Aircraft Safety

WASHINGTON (CN) - Avidyne Corporation's flight deck displays may show incorrect altitude and airspeed information, which may cause a pilot to become disoriented and hit the ground or other planes.

Some parts of the display may have a red "X" where information such as airspeed, altimeter, vertical speed or attitude should be. The Federal Aviation Administration mandates that the serial numbers of Avidyne Primary Flight Displays be checked against a page-long list, to see if they are from a problematic lot. But, since no correction for the problem has been devised yet, the FAA only directs that certain rules about the aircraft's limitations be posted at the flight deck or in the manuals, and that the pilots are warned to be thorough about pre-flight instrument checks.

In other news, the manufacturer of certain Boeing 727s failed to present corrective actions to the problem of ignition sources in the auxiliary fuel tanks, so the FAA directs that the planes' auxiliary fuel tanks be shut off. Click here for details and other new regulations and notices.

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