Author: Gareth

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Air traffic controller

Here’s an interesting video that reports on an incident involving an air traffic controller in USA. If you can’t see the video try refreshing the page.

Try to answer the following questions about the video and come back on Monday for the answers.

1. What exactly did the air traffic controller do?
2. What altitude was the plane at when this happened?
3. What punishment did he receive?

Suggested ICAO level: 5+

Have a great weekend!!

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/us/2014/06/16/mxp-plane-landing-joke.hln.html

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Landing gear problems

Here’s the text to the listening from yesterday.

Enjoy!!

An Embraer ERJ-145 was scheduled to depart from a small regional airport in the north-east of USA. Everything seemed fine as it took off with 45 passengers on board. 25 minutes after departure, the crew was informed that there was tyre debris on the runway. The crew didn’t know if this debris was from their landing gear or not. They continued the flight as normal and when they arrived at their destination, they performed a low pass over the runway and asked for controllers and others on the ground to perform a visual inspection of the landing gear. Everything seemed to be normal, and they continued with another approach to land. They landed safely but after disembarking the passengers, the ground crew looked more closely at the plane’s landing gear. They had damage to the inboard left-hand-main tyre. This also caused damage to the flaps and the plane was removed from service until repairs were completed.

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Landing gear problems

Listen to this recording and try to write what your understand. You don’t need to understand every word, just the most important ideas. Use your own words to write what happened.

You can listen as many times as you like.

Check below the recording for some of the difficult words and come back and check the full text from this recording tomorrow.

Suggested ICAO level: 4+

Have a great day!

Difficult words: seem (v.), debris (n.), (perform) a low pass (n.), visual inspection (n.), inboard (adj.), repairs (n.)

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Air Force One upgrade answers

Here are the answers to last Friday’s video, enjoy!

Suggested ICAO level for video: 5+

1. It must be a wide-body, four-engine commercial aircraft.
2. No.
3. Shields against the electromagnetic pulse of a nuclear attack and anti-missile systems.
4. A modified Boeing 707.
5. Full in-flight broadcast capabilities, sleeping quarters, a shower, an airborne oval office and an emergency room.
6. In seven years (although it may be delayed).

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Air Force One upgrade

Here’s an interesting video about the update to Air Force One, the plane that the President of USA uses to fly around the world.

Try to answer the following questions about the video and come back on Monday for the answers.

1. What are the requirements for the new Air Force One?
2. Will it have an escape pod?
3. What defensive capabilities does it currently have?
4. What model of aircraft was the previous Air Force One?
5. What features will the new Air Force One have?
6. When will it be delivered?

Suggested ICAO level: 5+

Have a great weekend!!

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/us/2014/06/13/tsr-dnt-foreman-new-air-force-one.cnn.html

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Illness on board

Here’s the text to the listening from yesterday.

Enjoy!!

A Boeing 767, was en route from Zurich (Switzerland) to Philadelphia (USA) with 165 people on board. It was cruising at FL340 and everything appeared to be normal. Somewhere off the west coast of Ireland, nine of the flight attendants on board started to become ill. They felt dizzy and nauseous. The pilots decided to turn around and divert to Shannon airport on the west coast of Ireland.
When the plane landed, there were doctors waiting to remove the flight attendants and treat them. Nobody else on board, including the pilots, felt ill.
Passengers were offered overnight accommodation and a booking on another flight back to Philadelphia.