Civil

Revolutionary Guards officials had been ordered to appear on state media and give the public a full explanation.

On Jan. 11, 2020, Iran’s military announced that it had accidentally shot down early morning on Jan. 8 a Boeing 737-800 airliner belonging to Ukraine International Airlines, blaming human error because of what it called the plane’s sharp, unexpected turn toward a sensitive military base.

After days of tension since the jet crashed near Tehran, the same day that Iranian missiles struck American bases in Iraq, the admission was a stunning reversal. As told by Ney York Times in fact, Iran initially maintained that mechanical issues had brought the Boeing down, killing all 176 people aboard.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran deeply regrets this disastrous mistake,” President Hassan Rouhani said on Twitter soon after the military released its statement. He offered condolences to the victims’ families and said investigations were underway. The military said the person responsible would face legal consequences.

International pressure had been building on Iran to take responsibility. American and allied intelligence assessments had already concluded that Iranian missiles brought down the plane most likely by accident, amid the heightened tensions between the US and Iran.

“The little credibility that the IslamicnRepublic had among its supporters suffered a major blow tonight,” said RouzbehnMirEmbrahim, an independent Iran analyst in New York and a consultant with the United Nations. “This tragedy undermines the image Iran has cultivated as a military power and weakened it significantly both regionally and internationally.”

Iranians began expressing anger toward the military on social media soon after the announcement, many of them using the term “harshest revenge,” which officials had repeatedly promised in the wake of the American MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) strike that killed Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, a powerful Revolutionary Guards commander, last week.

“They were supposed to take their harsh revenge against America, not the people,” wrote Mojtaba Fathi, a journalist.

The Iranian military’s statement said the plane “took the flying posture and altitude of an enemy target” as it came close to an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps base. It said that “under the circumstances, because of human error,” the plane “came under fire.”

The military said it would undertake “major reform in operations of all armed forces” to make sure that such an error never happened again. It said Revolutionary Guards officials had been ordered to appear on state media and give the public a full explanation.

In a statement of his own, Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, tried to place some of the blame on the US, saying on Twitter that the disaster was “caused by U.S. adventurism.” The military’s statement said there had been information suggesting the US was “preparing to aerially target sensitive defense and key sites and multiple targets in our country, and this led to even more sensitive defense posture by our antiaircraft units.”

However, the Iranians asked the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to help with the investigation, and the State Department granted waivers to allow the American agency to help. 

As already reported, on Jan. 9 a video appearing to show a missile fired into the Tehran sky early Wednesday morning and striking an object in the sky surfaced. Around that time, Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 jetliner crashed shortly after takeoff.

As noted by #AW#ncontributor and world-famous modern military aviation author Tom Cooper “One can hear the airliner, one can see the SAM, the detonation, then hear both of these, and see the airliner going down… According to the poster [of the video], this was the SECOND SAM to hit the Ukrainian B737.”

Cooper was also the first to highlight that the Boeing 737 was apparently shot down by two Russian madenSA-15 surface-to-air missiles (SAMs).

“A pilot underway minutes behind the Ukrainian B737 says, from his POV, it was clear: either a bomb on board or shot down. The only force operating SA-15s in Iran – is the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps].”

The Boeing 737 was apparently shot down by two Russian-made SA-15 surface-to-air missiles.

The video in this post appears to show a missile fired into the Tehran sky early Wednesday morning and striking an object in the sky. Around that time, a  Boeing 737-800 jetliner belonging to Ukraine International Airlines crashed shortly after takeoff.

As noted by #AW# contributor and world-famous modern military aviation author Tom Cooper “One can hear the airliner, one can see the SAM, the detonation, then hear both of these, and see the airliner going down… According to the poster [of the video], this was the SECOND SAM to hit the Ukrainian B737.”

Cooper was also the first to highlight that the Boeing 737 was apparently shot down by two Russian-made SA-15 surface-to-air missiles (SAMs).

“A pilot underway minutes behind the Ukrainian B737 says, from his POV, it was clear: either a bomb on board or shot down. The only force operating SA-15s in Iran – is the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps].”

The Ukrainian plane crashed just north of the suburb.

According to CNN the footage was obtained by Nariman Gharib and shows a light in the sky, moving left to right and then exploding. 

CNN has asked Gharib for more information about who took the video and how he obtained it but has not yet received a response.

The US increasingly believes that Irannmistakenly shot down the Ukrainian airliner, according to multiple US officials. The working theory is based on continuing analysis of data from satellites, radar, and electronic data collected routinely by the US military and intelligence. Thanks to the data the US was able to see Iranian radar signals lock onto the jetliner before it was shot down.

The flight was downed following Iranian strikes on US forces in Iraq.

 

 

#Иран: това видео се твърди, че показва украинският самолет, ударен от две ракети, каквато е в момента една от водещите версии за трагедията над Техеран. По останкате от самолета са открити шрапнели, а иранските власти все още не са предали черните кутии.

Posted by De Re Militari on Thursday, January 9, 2020

Photo by Ukraine International Airlines

Concorde 001 was specially modified with rooftop portholes for the mission and is currently on display with the Solar Eclipse mission livery at Musée de l’air et de l’espace.

“Concorde ready to intercept the fleeting shadow. Poised like a falcon at the runway awaiting the time, 10:08 UT, to fly up and snare the shadow. The long months of preparation are about complete —the corona to be viewed against the purple sky of space, darkened still further to reveal in full contrast the ethereal white of the solar corona.”

This entry appeared on NBC News and was written by Donald Liebenberg (Since 1996, Donald Liebenberg has been an adjunct professor in the physics and astronomy department at Clemson University) in his notebook on Jun. 30, 1973, as he sat aboard a Concorde supersonic jetliner poised for takeoff on a runway in the Canary Islands city of Las Palmas. Soon, several other scientists would have joined him to fly in the path of totality of a solar eclipse that would stretch across much of Africa.

Liebenberg started preparing for the 1973 eclipse about a year in advance. At the time, the Concorde, which could fly in excess of Mach 2, or twice the speed of sound and cruise at 60,000 feet, was not yet in commercial service. “Studying an eclipse from this fast-moving, high-flying plane meant I would be able to extend the amount of time I could collect precious data during totality,” he recalls.

“On eclipse day, we took off from LasnPalmas at 10:08 UT (Universal Time). We intercepted the totality and stayed within it for 74 minutes before descending and landing in the African nation ofnChad,” Liebenberg said.

At 74 minutes, the group of scientists aboard the Concorde set a record for the amount of time spent in totality that has never been broken. “To say the least, it was an experience I will never forget,” Liebenberg concluded.

The group of scientists used two airplanes to extend the apparent time of totality by flying along the eclipse path in the same direction as the Moon’s shadow as it passed over Africa. One of the planes was a prototype (c/n 001) of what was later to become the Concorde. The aircraft’s top speed of Mach 2 enabled scientists from Los Alamos, the Paris Observatory, the Kitt Peak National Observatory, Queen Mary University of London, the University of Aberdeen, and CNRS to extend totality to more than 74 minutes; nearly 10 times longer than is possible when viewing a total solar eclipse from a stationary location. That Concorde was specially modified with rooftop portholes for the mission and is currently on display with the Solar Eclipse mission livery at Musée de l’air et de l’espace. The data gathered resulted in three papers published in Nature and a book.

The eclipse was also observed by a charter flight from Mount San Antonio College in Southern California. The DC-8 with 150 passengers intercepted the eclipse at 35,000 feet (11,000 m) just off the east coast of Africa and tracked the eclipse for three minutes. The passengers rotated seats every 20 seconds so that each passenger had three 20-second opportunities at the window to observe and take pictures.

A separate observation opportunity was provided on a specialized commercial cruise by the S.S. Canberra, which traveled from New York City to the Canary Islands and Dakar, Senegal, observing close to 8 minutes of a totality out in the Atlantic between those two stops in Africa. That cruise’s passengers included notables in the scientific community such as Neil Armstrong, Isaac Asimov, and the then 15-years old Neil deGrasse Tyson.

The following video (in the French language) features the total solar eclipse of Jun. 30, 1973, over Africa as seen from Concorde 001.

Photo by Arthur Gibson

The video in this post features a crosswind landing performed by a massive Antonov An-124 and is definitely one of the craziest landings ever filmed.

Taken on Mar. 13, 2019, at Cologne Bonn Airport, the video in this post features a crosswind landing performed by a massive Antonov An-124 and is definitely one of the craziest landings ever filmed.

According to the video description “At first the Antonov An-124 of Volga Dnepr which arrived empty from Moskau appeared like a normal landing but immediately after the front gear touched the ground the main gear went up again and due to the crosswind it floated slowly to the right. Although many pilots probably would have initiated a go around the AN-124 crew just didn’t care and placed the main gear on the ground.

“Watching an Antnonv An-124 in action is always a pleasure but seeing such an interesting maneuver makes it even more amazing.”

The An-124 Ruslan, the world’s biggest serial production aircraft, was first manufactured over 30 years ago for the long-range transportation of super heavy and oversize cargo.

In 1992, the civil modification of the An-124-100 received its Airworthiness Certificate from the Interstate Aviation Committee and subsequently created a whole new sector in the global air cargo and logistics industry for the commercial transportation of heavyweight and outsize air cargo.

The An-124-100 Ruslan freighter’s transportation capabilities – including payload size, cargo compartment volume, operating range, and the availability of ramp loading without the requirement for special loading devices – enable Volga-Dnepr Airlines to provide previously ‘impossible’ solutions for single pieces of cargo up to 120 tons in weight.

Today, the An-124 is recognized as the leading aircraft in its specialist field of operation, providing fast and reliable logistics services for customers in such industry sectors as heavy engineering, oil and gas, automotive, and aerospace. It also serves the requirements of international humanitarian aid agencies and governments all over the world.

Currently, there are just three civil Antonov An-124 operators worldwide, Antonov Design Bureau, Maximus Air, and Volga Dnepr Airlines.

Moreover, on Nov. 23, Air France quietly retired its first Airbus A380

Very sad news. As the main image of this post shows the first Airbus A380 has (already) been scrapped at Tarbes-Lourdes Airport, France, by TARMAC Aerosave, Scramble Magazine reports. The whole process took nearly eleven months and was finished recently.

The airframe was msn 003, which operated for Singapore Airlines for ten years as 9V-SKA. It was noted stored first at Singapore-Changi in October 2017 before it was ferried to Tarbes-Lourdes, where it was seen in November 2017.

Moreover, on Nov. 23, Air France quietly retired its first A380, as the airline flew the aircraft (F-HPJB, msn 040) from Paris-Charles de Gaulle to Malta-Luqa, as AF370V. It will be painted in an all-white livery there, before being returned to its lessor, the Dr. Peters Group, and put in storage.

However, this A380 is not planned to be scrapped; instead, it will be available for a new owner.

Air France has a total of ten A380s in its fleet and plans to have them all retired by 2022.

The A380 (dubbed the “Whale”) was developed to challenge the dominance of the Boeing 747. Airbus started studies for what was to become the A3XX project in 1988. The A3XX was announced in 1990 and presented in 1994. They would invest a staggering €9.5 billion in the project launched on Dec. 19, 2000.

The first prototype was unveiled innToulouse on Jan. 18, 2005, and performed its maiden flight on Apr. 27 of that year. Delivery to launch customer Singapore Airlines took place on Oct. 15,n2007, and it entered service ten days later.

With air traffic continuing to double everyn15 years, the A380 was originally designed to meet the needs of the passengers and airports, while also delivering the level of efficiency necessary to protect the environment for future generations.

It has two full-length decks with wide-body dimensions, meaning its two passenger levels offer an entire deck’s worth of additional space compared to other airliners. With more seats than any other aircraft, the A380 offers solutions to overcrowding; needing fewer journeys to carry 60% more passengers, making it the perfect solution to airport congestion, fleet planning optimization, and traffic growth. 

Combining the most advanced aviation technology and an inspired cabin design, Airbus created an aircraft that is celebrated for its outstanding quality in every aspect.

Sadly, however, the company concedes that it’s estimated €25 billion (!!) investment for the aircraft cannot be recouped. On Feb. 14, 2019, after Emirates reduced its last orders in favor of the A350 and the A330neo, Airbus announced that A380 production would end by 2021.

Photo by @AirwaysMagazine and Melvin Debono.

Boeing’s 367-80, nicknamed the “Dash 80” was scheduled to perform a simple flyover, but Tex Johnston instead performed a barnstormer-style barrel roll to show off the jet airliner.

Taken on Aug. 6, 1955, the incredible video in this post features Boeing test pilot Alvin “Tex” Johnston performing a barrel roll to show off the prototype of the Boeing 707.

According to the video description, as part of the Dash 80s demonstration program, then Boeing president Bill Allen invited representatives of the Aircraft Industries Association and International Air Transport Association to the Seattle’s 1955 Seafair and Gold Cup Hydroplane Races held on Lake Washington on Aug.t 6, 1955. Boeing’s 367-80, nicknamed the “Dash 80” was scheduled to perform a simple flyover, but Tex Johnston instead performed a barnstormer-style barrel roll to show off the jet airliner.

The next day, Allen summoned Johnston to his office and told him not to perform such a maneuver again, Johnston replied that doing so was completely safe. Allen asked him: “What the hell were you doing?” Johnston replied, “I was selling airplanes.”

Tex kept his position as a test pilot and did not get into any legal trouble for his actions. His flying style and cowboy-type dress (Johnston earned his nickname, “Tex” because he always wore his Stetson cowboy hat and cowboy boots while on the flight line) is said to be the inspiration for Dr. Strangelove’s character Maj. T. J. “King” Kong, who, in rodeo style, rode a balky nuclear weapon to its target.

The Dash 80 prototype led to the commercial 707 and the military KC-135 tanker. Both planes shared the basic design of the Dash 80 but were very different airplanes, neither one being a derivative of the other. One great difference was in the width and length of the fuselage. Airlines wanted the 707 fuselages to be 4 inches (2.5 centimeters) wider than the tankers. Its width and 100-foot length (30.5-meter) made it the largest passenger cabin in the air. The placement of its more than 100 windows allowed airlines to rearrange seats. Location of passenger doors on the left side, at the front and at the rear of the cabin, became standard for subsequent Boeing jets. The exteriors of the 707 and its competitor, the DC-8, were almost identical, but the 707 wing had more sweepback, so it could fly about 20 mph (32 kph) faster.

In just two years, the 707 would help change the way the world traveled. Travel by air eclipsed travel by rail and sea. The dawn of a new era in travel helped to make the terms “Boeing” and “707” fashionable. Requests poured into Boeing for rights to use “707” for naming products. Jantzen swimwear titled its 1957 collection “the 707.”

Boeing Chief Test Pilot John Cashman statednthat just before he piloted the maiden flight of the Boeing 777 on Jun. 12,n1994, his last instructions from then Boeing President Phil Condit were “No rolls”.

The shocking footage in this post is the result of A Poor (or no) Preflight: a crew of three was on board the DHC-4 Caribou, and no one checked the controls free and clear before starting t/o roll.

The shocking footage in this post is the result of A Poor (or no) Preflight: a crew of three was on board the DHC-4nCaribou, and no one checked the controls free and clear before starting t/onroll. It hurts to watch this video, but it’s a dramatic reminder that there really are good reasons to do a thorough preflight and to make sure the controls are free.

This happened just north of Winnipeg, and the DHC-4 aircraft was the first version with PT-6-67 Turboprops. (‘Modernized’ Caribou.) The Canadian DOT concluded that the control locks were still locked when the aircraft took off.

According to the video description, it is physically impossible to advance the throttles (past 1800 RPM) aboard the Caribou with the gust-lock in — but this aircraft had been modified (still restricted Category) and the throttle quadrant was not properly rigged to accommodate the throttle levers for the turbine engines.

The DHC-4 Caribou was designed to provide military operators with a twin-engine STOL cargo transport aircraft with greater capacity than the Otter. The type also offered a rear loading capability.

The prototype DHC-4 Caribou (CF-KTK-X) was flown for the first time on Jul. 30, 1958.

Significant users included the US Army / USAF (159 CV-2 / C-7), Australia (31 aircraft serving until 2009), Spain (35 aircraft), India (20 + 4 ex-Ghana); Canada (9); Ghana (8); Kenya (6). A smaller number of aircraft were delivered for commercial operations worldwide. In 1966, the US Army relinquished its Caribou fleet to the US Air Force in exchange for the removal of controls on its use of rotary wing aircraft (helicopters).

Some DHC-4 Caribou aircraft were captured by the North Vietnamese and stayed in service with that country well into the 1970s.

The last aircraft in military service was Caribou (A4-140) in Australia which was eventually demobbed in November 2009.  Some 32 nations around the world employed aircraft in military roles.

Some aircraft have now been modified to turboprop power (two PWC PT6A-67T) by Pen Turbo Aviation and remain active in civilian and commercial hands.

The dive site will have a 70-meter long decommissioned Boeing 747 as its centerpiece, the largest aircraft ever to be submerged.

The interesting video in this article was posted by Dive Bahrain on social media and shows its team preparing a Boeing 747 to be transported and submerged 20 meters in the waters off Hair Al Sharhiya, a protected marine site in the north of the island, as part of the world’s largest underwater theme park.

The park will cover an area of over 100,000 square meters. The dive site will have a 70-meter long decommissioned Boeing 747 as its centerpiece, the largest aircraft ever to be submerged. The site will provide an exceptional dive experience. Phase 1 of the project includes submerging the aircraft, a replica of a pearl merchant’s house, and sail structures. Future phases of the project are still being studied but could include reef balls, ships, and sculptures.

That’s for sure an interesting final resting place for this former Air Atlanta Icelandic B747-236F TF-AAA!

The Jumbo is painted in a look-a-like livery of the Boeing Company house livery featured on the original B747-prototype in 1969.

According to Scramble Facebook News Magazine, TF-AAA had been stored at Fujairah since 2013 and flew passengers and cargo with Malaysia Airlines from 1982 until 2006. Then it moved to Focus Air as N361FC. Two years later, in 2008, it started flying for Air Atlanta Icelandic.

Photo by Dive Bahrain

On Mar. 27, 1977, a KLM Boeing 747 and a Pan Am Boeing 747 collided on the tarmac at the Tenerife Airport, resulting in the deaths of 583 people.

On Mar. 27, 1977, a KLM Boeing 747 and a Pan Am Boeing 747 collided on the tarmac at the Tenerife Airport, resulting in the deaths of 583 people.

The accident happened when KLM flight 4805, carrying 248 passengers and crew, attempted to take off from the same runway where Pan Am flight 1736, which had 396 people on board, was taxiing.

Due to bad weather, the pilots on the two planes were unable to see each other from a distance and were relying on air traffic control to guide them.

The error was only spotted when the KLM flight was just 2,000ft away from the Pam Am plane – but it was already too late.

Seconds before crashing, Pan Am pilot Victor Grubbs was recorded saying: “Look at him! Goddamn, that son of a bitch is coming!”

Despite both aircraft attempting to avoid each other, with the Pan Am plane veering sharply onto the grass and the KLM Boeing 747 pulling up, they were unable to avoid the collision.

As explained in an extensive piece published by The Sun, the KLM aircraft’s undercarriage and engines hit the top of the Pan Am plane at speed, resulting in a catastrophic crash.

Pan Am co-captain Robert Bragg, who died in 2017, told BBC’s Witness in 2016: “When he hit us, it was a very soft boom.

“I then looked up for the fire control handles and that’s when I noticed the top of the aeroplane was gone.”

Robert managed to escape along with 61 lucky passengers.

He explained: “I jumped to the ground, 40 feet from the cockpit, and thanked the lord I landed on the grass.

“One poor lady jumped first and everyone else jumped on her, broke her back and both legs and both arms.”

After five minutes, the fuel tank blew up, sending flames “250 feet in the air,” as the aircraft fell apart.

The collision of the two planes was attributed to a number of issues.

Earlier that day, a bomb explosion at Gran Canaria Airport that injured eight people, followed by a second bomb threat by the Canary Islands Independence Movement, led to extra planes being diverted to the airport in Tenerife.

With a large number of aircraft landing, the entrance to the main runway was blocked.

It meant that planes were forced to taxi on the runway itself, before making a 180 degree turn to take off.

It was also a foggy day, meaning much lower visibility for pilots.

Because of this, Pan Am missed their assigned turn-off at exit three and taxied to exit four instead, keeping them on the runway for much longer than expected.

However, what was also factored in the final incident report were the key phrases used by pilots and air traffic control which caused confusion and misunderstanding.

The incident report filed in 1977 explained that there was a breakdown in communication due to the ambiguous use of the words “okay” and “take off”, as well as the different accents and languages involved.

The report gives an example of the problem this caused during the incident: “The controller then said, “Okay (pause) stand by for takeoff, I will call you.”

“On the KLM CVR, the portion of this transmission following the word ‘okay’ is overlayed by a high pitched squeal, and the tone of the controller’s voice is somewhat distorted, though understandable.”

The report said: “We believe that nothing after the word ‘okay’ passed the filters of the Dutch crew, thus they believed the controller’s transmission approved their announced action in taking off.”

Pilots are now required to learn “radiotelephony”, also known as Aviation English, which features roughly 300 words and instructions on when and how to use them.

Roger, for example, means message received – but it doesn’t mean the receiver understands the instruction, or that they are planning to comply.

Instead, a pilot might say Roger and then repeat the instruction back to the ATC to make sure both sides are clear on the situation – or they could say Roger and explain why they can’t follow the instruction or if they don’t understand. Pilots only confirm that they will follow the instructions given when they say Wilco (for will comply).

Words that have ambiguous meanings such as “okay”, which could be misinterpreted, are not part of Aviation English.

Another issue that was highlighted was the authority in the cabin – the co-pilot on the KLM flight was relatively junior and didn’t have the authority to challenge the captain’s decisions in the cabin.

So when he highlighted a possible miscommunication, he was ignored by the captain.

Since then, the co-pilots, and even the crew, have been given greater power to challenge the captain’s decisions.

The accident (which was also known as the Tenerife Airport Disaster), the worst of its kind in history, now forms an essential part of a pilot’s training.

The following video is an FAA animation of the Tenerife accident.

Photo by SafetyCard Own work and Anynobody via Wikipedia

“Can you please explain how can my morning flight taking off from LCY to Düsseldorf land in Edinburgh? While an interesting concept, I don’t think anyone on board has signed up for this mystery travel lottery,” Son Tran, BA3271 passenger.

As the Flight Radar screenshot in this post shows, a British Airways flight with number BA3271 from London to Germany accidentally took off in the wrong direction, landing 525 miles away in Scotland.

The flight from London City Airport was supposed to head to Düsseldorf, Germany, but ended up in Edinburgh, Scotland, instead – the total opposite direction.

The airline said Monday the problem started when an incorrect flight plan was filed by WDL Aviation, which operated the flight on behalf of British Airways (BA).

Officials told the Associated Press that the pilot of the BAe 146 aircraft followed the flight plan for Edinburgh and that air traffic control officials also were following the same flight plan and saw nothing amiss.

“We are working with WDL Aviation, who operated this flight on behalf of British Airways, to establish why the incorrect flight plan was filed,” British Airways spokesperson Chip Garnernsaid in a statement to USA TODAY. “We have apologized to customers for this interruption to their journey and will deal with them all individually. Customers are on route to Dusseldorf currently.”

WDL Aviation also is investigating what went wrong. 

“We are working closely with the authorities to investigate how the obviously unfortunate mix-up of flight schedules could occur,” said WDL spokesperson Joachim Schöttes. At no time has the safety of passengers been compromised. We flew the passengers on thenflight with number BA3271 to Düsseldorf afternthe involuntary stopover in Edinburgh.”

One passenger, Son Tran, tweeted about his experience on the flight.

“Can you please explain how can my morning flight take off from LCY to Düsseldorf land in Edinburgh? While an interesting concept, I don’t think anyone on board has signed up for this mystery travel lottery,” Tran tweeted.

British Airways responded with a tweet, writing: “The flight has been diverted to Edinburgh, we don’t have any information as to why at the moment. There is an estimated departure time of 10:30 from Edinburgh to make way to Dusseldorf.”

“This feels like an honest mistake rather than a diversion,” Tran responded. “The crew was convinced of the Edinburgh flight path from the get-go.”

Photo by Lars Steffens via Wikipedia