Travelers on Iberia’s Airbus A321XLR maiden flight from Madrid to Boston will notice some subtle changes to the passenger experience on board the narrowbody jet, which is capable of serving long-distance routes that were previously the reserve of larger planes. The Spanish carrier will distribute meals in one go rather than splitting up starters, mains and dessert, and drinks will be served separately from food. A water boiler at the back of the plane will fill thermos flasks to avoid back-and-forth journeys to the coffee machine, said Iberia spokespeople presenting the aircraft ahead of its flight. The complicated choreography seeks to address a key challenge of the long-range Airbus SE model, namely that its narrow single aisle presents a potential bottleneck for passengers and flight attendants moving up and down the corridor during flight. Airbus has positioned the plane as an efficient alternative to more fuel-guzzling and sometimes too-large widebody jets like its A330 or A350 models, which come with far wider cabins and provide more maneuverability down two parallel aisles.<br/>
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UK investigators have determined that a Virgin Atlantic Boeing 787-9 was being pushed back without assistance from dedicated wing-walkers when it collided with a British Airway Airbus A350-1000 at London Heathrow. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch points out that the airport’s operator “does not mandate” wing-walkers at the parking bay involved – stand 323 – and the pushback therefore complied with standards. But it found that the absence of wing-walkers was contrary to Virgin Atlantic’s standard procedures. It adds that a wing-walker on the left side of the twinjet “would probably have seen” the impending 6 April collision. The 787 had been parked at stand 323, adjacent to the A350 – which was boarding passengers – on stand 325. As the 787 was scheduled to depart from stand 211, it had to be repositioned. Virgin Atlantic, which conducted its own investigation into the event, acknowledged to the Air Accidents Investigation Branch that the pushback had “reduced safety margins” given the size of the two aircraft, but was nevertheless within the scope of normal operations. “[Virgin Atlantic] concluded that, as the aircraft was pushed away from the stand, the turn to enter the taxiway was initiated too early,” says the inquiry. The 787’s left wing passed over a crosshatched area of the apron, between the two stands, which should have been kept clear.<br/>
A Qantas A380 flew 34 times with a 1.25-metre nylon tool left inside one of its engines, the ATSB has found. The tool, used to turn an engine compressor on VH-OQI during borescope inspections, is believed to have been left inside during routine maintenance on 6 December 2023 and was not found until a scheduled maintenance check at LAX on 1 January 2024, almost a month later. Despite having flown for around 294 hours with the tool inside, there was no damage found to the engine, though the tool itself was “deformed by high energy airflow”, according to the ATSB’s final report. The turning tool had reportedly been left inside the engine inlet by an engineer who believed it would be needed later in the maintenance, but later engineers did not notice it, and despite a missing tool report being filed, it was not found until the engine was again inspected as part of scheduled maintenance in Los Angeles. “The ATSB investigation found that maintenance engineers did not notice the tool had been left in the engine’s low-pressure compressor case when conducting checks for foreign objects at the completion of the borescope inspection task,” said ATSB chief commissioner Angus Mitchell.<br/>