Meanwhile, Boeing which acquired the MD-11 program through its 1997 merger with McDonnell Douglas also announced that it recommended UPS and FedEx suspend MD-11 freighter flight operations. "This recommendation was made in an abundance of caution and we will continue coordinating with the FAA on this matter," a Boeing spokesperson said.
A federal investigator announced earlier on Wednesday the UPS cargo plane's left wing caught fire and an engine fell off shortly after takeoff from the Louisville Muhammad Ali international airport, causing the plane to crash and explode into a fireball. The National Transportation Safety Board has said it is investigating the plane's maintenance history which was in Texas for repairs weeks before the crash.
Investigators are looking into a close call between a Southwest Airlines flight and a helicopter that forced the plane to abort its landing and go around. Southwest Flight 1333, from Baltimore, was on approach to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport last Wednesday. At the same time, an Airbus H145 medical helicopter was en route to pick up a patient from a hospital in the city.
The captain of a regional plane continued a landing despite two go-around calls from their first officer in an approach that overshot the runway at Roanoke Airport in Virginia on September 24, according to a new report from the National Transportation Safety Board. The first officer of CommuteAir Flight 4339, operating on behalf of United Airlines as United Express, told the NTSB that the Embraer E145 plane was too high and that the rain was intensifying during the final approach.
Once the card was recovered, an exact binary image of it was made so investigators could examine its contents. They discovered, however, that the data was encrypted, and would require encryption keys stored in the camera's CPU, which was broken. Authorities contacted the manufacturers of the different hardware parts used in the camera, and with their help, were able to use surrogate parts to extract the data.
A man walking his dog along the Potomac River in Northern Virginia on Sunday found what appears to be an airplane seat and a tray table among other airplane debris. The National Transportation Safety Board is now examining the debris, which is believed to be from the mid-air collision between an American Airlines regional jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan National Airport in January that killed 67 people. Andrew Guevara, who lives near the trail along the Potomac River, said he spotted the airline seat cushion while walking his dog.
