Aviation International News senior correspondent Ian Goold has been involved in aerospace since 1964 and in aviation media for more than 40 years. He enjoyed a 20-year career at Flight International magazine, where he was latterly air-transport editor before turning freelance in 1993. A winner of the European Regions Airline Association Hank McGonagle award for excellence in aerospace journalism and a Royal Aeronautical Society Aerospace Journalist of the Year global&nbsp;award, he has edited or contributed to aerospace and aviation magazines, special publications, and websites in Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America. Ian entered aerospace as an apprentice at the British Aircraft Corporation at Brooklands (Weybridge), where he worked on production and final assembly lines of the Vickers Super VC10, and BAC One-Eleven , and manufacture of Concorde major sub-assemblies. He subsequently graduated from the BAC Design Training School to work in the airframe structures drawing office (including design of international future projects, such as the Panavia Tornado multi-role combat aircraft) before joining Flight International in 1973. Apart from years of reading aircraft magazines and books, his first direct contact with aviation media had come during the early 1970s when he was involved at Brooklands with the Weybridge Man-powered Aircraft Group, which designed and built the tenth aircraft to fly under purely human power. As an aviation journalist, he has worked at more than&nbsp; 50 of the major biennial&nbsp;global and regional international aerospace industry shows at Le Bourget, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai (having missed attending only one "Farnborough" since 1960), plus innumerable NBAA, HAI, (U.S.) AOPA, and EBACE Conventions and ERA Assemblies. His favourite aircraft is the Hawker Hunter, of which – as a schoolboy – he heard hundreds make their first flights from Dunsfold, where also on September 24, 2013, he saw the penultimate landing of the VC10 (happily involving an example of which he had witnessed the maiden takeoff in 1970) a day before the last example made the design's final flight (unless, of course....).

Senior correspondent

Ian Goold

European and U.S. regulators have agreed to mandate “aircraft level” action for Rolls-Royce Trent 800-powered Boeing 777s and are considering potential action for other certified aircraft/engine combinations. This follows recommendations in an interim UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) report published Thursday into the British Airways 777 accident at London Heathrow Airport in January. 

The 777 lost power during final approach and made a forced landing about 1,000 feet short of the runway after ice that formed in the fuel system restricted fuel flow to the engines. Although the exact mechanism remains unknown, the AAIB said, “ice could cause a restriction in the fuel feed system” and that the risk of recurrence should be addressed in the short term while investigation continues. “Further testing will be carried out to establish more clearly how ice forms within the fuel system and how it might cause the restricted fuel flows seen on this flight,” it continued. 

Although the Boeing 777 met U.S. FAA and European Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) airworthiness requirements in force at the time of certification in 1995, “[these] do not appear to address the scenarios identified during this investigation,” said the report. The AAIB cited circumstances “such as the sudden release of accrued ice [in an aircraft fuel system], which could lead to a restricted fuel flow” and consequent loss of engine thrust.

AAIB investigators also recommended that the FAA and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) review current requirements to ensure that aircraft and engine fuel systems will tolerate the potential build-up and sudden release of ice in the fuel-feed system. EASA said it would consider further rulemaking action.

Europe, U.S. Regulators To Issue Rolls-powered Boeing 777 Airworthiness Directive

European and U.S.

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