Category Archives: Air transport

Nine arrested in Israel after air crash images sent to plane passengers

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Authorities believe suspects used iPhone AirDrop to share photos before takeoff at Ben Gurion airport

A taxiing plane returned to the gate at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport after photos of aviation disasters popped up on passengers’ phones – sent, Israeli authorities believe, by nine people onboard using the iPhone AirDrop function.

The incident happened shortly before the AnadoluJet passenger plane was readying for takeoff for Istanbul, the Israel Airports Authority (IAA) said.

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Just one of 50 aviation industry climate targets met, study finds

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Charity’s report says nearly all targets set since 2000 have been missed, revised or quietly ignored

The international aviation industry has failed to meet all but one of 50 of its own climate targets in the past two decades, environment campaigners say.

A report commissioned by the climate charity Possible assessed every target set by the industry since 2000 and found that nearly all had been missed, revised or quietly ignored. The charity says the findings undermine a UK government plan to leave airlines to reduce their emissions through self-regulation.

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‘Supersonic ballet’: helicopter briefly catches falling rocket

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Rocket Lab test successfully hooks booster in midair before having to drop it into South Pacific

A space company has briefly managed to catch a falling rocket using a helicopter and a hook in a test described by its chief executive as “something of a supersonic ballet”.

The test was part of Rocket Lab’s attempts to find relatively low-cost ways of recovering rockets for multiple missions to space.

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Panic at Israeli airport as US family packs unexploded bombshell for flight home

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Passengers scramble in Ben Gurion’s departure hall after tourists show ‘souvenir’ collected in Golan Heights

An American family set off a bomb scare at Israel’s main airport when they showed security inspectors an unexploded shell that they found while visiting the Golan Heights and had packed for their return trip, authorities said.

Video circulated on social media showed panicked passengers scattering at Ben Gurion Airport’s departure hall near Tel Aviv on Thursday.

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US judge strikes down Biden mask mandate for planes and trains

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The Florida judge’s ruling appeared to free operators to retain or discard masking policies, leading to confusion

A federal judge in Florida has struck down Joe Biden’s national mask mandate covering airplanes, airports and other public transportation, prompting the White House to announce the rule would not be enforced while federal agencies decide how to respond to the judge’s order.

The ruling appeared to free operators to make their own decisions about mask requirements, with several airlines announcing they would drop mandates, but other transport networks including the New York City subway planning to keep them in place.

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UK rail passengers face ‘disastrous weekend’ of Easter travel disruption

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Dozens of services to and from London cancelled, and strike action hits TransPennine Express routes

Rail passengers face a “disastrous weekend” of disruption as engineering works and strikes hamper one of the busiest Easter getaways in years.

Dozens of services to and from London have been cancelled as Network Rail carries out 530 engineering projects across the bank holiday weekend.

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Short-staffed Australian airports in chaos as flights depart without any luggage

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Unions say aviation industry cannot cope with Easter travel crush after effects of Covid leave workforce depleted

Baggage handlers have been so short-staffed that entire flights have departed without luggage as the Easter travel crush peaked at Australian airports, with unions warning the pandemic-depleted aviation industry is now structurally incapable of coping with pre-Covid-like levels of travel demand.

While unloaded baggage and long queues affected travellers across the country on Thursday, unions have claimed that in Brisbane, so few service workers were available that female cleaners were sent in to clean male toilets while travellers were using them, and male cleaners into bathrooms with female patrons.

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Sword found hidden in cane during X-ray scan at Logan airport

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Man carrying the cane said he had no idea it concealed a sword and was able to catch his flight after it was confiscated

A man passing through a Transportation Security Agency (TSA) checkpoint was stopped for having a sword concealed in his cane – and claimed he had no idea the blade was there.

Around noon last Tuesday, TSA officers at Logan airport in Boston were searching the traveler, a Massachusetts resident headed to New York.

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UK holidaymakers face cancelled flights and ferry delays in Easter travel chaos

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High rates of staff absences due to Covid and fallout from P&O Ferries scandal contribute to disruption over busy spring break

Holidaymakers looking to get away for Easter are facing major disruption to travel, as airlines cancel more than 100 flights a day because of staff shortages and ferry operators struggle to meet demand following the suspension of P&O Ferries services.

The rise in passenger numbers over the spring break has coincided with high rates of staff absences due to the latest wave of Covid infections.

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Unruly US airline passengers hit with record fines by FAA

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Aviation authority has imposed zero-tolerance policy and says incidents have soared since 6 January Capitol attack

An American Airlines passenger who allegedly pushed a flight attendant and spat at crew members has been hit with the biggest fine ever issued by US aviation regulators, and another fine topping $75,000 (£57,500) was issued to a Delta Air Lines passenger who bit a fellow passenger after trying to hug and kiss another.

Since January 2021 when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) imposed a zero-tolerance policy, the agency has proposed fines of about $7m for disruptive passengers. Two new fines issued on Friday were the highest yet.

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As Britain learns to live with Covid, it faces a new pandemic of disruption

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Staff shortages, delays and rising prices are playing havoc with the healthcare, education, farming, hospitality and travel sectors

Although the UK no longer faces the threat of lockdowns or intensive care units being imminently overrun, coronavirus is still disrupting much of society and the economy.

As Britain learns to live with Covid, the virus is still playing havoc with our daily lives, and these difficulties have been compounded by post-Brexit chaos in some in sectors.

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DHL cargo plane splits in two after crash landing at Costa Rica airport

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Mechanical failure prompted pilot to request emergency landing shortly after plane took off from Juan Santamaria airport

A Boeing 757-200 cargo aircraft operated by DHL has made a dramatic emergency landing at Costa Rica’s Juan Santamaria international airport, skidded off the runway and broke in two, losing its tail.

DHL, part of Deutsche Post AG, said the crew was unharmed and that one member was undergoing a medical review as a precaution.

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UK travellers face disruption as Easter holiday getaway begins

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Airports report long waits because of Covid checks and staff shortages, as tourist traffic eases near Dover

Passengers faced long queues at Heathrow and Manchester airports as the Easter holidays got under way.

Travellers vented frustration on social media as Covid checks, high passenger volumes and reported staff shortages and e-gate problems meant long waits for check-in at Heathrow.

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Rescuers search for light aircraft with two onboard missing in Channel

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P-28 plane took off from airfield in Warwickshire and was bound for Le Touquet in northern France

Rescue teams have carried out a search in the Channel after a plane flying from the UK with two people onboard went missing.

The French coastguard told Sky News the aircraft is the “subject of a worrying disappearance” and a search for the plane was carried out “all afternoon”.

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UK prevents use of private jet linked to Russian oligarchs

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After recent seizures of aircraft and yacht, Grant Shapps grounds plane at Luton airport pending investigation

The transport minister, Grant Shapps, has said he has prevented the use of another private jet that has links to Russian oligarchs.

Shapps tweeted on Saturday: “We won’t stand by and watch those who’ve made millions through [Russian president Vladimir] Putin’s patronage live their lives in peace as innocent blood is shed.”

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Jets linked to Russian oligarchs appear to have kept flying despite sanctions

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Exclusive: Guardian data investigation finds flurry of movement after invasion of Ukraine, with many flights to UAE

Private jets linked to Russian oligarchs and officials appeared to continue flying into and out of EU and UK airports despite flight bans and sanctions imposed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a Guardian data investigation found.

The investigation, in collaboration with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), identified and tracked jets linked to sanctioned businesspeople and officials including Roman Abramovich, Alisher Usmanov and Igor Shuvalov, a former Russian deputy prime minister.

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John Menzies accepts takeover bid from Kuwaiti aviation services rival Agility

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Edinburgh-based firm agrees to £571m offer that will create world’s largest airport services firm

Executives at the British aviation services company John Menzies have accepted a £571m takeover deal from a Kuwaiti rival, after rebuffing three previous offers.

A subsidiary of Agility Public Warehousing had made the bid more than a month ago, which was conditional at the time, although the John Menzies board said it would accept the offer.

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Cathay Pacific plans world’s longest passenger flight, avoiding Russia

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Airline could set distance record by rerouting its New York to Hong Kong service over the Atlantic instead of the Pacific, covering more than 16,600km

Cathay Pacific is planning the world’s longest passenger flight by rerouting its New York to Hong Kong service over the Atlantic instead of the Pacific, the airline has said, in a new path that steers clear of Russia.

The flight path will cover “just under 9,000 nautical miles” (16,668km, or 10,357 miles) in 16 to 17 hours, Cathay said in a statement to Agence France-Presse.

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China Eastern plane crash: both black boxes found, all 132 on board dead

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Searchers find flight data recorder buried 1.5 metres underground by impact, after earlier recovering cockpit voice recorder

Both flight recorders or “black boxes” have been recovered from the crash of a China Eastern Boeing 737-800 that killed all 132 people on board, Chinese state media has said.

Searchers found the second box, the flight data recorder, on a mountain slope, buried about 1.5 metres underground by the impact, the state broadcaster CCTV said. The impact of the crash scattered debris widely and created a 20-metre deep pit in the side of the mountain.

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Chinese plane with 132 people onboard crashes in Guangxi province

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State media reports that China Eastern 737 went down near city of Wuzhou, sparking mountainside fire

A passenger plane carrying 132 people has crashed in southern China, with no survivors announced so far, Chinese authorities have reported.

The China Eastern Airlines plane departed Kunming at 1pm, on route to Guangzhou. At about 2.20pm, according to data from Flightradar24, the plane, a Boeing 737, plummeted more than 20,000 feet in just over a minute. It then seems to have regained altitude momentarily, before dropping rapidly again. The plane crashed near the city of Wuzhou in Teng County, Guangxi province.

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