Category Archives: Air transport

Heathrow flights delayed and cancelled as cyber-attack hits European airports

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Attack raises questions over security as Brussels and Berlin airports’ check-in and boarding systems also affected

Flights have been delayed and cancelled at three leading European airports – including London’s largest, Heathrow – after the company behind the software used for check-in and boarding said it was hit by a cyber-attack.

Airports in Brussels and Berlin are also experiencing delays and disruption as a result of the problem affecting Collins Aerospace, which works for several airlines at airports across the world.

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Almost all German pilots admit to napping during flights in union survey

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Pilots’ union says the issue has become a ‘worrying reality’ as a result of staff shortages and operation pressure

A German pilots’ union has said that napping during flights has become a “worrying reality” for its members, as it sounded the alarm over “increasing fatigue” in the sector.

The Vereinigung Cockpit union said it had carried out a survey of more than 900 pilots in recent weeks, which found that 93% of them admitted to napping during a flight in the past few months.

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Couple tell of ordeal when kittens went missing after being left in plane hold

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British newlyweds feared worst when transportation of rescue cats from Greece to Paris went awry

A newlywed couple who married in Greece have said they feared the worst when three kittens they rescued from Crete went missing after being left in the hold of an aeroplane.

They first travelled to the island in September 2023 and found the mother cat, who “had a very distinctive bulging eye that needed to be removed”, Bethany Mulcahy-Stephenson, a veterinary nurse, said.

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Ex-pilot who tried to cut engines on flight after taking mushrooms pleads guilty

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Joseph Emerson, formerly of Alaska Airlines, must do 664 hours of community service and pay $60,569

A former Alaska Airlines pilot accused of trying to cut the engines of a passenger flight in 2023 while riding off-duty in the cockpit pleaded guilty or no contest to all charges against him Friday, saying in court that he regretted endangering those on board as well as the damage he caused to his former profession.

Joseph Emerson reached the plea agreements because he wants to take responsibility for his actions and hopes to avoid further time behind bars, said his attorney, Noah Horst.

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Italy considers hiding state flight paths after jamming of von der Leyen plane

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EU member states debate how to make leaders’ flights more secure as Russia blamed for GPS loss

Italy is considering keeping state flights secret after the satellite signal of the aircraft carrying the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, was allegedly jammed by Russia, Italian defence ministry sources said.

Von der Leyen, a fierce critic of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and Moscow’s war in Ukraine, was flying to Bulgaria on Sunday when her charter plane lost satellite navigation aids, delaying its arrival in Plovdiv, and reportedly forcing it to circle an airport for an hour.

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Proposals for commercial planes to operate with one pilot shelved after critical EU report

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Regulator Easa concludes there is not enough evidence it is as safe as flying with two pilots as currently required

Proposals for commercial aeroplanes to operate with just one pilot in the cockpit have been put on ice after a report for the European regulator suggested it would make flying more dangerous.

A three-year research project into “extended minimum crew operations” commissioned by the EU Aviation Safety Agency (Easa) found that despite advances in technology there was not sufficient evidence that flying with a single pilot could be as safe as with the two currently required.

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Couple who died in Isle of Wight helicopter crash named

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Justyna Czoska, a horse riding instructor, and her partner, Wojtek Kowalkowski, died along with a third person

A couple who died in a helicopter crash during the bank holiday on the Isle of Wight have been named by relatives.

Justyna Czoska, 52, a horse riding instructor, and her partner, Wojtek Kowalkowski, 49, from Bloxham, Oxfordshire, died after the aircraft crash-landed at about 9.24am on Monday between Shanklin and Whiteley Bank. The helicopter had taken off from Sandown airport 20 minutes earlier.

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Woman sexually assaulted on flight challenges UK rules on compensation

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Woman who was attacked on flight from Qatar to London was denied payout because plane was not registered in UK

A woman who was sexually assaulted while sleeping on a flight to London is challenging UK government rules that disqualify her from a compensation scheme because the plane was not registered in Britain.

She was attacked on a Qatar Airways flight from Doha, Qatar, to Gatwick in September last year.

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Flight attendant union leaders ‘ready to go to jail’ as Air Canada strike outlawed

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Arbitrator orders 10,000 striking staff back to work after government intervenes – unconstitutionally, union says

Union leaders representing 10,000 striking flight attendants have said they would be willing to go to jail rather than comply with an order to return to work, as Canada’s federal government seeks to end a bitter contract dispute that has halted hundreds of summer flights and stranded travellers around the world.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, the national president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees said members would remain on the picket lines as part of a work stoppage that has halted Air Canada’s national and international operations during its busiest season.

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Air Canada flight attendants to defy back-to-work order and remain on strike

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Union to challenge order issued less than 12 hours after start of action that has left more than 100,000 travellers stranded

Air Canada’s flight attendants plan to remain on strike, their union has said, defying government efforts to force them back to work and into binding arbitration over a dispute that has left more than 100,000 travellers stranded around the world during the peak summer travel season.

About 10,000 flight attendants who work for Canada’s largest airline walked out on the job early on Saturday amid a bitter dispute over what the union has described as “poverty wages” and unpaid labour.

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Air Canada cancels flights during peak season ahead of flight attendant strike

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Canada’s largest airline expects full shutdown as workers protests over claims of ‘poverty wages’ and unpaid labour

Canada’s largest airline has started cancelling flights during the peak summer travel season ahead of a strike by more than 10,000 flight attendants over what they say are “poverty wages” and unpaid labour for work when planes are not in the air.

Air Canada said it would start suspending flights on Thursday ahead of full shutdown on Saturday after the flagship carrier and the union representing the flight attendants failed to resolve a months-long dispute over pay and working conditions.

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EasyJet suspends pilot after claims he wandered naked around luxury hotel

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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.

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Birmingham airport closes runway after emergency landing by light aircraft

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All flights temporarily grounded as three people are treated at the scene, one with minor injuries

Birmingham airport has temporarily closed its runway and grounded all flights after a light aircraft made an emergency landing.

Three people from the aircraft were treated at the scene, one of whom suffered minor injuries in the incident, which occurred at about 1.40pm on Wednesday, West Midlands police said. West Midlands ambulance service also attended the scene.

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Man allegedly hijacks transport cart at Buffalo airport and destroys moving walkways

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Kevin Simmons was charged criminal mischief and larceny after allegedly driving cart over walkways while drunk

A man commandeered a transportation cart at New York’s Buffalo Niagara international airport and destroyed moving walkways with it at the facility, according to authorities investigating the unusual incident.

Kevin J Sinning, 29, of Wyoming, faces charges of second-degree criminal mischief, disorderly conduct, criminal nuisance, third-degree grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property worth more than $3,000 after his arrest at about 1am on 28 July, the Niagara frontier transportation authority police department said.

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Man allegedly hijacks transport cart at Buffalo airport and destroys moving walkways

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Kevin Sinning was charged with criminal mischief and larceny after allegedly driving cart over walkways while drunk

A man commandeered a transportation cart at New York’s Buffalo Niagara international airport and destroyed moving walkways with it at the facility, according to authorities investigating the unusual incident.

Kevin J Sinning, 29, of Wyoming, faces charges of second-degree criminal mischief, disorderly conduct, criminal nuisance, third-degree grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property worth more than $3,000 after his arrest at about 1am on 28 July, the Niagara frontier transportation authority police department said.

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Calls for UK air traffic control boss to resign as new glitch disrupts flights

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System restored after Nats limited flights due to technical problems that raised fears of repeat of chaos in August 2023

The head of the UK’s air traffic control company is facing calls to resign after the second disruption to flights in two years due to technical problems.

Hundreds of flights were delayed after the air traffic control (ATC) system went down for about 20 minutes on Wednesday.

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Moscow starts direct flights to North Korea amid decline in options for Russian tourists

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The Moscow-Pyongyang flights operated by Russia’s Nordwind Airlines will initially operate only once a month

Direct flights from Moscow to North Korea have begun this week, amid a strengthening of ties between the two nations and a decline in options for Russian tourists travelling abroad.

The first Moscow-Pyongyang flight, operated by Russia’s Nordwind Airlines, took off on Sunday, according to the Sheremetyevo airport’s website, and landed in the North Korean capital about eight hours later.

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At least 20 killed as military plane crashes into Bangladesh school campus

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Injured number almost 200 after training jet had technical problem once airborne, with pilot among the dead

At least 20 people were killed and nearly 200 injured – many of them children – when a Bangladeshi fighter jet on a routine training exercise crashed into a school in Dhaka in the country’s worst aviation disaster in decades.

The jet, a Chinese-made F-7BGI, hit the private Milestone school in the capital as students were ending or had left afternoon classes, witnesses said. It reportedly struck a five-storey academic building before crashing on to a two-storey structure on the campus, triggering a massive explosion and fire.

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A PR dream or disaster? Jet2’s holiday advert finds new life as joke meme

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In a social media trend, the airline’s joyful advert jingle is being played over cheerless summer holiday footage

You’re the boss of a travel company, it’s early summer and your brand is going viral. Millions of people are watching and sharing social media clips of people on holiday, the soundtrack to which is your company jingle.

It sounds like a PR dream, but is it?

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Dismay after Southampton airport gets permission to cut down cemetery trees

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Campaigners attack council for backing plan to fell trees in burial site near runway to allow for increase in passengers

A Labour-led city council has been criticised for backing an airport’s scheme to cut down “majestic” trees in a historic, wildlife-rich cemetery close to a runway.

Environmental campaigners, people whose loved ones were laid to rest in the cemetery and opposition politicians have expressed dismay that the trees in South Stoneham Cemetery in Southampton are to be lost.

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