Plane breaks apart over California neighborhood, 5 killed

YORBA LINDA, California — Five people died and two were injured after a small plane apparently came apart Sunday over a suburban Southern California neighborhood, raining debris on streets and backyards and igniting a house fire, authorities said.

Four people in the house that burned in the city of Yorba Linda were killed, along with the pilot, who was the only person in the twin-engine plane, Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. Cory Martino told reporters.


Martino said the dead occupants of the home were two males and two females but did not provide other information about them.

The Cessna 414A that can carry up to eight people took off from the Fullerton Municipal Airport about 19 kilometers (12 miles) west of the blaze, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Allen Kenitzer said.

The two-story house burst into flames after being hit by the plane’s main cabin and one its engines, sending panicked neighbors into the streets.

The second engine dislodged and fell onto the street, creating a large hole in the asphalt, according to Eliott Simpson, an aviation accident investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board.

“It was a boom. It sounded like something exploded. It shook our house,” said John Wolbart, who lives a block away.

He said he ran to the burning house and saw a woman come out with singed hair.

The wounded were taken to a hospital with burns, said Pokey Sanchez, an assistant chief with the Orange County Fire Authority. A firefighter was also treated for a minor injury.

Clint Langford, who lives about a half-mile (0.8 kilometers) away, said he was in his living room when he heard a low rumbling.

“It’s the eerie, low rumbling sound that keeps getting lower and louder. It was scary,” he said. “And then all of a sudden boom. It shook the house.”

He looked out his front door and could see plane parts falling out the sky in the distance.

Pat Rogers, who lives about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from the crash site, told the Orange County Register he saw the plane on fire and coming apart.

A video posted on Twitter showed panicked residents running to the house as it became engulfed in flames and dark smoke. One man used a garden house to douse a burning wing that landed on the street.

Aerial footage from news helicopters showed plane parts, including side panels and a propeller, scattered on rooftops and driveways near the burned house.

The main body of the plane was found in the backyard of another home not far from the burned house. The fire spread to an SUV that was parked in the driveway.

Debris was scattered over four blocks, Simpson said.

Rain from a winter storm helped firefighters extinguish the house fire.

The National Transportation and Safety Board will investigate the cause of the crash. /atm

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Nose gear of Singapore Airlines plane collapses at Changi Airport

A Singapore Airlines (SIA) plane was seen lying awkwardly on its front end at Changi Airport, after the aircraft’s nose gear collapsed on morning.

The Airbus A330-300 was at a gate at around 8:00 a.m. when the incident happened, according to an SIA spokesman.

“There were no passengers or crew on board at the time. One engineer who was on the aircraft was not injured,” added the spokesman.

“Singapore Airlines will be cooperating fully with the authorities in their investigations.”

The plane had been due to operate flight SQ890, which was scheduled to depart for Hong Kong from Changi Airport’s Terminal 3, at 7:35 a.m., following its arrival from Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport after midnight on the same day.

Another aircraft was used for the flight instead.

According to records, the collapsed plane had been in service for more than six years. Its maiden flight was in April 2009.

It is understood that damages to the plane are unknown at this point. An assessment will be carried out once it has been removed from the gate.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

US proposes new rules regulating drone use

Washington–US aviation regulators unveiled sweeping new guidelines Sunday governing the use of small unmanned drones, proposing that the devices can only fly in daylight, must remain within users’ sightlines and cannot fly near manned aircraft.

The guidelines from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) also recommend that drone operators obtain a special certificate to be renewed every two years and limits the speed of the drone to 100 miles (161 kilometers per hour). Users would have to be 17 years or older.

The devices would also be required to fly below 500 feet (150 meters) in altitude and would not be permitted near airports or other airspace without special permission.

The new guidelines would apply to drones, or unmanned aircraft systems, that are under 55 pounds (25 kilograms.)

The recreational use of drones has soared in popularity recently, but their use in the United States has remained largely unregulated.

President Barack Obama has called for more stringent rules on drone use after a “quadcopter” device crashed on White House grounds last month, prompting a security alert.

The FAA said the new rules sought to balance innovation with safety, and the agency’s administrator Michael Huerta called the proposed guidelines a milestone.

“We have tried to be flexible in writing these rules,” he said.

“We want to maintain today’s outstanding level of aviation safety without placing an undue regulatory burden on an emerging industry.”

The public now has 60 days to make comments on the rules, which the FAA said it will consider before drafting a final proposal.

Privacy concerns 

Also Sunday, the White House released a drones directive that sought to protect the privacy of citizens, prohibiting the illegal collection and dissemination of data by the devices.

A central pillar of the presidential memorandum is to ensure “the responsible use of this technology, strengthening privacy safeguards and ensuring full protection of civil liberties,” according to a White House statement.

Sharing or collecting information that would “discriminate against persons based upon their ethnicity, race, gender, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity, in violation of law” would also be prohibited.

The White House said any new laws around drone use should ensure “protections and policies keep pace with developments.”

The US Center for Democracy and Technology welcomed the White House move, but warned drones “pose new and intrusive privacy problems” and urged lawmakers to do more to protect civil liberties.

“Congress still has a role to play in setting strong privacy and transparency standards for drone use,” the agency’s senior counsel Harley Geiger said.

Commercial use

The latest proposal from the FAA does not include the use of drones by delivery companies, such as Amazon, which has said it wants to use drones to deliver goods to customers.

Huerta said the agency was conducting separate research regarding drone use for those purposes.

“We have ongoing activities to address the questions of beyond visual line-of-site and we do want to receive comments from people with respect to how we should structure this going forward,” he said in a conference call Sunday.

“We also don’t consider and don’t contemplate in this a rule carrying packages outside of the aircraft itself,” he said, regarding using drones for delivery purposes.

The FAA said unmanned aircraft could be used for a variety of activities, including inspecting utility towers, antennas, bridges, power lines and pipelines; conducting academic research; supporting wildlife conservation; monitoring crops; and in search and rescue operations.

Several media organizations have also expressed interest in using drones to film and photograph aerial images.

Huerta said while drone use in these areas was valuable, the devices could also pose security risks if unregulated.

“We envision that this aircraft could be used for a wide variety of activities particularly those that might be considered dangerous,” Huerta said.

The FAA has been testing drone use at six sites across the country since late 2013.

Various US federal agencies regularly use drones, including to monitor wildfires, conduct scientific research, monitor borders and in military training.

source: technology.inquirer.net

2 planes collide over San Francisco Bay

RICHMOND — Two small planes collided over San Francisco Bay, leaving a pilot missing after only one of the aircraft landed safely, authorities said.

Debris was spotted in the water after the Sunday afternoon collision, Coast Guard Petty Officer Loumania Stewart said.

The collision involved a single-engine Cessna 210 and a single-engine Hawker Sea Fury TMK 20, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said.

The Cessna crashed into the water, and the Sea Fury’s pilot was able to land 40 minutes later, Gregor said.

The pilot and passenger in the Sea Fury — a husband and wife — were not injured, Amador County Undersheriff Jim Wegner said.

The planes were at the Pacific Coast Dream Machines, an annual festival that features a variety of planes, motorcycles and cars, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Witnesses at Point San Pablo Yacht Harbor told the newspaper that the Cessna spiraled out of control and crashed into the choppy water after the collision.

Wegner wouldn’t discuss damage to the Sea Fury, citing the ongoing investigation by the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board.

FAA records indicate the Sea Fury, a vintage British fighter plane, is registered to Sanders Aeronautics Inc. in Ione. A man who answered the phone at the company’s listed number declined to comment.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Airbus chief eyes overtaking Boeing in production by 2018

BERLIN – Airbus chief Fabrice Bregier says the European planemaker will overtake its US rival Boeing to become the world’s biggest producer within four or five years, in an interview with a German Sunday newspaper.

Bregier told Welt am Sonntag that Airbus would step up production through its new A320Neo and long-haul A350 models.

“In 2017/2018 we will therefore again be able to gain the lead also in deliveries,” the Airbus chief executive said according to an extract of the interview to appear in German in Sunday’s edition.

Airbus will deliver more than 600 aircraft this year and more next year, he said, adding that in terms of orders, it would also beat its target. “2013 is becoming an excellent year for Airbus,” he commented.

Airbus last week announced a $9.5 billion deal with Japan Airlines, its first jet order from the carrier, challenging Boeing’s dominance in the Japanese market as it struggles with the troubled Dreamliner.

The fuel-efficient aircraft, marred by years of production delays, faced a global grounding order in January after lithium-ion batteries overheated on two different planes, with one of them catching fire while the aircraft was parked.

Bregier also criticized the comfort of the 787 Dreamliner, telling the Welt newspaper he had seen a cabin with nine seats in a row. “For me it’s clear that as a passenger I wouldn’t like to sit 12 hours long in there,” he said.

Referring to the Dreamliner’s technical problems, he said: “From my team I expect the commissioning of the A350 to run much smoother.”

Like Boeing’s Dreamliner, the Airbus A350 is to be made mainly of lightweight composite materials to save fuel, which can currently account for more than half of overall airline operating costs.

In November 2011, Airbus announced a six-month delay in the first delivery of the A350 to the first half of 2014. In July 2012, it said there would be another delay of about 3 months to the second half of the 2014.

source: buusiness.inquirer.net