said defense companies were meeting international delegations who are shopping for a wide array of weapons. Boeing was taking potential buyers of its V-22 tilt-rotor aircraft - which flies like a plane but takes off and lands like a helicopter - out for demonstration flights and reported continued interest in its F-15 and F/A-18 fighter jets. Raytheon Chief Executive William Swanson said he comes to the show every year to meet personally with foreign buyers, and can't understand why other defense companies are so focused on their domestic troubles. "There's opportunities there. Don't sit there and go, ‘Oh woe is me.' Look at it and say, ‘Okay, where's the opportunity?" Swanson told Reuters in an interview. Even the U.S. military market remained very rich, despite deep cuts in spending expected in coming years, he said. "They're still spending $500 billion dollars." (Additional reporting by Rhys Jones, Victoria Bryan, Karen Jacobs, Irene Klotz; Editing by Mark Potter) Email Article Next Article in Top News Home » Top News Search | Quotes | Videos | Currency | Slideshows | Top News | Oddly Enough | Business | Entertainment | Sports | Deals | Hot Stocks | Technology | Politics | More Categories

Boeing delivers biggest 747 to secret VIP buyer

Tue, Feb 28 19:49 PM EST
image

By Bill Rigby and Kyle Peterson

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Boeing Co handed over the first passenger version of its upgraded and extended 747 to a secret VIP customer, who sent the gleaming, all-white plane along to a modification center to transform it into the "jewel of the sky."

The delivery of the 747-8 Intercontinental - Boeing's largest and most recognizable commercial airplane - caps a development delay of more than a year.

Boeing, the world's second-largest plane-maker marked the milestone with an understated ceremony, keeping the media at arm's length to safeguard the identity of its customer, thought by industry insiders to be the state of Qatar.

"The 747 is the most iconic airplane in the world, and I know customers are going to love what we've done to enhance its performance," Jim Albaugh, president and chief executive of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said in a statement.

"The Intercontinental is fast, efficient and quiet, offering real savings and a great flying experience," he said.

Boeing, which competes for orders with rival Airbus, has taken 36 orders - nine from non-airline customers - for the aircraft, which lists at $332.9 million. The airplane is more than 12 months behind its initial delivery schedule and some experts say the order book is puny.

The Intercontinental is an elongated, upgraded version of the classic 747, which first flew more than 40 years ago. The 747 was the world's largest airplane until 2005, when Airbus unveiled its A380.

Only one A380 has been ordered by a wealthy individual, Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.

"The 747-8 has been slow to take off, and the success of the aircraft is still questionable given so few orders," said Alex Hamilton, an aerospace analyst and managing director at EarlyBirdCapital.

Boeing had delayed the delivery to 2012 from the fourth quarter of 2011. The company blamed delays in flight testing and the time required to incorporate flight-test driven changes.

A delay of a year or more is not unusual for modern commercial plane launches. Both Airbus' massive A380 and Boeing's carbon-composite 787 suffered multi-year delays.

Boeing does not identify VIP customers, but past buyers of customized planes have been multimillionaires and heads of state.

The first airline set to receive the plane is Germany's Deutsche Lufthansa AG, which has ordered 20. Boeing has not set a delivery date for Lufthansa's first Intercontinental.

EXTENSIVE MODIFICATIONS

VIP customers for planes as large as the 747 often request extensive modifications such as bedrooms or bathrooms to accommodate the special needs of the primary passengers and their entourages. These modifications typically are done outside of Boeing, but the company must sign off on the changes.

Boeing Business Jets president Steve Taylor, who was set to fly the airplane from Paine Field near Seattle, said it will spend about six months at Boeing's Wichita facility - the plant that modified Air Force One - for basic modifications.

From there it goes to a facility in Hamburg where it will spend two years receiving customer-specific outfitting like bedrooms, dining rooms and galleys, he said.

Taylor said the unnamed customer wants the new Intercontinental to be the "jewel of the sky."

The Intercontinental incorporates some of the technology of the lightweight, carbon-composite 787 Dreamliner. It can seat 467 passengers, 51 more than the current version of the 747, but fewer than the competing 525-seat A380.

By some estimates, the new 747-8 is 8 to 10 tonnes overweight. Elizabeth Lund, 747 program manager, acknowledged the plane is heavier than originally planned. But she said a redesigned wing makes up for the weight in terms of performance.

Additional weight can reduce the distance a plane can fly or the amount of cargo it can carry.

Boeing said the plane would meet the original performance commitments it made in the sale catalog by 2014.

The freighter version of the 747-8 was first delivered in October. Orders for the freighter have been strained by an economic downturn that has dampened cargo markets.

Boeing delivered its first 787 Dreamliner last year after three years of delays. The 787 represents a bigger leap in technology than the 747-8.

(Reporting by Bill Rigby in Seattle and Kyle Peterson in Chicago; Additional reporting by Tim Hepher in Paris; Editing by Maureen Bavdek, Tim Dobbyn and Carol Bishopric)

==

Boeing exec: 787 long-term build rate on track
Fri, Mar 02 18:27 PM EST

By Bill Rigby

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Boeing Co will build 10 787 Dreamliners per month by the end of 2013, the head of the plane-maker's commercial airplanes division said on Friday, shrugging off industry concerns that a glitch in the fuselage will put the goal out of reach.

"It shouldn't," Jim Albaugh said on the sidelines of an event marking the 1,000th delivery of Boeing's widebody 777. Dubai-based Emirates Airline will receive the plane this month.

Last month, the world's second-largest commercial plane-maker after EADS unit Airbus, reported signs of "delamination" on the rear fuselage of some 787s. Delamination occurs when repeated stress causes laminated composite materials to separate.

Boeing has said the problem would affect the first 55 787s that were assembled but that the issue is now contained and will not be repeated. The company says the repair will take 10 to 14 days per plane, but will be done concurrently with other work.

"It's going to have a short-term impact on production and deliveries, but we think for the year we'll be in good shape," Albaugh said.

The light-weight, carbon-composite Dreamliner is popular among airline customers, which have ordered about 870. The plane, which entered commercial service last year, is about three years behind its original schedule.

The company said it increased the 787 production rate to 3.5 per month from 2.5 on Thursday. Boeing has delivered only five 787s so far, all to its launch customer All Nippon Airways. The company delivered no 787s in February.

Last week, Boeing swapped the heads of its 787 Dreamliner and 777 programs, in hopes that the long-time 777 leader Larry Loftis can keep the Dreamliner production rate on track.

Boeing is raising production rates on all of its commercial airplane programs to meet increased demand.

The 777 production rate went up from five to seven per month in 2011 and is headed to 8.3 in the first quarter of 2013. Boeing, meanwhile, intends to update the popular 777 but has not disclosed specific plans.

Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, chairman and chief executive of Emirates Airline & Group, said at the Boeing celebration that he would be "very interested" in the next version of 777.

When asked when the new version of the 777 would be in service, Albaugh said: "We're talking late in the decade."

According to Boeing's website on Friday, Emirates has taken delivery of 53 777s and has another 86 on order. Boeing has 373 unfilled orders for 777s on its books.

(Reporting By Bill Rigby in Seattle and Kyle Peterson in Chicago. Editing by Gunna Dickson)

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Boeing has inspected five 787s for fuselage flaw
Mon, Mar 05 17:50 PM EST
image

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Boeing Co has inspected five 787 Dreamliners for a recently discovered flaw in the fuselage and remains on track to build 10 of the airplanes per month by the end of 2013, the new head of Boeing's 787 program said on Monday.

The plane maker is inspecting the first 55 787s built before the problem was discovered and will repair them as needed, Larry Loftis told Reuters before a groundbreaking ceremony for a new delivery center at Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

"We will touch every single airplane," said Loftis, the former leader of Boeing's successful 777 airplane program.

The Dreamliner is the world's first commercial airplane with an airframe made largely of light-weight carbon composites. It boasts unprecedented fuel-efficiency and is a hit among customers who have ordered about 870 of the planes.

However, the plane is about three years behind its original development and production schedule. The Dreamliner's development was disrupted several times by problems with suppliers, such as a delay in the availability of a Rolls-Royce engine needed for the final phases of flight testing.

Boeing, the world's second-largest commercial plane-maker after EADS unit Airbus, made first delivery of a Dreamliner last year to All Nippon Airways and is ramping up the production rate to 10 per month, a target many experts believe to be unattainable.

Last month, Boeing reported signs of "delamination" on the rear fuselage of some 787s. Delamination occurs when stress causes layered composite materials to separate.

Boeing has said it will take 10 to 14 days per plane to repair. The problem caused some experts to again question the production rate target. Boeing has said the repair may affect deliveries in the first part of 2012, but not in the longer term.

The company increased the 787 production rate to 3.5 per month from 2.5 last week. The plane-maker has delivered only five 787s so far, all to All Nippon Airways, and delivered none in February.

Last month, Boeing swapped the heads of its 787 Dreamliner and 777 programs, in hopes that the long-time 777 leader Loftis can keep the Dreamliner production rate on track.

Boeing is raising production rates on all of its commercial airplane programs to meet increased demand.

(Reporting By Laura Myers in Seattle; Writing by Kyle Peterson; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

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Southwest grounds about 80 planes after mishap

By TERRY TANG and WALTER BERRY, Associated Press Terry Tang And Walter Berry, Associated Press – 52 mins ago

Rupture that happened in-flight
This photo provided by passenger Don Nelson, shows fuselage rupture that happened in-flight on a Southwest Airlines aircraft Friday, April 1, 2011. The plane made an emergency landing at Yuma Marine Corps Air Station/International Airport, some 150 miles southwest of Phoenix and about 40 minutes after takeoff from Sky Harbor. Authorities say the flight from Phoenix to Sacramento, Calif., was diverted to Yuma due to rapid decompression in the plane. FAA spokesman Ian Gregor says the cause of the decompression isn't immediately known. But passengers aboard the plane say there was a hole in the cabin and that forced an emergency landing.… Read more »
PHOENIX – Flight attendants had just begun to take drink orders when the explosion rocked the cabin.

Aboard Southwest Flight 812, Shawna Malvini Redden covered her ears, then felt a brisk wind rush by. Oxygen masks fell, the cabin lost pressure, and Redden, now suddenly lightheaded, fumbled to maneuver the mask in place.

Then she prayed. And, instinctively, reached out to the stranger seated next to her in Row 8 as the pilot of the damaged aircraft began a rapid descent from about 34,400 feet in the sky.

"I don't know this dude, but I was like, 'I'm going to just hold your hand,'" Redden, a 28-year-old doctoral student at Arizona State University, recalled Saturday, a day after her Phoenix-to-Sacramento flight was forced into an emergency landing at a military base in Yuma, Ariz., with a hole a few feet long in the roof of the passenger cabin.

No serious injuries were reported among the 118 people aboard, according to Southwest officials.

What caused part of the fuselage to rupture on the 15-year-old Boeing 737-300 was a mystery, and investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board arrived Saturday in Yuma to begin an inquiry.

NTSB board member Robert Sumwalt said investigators were going to cut a piece out of the fuselage, which would be studied for fracture patterns. He said they would also examine the plane's black box and flight recorders, which arrived Saturday at NTSB headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Southwest, meanwhile, grounded about 80 similar planes so that they could be inspected, and said that as a result some 300 flights were being canceled Saturday. Airline spokeswoman Linda Rutherford said it was too soon to estimate the cost of grounding a portion of its fleet.

Southwest operates about 170 of the 737-300s in its fleet of about 540 planes, but it replaced the aluminum skin on many of the 300s in recent years, Rutherford said. The planes that were grounded Saturday have not had their skin replaced, she said.

"Obviously we're dealing with a skin issue, and we believe that these 80 airplanes are covered by a set of (federal safety rules) that make them candidates to do this additional inspection that Boeing is devising for us," Rutherford said.

Julie O'Donnell, an aviation safety spokeswoman for Seattle-based Boeing Commercial Airplanes, confirmed "a hole in the fuselage and a depressurization event" in the latest incident but declined to speculate on what caused it.

A total of 288 Boeing 737-300s currently operate in the U.S. fleet, and 931 operate worldwide, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. "The FAA is working closely with the NTSB, Southwest Airlines and Boeing to determine what actions may be necessary," the FAA said Saturday.

Southwest officials said the Arizona plane had undergone all inspections required by the FAA. They said the plane was given a routine inspection Tuesday and underwent its last so-called heavy check, a more costly and extensive overhaul, in March 2010.

An Associated Press review of FAA records of maintenance problems for the plane show that in March 2010 at least eight instances were found of cracking in the aircraft frame, which is part of the fuselage. Those cracks were repaired, the records indicated.

It's not uncommon for fuselage cracks to be found during inspections of planes that age, especially during scheduled heavy maintenance checks in which they are taken apart so that inspectors can see into areas not normally visible.

The 737-300 is the oldest plane in Southwest's fleet, and the Dallas-based company is retiring 300s as it takes deliveries of new models. But the process of replacing all the 300s could take years.

Seated one row from the mid-cabin rupture, Don Nelson said it took about four noisy minutes for the plane to dip to less than 10,000 feet. "You could tell there was an oxygen deficiency," he said.

"People were dropping," said Christine Ziegler, a 44-year-old project manager from Sacramento who watched as a flight attendant and a passenger nearby fainted. Nelson and Ziegler spoke Friday after a substitute flight took them on to Sacramento.

Brenda Reese described the hole as "at the top of the plane, right up above where you store your luggage."

At an altitude above 34,000 feet, the Southwest pilots would have had only 10 to 20 seconds of "useful consciousness" to get their oxygen masks on or pass out, said John Gadzinski, an airline pilot and aviation safety consultant.

"The higher you are the less useful consciousness time you have," said Gadzinski, president of Four Winds Consulting in Virginia Beach, Va. "It's a credit to the pilots that they responded so quickly."

A loss of cabin pressure just after takeoff knocked out the pilots of a Helios Airways Boeing 737 in August 2005. The plane flew into a hillside north of Athens in Greece, killing all 121 people aboard. In that case, an investigation found the pilots had failed to heed a warning that the pressurization system wasn't working correctly.

In this case, the hole and subsequent depressurization wouldn't have affected the pilots' ability to control the plane as long as they had their oxygen masks on, Gadzinski said.

"The fact that you have a breach hole doesn't affect the aerodynamics of the plane. The plane still flies exactly the same," he said.

A similar incident happened in July 2009 when a football-sized hole opened up in-flight in the fuselage of another of Southwest's Boeing 737s, depressurizing the cabin. The plane made an emergency landing in Charleston, W.Va. It was later determined that the hole was caused by metal fatigue.

In response to that incident, Southwest changed its maintenance plan to include additional inspections, which FAA reviewed and accepted, said John Goglia, a former NTSB member and an expert on airline maintenance. The details of the plan are considered proprietary and aren't made public, he said.

The latest incident "certainly makes me think there is something wrong with the maintenance system at Southwest, and it makes me think there is something wrong with the (FAA) principal maintenance inspector down there that after that big event they weren't watching this more closely," Goglia said.

There was "never any danger that the plane would fall out of the sky," Goglia said. "However, anybody on that airplane with any sort of respiratory problems certainly was at risk."
In 1988, cracks caused part of the roof of an Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 to peel open while the jet flew from Hilo to Honolulu. A flight attendant was sucked out of the plane and plunged to her death, and dozens of passengers were injured.

After that incident, Boeing made changes to its designs "to prevent the airplane from ever coming apart in that way again, by using different materials and manufacturing methods," Goglia said.

Four months before that emergency landing, Southwest had agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle charges that it operated planes that had missed required safety inspections for cracks in the fuselage. The airline inspected nearly 200 of its planes back then, found no cracks and put them back in the sky.


Three years ago, an exploding oxygen cylinder ripped a hole the fuselage of a Qantas Boeing 747-438 carrying 365 people. The plane descended thousands of feet with the loss of cabin pressure and made a successful emergency landing.

As for Friday's flight, there was obvious relief when it touched down safely. When the pilot emerged after the landing, passengers "clapped and cheered," Redden said.

"If overhead bins weren't in the way, I'm pretty sure we would've given him a standing ovation," she said.

___

Associated Press writers Lien Hoang, Don Thompson and Adam Weintraub contributed to this report from Sacramento, Calif.; David Koenig contributed from Dallas; Joan Lowy from Washington, D.C.; and Mark Evans and Robert Seavey from Phoenix.