Tool Kit for Runway Excursions

The Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) has released a Runway Excursion Risk Reduction (RERR) tool kit. The toolkit, a joint effort between FSF and the International Air Transport Association (IATA), provides an in depth analysis of runway excursion accident data, a compilation of significant risk factors, and provides recommendations for operators, pilots, airports, air traffic management, air traffic controllers and regulators to assist in addressing this challenge. FSF President and CEO William R. Voss said "this was an international effort with participants representing the full spectrum of stakeholders from the aviation community. We wanted to reach out to the entire aviation community with the findings and working with IATA to produce a tool kit containing this information made a great deal of sense as they were one of the RSI participants." The RSI group focused on runway excursions as they discovered that 97% of runway accidents were caused by excursions. They also found that over the past 14 years, there had been almost 30 excursions per year for commercial aircraft (over 25% of all accidents). The study also noted that although the percentage of excursions that included fatalities was low, the sheer number of excursions still meant that there were a high number of fatalities. Independent of the FSF effort, IATA's Safety Group had identified runway excursions as a significant safety challenge to address.

Asian Carriers Pick AviNet AirportSM

Seven major Asian airlines recently signed up for AviNet AirportSM wide-area network service from ARINC. The Asia Pacific Division of ARINC says Air China, Air Macau, Asiana Airlines, Cathay Pacific, China Southern, Dragonair, and Korean Airlines are now using AviNet Airport service to support their international passenger operations in the region and around the globe. ARINC's AviNet Airport solution handles both legacy and modern IP applications using a single connection. It is available to airlines using ARINC's MUSE common- use passenger systems at airports around the world. With AviNet Airport, airlines can support a wide range of applications from ticketing to flight information. This secure, cost- effective and robust networking solution also minimizes network downtime and interruptions. It supports the aviation industry's connectivity requirements for check-in, ticketing, baggage handling, fueling, gate management, flight information display systems (FIDS), ground handling operations, and many other applications in the airport environment.

Avianova Opts for Lufthansa Systems

Russian low-cost carrier Avianova has selected Lufthansa Systems' Flight Management System (FMS) database. The FMS database contains all important route information including altitude and airport data for optimizing routes and supporting autopilots on board modern aircraft. The navigation data, which are based on global aeronautical information, are updated and organized monthly and can be customized to specific routes and for the use in any type of aircraft. "Key factors for the airlines decision were the good cooperation with the Lufthansa Systems' contacts as well as the IT-Providers first-rate aeronautical solutions," Lufthansa Systems stated. Avianova is a new Russian low-cost airline and based at Vnukovo Airport in Moscow. The fleet consists of IAE V2500 powered Airbus A320 aircraft.

AW139 Flight Training Devices

Era Training Center has entered into an agreement with AgustaWestland for the construction of two AW139 Flight Simulator Training Devices (FSTDs). The first FSTD will be installed at Era Training Center's facility in 2011 and will meet the certification requirements defined by FAA Part 60, Level 6. AgustaWestland, as prime contractor, has partnered with Frasca International to support the development and production of the FSTDs, with work being carried out at Frasca's facilities in the USA and at AgustaWestland's facilities in Sesto Calende, Italy. Frasca built the two advanced Level 6 FSTDs, the AS350 B2 and the EC135 CPDS P2+ currently offered for training programs by Era Training Center. The FSTDs will represent the cockpit of a standard offshore AW139 helicopter, providing high fidelity replications and simulations of the controls, displays and systems to train aircrew on a range of ground and flight operations procedures.