Aviation Accidents, Safety and Disasters

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      Safety Board Warns of Rudder Control Defect in Some Boeing Planes

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      The National Transportation Safety Board said it had found a defective part in the system that helps steer the aircraft after investigating an incident at Newark airport.The National Transportation Safety Board on Thursday issued a safety alert and recommendations for some Boeing planes, warning that a defect could cause the rudder control system that helps steer the aircraft to jam.The warning applies to some of the company’s 737 Max and 737NG jets. It stems from the agency’s investigation into a United Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 that experienced “stuck” rudder pedals while landing at Newark Liberty International Airport in February.The safety board said it had been notified that more than 350 of the defective parts were delivered to Boeing, but it was not immediately clear how many planes with the affected component might be in service. The Federal Aviation Administration said it believed United was the only U.S. operator that had the faulty parts, and United said it had removed the components from its nine affected planes.The safety board urged the F.A.A. to determine whether the faulty parts should be removed from service and, if so, to mandate that U.S. operators replace them. It also recommended informing international aviation regulators to encourage similar actions. The F.A.A. said in a statement that it had “been monitoring this situation closely” and would convene a panel to determine its next steps.The warning adds to a string of safety woes for Boeing, which is already under intense scrutiny from regulators after incidents including a panel that blew off a jet midair this year. An audit conducted by the F.A.A. after that incident found dozens of problems throughout the 737 Max’s manufacturing process.The safety board opened its investigation into the rudder control issue on Feb. 6, after the captain of a 737 Max 8 had to use the nose wheel steering tiller to maintain control of the plane when the rudder pedal became stuck while landing at Newark. A plane’s rudder control is primarily used on takeoff and landing to maintain the direction of the plane’s nose.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Jury Awards $116 Million to Family of Man Who Died in Helicopter Crash

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      When an open-door tourist helicopter crashed into the East River, Trevor Cadigan, 26, and four other passengers were unable to escape from cumbersome safety harnesses.The helicopter flight began with celebration. “All right — let’s do it!” the pilot shouted just before liftoff from the heliport in New Jersey.“Party,” said one passenger. “Hooo!” said another.After flybys of the Statue of Liberty, the World Trade Center and the Brooklyn Bridge, during which passengers leaned out the open door to shoot photos, the flight ended suddenly 14 minutes after takeoff when the red helicopter plunged into the East River. It tipped on its side, and as cold water flooded the cockpit, the passengers realized they could not escape.“How do I cut this?” a passenger said, struggling to free himself from the harness that anchored him to the aircraft, according to the transcript of an onboard video from the flight released by the National Transportation Safety Board.All five passengers died in the March 11, 2018, flight. Only the pilot escaped. The accident was caused by a loose, improvised safety harness that caught on the helicopter’s fuel shut-off lever, mounted on the floor. That activated the lever, killed the engine and caused the crash, the safety board found.The safety harnesses, meant to prevent passengers from falling out the open door of the helicopter, instead locked the passengers in place, exposing them to “great difficulty extricating themselves” quickly in an emergency, the safety board found.Six jurors in State Supreme Court in Manhattan agreed on Thursday, awarding $116 million in compensatory and punitive damages to family members of one of the passengers, Trevor Cadigan, 26.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Boeing Workers Go on Strike: What to Know

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      Thousands of Boeing workers in Washington State and Oregon walked off the job on Friday in the first strike at the plane maker in 16 years.Boeing is facing a strike that threatens to disrupt plane production, after workers overwhelmingly voted to reject a tentative contract their unions had reached with the company.Thousands of workers walked off the job in the Seattle and Portland, Ore., regions on Friday, a move that is likely to stall operations at factories where Boeing manufactures most of its commercial planes. While the deal their unions struck with the company on Sunday included double digit pay raises and improvements to benefits, 95 percent of workers rejected the proposed contract, opting instead to leverage a strike to push for more.Here’s what else to know about the company’s first strike since 2008:How many workers are on strike?Boeing, one of the largest exporters in the United States, employs a total of nearly 150,000 people across the country — almost half of them in Washington State — and more than 170,000 people worldwide. The contract that spurred Friday’s strike covers about a fifth of the company’s employees.A vast majority of the 33,000 workers under the contract are represented by District 751 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Boeing’s largest union. Most of that union’s members work on commercial airplanes in the Seattle area. Workers in the Portland, Ore., area, who are represented by the union’s smaller District W24, are also on strike.What prompted them to walk off the job?The leaders of the unions representing the workers on strike reached a tentative deal with Boeing on Sunday that would have secured raises of 25 percent over four years, along with improvements to health care and retirement benefits. The company also committed to building its next commercial plane in the Pacific Northwest.But workers’ overwhelming rejection of that tentative contract reflects their willingness to fight for more, in large part to make up for concessions made in past talks, including the loss of pension benefits a decade ago. The unions started the talks by asking for raises of 40 percent.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      California Man Assaulted Frontier Flight Attendants, Prosecutors Say

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      The violent episode resulted in an emergency landing. The man now faces federal flight interference charges.A California man accused of assaulting crew members and threatening to kill everyone aboard a Frontier Airlines flight was arrested Wednesday on federal charges, prosecutors announced.Charles Angel Salva, 30, of Fremont, Calif., faces federal charges of interference with flight crew members and attendants, prosecutors said on Thursday. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.The disruption happened on Monday evening shortly after Frontier Airlines Flight 3581 had taken off from John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, Calif., bound for San Francisco International Airport and resulted in an emergency landing at Ontario International Airport, about 30 miles northeast of Santa Ana.The plane had not yet reached 10,000 feet when flight attendants noticed the that oxygen masks above seats in Row 18 had deployed, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in the criminal complaint.Flight crew members who went to assess the situation found Mr. Salva with his hand in the overhead compartment.A passenger siting in Row 19 told investigators that Mr. Salva had appeared claustrophobic and had seemed to want to get off the flight before he pulled down the oxygen mask from the overhead compartment and got his hand stuck in the process, the affidavit said. The passenger helped Mr. Salva get his hand unstuck.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Starliner Capsule Returns, but Boeing’s Space Business Woes Remain

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      The capsule, which returned without astronauts, and other space programs at Boeing have suffered many delays and cost overruns.Space programs are a small part of Boeing’s business, which is dominated by sales of commercial and military planes and equipment. But the work is a point of pride: Boeing has long been involved in spaceflight, going back to the first mission to take an American to space.But Boeing’s efforts to add to that space heritage are in doubt.The company’s Starliner capsule returned to Earth safely from the International Space Station on Friday night, but without the two astronauts it took up there in June because NASA was concerned about thrusters on the capsule that had malfunctioned before it docked at the station.A decade ago, NASA chose Boeing and an upstart rival, SpaceX, to ferry astronauts to and from the space station. SpaceX has since carried out seven of those missions and will bring home the astronauts Starliner left behind, while Boeing has yet to complete one. And with the station set to retire as soon as 2030, time is running out.“It’s unclear if or when the company will have another opportunity to bring astronauts to space,” Ron Epstein, an aerospace and defense analyst at Bank of America, said in a research note last month. “We would not be surprised if Boeing were to divest the manned spaceflight business.”On Thursday, asked to comment on Starliner’s problems and the future of its space business, Boeing responded with this statement: “Boeing continues to focus, first and foremost, on the safety of the crew and spacecraft. We are executing the mission as determined by NASA, and we are preparing the spacecraft for a safe and successful uncrewed return.”Boeing’s troubles could be a setback not only for the company but for the U.S. space program more broadly, which wants multiple private companies available to ably support its efforts.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Cathay Pacific Cancels Flights to Inspect 48 Airbus Aircraft After Engine Issue

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      An Airbus A350 jet experienced a problem during a flight that was supposed to travel from Hong Kong to Zurich. The airline has canceled 24 return flights.The Hong Kong-based airline Cathay Pacific said on Monday that it would inspect its fleet of Airbus A350 planes, leading to some cancellations or delays, after the airline found “an engine component failure” on a plane that was scheduled to travel from Hong Kong to Zurich.“This component was the first of its type to suffer such failure on any A350 aircraft worldwide,” the airline said in a statement on Monday. The company’s inspection of the 48 planes, which it called a “precautionary measure,” was “well underway,” the statement added, and the airline expected it to be completed on Monday.“Thus far, we have identified a number of the same engine components that need to be replaced, spare parts have been secured and repair work is underway,” the airline said.The plane took off from Hong Kong International Airport on Monday, but it “experienced an engine failure after takeoff,” according to Flightradar24, a provider of flight data. After dumping fuel over the sea for about half an hour, the plane returned to Hong Kong’s airport, according to Flightradar24.The Airbus in question was powered by a Trent XWB-97 engine, according to Rolls-Royce, the engine’s maker. Rolls-Royce said it was “aware of an incident” on the Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong to Zurich, but declined to release any more information because of an active investigation into the matter.“We are unable to speculate on what caused this incident and will continue to assist the authorities in finding out exactly what happened,” James Banks, a spokesman for Rolls-Royce, said in an email.Airbus declined to comment, but Guillaume Steuer, a spokesman, said in an email that the company was “aware of the situation and in touch with Rolls-Royce as well as Cathay Pacific.”Because of the inspection, some planes will be grounded for several days, which will cause delays, Cathay Pacific said. So far, the airline said it had canceled 24 return flights through Tuesday.After the inspection, aircraft that are cleared will return to service, while those with technical issues will undergo repairs, Cathay’s director of engineering, Keith Brown, said in the company’s statement.For five years, Airbus has been the world’s biggest plane manufacturer. Last year, the company said it delivered 735 commercial aircraft, an 11 percent increase from 2022, securing more orders than Boeing, its chief rival. Boeing has been in the middle of a public-relations and safety crisis over a string of failures with its 737 Max line of airliners.On its website, Airbus described the engines that power its A350 aircraft as “the world’s most efficient large aero-engine.” More

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      Small Plane Crashes Into Oregon Townhouses, Leaving 3 Missing

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      A Cessna crashed into a row of townhouses in Fairview, Ore., on Saturday, sparking a large fire, officials said.A small plane struck a row of townhouses in Fairview, Ore., according to the authorities, who said at least three people were missing.KPTVA small plane crashed on Saturday morning in a residential neighborhood near an airport in Fairview, Ore., according to the authorities who said that three people were missing.The plane had at least two people on board when it struck a row of townhouses around 10:30 a.m. local time, with a fire spreading from two units to four, according to Chief Scott Lewis of the Gresham Fire Department of Gresham, Ore., a neighboring city.Two people who were aboard the plane and one person from a home were missing, he said.At least five families were displaced from their homes. Two transmission lines from Portland General Electric were down as a result of the crash, which happened near an airport in Troutdale, Ore.Video footage from the scene showed flames rising from a building in a neighborhood with townhouses that are tightly packed together.At some point during the crash, a power pole or tower fell, starting a brush fire, according to John Plock of the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office. “That fire, luckily, was kind of adjacent to a swampy area, so it didn’t really spread,” he said.The Federal Aviation Administration said the plane was a twin-engine Cessna. The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash along with the F.A.A.Fairview is a city of about 11,000 people that is roughly 12 miles east of Portland, Ore. More

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      Scott Bloomquist, Champion Dirt-Track Driver, Dies at 60

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      Styling himself as a rebel, he won more than 600 races and nine championships in a 40-year career.Scott Bloomquist, a superstar dirt-track racer who won more than 600 races and whose car bore the image of a skull and crossbones, died on Aug. 16 when the vintage single-engine plane that he was piloting crashed into a barn close to the airstrip on his family farm near Mooresburg, Tenn. He was 60.The Federal Aviation Administration said that Bloomquist was the only person aboard the vintage Piper J-3 aircraft. In a statement confirming the death, Scott Bloomquist Racing posted a statement that described him as “one hell of a wheel man” and said, “Whether you cheered for him or booed for him, you still made noise, and Scott loved you all equally for that.”Bloomquist, whose car bore No. 0 and a skull-and-crossbones image, dueled with Tim McCreadie (No. 39) at the World of Outlaws late-model series championship in Concord, N.C., in 2014.David Allio/Icon Sportswire — Corbis, via Getty ImagesBloomquist was considered one of the greatest drivers on the circuits where he raced. He won nine championships, including four with the United Dirt Track Racing Association’s Hav-A-Tampa Series, three with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series and one with the World of Outlaws.Tony Stewart, the three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, owns the Eldora Speedway dirt track in Rossburg, Ohio, where Bloomquist won four elite World 100 races. Bloomquist, Stewart said in a statement, was “probably the smartest guy I’ve ever been around when it come to dirt racing.”Stewart, who has raced on dirt tracks, added, “What he could do behind the wheel of a racecar was matched by the ingenuity he put into building his racecars.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More