Airbus Expects U.S. Order in Coming Days

Reuters yesterday quoted Airbus's CEO Tom Enders saying in a German newspaper that the European aircraft manufacturer expects a significant order by a U.S. airlines in the next couple of days. According to Enders, the order will be for 20 to 30 new aircraft. Enders, however, did not give any specifics on which airline the planes will be for and which types will be ordered.

I have been thinking about this a lot and there are a couple of airlines that can easily be dismissed because of several reasons: Continental (all-Boeing fleet), American (all-Boeing fleet), United (unlikely to order planes at this point, due to merger with Continental), JetBlue (already has several Airbus planes on order and pushed back on deliveries lately). So my best guess is US Airways and I think the orders will be either for the A320 series or Airbus's brand-new A350.

To read the German piece in BILD, please click here.

Air India Express Crash Kills 158

One really wonders if the recent series of plane crashes will ever end. This morning at 6.10 am local time, an Air India Express Boeing 737-800 overshot the runway at Mangalore airport in the south of India, killing all but eight of the passengers on board.

The two-year old plane was on the way back from Dubai, carrying mostly Indian guest workers from the Emirate, when it crashed into a valley at the end of the runway. The weather at Mangalore airport was decent: good visibility, calm winds and no rain. The pilot, a British citizen, did not report any technical difficulties with the fairly new 737 on approach. The surviving passengers report they heard the tires of the plane burst, then the plane hit something and it caught fire. A survivor told Reuters: "[The plane] caught fire and we fell out. We looked up and saw some opening and came out through that route."

The cause of the accident has not been determined yet, but there can only be a couple of realistic reasons: The 737 might have had technical difficulties, so that the pilots could not brake (but then the tires would not have burst). Another possibility is that the plane touched down too late on the runway and the cockpit crew could not bring the 737 to a halt before hitting trees (this theory is supported by the bursting tires) - which would be a pilot error. Another reason is that the 737 hit the runway too hard, causing the tires to burst and then the brakes were, consequently, not fully functional. Whatever the reason, we will know it soon. There were, luckily, survivors and the black boxes have been found. The Aviation Insider will keep you posted!

To read the Reuters story, please click here. Click here for the The Hindu article.

Reuters: Breakthrough in Air France Crash Black Box Search

Today is a good day - for those who lost relatives and friend in the crash of Air France flight 447 on June 1, 2009, as well as for everybody else interested in aviation. I am very sick of hearing that AF 447 crashed because of turbulence, bad weather or pitot tube malfunctions. I want to know what really happened to the Air France A330 almost one year ago.

The French defense ministry today announced the search teams have found what could be the first concrete clues to the location of black boxes missing from last year's Atlantic jet disaster, but warned on Thursday there was no guarantee the breakthrough would lead to their recovery. This allows experts to narrow the search to a few square kilometers from several thousand ahead of the anniversary of the airline's worst crash.

To read the full Reuters story, please click here.

EADS Jumps Back into U.S. Tanker Deal

It looks like this story will never end: In early 2008, the U.S. Air Force awards a projected $35 billion contract for up to 179 refueling planes to Northrop and EADS. In September 2008, Defense Secretary Robert Gates cancels the contract. In March of this year, EADS officials rule out making a solo bid for the U.S. tanker contract under current terms and timetable. However, EADS today announced they are back in the game and they will compete directly with Boeing for the tanker contract. Awesome! If the Americans are smart, they will make this a fair bidding process. Clearly, EADS has the better product, but it is more expensive to maintain, probably due to its more sophisticated technology. Let the game begin...

To read the Reuters chronology, please click here.