THIS WEEK
6 | Flight International | 22 August-4 September 2017 flightglobal.com
For up-to-the-minute air transport news,
network and fleet information sign up at:
flightglobal.com/dashboardRUSLANS REQUESTED BY CARGOLOGICAIR
REGUL ATION CargoLogicAir has applied to regulators for
permission to wet-lease a pair of Russian-registered Antonov
An-124-100s. A UK Civil Aviation Authority bulletin shows that
the freight carrier has applied to use the aircraft from late
October or early November until late July or early August 2019.
UK-registered airlines need CAA approval to wet-lease aircraft
sourced from outside the European Economic Area.NOVAIR NEOS WILL HAVE ZONAL DRYING
INTERIORS Swedish charter carrier Novair has become the first
to order a humidity control system for the Airbus A321neo,
from domestic supplier CTT Systems. Nyköping-based CTT
says it has reached an agreement to retrofit its Zonal Drying
product in two of the type for the carrier. Novair says it has seen
“proven results” from the system on its current A321s.LONG NARITA TAKE-OFF RUN INVESTIGATED
OPERATIONS The Japan Transport Safety Board is probing an
unusually long take-off run by a Polar Air Cargo Boeing 747-8F
from Tokyo Narita airport during July. The aircraft became air-
borne just 85m (280ft) before the end of 2,500m-long runway
16L. Investigators identify the freighter as N852GT – a five-
year-old 747-8F leased from Atlas Air.QATAR RELAXES VISA REQUIREMENTS
ACCESS Qatar has lifted visa requirements for citizens of 80
countries, as it faces a blockade by nations including Bahrain,
Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The new
ruling by Doha covers 33 countries whose nationals are eligible
for a 180-day waiver, plus a 30-day waiver for a further 47. Chief
tourism development officer Hassan Al Ibrahim says the “cir-
cumstances the country is passing through” have “acted as a
catalyst [for] opening Qatar up to the world”.SUPERJET INTERNATIONAL STAKE SOLD FOR €
STRATEGY Sukhoi Civil Aircraft has confirmed that its parent,
United Aircraft, paid a token €1 ($1.17), earlier this year, for a 41%
share of Superjet 100 marketing venture SuperJet International
(SJI). Venice-based SJI had been 51%-owned by Leonardo, but
the Italian aerospace firm cut its share to just 10%.RUSSIAN AIRLINES FACE COLLUSION PROBE
PRICING Russia’s competition authority is probing three air-
lines over suspicions of price-fixing. The federal antimonopoly
service says it has requested information from Aeroflot, S
Airlines and Yakutia. It has yet to reach a conclusion but says
there are indications of “violation” in competition legislation
related to fares on the Yakutsk-Moscow route.ARGENTINA NOT NEAR ON KFIR
FIGHTERS Industry sources suggest Argentina has stopped
negotiations linked to a possible purchase of upgraded Kfir
fighters from Israel Aerospace Industries, despite indications
earlier this year that a deal for 12-14 aircraft could be finalised.
The company, which is offering a “Block 60” version of the GE
Aviation J79-powered type with new avionics and an Elta
Systems EL/M-2032 active electronically scanned array radar,
says “other options are being evaluated with Argentina”.BRIEFING
Debris from lost 777-200ER has washed up on the island of RéunionXinhua/REX/ShutterstockA
ustralian investigators sug-
gest the final resting place of
the missing Malaysia Airlines
flight MH370 may lie just north
of the previous search area.
Geoscience Australia analysed
satellite imagery captured on 23
March 2014 – two weeks after the
Boeing 777-200ER went missing
over the southern Indian Ocean,
and has identified a number of
objects it concludes are “proba-
bly man-made”. However, the
images are not of sufficiently high
resolution to ascertain whether
the objects originated from
MH370, says Australian Trans-
port Safety Bureau (ATSB) chief
commissioner Greg Hood.
The area covered by the image-
ry was not searched from the air,
but is close to the underwater
search area for the missing air-
craft, says the ATSB. The images
were taken just west of the so-
called seventh arc – a line based
on satellite communications sig-
nals received from the aircraft – in
the vicinity of the new search area
proposed by the ATSB in 2016.
A drift study carried out by the
Commonwealth Science and In-
dustrial Research Organisation
(CSIRO) found that the projected
location of the objects identified
in most of the satellite images is
consistent with the area identi-fied by experts in the First Princi-
ples Review report released in
November 2016.
That highlighted a new area
where the aircraft was likely to
have come down, outside the
120,000km² primary search area.
“Taking drift model uncertain-
ty into account, we have found
that the objects identified in most
of the images can be associated
with a single location within the
previously identified region sug-
gested by other lines of evidence.
Furthermore, we think it is possi-
ble to identify a most likely loca-
tion of the aircraft, with unprece-
dented precision and certainty,”
says the CSIRO.
It points to a location at 35.6°S,
92.8°E: a site 1,160nm (2,150km)
west of Perth. However, the re-
port notes locations to the east of
the seventh arc and a range of po-
sitions on its western side are
also possible resting places.
“Clearly we must be cautious,”
says Hood. “These objects have
not been definitely identified as
MH370 debris.”
The search for MH370 ended in
January, but Malaysia is reviewing
several proposals to resume the ef-
fort. The aircraft disappeared on 8
March 2014 en route from Kuala
Lumpur to Beijing, with 239 pas-
sengers and crew. ■INQUIRY MAVIS TOH SINGAPOREHope resurfaces in
search for MH
Analysis of satellite imagery allows investigators to identify
potential final resting spot of missing Malaysia Airlines jet