Pilot reportedly removed all his clothes and walked into reception area of Cape Verde hotel after drinking session
An easyJet flight captain has been suspended pending an investigation after claims that he wandered naked around a luxury hotel at the end of an all-night drinking session.
The pilot, who has not been named, was seen without any clothes in the reception of a five-star hotel on the Atlantic resort island of Cape Verde early last Tuesday.
Continue reading...Ground stops were issued nationwide including at hubs in Chicago, Denver, Houston, Newark and San Francisco
United Airlines has said a technology issue that led to the grounding of flights for a few hours and major delays across its network in the US has been resolved.
“While we expect residual delays, our team is working to restore our normal operations,” the airline said in a statement late on Wednesday.
Continue reading...A South Carolina family had forgotten the device on a trip and later found the clips uploaded to their cloud account
A Delta Air Lines employee stole a computer tablet left behind on a plane by a South Carolina child, then used it to record sexually explicit videos of himself – which saved to cloud storage and were discovered by the minor’s parents, a recent federal lawsuit alleges.
The child’s parents, Tory and Brooke Brewer, sued Delta in US district court in Charleston on 16 July, saying their family is owed damages for negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress and harassment, among other causes.
Continue reading...Plane maker expects over 3,200 union workers at three St Louis-area plants to strike after overwhelming no vote
Boeing Co expects more than 3,200 union workers at three St Louis-area plants that produce US fighter jets to strike after they rejected a proposed contract on Sunday that included a 20% wage increase over four years.
The International Machinists and Aerospace Workers union said the vote by District 837 members was overwhelmingly against the proposed contract. The existing contract was to expire at 11.59pm central time on Sunday, but the union said a “cooling off” period would keep a strike from beginning for another week, until 4 August.
Continue reading...US report says investigators looking at actions of plane’s captain before plane crash that killed 260 people
Air India has said it found “no issues” with the fuel switches on its other Boeing planes after the fatal crash that killed 260 people last month, as a US report suggested investigators have turned their attention to the actions of the plane’s captain.
A preliminary report into the incident, released last week, found that the switches that controlled fuel going into the engines had been turned off “one after another” just after the plane took off from Ahmedabad airport.
Continue reading...Hacked airline says Australian federal police have been engaged but it ‘won’t be commenting any further on the detail of the contact’
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A potential cyber criminal has made contact with Qantas, the airline has confirmed, after a major attack on its network exposed the personal records of up to 6 million customers.
In a statement on Monday evening, a spokesperson for Qantas said the Australian federal police (AFP) had been engaged but the airline would not confirm if a ransom was being sought for the compromised personal data.
Continue reading...Ofgem opens investigation into National Grid as report finds incident that cut airport power was preventable
The root cause of the substation fire that shut Heathrow airport was a preventable technical fault that National Grid had been aware of seven years ago but failed to fix properly, investigators have concluded.
The final report by the National Energy System Operator (Neso) on the incident said the fire that cut power to the airport on 21 March, affecting more than 1,350 flights, almost 300,000 passengers and cutting power to 67,000 homes, was “most likely” sparked by moisture entering the insulation around wires.
Continue reading...Foreign affairs minister Penny Wong said there had been ‘disruptions to flights with temporary airspace closures in the region’
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The Albanese government and airlines are warning passengers in Australia of flight delays and disruptions after Iran’s strike on a US base in Qatar resulted in several countries closing their airspace.
In a post to X on Tuesday morning, the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said there had been “disruptions to flights with temporary airspace closures in the region”.
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Continue reading...US strikes on Iran are adding to the pressure on carriers, which are having to avoid war-torn regions, lengthening routes and pushing up costs
With barely 48 hours elapsed since the US launched strikes against Iran, the swift resumption of near-normal service circumnavigating the war zone underlines that few crises, short of the global pandemic, have stopped airlines and their passengers flying for long.
British Airways had been planning to restart flights to the Middle East cities of Doha and Dubai again, after cancelling departures from Heathrow at the weekend. However, on Monday evening Qatar temporarily closed its airspace again as Iran launched a missile attack on US bases in the country.
Continue reading...Industry professionals gather at civil and military aircraft event further overshadowed by war between Israel and Iran
Every second summer more than 100,000 aviation industry professionals gather in Paris for an airshow – a flying display crossed with a vast conference. The mood at the latest gathering this week was more subdued than usual, after the deadly crash a week ago of a London-bound Air India flight in Ahmedabad.
Investigators have recovered the black box from the plane to try to work out the cause of the disaster. The aircraft maker Boeing, and GE Aerospace, which made the 787 Dreamliner’s engines, both cancelled many of their media-facing events out of respect for the families of the 241 passengers and crew who died, as well as at least 30 more people on the ground who were killed.
Continue reading...Gujarati communities in the capital gather to commemorate more than 270 victims who died in Ahmedabad air crash
As the late afternoon sun streamed into a small square behind the Indian High Commission in London on Sunday, a crowd of 200 people gathered for a vigil – one of several held around the UK this weekend to remember those who died in the Air India disaster.
Candles were placed beneath a bust of Jawaharlal Nehru and attenders listened to inter-faith leaders and members from the Gujarati community who had come to reflect on a shocking week of loss.
Continue reading...Victoria’s Avalon has struggled to take wing, but some project Sydney’s new 24-hour, high-tech airport will one day match Heathrow for passenger numbers
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It has been talked about for decades, and a year and a half out from its opening, Western Sydney International is looking more and more like an airport.
Last week, press gathered to mark the completion of its runway.
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Continue reading...Cuts to continue through October amid runway construction aimed at curbing delays and cancellations
The Federal Aviation Administration has finalized an interim order to temporarily cut the number of flights coming in and out of Newark Liberty international airport as the embattled transit hub has recently experienced widespread delays and cancellations due to air traffic control operations.
Beginning on Tuesday, 20 May, Newark airport’s maximum hourly rate is now 28 arrivals and 28 departures, for a total of 56 hourly operations. Prior to this change, Newark typically handled more than 77 flights per hour during peak times, according to USA Today.
Continue reading...Pledge to strengthen ties with Gulf state includes a $14.5bn agreement with Boeing, GE Aerospace and Etihad Airways
Donald Trump has announced deals totaling more than $200bn between the United States and the United Arab Emirates, including a $14.5bn commitment among Boeing, GE Aerospace and Etihad Airways, as he pledged to strengthen ties between the US and the Gulf state during a multiday trip to the Middle East.
The White House said on Thursday that Boeing and GE had received a commitment from Etihad Airways to invest $14.5bn to buy 28 US-made Boeing 787 and 777X aircraft powered by GE engines.
Continue reading...T&Cs show limitations to the promises of 12 free seat reservations, insurance and monthly access to a sale
Ryanair has become the latest low-cost airline to offer a yearly membership scheme that promises benefits such as free reserved seats and cheap flights – but the consumer group Which? says you should look at the small print before you join.
The low-cost carrier’s Prime membership costs £79 a person a year and promises 12 free seat reservations, travel insurance, and monthly access to a sale. However, the terms and conditions show a number of limitations.
Continue reading...Professionals call for a fundamental transition including controlling flight numbers
The aviation industry is “failing dramatically” in its efforts to tackle its role in the climate crisis, according to a newly formed group of aviation professionals.
They say they are torn between their passion for flying and their concern for the planet and are calling for a fundamental transition of the industry, including controlling flight numbers.
Continue reading...Airplane manufacturer says it is lobbying Donald Trump over ‘unfortunate’ decision to impose tariffs
Boeing will try to divert as many as 50 planes ordered by Chinese airlines to customers elsewhere after steep tariffs prompted by Donald Trump’s trade war.
The US manufacturer said it was confident it could find other buyers for the planes, but said it was lobbying Trump personally to resolve an “unfortunate situation”.
Continue reading...Jets intended for Chinese airline returned to US, raising fears for planemaker as results near
Investors in Boeing are braced to learn the full impact of Donald Trump’s trade war, amid fears the US planemaker could be hit harder than first expected after jets intended for a Chinese airline were returned to the US.
A Boeing 737 Max 8 plane intended for use by a Chinese airline returned to the US on Monday from Boeing’s China finishing centre, according to flight data cited by Reuters. It followed the arrival in the US on Sunday of another 737 Max painted in the livery of China’s Xiamen Airlines at Boeing’s US production hub in Seattle.
Continue reading...The airline has apologised and begun informing passengers who are eligible for a refund, with an average value of $55
Virgin Australia is offering refunds to more than 60,000 passengers, after an internal error led to inflated itinerary change fees being charged over the past five years.
The airline has apologised and launched an itinerary change claim program, as it begins informing passengers who are eligible for refunds over the incorrect fees charged to customers making changes to their bookings between 21 April 2020 and 31 March this year.
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Continue reading...Concerns about cable theft raised with airport before substation fire but Heathrow chief defends handling of incident
Airlines warned Heathrow about risks to its power supply days before the airport was shut down by a substation fire, a Commons committee has been told.
Heathrow’s chief executive, Thomas Woldbye, apologised for the disruption, which affected more than 200,000 passengers on Friday 21 March, but defended the decision to close as he said staying open was potentially “disastrous”.
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