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  • US Army grounds total Chinook chopper fleet over engine fires: Report

    The US Army has grounded its total fleet of CH-47 Chinook helicopters because of a danger of engine fires, US officers mentioned.

    The US Army Materiel Command grounded the fleet of a whole lot of helicopters out of an abundance of warning (Photo: AP)

    HIGHLIGHTSThe US Army has grounded its total fleet of CH-47 Chinook helicoptersThe Army has about 400 of the helicopters in its fleetThe grounding of Chinook helicopters might pose logistical challenges for American troopers

    The US Army has grounded its total fleet of Chinook helicopters, a battlefield workhorse for the reason that Sixties, over the danger of engine fires, a media report mentioned Tuesday.

    The Wall Street Journal, which broke the story, mentioned such an excessive step was taken out of abundance of warning.

    India has about 15 CH-47 Chinook helicopters. Over the previous few years, they’ve emerged as one of many main army instruments for airlift operations in locations like Ladakh and Siachen glaciers to help Indian forces deployed in these areas.

    India acquired the primary batch of Chinook helicopters in February 2019. Boeing accomplished the supply of 15 Chinook helicopters to the Indian Air Force in 2020.

    Officials instructed the Wall Street Journal the US Army was conscious of a small variety of engine fires within the helicopters, and the incidents did not end in any accidents or deaths.

    “One of the officials said the fires occurred in recent days,” said the Journal, adding, “The US Army Materiel Command grounded the fleet of a whole lot of helicopters out of an abundance of warning.”

    However, officers had been taking a look at greater than 70 plane that contained a component suspected to be linked to the issue, officers instructed the day by day.

    The grounding of the heavy-lift Chinook helicopters might pose logistical challenges for American troopers, relying on how lengthy the order lasts, the Journal mentioned.

    The US Army has about 400 such helicopters in its fleet.

    READ | Indian Air Force inducts Chinook: 5 issues to find out about this game-changing helicopter

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  • Largest Boeing 737 MAX mannequin set for maiden flight -source

    Boeing Co was readying the biggest member of its 737 MAX household for its maiden flight on Friday, an individual conversant in the matter stated, because the planemaker tries to shut a gross sales hole with a competing Airbus jet.
    The first voyage of the 737 MAX 10, anticipated round 10 a.m. native time from the Seattle space, the individual stated, heralds months of testing and certification earlier than it enters service in 2023. In an uncommon departure from the PR buzz surrounding first flights, the occasion was anticipated to be saved low-key as Boeing tries to get better from overlapping crises brought on by the 20-month security grounding of the MAX and the worldwide pandemic.
    Boeing’s 230-seat 737-10 is designed to shut the hole between its 178-to-220-seat 737-9, and the 185-to-240-seat A321neo, which dominates the highest finish of the narrowbody jet market, price some $3.5 trillion over 20 years.
    However, the market alternative for the 737 MAX 10 is constrained by the jet’s vary of three,300 nm (6,100 km), which falls wanting the A321neo’s 4,000 nm. Boeing should additionally full security certification of the aircraft underneath a harder regulatory local weather following two deadly crashes of a smaller 737 MAX model grounded the mannequin for practically two years – with a security ban nonetheless in place in China.
    Relatively sluggish gross sales of the 737 MAX 10 and barely smaller MAX 9 have given Boeing a strategic headache, analysts say. It as soon as studied plans to tinker with the 737 MAX 10 to increase the vary towards the A321neo, however is now weighing a bolder plan to switch the single-aisle 757, which overlaps with the highest finish of the MAX household.
    Even so, Boeing is stepping up efforts to promote the 737 MAX 10, with key targets together with Ireland’s Ryanair. On show on Friday can be a revamped touchdown gear system illustrating the battle between Boeing and Airbus to squeeze as a lot mileage out of the present technology of single-aisles. It raises the touchdown gear’s top throughout take-off and touchdown, a design wanted to compensate for the MAX 10’s further size and forestall the tail scraping the runway on take-off.

  • Boeing resumes 787 deliveries as widespread inspections loom

    Boeing Co has resumed deliveries of its 787 Dreamliner jets, handing over one aircraft to United Airlines on Friday, an preliminary step because the US planemaker works by way of manufacturing defects that sidelined dozens of plane.
    Reuters reported final week that Boeing remained on track to renew deliveries of some 787s this month, which a Boeing spokeswoman mentioned remained the aim.
    The supply from its South Carolina manufacturing unit comes as Boeing undertakes painstaking repairs and forensic inspections to repair structural integrity flaws embedded deep inside dozens of 787s, points which halted deliveries since October, slicing off a key supply of money.

    The inspections and retrofits may take as much as a month per aircraft and are more likely to price lots of of tens of millions – if not billions – of {dollars}, relying on the variety of planes throughout the fleet which might be impacted and the defects concerned, sources advised Reuters.
    “We have resumed 787 deliveries, following several months of engineering analysis and inspection work,” Boeing spokeswoman Jessica Kowal mentioned by e-mail.
    A United Airlines consultant didn’t instantly return a request for remark.

    Separately final week, the US Federal Aviation Administration determined to independently deal with remaining pre-delivery checks on 4 787 jets, within the newest sign of the company’s more durable scrutiny of Boeing after two deadly 737 MAX crashes.
    The United Airlines 787 was a type of 4 FAA-inspected planes.

  • Boeing can pay $2.5 billion to resolve US prison probe into 737 MAX crashes

    Boeing Co can pay greater than $2.5 billion in fines and compensation after reaching a settlement with the US Department of Justice over two aircraft crashes that killed a complete of 346 individuals and led to the grounding of its 737 MAX jetliner.
    The settlement, which permits Boeing to keep away from prosecution, features a nice of $243.6 million, compensation to airways of$1.77 billion and a $500 million crash-victim fund over fraud conspiracy expenses associated to the aircraft’s flawed design.
    Boeing stated it could take a $743.6 million cost in opposition to its fourth-quarter 2020 earnings to mirror the deferred prosecution settlement, a type of company plea cut price.
    Boeing had put apart reserves of $1.77 billion in prior quarters to offer for compensation to airways. The Justice Department deal, introduced after the market shut on Thursday, caps a 21-month investigation into the design and improvement of the 737 MAX following the 2 crashes, in Indonesia and Ethiopia in 2018 and 2019, respectively.
    The crashes “exposed fraudulent and deceptive conduct by employees of one of the world’s leading commercial airplane manufacturers,” performing Assistant Attorney General David Burns stated in a press release accompanying the settlement. “Boeing’s employees chose the path of profit over candor by concealing material information from the FAA concerning the operation of its 737 MAX airplane and engaging in an effort to cover up their deception,” Burns stated, referring to the Federal Aviation Administration.
    The crashes triggered a hailstorm of investigations, frayed US management in international aviation and have price Boeing some $20 billion.
    Plaintiffs attorneys representing households of victims of the Ethiopian Airlines crash stated the settlement strengthens civil litigation in opposition to Boeing in Chicago, the place the corporate is headquartered. Boeing has already settled most lawsuits associated to the Lion Air catastrophe in Indonesia.
    Because of the crashes, the US Congress in December handed laws reforming how the FAA certifies new airplanes.

    Representative Peter DeFazio, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, who oversaw a prolonged probe into the crashes, stated the “settlement amounts to a slap on the wrist and is an insult to the 346 victims who died as a result of corporate greed.”
    He added, “Not only is the dollar amount of the settlement a mere fraction of Boeing’s annual revenue, the settlement sidesteps any real accountability in terms of criminal charges.”
    The 737 MAX was grounded in March 2019, and the grounding was not lifted till November 2020, after Boeing made vital security upgrades and enhancements in pilot coaching.
    Boeing, the most important US airplane producer, was charged with one depend of conspiracy to defraud the United States. It faces a three-year deferred prosecution settlement, with the cost dismissed if it complies.
    DPAs are company plea bargains that usually enable an organization to keep away from prison expenses that might disrupt actions similar to entry to public contracts, in return for a nice and admission of wrongdoing, in addition to inner reforms.

    Deception
    Boeing admitted in courtroom paperwork that two of its 737 MAX technical pilots deceived the FAA a couple of security system known as MCAS, which was tied to each deadly crashes. The paperwork additionally say Boeing belatedly cooperated with the probe however solely after it initially “frustrated” the investigation.
    In a word to staff, Boeing Chief Executive David Calhoun stated the settlement “appropriately acknowledges how we fell short of our values and expectations.”
    Reuters has reported that Boeing managers instructed engineers engaged on the MAX, together with MCAS, their designs couldn’t set off extra complete coaching designations from the FAA.
    The deferred prosecution settlement says one worker wrote one other in 2014 that if the FAA required higher-level coaching it could “cost Boeing tens of millions of dollars!”
    The $243 million nice, which the Justice Department stated was at “low end” of the sentencing tips, represents the sum of money Boeing saved by not implementing full-flight simulator coaching for the 737 MAX, the settlement acknowledged.

    The airline cost fund will embrace funds already made by Boeing to airways, which needed to cancel flights because of a scarcity of plane.On MCAS, Boeing disclosed modifications that gave the system larger energy to some FAA personnel nevertheless it didn’t disclose it to different FAA key personnel answerable for figuring out pilot coaching, the settlement stated.
    “The purpose of the conspiracy was to defraud the FAA (Aircraft Evaluation Group) … in order to bring about a financial gain to Boeing,” it stated. But the Justice Department stopped wanting requiring an impartial compliance monitor as a result of “the misconduct was neither pervasive across the organization, nor undertaken by a large number of employees, nor facilitated by senior management.”
    The settlement additionally cited remedial steps Boeing had taken for the reason that crashes, similar to firing its earlier chief government in late 2019 and including a everlasting security committee on the board degree. Under Thursday’s settlement, Boeing agreed to undertake a brand new compliance program, or to change its present one, to make sure it maintains an efficient compliance program and system of inner controls to root out fraud.”

    This settlement is safety for Boeing moderately than justice, as it’s a continuation of Boeing evading accountability and transparency,” stated Michael Stumo, whose daughter died within the MAX crash in Ethiopia.