How a US Airways Flight to Brazil Lost Contact for 90 Minutes

[Hatu]

Interesting story.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (TheStreet) -- It is rare for a U.S. airline to lose all contact with one of its aircraft, but it does happen.

Flying from Charlotte to Rio about four years ago, US Airways Flight 800 lost contact with the carrier for about an hour and a half after heavy fog forced the airplane to divert from its destination in Rio to Viracopos International Airport in Campinas, about 300 miles away, according to four US Airways pilots, interviewed separately, who asked that their names not be used.

The airplane, a Boeing 767-200, predated the time when airplanes were equipped with satellite data links.

Neither VHF nor HF communication was available in the area, and at the time USAirways had not equipped the B-767 with a satellite phone, even though some other airlines routinely did so. As a result, the pilots had no way to quickly advise dispatch of their location.

http://www.thestreet.com/story/12541639/1/how-a-us-airways-flight-to-brazil-lost-contact-for-90-minutes.html?puc=yahoo&cm_ven=YAHOO

 

[WorldTraveler]

Campinas is not exactly a backwater city... but it highlights the more difficult operating environment that exists in much of the world. 

 

[700UW]

Did US fly to Rio four years ago?

 

[SOA2]

I didn't think so but a quick check shows that indeed, Charlotte to Rio service began on 12/15/2009.
 
See: http://reservations.usairways.com/en-US/aboutus/pressroom/pressreleases.html

 

[700UW]

Thanks

 

[767one]

Interesting story.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (TheStreet) -- It is rare for a U.S. airline to lose all contact with one of its aircraft, but it does happen.

Flying from Charlotte to Rio about four years ago, US Airways Flight 800 lost contact with the carrier for about an hour and a half after heavy fog forced the airplane to divert from its destination in Rio to Viracopos International Airport in Campinas, about 300 miles away, according to four US Airways pilots, interviewed separately, who asked that their names not be used.

The airplane, a Boeing 767-200, predated the time when airplanes were equipped with satellite data links.

Neither VHF nor HF communication was available in the area, and at the time USAirways had not equipped the B-767 with a satellite phone, even though some other airlines routinely did so. As a result, the pilots had no way to quickly advise dispatch of their location.

http://www.thestreet.com/story/12541639/1/how-a-us-airways-flight-to-brazil-lost-contact-for-90-minutes.html?puc=yahoo&cm_ven=YAHOO

The pilot group had been telling the company that we needed sat phones and the company denied sat phones until this incident and then put sat phones on the 76's with a statement saying that they were not really necessary but they were installing the phones to make the pilots feel better. We still have 757's flying the North Atlantic without sat phones although there is HF coverage there. Hf coverage can be time consuming and cumbersome if combined with a phone patch. In an emergency situation and paticularly with a two pilot operation communications can be lost for a bit as both pilots will be highly involved in handling the aircraft and the emergency.

 

[FWAAA]

This story says a lot about the crappy management of Parker and Kirby.   As Art and Piney used to remind us, they know the price of everything, and the value of nothing.   
 
Put three well-educated, well-trained professionals in charge of an aircraft worth tens of millions of dollars, entrust them with ~200 lives, and then not equip the planes with satellite phones from the get-go?    Those morons didn't see the value of installing these phones before this diversion?   This isn't the same as the removal of domestic IFE or the absence of in-seat 110v power for the passengers' convenience;   this is a vital tool that pilots must be provided.  
 
What other state-of-the-art technology is missing from the flight decks of airplanes at US Airways that is present at other, better managed airlines?   

 

[700UW]

The 767s were purchased nor received under Parker.
 
They were Piedmont orders and taken delivery of three after the US/PI merger.

 

[PullUp]

The 767s were purchased nor received under Parker.
 
They were Piedmont orders and taken delivery of three after the US/PI merger.

You don't get it. They didn't need SATCOM prior to the route to Brazil. However, due to radar and ATC 'blank' spots (that's right, no radar and no radio communication with anyone), all the other carriers had SATCOM capability installed to communicate with ATC and their respective company. We did not and could not communicate with anyone on a regular routing to and from Brazil - every day - as a normal operation. Despite the pilots urging to install the equipment, mgmt didn't want to spend the money, simple as that.
After the costly divert, they rethought their position.
Cheers.

 

[dariencc]

The 767s were purchased nor received under Parker.
 
They were Piedmont orders and taken delivery of three after the US/PI merger.

 
Congratulations.  Stupidest post of the year.  But keep trying, it's only March.

 

[767one]

The 767s were purchased nor received under Parker.
 
They were Piedmont orders and taken delivery of three after the US/PI merger.

Your post is true but it appears that you miss the main point. When those 767's were delivered to Piedmont sat phones and updated communications were not the norm. For some time improvements to communications were available but not purchased/installed by US Airways. If something costs to install it takes forever to get approved. Heck even things that save a lot of money don't get done, it took them years to get winglets on the 757's. So bottom line is that until they were forced to get the sat phones for the 76's they were content to rely on 1920's technology radios.

 

[700UW]

I get that point, but I am not a Parker defender,  but I doubt that is doing, that would fall under Operations, Flight and Maintenance, now wouldnt it?

 

[PullUp]

I get that point, but I am not a Parker defender,  but I doubt that is doing, that would fall under Operations, Flight and Maintenance, now wouldnt it?

Can't do anything without funding...
That comes from the top.

 

[700UW]

Parker doesnt sign off an every expenditure, that would be the CFO.

 

[767one]

Parker doesnt sign off an every expenditure, that would be the CFO.

Chief Fraud Officer?