On November 6, 2003, an Airbus A330-300 departed Vancouver International Airport, B.C., at 14:23 Pacific Standard Time (PST) on a scheduled flight to Calgary, Alta., with 6 crew members and 92 passengers on board. Shortly after takeoff, the Vancouver tower informed the pilots that a substantial amount of smoke or vapor was coming from the No. 2 engine. Although the pilots did not receive any abnormal engine indications or cockpit warnings, they declared an emergency and advised that they were returning to Vancouver. After an uneventful landing, the pilots shut down the No. 2 engine. Aircraft rescue and firefighting (ARFF) services, following the aircraft, advised the pilots that fuel was leaking from the engine but there was no sign of fire. Eventually, the aircraft was towed back to the terminal where the passengers were deplaned. There were no injuries or damage to the aircraft.

Agency awaits full response

The AAIB’s progress report says the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has replied to the circuit breaker proposal, saying: "EASA continues to be an active participant in the ageing systems rulemaking process. Industry continues to develop arc fault circuit breaker technology. A regulatory impact assessment will need to be performed before action may be taken."

The AAIB classified EASA’s response as "partially accepted, open"

The AAIB says it is aware that plans are in progress through both agencies to reduce the likelihood of damage to old wiring looms, but since this will never be completely effective the introduction of more sensitive "intelligent" circuit breakers that recognize momentary arcing is the most critical part of the solution, it insists.

The lost aircraft were a Trans World Airlines Boeing 747-100 in July 1996 and the September 1998 Swissair Boeing MD-11.

BEIJING, (Xinhua) -- China's aviation sector, the fastest growing in the world, established the China Civil Aviation Safety Academy here on Wednesday.

Yang Yuanyuan, director of China's General Administration of Civil Aviation said safety is an important criteria in judging a country's aviation development.

With a growing air transportation, it is crucial for China's aviation sector to improve its safety so as to move into a higher level of development, Yang said.

The academy will offer the staff in China's air transportation sector eight courses from theoretical studies to practical operations.

Wang Changshun, president of the academy, said although its accident rate is lower than the international average level, China's aviation industry still has a long way to go to catch up with countries with advanced aviation transportation systems.

Statistics show that China's total air transportation grew by 18.2 percent, passenger traffic by 16.5 percent and cargo transportation jumped 15.6 percent annually from 1978 to 2004, nearly double worldwide growth.

The model involved in the crash, the Airbus A310, has a thrust reverser on each of its two engines, and normal procedure, as with other large jets, is that after touchdown the crew deploys the reversers, which direct jet blast toward the front of the plane, to assist the wheel brakes in slowing the plane down. After the thrust reversers are deployed, the crew applies the throttles on the engines.

But the plane in the accident, flown by a Russian airline called S7, began its overnight flight from Moscow with one of its thrust reversers disabled.

While the reason is not clear, there are a number of causes, including mechanical failure, that could disable a thrust reverser.

Planes can land safely without thrust reversers, but if only one is deployed and power is applied to both engines, the forces are applied in opposite directions, tending to spin the airplane. Normal procedure is to alert the crew to important items that are not working, including thrust reversers.

Planes are permitted to fly disabled thrust reversers for a limited time before they are repaired.

In Irkutsk, the plane ran off the runway and ripped through a six-foot concrete barrier, slammed into several small buildings, and burst into flames, killing 124 of the 203 passengers and crew aboard.

Survivors were quoted as saying that the plane’s engines appeared to be accelerating, then shut down. That would be normal in any landing in which both thrust reversers were used.

Investigators said that in some circumstances, a pilot could use a single thrust reverser, providing that power was applied only to that engine.

Several witnesses were reported to have seen the plane actually accelerate after landing before leaving the runway and slamming into the concrete wall at about 100 miles an hour, then hitting several unoccupied storage buildings and stopping in flames.

Investigators examining the flight data recorder have not reached any definitive conclusions about the cause of the crash. It appeared, according to one investigator, that while both engines gained power after touchdown, the one without the thrust reverser gained power more slowly.

The authoritative journal, Flight International, reported Tuesday that the aircraft had landed at the proper point on the runway, then continued down the runway for some distance before yawing off to the right.

"This has led to speculation among Russian pilots that there might have been asymmetric thrust reverser deployment or braking, but no official sources will confirm or deny it at this stage," the publication said.

The two pilots, Sergei Shibanov, 45, and Vladimir Chernykh, 48, had no previous accidents, the airline said, and were highly experienced pilots qualified to fly international flights.

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