US investigators probing the inadvertent landing on a taxiway by a Horizon Air Bombardier Q400 have disclosed that no NOTAM information had been issued warning of inoperative runway lights at the time. The aircraft landed in darkness on a taxiway parallel to runway 06 at Pullman regional airport, Washington, on 29 December 2017. Testing of the runway lighting system carried out at 16:00 local time, nearly 3h before the landing, had indicated that all lights were operational, says the National Transportation Safety Board in a factual update. But it states that heavy rain and snow on the previous day had flooded electrical wiring vaults linked to the lighting system – a situation which was not discovered by airport operations personnel until after the incident. When the Q400 departed Seattle at 17:48 local time there was no NOTAM showing the runway lights being out of service. Cockpit-voice recordings were retrieved but found to be virtually unintelligible owing to broadband noise on one channel which masked almost all other sounds. But the captain testified that the aircraft had been flying in cloud when he attempted to use remote control to intensify the airport lighting. This technique involves repeatedly keying the microphone on the common traffic advisory frequency. When the aircraft exited cloud, the crew fixated on the illuminated taxiway which lay 200ft to the left of runway 06. Further attempts were made by the captain to brighten the lights remotely. "The captain stated he clearly felt he had the runway in sight and the runway lights were on," says the inquiry. "It was just a question of the lights not going up to bright – not to an 'on' setting." It adds that the captain, after checking the landing-gear had deployed, looked out at the airport and saw "nothing but black" except "identifiable pavement that was lit up", and lined up the Q400 with this pavement. Only after the aircraft had entered the flare did the first officer notice blue taxiway lighting. "Right before touchdown he saw that they were on the taxiway," says a summary of the first officer's testimony. "He and the captain were both surprised."

Source: FlightGlobal

Brussels Airlines is to implement a three-year downsizing strategy aimed at stemming losses and achieving sustainable profitability. "The airline has grown a lot in recent years, but profit didn't follow," says the Lufthansa subsidiary. "We need to take a step back to enable us to grow in the future." Having embarked on an evaluation of the network and fleet to see where reductions can be made, the Belgian carrier is targeting a sustainable profit margin of 8% by 2022. It acknowledges that cutting back its operations would entail job cuts, but has not provided any figures. There have been discussions with employee unions, and the airline is seeking to make any redundancies on a voluntary basis. A more detailed announcement will be made to staff on 24 October. The move follows a four-month internal investigation into how profitability can be restored, a process that began in June when it was announced that Brussels Airlines would not integrate further with Lufthansa subsidiary Eurowings.

Source: FlightGlobal

South African Airways' maintenance division is undertaking corrective measures following a regulatory inspection which resulted in the grounding of a number of aircraft operated by South African carriers. The South African Civil Aviation Authority says it "sampled a few aircraft" during the inspection of South African Airways Technical, and issued a prohibition order preventing operation of these aircraft until "irregularities" had been addressed. SAA Techincal subsequently submitted a corrective action plan which the authority determined was "acceptable". South African Airways, its Mango subsidiary, and operator Comair have all been told to carry out verification exercises on their fleets, and the airlines involved have self-grounded certain aircraft to ensure they are safe to fly. The regulator says it "appreciates the seriousness" with which the airlines have taken its concerns. South African Airways stresses that there is no link between the issues at SAA Technical and last month's serious out-of-trim incident involving a Mango Boeing 737-800 en route from Johannesburg to Cape Town. The horizontal stabiliser trim motor had been replaced before the 2 September event, but preliminary inquiries could not establish the service history of the replacement part. Adverse publicity over the incident spurred South African Airways to state that SAA Technical had "legitimately procured" the component from the original equipment manufacturer and that it strongly refuted any suggestion that it was supplied with "suspect" parts. The component – fitted to the Mango aircraft on 5 August – failed after 96 cycles and 125h of operation and has been returned to the manufacturer to establish the cause. 'There is no link, direct or indirect between the aircraft incident involving the Mango flight reported on and matters that are currently under investigation at SAA Technical," adds South African Airways. Mango director of flight operations Juan Naude states: "I have never been made aware, nor have I ever heard any rumours of bogus or untraceable parts being used by SAA Technical or in relation to Mango aircraft."

Source: FlightGlobal