Airbus is investigating the cause of noxious fumes in the cabin of a brand new Airbus A330-900 after New Caledonian carrier Aircalin returned the aircraft to Toulouse, following complaints of headaches and eye irritation by cabin crew and passengers. The Nouméa-based carrier only received its two Rolls Royce Trent 7000-powered A330-900s in July and October, with the aircraft replacing two A330-200s to operate routes from the French Pacific island territory to Australia, Japan, and other Pacific islands. The aircraft involved, registered F-ONET, was withdrawn from service after a flight from Sydney following complaints of a strong smell of oil in the cabin which caused headaches and eye irritation. Inspections of the aircraft in Nouméa failed to identify or resolve the problem, resulting in the aircraft being returned to Toulouse for further investigation on 18 November, confirms the airline. The other A330-900 remains in service. “The aircraft has been flown to Toulouse for thorough inspections and to identify the cause of the problem,” says Airbus. “We don’t have any further comment at this time, pending the outcome of the tests,” it adds. In the meantime, Aircalin says operations are not affected as it has returned one of its two A330-200s to service, which bears the registration F-OJSE. TAP Air Portugal was reported earlier this year to have encountered similar issues with some of its new A330-900s.

Source: FlightGlobal

Turkish carrier AtlasGlobal will halt operations until mid-December owing to financial troubles. The airline says it will "temporarily" cease flights from 26 November to 21 December as it deals with cash flow problems amid tough economic conditions. "We have entered a new phase of restructuring in order to provide you a unique flight experience," the carrier states. During the Routes Europe conference in October, commercial chief Nevzat Arsan said that the carrier had a "very difficult time" in 2018 amid depreciation of the Turkish lira and general economic instability in the country. He added that political and social instability in Iran, Iraq and Syria were impacting the airline “significantly”.

Source: FlightGlobal

Russian investigators believe the captain of a Flydubai Boeing 737-800 that crashed during a second go-around at Rostov-on-Don was psychologically unprepared for the manoeuvre and possibly suffering fatigue following a long hold. The aircraft had been arriving from Dubai late at night on 19 March 2016 and had aborted one approach – despite being stable with the runway in sight – owing to a windshear warning. Over 1h 40min passed before its crew requested descent for a second landing attempt. This attempt was also aborted – at 03:40, nearly 2h after the first – when a wind gust on the approach at about 1,000ft caused a sharp increase in airspeed from 153kt to 176kt. Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee says the captain's mindset was fixed on conducting a landing at Rostov, following the previous forced go-around and through concern over exceeding duty time for the return flight. As a result, it says, he had a "lack of psychological readiness" for a second go-around. This led to a delay in the captain's mental state adapting from carrying out a landing to carrying out a go-around. The inquiry adds that the crew's actions lacked co-ordination, with the lightly-loaded aircraft subjected to maximum thrust, consequently resulting in "substantial excessive nose-up moment" and "significant" pushing on the control column, up to 225N for more than 40s, to counteract it. As the aircraft climbed away the captain did not set and maintain the proper climb profile and demonstrated "insufficient knowledge and skill" with the manual stabiliser trim, activating it for an unusually long period of time – around 12s – as the aircraft entered low cloud. "The piloting – especially the precise piloting – of an out-of-trim aircraft is always complicated and implies the increase of the pilot’s workload, including the psycho-emotional component," says the inquiry. Excessive application of the stabiliser trim generated negative g-forces as the jet transitioned into a dive. This sudden onset of negative g-force can result in a startle effect, with pilots incapacitated and spatially disoriented and their vision or breathing potentially affected by unsecured objects, mud and dust being thrown up from the cockpit. The captain's psychological incapacitation and disorientation, says the inquiry, prevented his responding to prompts from the first officer – who, in turn, did not recognise the signs of the captain's deteriorating mental state in time to take decisive actions.


Source: FlightGlobal