The General Airplane Thread
- Thread starter Crash
- 2,741 comments
- 184,785 views
- 12,707
- Seattle-ish
More 747 news. NASA’s SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy) has been retired to the Pima Air and Space Museum at Davis-Monthan AFB. It’s a 45 year old former 747SP airliner converted with a giant door in the back that would open at altitudes over 35,000 feet to let the telescope inside do its work. It flew over 900 missions. The telescope and related items will be removed and repurposed, and the airplane itself will go on display at the museum.
- 15,074
- Melbourne
- ScottPuss20
- CheetahsMeow
- 12,707
- Seattle-ish
"And Southwest is still dominating the cancelation game. According to CNN, out of 2,790 cancelations logged on Wednesday, 2,508 were Southwest flights."
Southwest's continued scheduling woes were predictable, preventable, and precipitated by greed
Over the Christmas weekend, Southwest Airlines officials unceremoniously canceled approximately 15,700 flights that had been scheduled for the week of Dec. 22-29. Weather was a big factor, of course, thanks to Winter Storm Elliott, but the same...
www.dailykos.com
- 12,707
- Seattle-ish
I work for a courier company as a dispatcher, very close to SeaTac Airport. We are constantly picking up and delivering packages that go through SeaTac. Southwest is one of the biggest carriers here along with Alaska, Delta, United and American. But we haven't sent a truck to Southwest for about a week, because no one is shipping things through them right now. They can't be trusted to deliver anything until they get themselves sorted out. Medication and medical devices, time-sensitive human tissue samples, and AOG (aircraft on ground) parts have been stuck in airports all over the country because Southwest's outdated computer systems couldn't handle the holiday crush.
- 5,014
- Panama City, FL
Yeah, Southwest had a major software failure, not just during the weather event, but that certainly compounded their issue. They were down to telephone communications from their crews to know what was going on, and hold times for those calling in were hours.
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Keef
Premium
- 24,526
- Dayton, OH
- GTP_KeefRacer
- GTP Keef
This was so inevitable. SW has been operating this decrepit system for decades, just scraping by, but now they're operating in a post-Covid world where staffing still remains limited, pilot, FA, and ground crew positions remain unfilled, minor illnesses and calloffs are taken more seriously than ever despite longstanding guidance on the matter, and of course ground crews just happened to be put through some serious weather stress at just the wrong moment. In fact, staffing throughout aviation has such an upperhand on the companies that something like all the ground crew quitting is not unrealistic anymore, and it just happened at the worst time. I've experienced some minor weekly or monthly "meltdowns" at the ground in Chicago and Minneapolis in my last several months in the airlines as ground crews are hard to keep when the weather gets cold. Honestly I just chuckled as it was happening. I took the month off, I don't care. We'll see how 135 pans out but I'm pretty sure I'll be happy I left airlines."And Southwest is still dominating the cancelation game. According to CNN, out of 2,790 cancelations logged on Wednesday, 2,508 were Southwest flights."
Southwest's continued scheduling woes were predictable, preventable, and precipitated by greed
Over the Christmas weekend, Southwest Airlines officials unceremoniously canceled approximately 15,700 flights that had been scheduled for the week of Dec. 22-29. Weather was a big factor, of course, thanks to Winter Storm Elliott, but the same...www.dailykos.com
- 34,597
- Addison,Texas
- GTP_RACECAR
So I might've just came across an interesting mystery.
So according to this, Tail number N711FP was deregistered.
And yet:
Abit intriguing if slightly confusing considering the...clashing info I'm looking at.
So according to this, Tail number N711FP was deregistered.
And yet:
Abit intriguing if slightly confusing considering the...clashing info I'm looking at.
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- 5,014
- Panama City, FL
Curious, I looked it up at https://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/Search/NNumberInquiry, and it comes up as a registry change. Looks like pending number change to 290BB, but I can't tell you why it's still out there as 711FP. Not an aviator and I don't know this stuff, but are they flying a new tail number with an old transponder? How would that happen, anyway?
- 34,597
- Addison,Texas
- GTP_RACECAR
I'm guessing it was renewed purely as a temporary number. Considering it was deregistered in 1995 (as it appears here), I'm not even sure it'd be possible to use the exact same transponder from that Piper on what I think is a Cessna Citation (based on that "C560" that I see in my screenshot)
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- 34,597
- Addison,Texas
- GTP_RACECAR
So having finally seen the video of the crash that happened in Addison years ago (when I was only notified by my Younger sister of it after she saw the smoke at the time) and having a related video showing the Very aircraft with the curious tail registration OH-GOD (Which can be found here), I got curious about something: Do any of the registration numbers from these crashed Aircraft get reused?
So I went about looking (Starting with the ones I am most familiar with, usually remembering the news coverage or having seen the footage in some of the old shows that used to air) and since the FAA site that @wfooshee posted only gives me results for N numbers, I decided to for now focus on those. So far, I found 8 (5 that appear to not have an aircraft just yet) and there are 3 that had me do a double take:
VH-AWE: Now I did say that I went to focus on the N numbers (As the rest will follow that) but in googling this prior to said focus, I found a particularly interesting result as this was actually one of two registration numbers for the exact same aircraft: The Boeing 757-23APF of DHL Flight 611, The aircraft involved in the Überlingen mid-air collision with Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937 over Überlingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany on July 1st, 2002. This was the first number it used the first time it was operated by DHL international before it was transferred over to another operator with the same number before then finding its way back to DHL where it was Reregistered as A9C-DHL. As for VH-AWE, its now found on a Beech G36 Bonanza that operates in Australia
N473DA: This number was first registered to the Boeing 727-232 of Delta Airlines Flight 1141, The plane which had the crew that decided during idle time to chat it up and joke about "Leaving something for our wives and children" before having a crash right after taking off in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas on August 31st, 1988. This number can now be found on a Cirrus SR20 that operated by a company in Sanford, Florida
N7711G: Unlike the numbers before (Or the ones after), this was not registered to a bigger Jet of a major Airline Operator but registered to something far smaller: The Cessna 172M that was struck by the Boeing 727-214 of PSA Flight 182 with both crashing down in San Diego, California on September 25th, 1978. This number can now be found on another Cessna, a P210N Operated by a company in Fort Myers Beach, Florida.
N1819U: This is the number that was registered to the Mcdonnell Douglas DC-10-10 of United Airlines Flight 232, the Aircraft that lost parts of its tail mounted engine due to a manufacturing defect of the fan disc which severed several hydraulic lines and had the subsequent emergency crash landing in Sioux City, Iowa on July 19th, 1989. Now this is one of five that don't have an immediate aircraft its attached to at present but was registered last year. Remember what I said about some of these making do a double take? Well here's the first of those because unlike the first three being reserved by smaller private operators, this was reserved by someone abit bigger:
So I guess this would pretty much go on a 737 of some kind knowing the company.
N612UA: Arguably, this might be the most famous of all these I have listed as it was registered to none other then the Boeing 767-200 of United Airlines Flight 175, one of the 4 Airplanes hijacked on September 11th, 2001, (and THE one that slammed right into the south tower with said event captured from what I've read was at least 50 different angles). Just based on that being attached to what might be one of the most captured and well-known terrorist acts in history, I was expecting no one to so much as even think about touching that number but someone did:
So there's the second one I had to double take upon finding it. Not only was it another big Airline Operator, but it was THE operator that had this number in the first place.
N526FE: This number was previously registered to the Mcdonnell Douglas MD-11F of Fed Ex Flight 80, the Aircraft that had attempted to land and bounced 3 times (The last one causing the landing gear to collapse and shear off the left wing) before rolling on its side in a fire ball in Tokyo Narita on March 23rd, 2009. Once again, we have another case of a once cancelled number being registered by the previous operator:
Can't imagine this going on another MD-11 considering there aren't many airworthy ones left (I believe they themselves are still operating only 1).
N739PA: Here is another one attached to a terrorist attack as it was registered to the Boeing 747-121 of Pan Am Flight 103, the Aircraft in which a bomb went off and sent it crashing down in Lockerbie, Scotland on December 21st, 1988 (And thus, "The Lockerbie Bombing" was what this incident would be called). Once again, a number I would've thought many would absolutely avoid but yet again someone actually went to register it.
No big names this time.
N736PA: Final one I have listed is another former Pan Am registration but instead of a terrorist attack, it was involved in the "Tenerife Airport Disaster" (The deadliest accident in Aviation History). This one was registered to the Boeing 747-121 of Pan Am Flight 1736, the plane that was stuck by KLM Flight 4805 that was not cleared to take off on the Canary Islands in Tenerlife, Spain on March 27th, 1977. This number was last seen on this Mooney M20:
As it currently looks, The number appears to have been Cancelled but weirdly not set to purge until 2027 so plenty of time for someone to come reserve it should there be interest.
So I went about looking (Starting with the ones I am most familiar with, usually remembering the news coverage or having seen the footage in some of the old shows that used to air) and since the FAA site that @wfooshee posted only gives me results for N numbers, I decided to for now focus on those. So far, I found 8 (5 that appear to not have an aircraft just yet) and there are 3 that had me do a double take:
VH-AWE: Now I did say that I went to focus on the N numbers (As the rest will follow that) but in googling this prior to said focus, I found a particularly interesting result as this was actually one of two registration numbers for the exact same aircraft: The Boeing 757-23APF of DHL Flight 611, The aircraft involved in the Überlingen mid-air collision with Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937 over Überlingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany on July 1st, 2002. This was the first number it used the first time it was operated by DHL international before it was transferred over to another operator with the same number before then finding its way back to DHL where it was Reregistered as A9C-DHL. As for VH-AWE, its now found on a Beech G36 Bonanza that operates in Australia
N473DA: This number was first registered to the Boeing 727-232 of Delta Airlines Flight 1141, The plane which had the crew that decided during idle time to chat it up and joke about "Leaving something for our wives and children" before having a crash right after taking off in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas on August 31st, 1988. This number can now be found on a Cirrus SR20 that operated by a company in Sanford, Florida
N7711G: Unlike the numbers before (Or the ones after), this was not registered to a bigger Jet of a major Airline Operator but registered to something far smaller: The Cessna 172M that was struck by the Boeing 727-214 of PSA Flight 182 with both crashing down in San Diego, California on September 25th, 1978. This number can now be found on another Cessna, a P210N Operated by a company in Fort Myers Beach, Florida.
N1819U: This is the number that was registered to the Mcdonnell Douglas DC-10-10 of United Airlines Flight 232, the Aircraft that lost parts of its tail mounted engine due to a manufacturing defect of the fan disc which severed several hydraulic lines and had the subsequent emergency crash landing in Sioux City, Iowa on July 19th, 1989. Now this is one of five that don't have an immediate aircraft its attached to at present but was registered last year. Remember what I said about some of these making do a double take? Well here's the first of those because unlike the first three being reserved by smaller private operators, this was reserved by someone abit bigger:
So I guess this would pretty much go on a 737 of some kind knowing the company.
N612UA: Arguably, this might be the most famous of all these I have listed as it was registered to none other then the Boeing 767-200 of United Airlines Flight 175, one of the 4 Airplanes hijacked on September 11th, 2001, (and THE one that slammed right into the south tower with said event captured from what I've read was at least 50 different angles). Just based on that being attached to what might be one of the most captured and well-known terrorist acts in history, I was expecting no one to so much as even think about touching that number but someone did:
So there's the second one I had to double take upon finding it. Not only was it another big Airline Operator, but it was THE operator that had this number in the first place.
N526FE: This number was previously registered to the Mcdonnell Douglas MD-11F of Fed Ex Flight 80, the Aircraft that had attempted to land and bounced 3 times (The last one causing the landing gear to collapse and shear off the left wing) before rolling on its side in a fire ball in Tokyo Narita on March 23rd, 2009. Once again, we have another case of a once cancelled number being registered by the previous operator:
Can't imagine this going on another MD-11 considering there aren't many airworthy ones left (I believe they themselves are still operating only 1).
N739PA: Here is another one attached to a terrorist attack as it was registered to the Boeing 747-121 of Pan Am Flight 103, the Aircraft in which a bomb went off and sent it crashing down in Lockerbie, Scotland on December 21st, 1988 (And thus, "The Lockerbie Bombing" was what this incident would be called). Once again, a number I would've thought many would absolutely avoid but yet again someone actually went to register it.
No big names this time.
N736PA: Final one I have listed is another former Pan Am registration but instead of a terrorist attack, it was involved in the "Tenerife Airport Disaster" (The deadliest accident in Aviation History). This one was registered to the Boeing 747-121 of Pan Am Flight 1736, the plane that was stuck by KLM Flight 4805 that was not cleared to take off on the Canary Islands in Tenerlife, Spain on March 27th, 1977. This number was last seen on this Mooney M20:
As it currently looks, The number appears to have been Cancelled but weirdly not set to purge until 2027 so plenty of time for someone to come reserve it should there be interest.
- 2,658
- Knoxville, Tennessee
FedEx actually has 59 MD-11's currently in service according to Wikipedia. UPS is the 2nd largest operator of the type at 39. A neat jet plagued by issues though. FedEx and UPS also still use lot of similar era Airbus A300F's
Also I suspect the reuse of tail numbers is due to needing more numbers that fit their number scheme. Many operators have tail number patterns that they like to keep for their fleets.
Also I suspect the reuse of tail numbers is due to needing more numbers that fit their number scheme. Many operators have tail number patterns that they like to keep for their fleets.
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- 34,597
- Addison,Texas
- GTP_RACECAR
Oh wow, that's way more then I thought for a long while. Was under the impression with how the aircraft not really used by anyone else and with how old the aircraft is, they were not operating alot of them (Along with UPS, who I completely forgot also had some in their fleet).
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- 19,423
- HSV
In wouldn't be surprised if the same operators just paid the nominal registration fee just to "park it" so it's not intentionally reused.
In the case of Pan Am's registrations, they haven't been around for three decades so they're up for grabs, though I suspect the major carriers are steering clear of reusing them, much how flight numbers are "retired" when something catastrophic occurs.
I'm surprised United didn't jump on N1819U, but maybe Southwest is going to sit on it.
In the case of Pan Am's registrations, they haven't been around for three decades so they're up for grabs, though I suspect the major carriers are steering clear of reusing them, much how flight numbers are "retired" when something catastrophic occurs.
I'm surprised United didn't jump on N1819U, but maybe Southwest is going to sit on it.
- 12,707
- Seattle-ish
Near miss at JKF on January 13th. An American 777 was cleared to cross runway 31L at K, but missed the turn and ended up crossing runway 4L at J, directly in front of a Delta 737 that was cleared for takeoff and had begun it's roll. Fortunately ATC noticed the deviation and managed to stop the 737 with only a few seconds to spare. Spoiler tagged for bad word in video.
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- 5,014
- Panama City, FL
Pilot deviation... such a simple term for "completely lost, and clueless enough to cross an active runway."
The last time I flew into Atlanta, we landed on the farthest south runway, the one that actually crosses I-285, and were taxiing for nearly 15 minutes before arriving at the gate! I spent the whole time wondering if the dude up front had any clue where we were. I measured it out on Google Earth and we taxied nearly 4 miles!
The last time I flew into Atlanta, we landed on the farthest south runway, the one that actually crosses I-285, and were taxiing for nearly 15 minutes before arriving at the gate! I spent the whole time wondering if the dude up front had any clue where we were. I measured it out on Google Earth and we taxied nearly 4 miles!
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- 19,423
- HSV
It's a headache on Monday mornings or Friday afternoons, especially if it's waiting for cross traffic to takeoff and taxi around. Usually that runway is used for incoming flights from the south, and it's not commonly used for takeoffs. But the taxiway is centrally-located so the pilots have to position around to the south runways if there's a lot of movements.
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- 34,597
- Addison,Texas
- GTP_RACECAR
Decided to check on that number registration since it's been a while and this time, we got an actual Aircraft model. Not an exact picture, but its something at least. I guess they are still waiting for that number change to 290BB (Which has me wondering how long these changes usually take) but hey, it's no longer unknown.
Edit: Entering said number has yielded this image:
It is dated November 5th 2022, which would put it about four months after that reregistration and reservation. So I guess for now, this thing for the time being is still N711FP in terms of flight tracking.
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