Tuesday, November 29, 2011
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Thursday, November 17, 2011
Pilot locked in lavatory causes unnecessary terror scare
Pilot locked in lavatory causes unnecessary terror scare
Last Updated: 8:42 AM, November 17, 2011
Posted: 2:04 AM, November 17, 2011
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EXCLUSIVE
He was caught with his pants down.
A pilot who accidentally locked himself in the bathroom of his LaGuardia-bound plane caused a terror scare last night when a helpful passenger with an accent tried to come to his rescue by banging on the cockpit door.
The embarrassing comedy of errors began when the captain of a Chatauqua Airlines flight from Asheville, N.Car., decided to take a bathroom break before landing.
But when he tried to get out of the men’s room, the door jammed, trapping him in the tight quarters.
Desperate to get out and land the plane — which was in a holding pattern above the airport — he pounded his fists on the door to attract attention.
A well-intentioned passenger sitting in the front row heard his thumping and hurried over to help.
Relieved, the pilot told the passenger to go to the cockpit and alert the crew to his plight.
But crew members didn’t react well to the unexpected visit from a stranger trying to breach the highly secure area of the plane.
The jittery co-pilot — at the controls and wondering why his boss’ bathroom break was taking forever — thought the unfamiliar accent was Middle Eastern, a source told The Post.
Practically stammering, he quickly radioed air traffic control.
“We are 180 knots 10,000 [feet] uh, can we leave the frequency for a minute? We are going to try to, uh contact dispatch,” he said.
“The captain disappeared in the back, and, uh, I have someone with a thick foreign accent trying to access the cockpit.”
Even after the passenger explained through the door that the captain was locked in the john, the co-pilot was still suspicious.
“What I’m being told is he’s stuck in the lav [lavatory], and, uh, someone with a thick foreign accent is giving me a password to access the cockpit,” he said.
He clearly did not believe the passenger.
“I’m not about to let him in,” the nervous co-pilot told the LaGuardia tower.
The controller, also spooked, advised the pilot to declare an emergency and “just get on the ground.’’
The captain finally extricated himself and told his colleagues all was well.
Before that happened fighter planes were alerted, although they were never scrambled.
When an air traffic controller called to check if “there any level of disturbance on the airplane,” the pilot got on and responded “negative.”
“The captain, myself, went back to the lavatory and the door latch broke and I had to fight my way out of it with my body to get the door open ,” he said.
“There is no issue, no threat.”
The FBI and Port Authority cops met the plane when it landed around 6:30 pm.
A spokesman for Chatauqua — which runs the regional flight under the Delta name — said cops talked to the passenger and quickly realized it was all a misunderstanding.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/flight_scared_tless_NCATGVoOq9V6WgWjVwszRJ#ixzz1dyHdnQMk
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Monday, November 14, 2011
U.S. To Buy Decommissioned British Harrier Jets
U.S. To Buy Decommissioned British Harrier Jets
By CHRISTOPHER P. CAVAS, VAGO MURADIAN and ANDREW CHUTER
Published: 13 Nov 2011 12:13
Published: 13 Nov 2011 12:13
A Harrier GR9 takes off for the last
time in November 2010 from the now-decommissioned aircraft carrier HMS Ark
Royal. The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps are buying 74 decommissioned British
Harrier jump jets. (U.K. Ministry of Defence)
Heinrich negotiated the $50 million purchase of all Harrier spare parts, while Rear Adm. Donald Gaddis, the U.S. Navy's program executive officer for tactical aircraft, is overseeing discussions to buy the Harrier aircraft and their Rolls-Royce engines, Heinrich said.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence in London confirmed the Disposal Services Agency was in talks with the U.S. Navy for the sale of the Harriers. The deal had yet to be concluded, he said Nov. 11.
Britain retired its joint force of Royal Air Force and Royal Navy Harrier aircraft late last year in one of the most controversial moves of the defense reductions, which also cut the aircraft carriers that operated the jets, other warships, maritime patrol planes and personnel.
Most of the retired Harriers are stored at the Royal Air Force base at Cottesmore, England.
They have been undergoing minimum fleet maintenance, including anti-deterioration measures, in order to keep them airworthy, Heinrich said.
A spokesman for the U.S. Navy's Naval Air Systems Command declined Nov. 11 to comment on the deal, deferring to the British military.
An MoD source said Nov. 11 that he thought both deals could be signed in the next week or two. The MoD source confirmed that the entire fleet of 74 Harrier aircraft was involved in the sale.
Heinrich noted that payment details were the only outstanding issue on the parts deal discussions, and he said the purchase will give the U.S. Marines a relatively economical way to get their hands on key components to keep the Harrier fleet running.
Similar Aircraft
While it is unusual for the U.S. to buy used foreign military aircraft for operation, integration of the British planes into Marine Corps squadrons shouldn't be a major problem, one expert said.
"I don't think it will be costly to rip out the Brit systems" and replace them with Marine gear, said Lon Nordeen, author of several books on the Harrier.
Nordeen noted that the British GR 9 and 9As are similar in configuration to the Marines' AV-8B night attack version, which make up about a third of U.S. Harriers. The British planes also are night planes dedicated to air-ground attack, he said, and while both types carry Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) sensors, neither is fitted with a multimode radar such as the APG-65 carried by U.S. AV-8B+ models.
The absence of the big radar, Nordeen said, makes the GR 9A and AV-8Bs "a better-performing plane. Weighing less, it's more of a hot rod."
British GR 9s, although upgraded with improved avionics and weapons, are powered by the Rolls-Royce Mark 105 Pegasus engine. GR 9As have the more powerful Mark 107, similar to the Rolls-Royce F402-RR-408s that power Marine AV-8Bs.
British and U.S. Harrier II aircraft had a high degree of commonality from their origin. The planes were developed and built in a joint arrangement between British Aerospace - now BAE Systems - and McDonnell Douglas, now a division of Boeing. While each company built its own wings, all forward sections of the British and American Harrier IIs were built by McDonnell in St. Louis, Mo., while British Aerospace built the fuselage sections aft of the cockpit.
"All the planes have to fit together," Nordeen said.
The Harrier IIs, built between 1980 and 1995, "are still quite serviceable," he said. "The aircraft are not that far apart. We're taking advantage of all the money the Brits have spent on them. It's like we're buying a car with maybe 15,000 miles on it."
Operationally, Nordeen said, "these are very good platforms. They need upgrades, but on bombing missions they have the ability to incorporate the Litening II targeting pod [used by U.S. aircraft]. They're good platforms. And we've already got trained pilots."
Marine Corps Harriers are to be phased out by 2025, when replacement by new F-35B Joint Strike Fighters should be complete.
Nordeen, however, said he expects the British Harriers to be used initially to replace two-seat Marine F-18D Hornet fighters now operated in the night attack role.
"The F-18Ds are more worn out than the Harriers," Nordeen said. "Most of the conversions [of ex-British aircraft] early on will be to replace 18Ds and not Harriers." He noted the first Marine F-35B squadron already is slated to replace an F-18D unit.
Nordeen applauded the move.
"I would see this as a good bargain to extend the operational utility of the Harrier II fleet, no matter what," he said.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Friday, November 11, 2011
Thursday, November 03, 2011
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