Gulfstream names new sales team in Asia: Gulfstream Aerospace announced the appointment of Julien Nargeot as regional vice president of sales for Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand, and Brian McCarthy as regional sales manager in the region. Nargeot joins Gulfstream with 12 years’ experience with a business-jet original equipment manufacturer, where he held a pilot type rating and was involved with pilot training and operational support, aircraft technical support and customer service. More recently, he spent seven years in new aircraft sales for the Middle East. Nargeot holds a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering from France’s École Supérieure des Techniques Aéronautiques et de Construction Automobile (ESTACA), which included a year of aerospace and space mechanics study at Kasetsart University in Bangkok. McCarthy comes to Gulfstream with nine years of business aviation experience. He previously worked as a sales manager for an aircraft brokerage company and was responsible for the sale and acquisition of pre-owned and new business aircraft in the northeast US and Asia-Pacific markets. McCarthy earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration, with a joint emphasis in finance and management, from the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business. The Gulfstream regional sales manager works with the regional vice president to cultivate leads and generate sales of new aircraft. Nargeot and McCarthy report to Roger Sperry, Gulfstream’s regional senior vice president of sales for Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Florida, and are based in Gulfstream’s Singapore office.
Philippine CAAP certifies ExecuJet MRO Services Malaysia: The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) has certified ExecuJet MRO Services Malaysia to perform line and heavy maintenance on Dassault Aviation, Bombardier and Gulfstream business jets. This certification covers Dassault Falcon 2000EX and Falcon 900EX aircraft; Bombardier Challenger 300/350 series and Bombardier Learjet 45 aircraft; and Gulfstream G200 and Gulfstream GIV aircraft. Having CAAP certification means ExecuJet MRO Services Malaysia is permitted to do maintenance work for operators that have these aircraft on the Philippine aircraft registry. Ivan Lim, VP MRO Services Asia at ExecuJet MRO Services Malaysia, says: “The impetus for getting CAAP certification was the increased number of queries from operators in the Philippines. We realised that many of them are looking for a wider range of maintenance options, especially those who usually send their jets to the US for MRO work.”
Lufthansa Technik signs MOU with All Nippon Airways: All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Lufthansa Technik signed a comprehensive memorandum of understanding (MOU) regarding a technical collaboration project for the Boeing 777-9. The Japanese carrier is one of the launch customers for the 777-9 while Lufthansa Technik is currently preparing its maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) readiness for the arrival of the first Lufthansa aircraft of this type planned in the beginning of 2021. The two partners have already identified different engineering and maintenance areas in which they want to collaborate or have even started to do so. In the entry-into-service phase of the aircraft the two companies want to share insights and best practice in engineering services and want to collaborate in aircraft production inspection. They will also cooperate in the fields of material planning and sharing, line maintenance services and aircraft-on-ground (AOG) support. Furthermore, the partners plan to develop digital maintenance predictors on the technical base of AVIATAR, Lufthansa Technik’s independent digital operations suite. Further upcoming fields of collaboration will constantly be discussed between the two companies.
Gold Coast Airport adds computed tomography screening: Smiths Detection announced that it has been awarded a contract by Gold Coast Airport to enhance its cabin bag screening with advanced Computed Tomography (CT) screening systems. The announcement follows a successful six-week trial completed in March this year. Servicing both international and domestic airlines, Gold Coast Airport welcomes almost 6.5 million passengers per year, which is forecast to more than double by 2037. To meet increasing passenger volumes and mandated government regulations to be CT-compliant, Gold Coast Airport will install up to 12 HI-SCAN 6040 CTiX screening machines within the passenger screening point during the next three years. Initial installation will see four CTiX units installed at the existing screening point in April 2020, with the remaining eight units to be installed in line with the opening of the southern terminal expansion and refurbishment of the existing terminal.
ATSB issues safety recommendations to AirAsia Indonesia: The Australian Transportation Safety Bureau (ATSB) has issued a safety recommendation to AirAsia Indonesia calling for the airline to review its passenger safety briefing material to ensure instructions on how to activate passenger oxygen masks are clear and effective. The formal recommendation follows an ATSB investigation into a pressurisation event on board one of the airline’s Airbus A320 aircraft about 30 minutes after departure from Perth on a scheduled passenger flight to Bali, on 15 October 2017. During the climb the crew initiated an emergency descent to 10,000 feet in response to a master caution warning of a malfunction of the aircraft’s pressurisation system. The captain made a passenger announcement for the emergency descent and manually deployed the passenger oxygen masks. During the emergency descent, some oxygen masks did not deploy, or passengers felt they were not receiving oxygen. Consequently, some passengers then moved around the cabin to find a functioning oxygen mask unit. Passengers later surveyed by the ATSB recalled that the cabin crew shouted commands such as ‘BRACE’, ‘GET DOWN’ and ‘CRASH POSITION’, increasing their level of confusion and panic. After reaching 10,000 feet, the flight crew announced the aircraft was at a safe altitude for oxygen masks to be removed. The aircraft landed safety at Perth Airport, with no injuries to passengers and crew, and no damage to the aircraft. The ATSB’s subsequent investigation into the incident found that AirAsia Indonesia’s pre-flight safety briefing and safety information card did not include a clear instruction on how to activate the flow of oxygen from the passenger oxygen masks, and that the bag may not inflate when oxygen is flowing. This may have resulted in some passengers not understanding whether or not there was oxygen flowing in the mask. Further, cabin crew provided additional commands to passengers that were inappropriate for a depressurisation, which had the potential to increase confusion in the cabin and likely increased the level of panic experienced by some passengers.
