March 28, 2024

Airlines Uncover Damage to Wiring on 787 Locators

United Airlines said it found the pinched wire, which connects the battery to the transmitter, on one of its six 787s. Christen David, a spokeswoman for United, said that the airline had found the problem in an inspection ordered by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Japan’s All Nippon Airways said it had found a pinched wire in the same type of built-in beacon on one of its 787s. It said it also found a dented wire in a portable transmitter.

The airlines said they had removed damaged devices on the 787s and sent them to the manufacturer, Honeywell Aerospace, for evaluation.

The latest problems suggest that there is a more systemic problem with the devices, which are intended to broadcast signals about a plane’s location after a crash. British investigators say they believe that the fire aboard an Ethiopian Airlines Dreamliner parked at Heathrow Airport on July 12 may have started in the beacon. On the 787, the transmitter is in the top rear of the airplane with no direct fire-suppression system.

A photograph of the charred device on that plane indicated that a cap over the battery had been closed on the wire. That apparently pinched the wire, which could have led to an eventual short that set off the fire.

United, All Nippon and the 11 other airlines that fly the fuel-efficient new planes said shortly after the Ethiopian fire that they had inspected the devices and found no problems. Over the last week, Boeing, the F.A.A. and regulators in Europe and Japan have told them to either remove or inspect the beacons, looking specifically for a pinched wire.

United initially performed a visual check on its 787s that failed to detect the pinched wire in the six-pound device but found it on the second look.

Regulators said on Friday that they were still trying to figure out whether the wires became pinched during the manufacturing at Honeywell, the installation into the planes at Boeing or during maintenance checks at the airlines. Honeywell declined to comment.

All Nippon Airways has taken the built-in locator beacons out of its eight domestically operated Dreamliners with the permission of local regulators and has inspected and put back those on its 12 787s that fly international routes because some countries require them.

The beacons are designed to guide rescuers to downed aircraft, although in most cases close radar tracking and eyewitness reports allow air traffic controllers to pinpoint crash sites.

Japan’s Transport Ministry informed All Nippon and Japan Airlines this week that they were permitted to remove the beacons, said Ryosei Nomura, a spokesman for the airline in Tokyo.

British investigators also have recommended that the F.A.A. review whether the order to inspect or remove the beacons should extend to other types of commercial, business and private jets that carry the Honeywell model.

While the transmitter is a standard item on most planes, Boeing has also had problems with the novel electrical systems on the 787, which entered service in late 2011.

Qatar Airways said on Friday that it had taken one of its Dreamliners out of service after what it described as a minor technical issue, as pressure mounted on the plane maker over possible new electrical problems with the advanced jet.

The airline and Boeing declined to give further details.

Boeing also said on Friday that it was shifting five commercial-aircraft executives, including Mike Sinnett, the chief of engineer on the 787, to new jobs. Mr. Sinnett will become the vice president for product development in charge of future plane concepts. Bob Whittington, the chief engineer on the 777 program, will take over for Mr. Sinnett on the 787.

Separately on Friday, federal regulators proposed a $2.75 million civil penalty against Boeing for installing nonconforming fasteners on its 777 jetliner and failing to correct its quality control system for two years.

The FA.A said that Boeing found it had been installing fasteners that were insufficiently tapered in September 2008. The plane maker stopped using those fasteners after it discovered the problem but, according to the F.A.A., failed to correct some of its manufacturing issues related to these fasteners until November 2010.

Boeing said that it was “working closely with the F.A.A. to address any remaining concerns.”

Hiroko Tabuchi contributed reporting.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2013/07/26/business/26reuters-ana-dreamliner-beacon.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Advertising: News Media Weigh Use of Photos of Carnage

The biggest controversy brewed around The Daily News of New York, which covered up a bloody wound on a victim’s leg in the photograph it ran on its front page on Tuesday.

As photojournalists on blogs and Facebook discussed how changing these photographs violated their standards, the paper’s spokesman issued a statement on Wednesday defending its decision. It said “the rest of the media should have been as sensitive as The Daily News.” The photograph was first noted by Charles Apple, an editor with The Orange County Register in California.

The Atlantic also received complaints from readers for posting on its Web site a photograph of a marathon observer, Jeff Bauman, showing bloody injuries that most news organizations chose to crop. Some organizations that used it also included a note that read “Warning: This image may contain graphic or objectionable content.”

About 15 minutes after posting the image, The Atlantic blurred Mr. Bauman’s face, while keeping the troubling parts of the photograph of his limbs in the shot. Bob Cohn, digital editor for The Atlantic, said that it chose to publish an original photograph over the cropped version other outlets published because it seemed more authentic. The Associated Press offered both versions.

“We thought it was such an honest and powerful representation of the tragic impact of the bombings,” Mr. Cohn said.

Donald R. Winslow, editor of News Photographer Magazine, the monthly publication of the National Press Photographers Association, said that the association’s code of ethics did not allow any altered photographs. It follows the rule that news outlets either publish an image or do not publish it. If parts of the photograph are too graphic, then the image should be cropped.

But Mr. Winslow understood that these specific photographs struck a nerve because they were taken at a highly publicized media event where thousands of people were present with digital devices to record it. Most of the time, in places where these types of gruesome tragedies happen, there are fewer people recording the events.

“Here in America, we see gruesome photographs that come from war, the third world, a horrible accident or come from European and Middle Eastern terrorism. We typically don’t see those pictures on the front page of newspapers,” Mr. Winslow said. “Not since 9/11, we have not had to deal with pictures from the East Coast mainstream media corridor.”

The decision to alter some photographs did not appear to be influenced by concerns from advertisers. Ken Frydman, a spokesman for The Daily News, said that no advertisers asked the paper to alter the photo and had not called to complain. Mr. Cohn said that at The Atlantic he “was not thinking at all about advertising when we made the decision to publish the photo with the warning label and pixelation of the subject’s face.”

Mr. Cohn added that Alan Taylor, editor of The Atlantic’s photo blog In Focus, originally chose to use the more graphic photo, but that he and Mr. Taylor decided before publishing the photo to include a warning sign. They also decided together that the Web site should disguise the subject’s face.

“He obviously was in a very vulnerable situation. He was fully identifiable,” Mr. Cohn said of Mr. Bauman.

But Mr. Winslow said that the decision by The Atlantic to cover Mr. Bauman’s face did little to protect the victim because many outlets ran photographs of him without showing in detail the extent of his injuries.

“It’s closing the barn door after the horse is gone,” Mr. Winslow said. “His face is everywhere.”

After word spread online that The Daily News had altered photographs, one staff photographer who declined to be identified for fear of being fired said that “people were shocked” in the newsroom and added “it was the chatter of the staff.”

Rob Bennett, a photojournalist and adjunct professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, posted on Twitter: “No defense of gore showing up in my circles. Only frustration and disappointment in behavior of @NYDNPhoto dept.” By Wednesday afternoon, The Daily News posted the unaltered version of the photograph on its Web site.

Journalists may have debated the slippery slope of altering these photos, but some readers supported the decision of news outlets to edit these shots. Mr. Cohn said that 24 hours after the bombing took place, more readers supported The Atlantic than not.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/business/media/news-media-weigh-use-of-photos-of-carnage.html?partner=rss&emc=rss