AvTalk Episode 235: 1200 pilots short

On this week’s AvTalk, the pilots of the Ural Airlines A320 that ran out of fuel and landed in a field didn’t know the gear was down. VivaAerobus becomes the first airline to add new routes after Mexico regains its Category 1 safety rating, turbulence injures 8 on a JetBlue flight, and much, much more.

Ural pilots didn’t know the gear was down

After experiencing a hydraulic failure on the A320 and electing to divert, the pilots of a Ural Airlines A320 failed to realize that the landing gear had not retracted, burning approximately 2.8 times more fuel than they otherwise would have. That higher fuel burn led to the aircraft making a forced landing in a field with slightly more than 200 kgs of fuel left on board.

Viva la VivaAerobus

VivaAerobus will 5 new routes to the US following the FAA’s decision to return Mexico to Category 1 status.

Turbulence injures 8 onboard JetBlue flight

Turbulence injured 7 passengers and a flight attendant aboard a JetBlue flight earlier this week near Jamaica.

SkyWest is 1200 pilots short

SkyWest’s CEO says the regional carrier is 1200 pilots short of where it needs to be, but even if it had those 1200 pilots tomorrow, they’d have a hard time flying because the airline is also short of qualified maintenance technicians.

Air France+KLM order more A350s

Air France + KLM Group ordered 50 A350s plus 40 options across the -900 and -1000 variants this week.

Air Canada orders the 787-10, ditches its just ordered 777Fs

With this week’s order for the Boeing 787-10, Air Canada will have each variant of the 787 in its fleet. But the airline dropped its order for a pair of cargo 777s.

Government shutdown bad for aviation in some unusual ways

A shutdown of the US government could impact the start of the JetBlue-Spirit merger trial among other novel ways aviation could be impacted.

Akasa suing pilots who left the airline

Akasa Air, a start-up Indian airline, is suing pilots who it says left the airline en mass without proper notice. The carrier says that it has had to pause growth and cut flights as a result.

Condor coming to San Antonio

Condor will begin San Antonio-Frankfurt service next spring, connecting the south Texas city to its first transatlantic destination.

IATA calls out safety reporting

IATA, the airline industry trade group, called on safety investigators to release reports more quickly saying stakeholders are often left waiting more than a year for a final report.

Jazz Aviation’s mystery magnet

A Canadian Dash 8 had trouble landing during a test flight and a post-flight inspection revealed a mystery magnet tool.

United goes hard for the Haneda slots

United Airlines is interested in the slot pairs for Tokyo’s Haneda Airport that used to belong to Delta. And they’re coming after Hawaiian’s slots too.

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Click here for a transcript of this episode.