AvTalk Episode 192: He fought the wire and the wire won

On this episode of AvTalk, an aircraft catches the wire—and we’re not talking about aircraft carriers. Plus, Airbus details its plans for the future at its Summit in Toulouse, GE Aviation is trying to figure out what’s wrong with the GE9X engine, and Senator Maria Cantwell may just have a way forward for Boeing.

Catching the Wire(s)

A Mooney M-20J attempting to land in Gaithersburg flew too low and instead became entangled in high-voltage transmission lines to the northwest of the airport. The pilot and passenger were uninjured in the crash, but it took crews many hours to secure the lines and the aircraft and bring them down.

Airbus Summit

Airbus hosted their second Summit this week in Toulouse and Munich and showed off their progress on hydrogen and electric propulsion.

GE9X problems

According to Emirates president Sir Tim Clark, on of the test engines on the the 777-9 “blew up”. While it doesn’t sound like the engine actually blew up, GE Aviation has been working to understand what went wrong and how serious the issue is.

Good news/bad news for Boeing

Senator Maria Cantwell is proposing a legislative fix that would allow Boeing to certify the 737-7 and 737-10 without adding a new crew alerting system. But there’s a catch.

Air India, Vistara to merge

Air India and Vistara are set to merge. Vistara minority owner Singapore Airlines will end up with 25.1% of the combined company while Tata Group will control the larger share.

Eurocontrol establishes fund to ATC in countries impacted by Russian invasion

Countries party to Eurocontrol will contribute to a fund to make grants and loans to ATC in countries impacted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Orders, deliveries and new routes

Plenty of orders, deliveries, new routes, and aircraft certification news. But most importantly, one airline has “exciting new plans for future growth.”

Going over the North Pole on the flight deck

Gabriel Leigh recently joined Finnair’s A350 crew on the flight deck from Tokyo to Helsinki, flying over the North Pole. Watch the video here.

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Please click here for a transcript of this episode.