UPS installs new safety measures

DURING the next two years United Parcel Service (UPS) will equip its aircraft fleet with full-face oxygen masks and goggles.

The move comes following recommendations by the Joint UPS-Independent Pilots Association Safety Task Force, which has been studying safety improvements, particularly with fires, since the fatal freighter crash in September 2010 in Dubai.

The crash occurred when warning systems on a 747-400F alerted UPS pilots of a fire on the main deck shortly after takeoff from Dubai International Airport en route to Cologne (Germany).

The freighter turned back and the crew told controllers that smoke in the cockpit blocked the view of their instruments. Both pilots were killed in the crash.

In April, UPS announced the installation of the Emergency Vision Assurance System, a transparent inflatable vision device that allows pilots to see amid dense smoke.

The one-piece face masks can be put on with one hand in three seconds, five times faster than the two-piece models on most aircraft.

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