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Monday, October 29, 2018

TRAVEL October 29, 2018

Lion Air crash: Jakarta Boeing 737 'had prior instrument error

Media captionDebris found from Lion Air crash in sea

The Indonesian jet which crashed shortly after take-off had suffered instrument problems the day before, according to a technical log obtained by the BBC.

A technical log from a flight from Bali to Jakarta on Sunday said an instrument was "unreliable" and the pilot had to hand over to the first officer.

The Boeing 737 airliner crashed into the sea with 189 people on board.

It went down after taking off from Jakarta. There is no sign of survivors.

The BBC has so far been unable to reach Lion Air, the low-cost airline which owns the plane, for comment.

Flight JT 610 was headed for the western city of Pangkal Pinang on Monday when it came down. Rescuers have recovered some bodies and personal items, including baby shoes. Families are being told to go to a hospital to identify the dead.

The incident is reported to be the first major accident involving a Boeing 737 Max - an updated version of the 737.

What was the instrument problem?

A technical log obtained by the BBC from the plane's previous flight suggests that the airspeed reading on the captain's instrument was unreliable, and the altitude readings differed on the captain's and first officer's instruments.

"Identified that CAPT [captain's] instrument was unreliable and handover control to FO [first officer]," the log reads. "Continue NNC of Airspeed Unreliable and ALT disagree."

The crew decided to continue their flight and landed safely at Jakarta.

Rescuer workers recovered debris from the crash site — Image captionBelongings - including a handbag - and debris are being recovered from the suspected crash site

Earlier Lion Air Chief Executive Edward Sirait said the plane had had an unspecified "technical issue" when flying from Denpasar in Bali to Jakarta, but he added that this had been "resolved".

"If the plane was broken, it would have been impossible to clear the plane to fly from Denpasar," he said. "When we received the flight crew's report, we immediately fixed the problem."

The airline operates 11 Boeing 737 Max 8 planes but the others have not had a similar technical problem and there is no plan to ground the fleet, he added.

What happened to the plane?

Flight JT 610 took off from Jakarta at 06:20 on Monday (23:30 GMT on Sunday).

It was due to arrive at Depati Amir airport in Pangkal Pinang an hour later but 13 minutes into the flight, authorities lost contact.

The pilot had asked to return to Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta airport, officials say.

The head of Indonesia's disaster agency, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, has tweeted images of debris and personal belongings that came from the aircraft and had been found floating in the sea.

What do we know about those on board?

Lion Air said in a statement that the pilot and co-pilot had had more than 11,000 flight hours between them.

Three of the crew on board were trainee flight attendants and one was a technician.

Relatives of passengers of Lion Air flight JT610 that crashed into the sea, arrive at crisis centre at Soekarno Hatta International airport near Jakarta, Indonesia, October 29, 2018. — Image captionRelatives of the passengers arrive at the crisis centre at Jakarta airport

Twenty employees from Indonesia's finance ministry were also on board, the BBC has learned.

A ministry spokesperson said they had worked at the finance ministry offices in Pangkal Pinang but had been in Jakarta for the weekend.

What do we know about this aircraft?

The 737 Max series are the fastest-selling planes in Boeing's history and there are four models - the Max 7, Max 8, Max 9 and Max 10.

The Boeing 737 Max 8 has been in commercial use since 2016.

The aircraft involved in the crash was made in 2018. It is a single-aisle plane used for short-haul travel.

In a statement, Boeing expressed sympathy for the victims and families and said it stood "ready to provide technical assistance to the accident investigation".

Australia told government workers and contractors to stop using the airline until the findings of the investigation were out.

How is Indonesia's air safety record?

Indonesia, a vast archipelago, is heavily reliant on air travel but many of its airlines have a poor safety record.

Lion Air flight 904 in the sea off Bali in 2013 — Image captionThis Lion Air plane landed in the sea off Bali in 2013, but all passengers and crew survived

Established in 1999, Lion Air operates domestic flights as well as international routes to South East Asia, Australia and the Middle East.

It has had issues of safety and poor management in the past and was banned from flying into European airspace until 2016.

In 2013, Lion Air flight 904 crashed into the sea on landing at Bali's International Airport. All 108 people on board survived. In 2004, flight 538 from Jakarta crashed and broke up on landing at Solo City, killing 25 people.

In 2011 and 2012 a number of pilots were found in possession of methamphetamines, in one incident hours before a flight.

Additional reporting by Stephen Fottrell

Source: bbc

DJFLY 0

Thursday, October 11, 2018

TRAVEL October 11, 2018

Astronauts escape malfunctioning Soyuz rocket

Media captionThe malfunction became apparent about 90 seconds into the flight

A US astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut were forced to make an emergency landing after their Russian Soyuz rocket malfunctioned en route to the International Space Station (ISS).

Shortly after taking off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Nick Hague and Alexey Ovchinin reported a problem with the rocket's booster.

The men were forced into a "ballistic descent", with their capsule landing a few hundred miles north of Baikonur.

They have been picked up by rescuers.

"The search and recovery teams have reached the Soyuz spacecraft landing site and report that the two crew members... are in good condition and are out of the capsule," US space agency Nasa said.

Russia said it was suspending any further manned flights, and an investigation into what went wrong had begun.

What happened to the rocket?

The launch appeared to be going smoothly, but some 90 seconds later Nasa, on its livestream, reported that a problem seemed to have occurred with the booster rocket between the first and second stages of separation.

Footage from inside the capsule showed the two men being shaken around at the moment that the fault happened.

Graphic: How the aborted launch unfolded

Shortly afterwards, Nasa said they were making a "ballistic descent" meaning their capsule descended at a much sharper angle than normal and would have been subjected to greater G-force - the force imposed on a body by rapid acceleration.

The capsule separated from the failing rocket and later deployed parachutes to slow its descent.

Analysis: An uncomfortable ride back to Earth

By Jonathan Amos, BBC science correspondent

Soyuz rocket takes off at Baikonur on 11 October 2018

Soyuz is one of the oldest rocket designs but also one of the safest. The malfunction appeared to occur around what is termed "staging", where the ascending vehicle goes through the process of discarding its empty fuel segments.

The onboard astronauts were certainly aware that something was not right because they reported feeling weightless when they should have felt pushed back in their seats. The escape systems are tested and ready for exactly this sort of eventuality. It would have been an uncomfortable ride back to Earth, however. The crew would have experienced very sharp accelerations and decelerations on the return.

There is already much discussion about the current state of Russian industry and its ability to maintain the standards of yesteryear. Whatever the outcome of the inquiry, this event will only heighten those concerns and will underline to the US in particular the need to bring online new rocket systems. These vehicles, produced by the Boeing and SpaceX companies, are set to make their debut next year.

How are the crew?

US astronaut Nick Hague and cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin after landing safely following an incident with their Soyuz rocket, 11 October 2018

They seem to have been unharmed by the experience.

Search and rescue teams were quickly on the scene, 500km (310 miles) north-east of Baikonur, near the Kazakh city of Dzhezkazgan.

They reported that Mr Hague and Mr Ovchinin were alive and well and the Russian civilian space agency, Roscosmos, later issued photos of them having their hearts and blood pressure monitored.

"The emergency rescue system worked, the vessel was able to land in Kazakhstan... the crew are alive," Roscosmos tweeted. Nasa described them as being in good condition. They reportedly did not need medical treatment.

Nasa added that the two men were being taken to the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre outside Moscow, and it was "monitoring the situation carefully".

What happens now?

Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov said no further manned missions would take place "until we believe that the entire situation guarantees safety".

He rejected suggestions it could harm US relations, saying they recognised it was a "hi-tech industry linked to risk", but he added: "We certainly won't conceal the reasons, it is uncommon for such situations".

Space co-operation is an area which has survived otherwise tense relations between Russia and the US. Nasa has been paying for seats on Soyuz rockets to ferry its astronauts to the International Space Station since the Space Shuttle programme ended in 2011.

The crew already on the ISS will not be affected by Thursday's aborted mission, Russia's Tass news agency reported, quoting an unnamed source as saying they have enough supplies.

Have there been similar incidents in the past?

Thursday's incident is thought to be the first launch mishap for a Russian Soyuz booster since a Soyuz mission was aborted in 1983. A rocket malfunctioned shortly before launch, and the crew vehicle was ejected to safety.

In recent years, Russia's space programme has faced a number of technical failures - 13 since 2010.

Last year, contact was lost with a Soyuz rocket's Fregat upper stage, which was carrying a new weather satellite and 18 secondary satellites.

Earlier in 2017, at least nine of a payload of 73 satellites were reported "dead on arrival or severely degraded" after separation from their Soyuz-2.1 launch vehicle.

In August, a hole appeared in a Soyuz capsule already docked to the ISS which caused a brief loss of air pressure and had to be patched. In this instance, Russia said the hole may have been drilled "deliberately".

One of the most serious but non-fatal US incidents involved Apollo 13 - a mission to the Moon in 1970. An oxygen tank exploded two days after launch causing a loss of power and leading to the mission being aborted. The crew were able to carry out repairs and return to Earth six days later.

While space missions may often encounter technical difficulties, fatalities have been relatively rare:

2003: Seven astronauts died when the Columbia space shuttle broke up up on re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere due to a damaged protective tile
1986: Seven astronauts died when the Challenger space shuttle broke apart after lift off because of faulty seals on the booster rockets
1971: The three-men crew aboard Soyuz 11 suffocated as the result of an air leak after undocking from the Salyut 1 space station. They were found dead inside the capsule after landing
1967: Crash of Soyuz 1, with one cosmonaut killed as the spacecraft's parachute, intended to slow down descent, became tangled on re-entry
1967: Three-man crew of Apollo 1 died as their command module caught fire on the launch pad.
Source: bbc news