2007-03-20 02:44:51 · 1 answers · asked by K 2 in Cars & Transportation ➔ Aircraft
Were you asking about ETOPS in general? Extended Twin Operations. They used to require twins commercial jets to stay within 60 minutes of an airport, they extended that to 120 then 180. Recently ETOPS 180/207 essentially removed the ETOPS restrictions everywhere except the southern polar region, for aircraft with engines that have demonstrated adequate reliability and meet some other standards, which most commercial twin jets do.
The A320 family are all ETOPS-180 certifed, after checking I am uncertain they have actually been certified for 180/207 which isn't necessary for most places an A320 can reach. For example a trans atlantic run is only around 6 hours so you are almost always within 180 minutes of one end of your trip. Max range of a fully loaded A319 is about 3700 nautical miles, cruising at M0.79 at 35,000 feet that would take 8 hours 8 minutes.
Personally I'm not convinced about 180/207. I know of three twin engine shutdowns, all have been within gliding distance of airports, Gimli being the most famous but there was another in Greenland and another somewhere like the Canary Islands. A twin engine failure over Baffin Island in the winter would probably kill everyone.
No, I have no fear of flying, I live near SF and have no fear of earthquakes either.
2007-03-20 04:48:01 · answer #1 · answered by Chris H 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋