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☆ F.A.A. Investigates Claims by Boeing Whistle-Blower About Flaws in 787 Dreamliner
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-09 | by ( Mark Walker | James Glanz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating claims made by a Boeing engineer who says that sections of the fuselage of the 787 Dreamliner are improperly fastened together and could break apart mid-flight after thousands of trips. The engineer, Sam Salehpour, who worked on the plane, detailed his allegations in interviews with The New York Times and in documents sent to the F.A.A. A spokesman for the agency confirmed that it was investigating the allegations but declined to comment on them. The fuselages for the plane come in several pieces, all from different manufacturers, and they are not exactly the same shape where they fit together, he said. Boeing concedes those manufacturing changes were made, but a spokesman for the company, Paul Lewis, said there was “no impact on durability or safe longevity of the airframe.”

Persons: Sam Salehpour, Salehpour, Paul Lewis Organizations: Federal Aviation Administration, Boeing, New York Times

Rock wall No obvious fender system Island Barrier Fender No obvious fender system Rock wall Island Barrier FenderHow Fenders Might Have Protected Against Bridge CollapseThe Francis Scott Key Bridge did not have an obvious fender system, or protective barriers, to redirect or prevent a ship from crashing into the bridge piers. Francis Scott Key Bridge Patapsco River Pier No obvious fender system Francis Scott Key Bridge Patapsco River Pier No obvious fender system The New York Times; aerial image via NearmapEngineers point out that some other bridges have more robust barriers. The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge in New York City has rock walls surrounding its piers. Verrazano-Narrows Bridge New York Harbor Pier Rock wall STATEN ISLAND Verrazano-Narrows Bridge Pier New York Harbor STATEN ISLAND Rock wall The New York Times; aerial image via Vexcel ImagingIsland barriers were installed around the Sunshine Skyway Bridge piers in Tampa Bay, Fla., after a ship crash caused the span’s collapse in 1980. Sunshine Skyway Bridge Tampa Bay Pier Island barrier Sunshine Skyway Bridge Tampa Bay Pier Island barrier The New York Times; aerial image via Vexcel ImagingEven smaller bridges like this one near Cape May, N.J., have fenders.

Persons: Francis Scott Key Organizations: New York Times, Nearmap Engineers, Sunshine, Sunshine Skyway, Creative Composites, Times Locations: New York City, York, Pier, STATEN, Tampa Bay, Fla, Tampa, Cape May, N.J, county

☆ Engineers Are Raising Questions About Piers Supporting Baltimore Bridge
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-26 | by ( James Glanz | Annie Correal | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Without the pier, they said, it was impossible for other components of the bridge to assume the load and keep the bridge standing. The piers on a bridge act as a kind of leg and are what is known as “nonredundant” parts of a bridge’s structure. Yet the collapse in Baltimore on Tuesday might have been avoided, some of the engineers said, if the piers were adequately equipped with blocking devices with a self-explanatory name: fenders. It was not clear whether any such protection built around the bridge’s piers was sufficient to guard against even a glancing hit from a 95,000-gross-ton container vessel. The Maryland Transportation Authority did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the design of the piers, or whether any fenders were installed around them.

Organizations: Maryland Transportation Authority Locations: Baltimore

☆ Alaska Airlines Flight Was Scheduled for Safety Check on Day Panel Blew Off
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-12 | by ( Mark Walker | James Glanz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A day before the door plug blew out of an Alaska Airlines flight on Jan. 5, engineers and technicians for the airline were so concerned about the mounting evidence of a problem that they wanted the plane to come out of service the next evening and undergo maintenance, interviews and documents show. But the airline chose to keep the plane, a Boeing 737 Max 9, in service on Jan. 5 with some restrictions, carrying passengers until it completed three flights that were scheduled to end that night in Portland, Ore., the site of one of the airline’s maintenance facilities. Before the plane could complete that scheduled sequence of flights and go in for the maintenance check, the door plug blew out at 16,000 feet, minutes after embarking on the second flight of the day, from Portland to Ontario International Airport in California. The plane landed safely and no one was seriously injured, but the incident focused new attention on Boeing’s manufacturing processes and the safety procedures followed by airlines.

Organizations: Alaska Airlines, Boeing, Ontario International Locations: Portland ,, Portland, California

How Did a Boeing Jet End Up With a Big Hole? At about 16,000 feet, pilots heard a loud boom, and the pressure dropped further: One of those door plugs had completely torn off. National Transportation Safety BoardBoeing’s chief executive, Dave Calhoun, has suggested that a manufacturing lapse was responsible for the door plug blowing out. investigation, it’s clear to us we received an airplane from the manufacturer with a faulty door plug,” Alaska said in a statement. An older Boeing model, the 737-900ER, has the same design for its door plugs as the Max 9.

Persons: Bolts, New York Times Bolts, Jeff Simon, cotter, Simon, ”, it’s, ” Gary Peterson, Dave Calhoun, AeroSystems, Max, fuselages, Joe Buccino, Mr, Buccino, Mathieu Lewis, Rolland Organizations: Boeing, Alaska Airlines, New York Times, The New York Times, National Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration, Transport Workers Union of America, Transportation Safety, Alaska Airline, Transportation, CNBC, Spirit, Board, Portland International Airport Locations: Alaska, Portland ,, Malaysia, Wichita, Kan, Renton, Wash, Jan

It had been clear for years that the dams protecting Derna, on Libya’s Mediterranean coast, were in danger of giving way. Torrential rains were not new. Decade after decade, they had pounded the area, washing away the soil that helped soak up water as it ran down from the dry hills above town. Climate change had also changed the land, making it drier, harder and increasingly shorn of vegetation, less able to absorb the water before it pooled up dangerously behind the dams. Then, there were the decades of neglect by officials — who knew the dams needed repairs — in a country so torn by years of civil war that it still has two opposing governments: one in the west and another in the east, where Derna lies.

Persons: —

☆ A Thousand Tiny Quakes: Documenting Russian Bombings in New Detail
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-30 | by ( James Glanz | Josh Holder | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +7 min

The explosions came one after another, a relentless series of bombings that echoed across Kyiv in the first weeks of the war. On the fourth day of the war, an explosion was detected at the Hostomel airport outside Kyiv. Maxar TechnologiesThe force from the explosion sent seismic waves toward two dozen nearby sensors, the equivalent of a tiny 0.2-magnitude earthquake. Midnight Jan. 2022 Feb. March April May June July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Time of day Midnight 6 a.m. Let’s hope this approach will also be developed over time to reveal intentional attacks on civilians, and thereby deter perpetrators.”

Persons: Dando, ”, Ben Dando, Jan, Sebastian Schutte, Schutte, ” Keith Koper, Koper, “ Organizations: Residents, The New York Times, Maxar, Kyiv, Peace Research Institute, University of Utah, ” Locations: Kyiv, Ukraine, Dnipro, Zhytomyr, Chernihiv, Russia, Norway, NORSAR, Hostomel, Peace Research Institute Oslo, Iraq, Afghanistan

The data was deleted from a provincial government website just days after it was published on Thursday. The number of cremations in the eastern province of Zhejiang rose to 171,000 in the first quarter of this year, the website said. That was 72,000 more cremations, a roughly 70 percent increase, than had been reported in the same period last year. In February, China said the official death toll in the mainland since the start of the pandemic was 83,150 — a remarkably low number that independent researchers have said is not credible. Since then, the government has released only weekly or monthly death tolls that, when added up, raise the overall total to about 83,700.

Persons: epidemiologists Locations: China, Beijing, Zhejiang

A deliberate explosion inside the Kakhovka dam, on the front line of the war in Ukraine, most likely caused its collapse on Tuesday, according to engineering and munitions experts, who said that structural failure or an attack from outside the dam were possible but less plausible explanations. Ukrainian officials blamed Russia for the failure, noting that Moscow’s military forces — which have repeatedly struck Ukrainian infrastructure since invading last year — controlled the dam spanning the Dnipro River in the city of Nova Kakhovka, putting them in a position to detonate explosives from within. Russian officials, in turn, blamed Ukraine, but did not elaborate on how it might have been done. For months, each side in the war has repeatedly accused the other of plotting to sabotage the hydroelectric dam, without offering evidence — allegations that rarely rose above the wartime fog of claims and counterclaims, both real and fabricated. Just last week, both said an attack on the dam was imminent; Ukrainian officials said the Russians wanted to create an emergency at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which uses river water for cooling, to stall an expected Ukrainian offensive.

Organizations: Nova Kakhovka Locations: Ukraine, Russia, Dnipro, Nova

ApartmentComplex Before dawn on Feb. 6, a powerful earthquake in southern Turkey destroyed an upscale apartment complex, killing hundreds. The main building in the Renaissance complex toppled over, evidence that the building had major vulnerabilities on the lower level and the south side. Tall column Recreational space on ground floor Antis Yapi via Facebook The most vulnerable part of Renaissance was the ground floor, which had an open layout. 3-D model highlights the ground floor columns and recreational spaces. The horizontal forces could have weakened the ground floor columns and possibly torn them apart.

China’s official count 0 2.5 million 83,150 deaths Model based on Shanghai outbreak 1.6 million deaths LOW ESTIMATE HIGH ESTIMATE Estimate using travel patterns 970,000 deaths Estimate using recent testing data 1.5 million deaths Estimate based on U.S. death rates 1.1 million deaths China’s official count 0 2.5 million 83,150 deaths Model based on Shanghai outbreak 1.6 million deaths LOW EST. But China’s official Covid death toll for the entire pandemic remains strikingly low: 83,150 people as of Feb. 9. Four separate academic teams have converged on broadly similar estimates: China’s Covid wave may have killed between a million and 1.5 million people. Why official data underrepresents China’s outbreak83,150 deaths China’s official count on Feb. 9 0 2.5M 83,150 deaths China’s official count on Feb. 9 0 2.5 millionChina has a narrow definition of what counts as a Covid-19 death. But the work was unwavering in its ultimate conclusion: Ending the “zero Covid” policy was likely to overwhelm the health care system, producing an estimated 1.6 million deaths.

Last decade 2100 scenarios LOW EMISSIONS By 2100, Basra would see almost six months of dangerous heat under the most likely scenario. MEDIUM EMISSIONS HIGH EMISSIONS Jan. July Jan. July Dec. Dec. Heat Index 80°F Caution 90°F Extreme Caution 103°F Danger 125°F Extreme Danger Basra Kuwait City Last decade 2100 scenarios Lower emissions Medium emissions Higher emissions Jan. July Jan. July Dec. Dec. Heat Index 80°F Caution 90°F Extreme Caution 103°F Danger 125°F Extreme Danger Basra Last decade 2100 emissions scenario LOW Medium HIGH Jan. July Dec. Kuwait City Last decade 2100 emissions scenario LOW Medium HIGH Jan. July Dec. Heat Index 80°F Caution 90°F Extreme Caution 103°F Danger 125°F Extreme Danger Basra Last decade 2100 emission scenarios Low Medium High Jan. July Dec. Kuwait City Last decade 2100 emission scenarios Low Medium High Jan. July Dec. Heat Index 80°F Caution 90°F Extreme Caution 103°F Danger 125°F Extreme Danger Kuwait City Basra Today, Basra experiences about 60 dangerously hot days per year. MEDIUM EMISSIONS HIGH EMISSIONS Jan. July Jan. July Dec. Dec. Heat Index 27°C Caution 32°C Extreme Caution 39°C Danger 52°C Extreme Danger Basra Kuwait City Last decade 2100 scenarios Lower emissions Medium emissions Higher emissions Jan. July Jan. July Dec. Dec. Heat Index 27°C Caution 32°C Extreme Caution 39°C Danger 52°C Extreme Danger Basra Last decade 2100 emissions scenario LOW Medium HIGH Jan. July Dec. Kuwait City Last decade 2100 emissions scenario LOW Medium HIGH Jan. July Dec. Heat Index 27°C Caution 32°C Extreme Caution 39°C Danger 52°C Extreme Danger Basra Last decade 2100 emissions scenario Low Medium High Jan. July Dec. Kuwait City Last decade 2100 emissions scenario Low Medium High Jan. July Dec. Heat Index 27°C Caution 32°C Extreme Caution 39°C Danger 52°C Extreme Danger Kuwait City Basra Today, Basra experiences about 60 dangerously hot days per year. Last decade 2100 scenarios LOW EMISSIONS By 2100, Basra would see almost six months of dangerous heat under the most likely scenario. MEDIUM EMISSIONS HIGH EMISSIONS Jan. July Jan. July Dec. Dec.

☆ How Ukraine Blew Up a Key Russian Bridge
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Marco Hernandez | James Glanz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +8 min

Last month, a truck laden with explosives drove across the Kerch bridge, a critical artery connecting Russia with its troops fighting in southern Ukraine. Structural and explosive experts who reviewed the bridge’s design and imagery of the blast offered new details on how the bridge was damaged. There are few direct parallels to such a spectacular act of sabotage on a bridge behind enemy lines in wartime. The blast ignited a train carrying large fuel tanks on an adjacent bridge, creating flames and a plume of smoke. “If it were a suicide truck bomb,” Mr. Nair said, “I would think the guy would have destroyed the main span.”But the trigger for the bomb is still unknown.

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