Another Embraer E190 Overshoots Runway in China

Hardly anyone in the West even heard about this news: Within 24 hours of the Embraer E190 accident in Yichun, China, another E190 overshot the runway on Wednesday, this time in Nanning, in the southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of China. The Tianjin Airlines aircraft was en route from Xi'an in the northwestern Shaanxi Province to Nanning and was about to head for Haikou in the southern island province of Hainan.

Though authorities have published no investigation results, Chinese aviation experts have taken the accidents as an alarm for the country's rapidly expanding, yet immature, regional aviation market.

To read the news.cn story, please click here.

Embraer E190 Crashes in China

For the first time ever, an Embraer E190 crashed at Yichun Lindu Airport in China today. The crash occurred at 10 pm local time. Henan Airlines flight 8387 departed from Harbin in northern China and was en route to Yichun (only approx. 360 km away) when the plane crashed upon approach into Yichun airport.

The plane had 91 passengers and 5 crew members on board. At this point, at least 47 people have been rescued. Why the fairly new plane crashed is not yet clear. CNN reports the Embraer 190 jet overshot the runway and caught fire when it was landing. However, heavy fog may have contributed to the crash. Yichun Lindu Airport is not equipped with ILS, making it even harder for pilots to land in foggy conditions.

The Aviation Insider will keep you posted on further developments.

To read the CNN story, please click here.

Landing on a Continental RJ 145 in Newark

Lovely landing on an ERJ in Newark with slight winds.

WSJ - Embraer: Plane Speaking

The last one and a half years haven't been too positive for Brazil's Empresa Brasileira de Aeronáutica SA (Embraer). Orders have declined and the company had to lay off 20% of its workforce. But which aviation company can claim that the time since 2007 has been a good one? So compared to other businesses, Embraer has done pretty well during the economic crisis. Now, the bosses of South America's largest plane manufacturer are at a crossroads: Where to go from here? Should Embraer continue to focus on small jet planes? Or should it enter the market for larger, maybe even long-haul aircraft and try to compete with Airbus and Boeing, the two dominant (actually: ONLY) players in the market?

Click here to read the Wall Street Journal piece.