There were many significant events in aviation in 2009. Some of these might have lasting consequences.
In February, a Colgan regional aircraft flying as Continental Express crashed outside Buffalo with the loss of all on board. The investigation revealed many factors known to aviation professionals for years. The pilots commuted cross country for low wages to make the flight. Questions arose about the fatigue this commuting policy might have caused. The First Officer had come from the West Coast in order to make her duty time at Newark. No known issue with the aircraft has come to light yet, so it appears the crew lost control of the aircraft. A bill is working its way through Congress now which would require a n ATP license for all crew members, something now only required for the Captain. Interest groups from all sides including ALPA, (the pilots union),and NAFI (the flight instructor’s union) are getting their opinions on the table.
The Experimental Aircraft Association has long been the gold standard organization for small, grass roots flyng, including but not limited to experimental aircraft. It has been run by two generations of the Poberezny family. Tom Poberezny announced his retirement, and a search began for his replacement. However, disaster has followed. Several prominent members of the board of directors have resigned. They accuse Tom Poberezny of exerting too much control over the selection of his replacement, and of turning the organization into nothing more than the summer event now called Airventure. This saga is far from over.
After many delays, Boeing finally got the 787 Dreamliner in the air. Delays were caused by a myriad of issues with the new composite construction. According to reports, the bird is still over its target weight. There is a great deal riding on this project, Boeing has orders for over 500 of them. Not to be outdone, Airbus continues the development of the A350. It is expected to be in the air in 2012. Both these new aircraft are long range, medium size ,wide body airliners. Boeing sought not to build a significant new airframe to compete with the double decker A380, and nobody is seriously considering a supersonic transport now due to the cost, so these two models offer the heavyweight’s new contenders. Embraer as well as other manufacturers continue to work on new short haul aircraft. Airbus finally got their A400m turboprop medium lift military transport in the air for flight testing. Many countries have cancelled their orders for the A400mM due to delays and other internal political squabbles in the host countries. Airbus has orders still valid from NATO partners, but they must sell the A400M outside NATO to keep from losing money on the project.
Over the summer an AirFrance Airbus en route from Rio to Paris crashed in the Atlantic near the equator. It was passing through an area of heavy convective weather. The black boxes have not been located six months later. There is speculation the pitot tubes were defective and that fed inaccurate information to the flight computer. Without the data from the FDR, it is hard to imagine a certain cause being agree upon.
