South African Airways is suspending its Hong Kong service for three weeks owing to losses it is incurring on the route, which have deepened as a result of the political unrest in the territory. The Star Alliance airline, which is already coping with network disruption from industrial action, says it will halt the Johannesburg-Hong Kong flights from 23 November.
This suspension will remain in effect until 14 December. The airline uses Airbus A340-300s for the four-times-weekly Hong Kong service. SAA says the losses on the route are "significant" and have been "exacerbated" by the months of political tension driven by protests against the government. “The decision to suspend services to Hong Kong is regrettable, but necessitated by the current downturn in business due to the developing challenges in the region," says chief commercial officer Philip Saunders. "By suspending these flights, we can concentrate on resuming more regional services at the earliest opportunity and make better use of all our resources.” Monthly passenger numbers at Hong Kong airport had shown increases from January to July, but suddenly fell by more than 12% in August to fewer than 6 million. This situation has deteriorated since, with a 13% fall in October. SAA points out that it one of several operators which have reduced capacity to Hong Kong.

Source: FlightGlobal

One of Turkish Airlines' Boeing 737-800s has suffered a nose-gear failure during landing at Odessa airport in Ukraine.
The aircraft (TC-JGZ) had been operating the TK467 service from Istanbul when, according to the airport authority, it experienced a collapse on touchdown. It had been approaching the airport in "heavy crosswinds", the authority adds. The aircraft had already conducted one approach to runway 16 before executing a go-around, and subsequently landed at 20:55. It appears to have come to rest partly on rough ground. All 136 passengers were evacuated and NOTAM information states that the runway has been closed. The airport operator says flights will be suspended until at least 01:00 on 22 November. Meteorological data from the airport indicates that weather conditions indicates crosswinds from the left gusting to around 31kt. Investigators are probing the accident, the airport operator states.

Source: FlightGlobal

US investigators have indicated that a Saab 2000 touched down in a tailwind during a second attempt to land at an Alaskan airport, before it suffered a fatal excursion. The PenAir turboprop, arriving at Unalaska on 17 October, approached runway 13 with the wind from 300° at 24kt – suggesting a tailwind component of more than 23kt. While its airspeed was 129kt at touchdown the aircraft's groundspeed was 142kt, according to the flight-data recorder. According to the US National Transportation Safety Board, the crew told the inquiry that the aircraft landed about 1,000ft down the 4,500ft runway. Reverse thrust and braking commenced and the captain applied maximum braking around the '80kt' call-out. But the aircraft did not stop before the runway end and the crew attempted to steer to the right to avoid entering the water beyond. As the aircraft overran – about 26s after touchdown – its left-hand propeller struck a road sign, and possibly a signal post, losing three of its six blades. At least two blades hit the fuselage, one sticking in the structure and the other entering the passenger cabin. The third missing blade was retrieved from the water. The fuselage had been holed on its left side around the fifth passenger window, which is located slightly ahead of the rotation plane of the propeller. All the cabin seats, comprising 15 rows, were intact with the exception of window seat 4A, which was displaced and damaged. All three of the other left-hand propeller blades were broken. One passenger was fatally injured, says the inquiry, but its preliminary findings do not elaborate on the nature of the injuries. The aircraft, which had been operating from Anchorage, was transporting 42 occupants. The turboprop had been cleared for an area navigation approach to runway 13 with winds gusting from the south-west. These winds shifted towards a westerly direction, at 10kt, during the approach. The crew felt the approach was unstable and executed a go-around. "Transmissions between the weather observer and another [aircraft] indicated that winds favoured [the opposite] runway 31 but could shift back to runway 13," says the inquiry. The Saab crew re-established the aircraft on the runway 13 approach. Investigators state that an examination of the runway found a dark rubber mark 15ft left of the runway centreline, some 1,840ft from the threshold and extending for 200ft. The aircraft's left-hand outboard tyre was found to have completely worn through and deflated. While the Saab's captain had accumulated around 20,000h including 14,000h in Bombardier Dash 8s, only 101h had been logged on Saab 2000s. The first officer had 147h on the type, out of a total of 1,446h.

Source: FlightGlobal