Category Archives: Air transport

Dick Rutan, co-pilot of historic round-the-world flight, dies aged 85

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Rutan, known for smooth flying style, survived having to eject twice from planes and being stranded at north pole

Burt Rutan was alarmed to see that the plane he had designed was so loaded with fuel that the wingtips dragged along the ground as it taxied down the runway. He grabbed the radio to warn the pilot, his older brother Dick Rutan. But Dick never heard the message.

Nine days and three minutes later, Dick, along with co-pilot Jeana Yeager, completed one of the greatest milestones in aviation history: the first round-the-world flight with no stops or refueling.

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David Cameron under fire for hiring £42m luxury jet for central Asia tour

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Foreign secretary’s use of Embraer Lineage 1000 follows £348,000 bill for James Cleverly’s eight-day trip in similar plane in 2023

David Cameron has been criticised for hiring a luxury jet worth an estimated £42m for a recent tour of central Asia.

The foreign secretary travelled on the Embraer Lineage 1000 for a five-day visit to Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Mongolia last week, the Mirror reported.

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‘They thought I was a child’: US airline repeatedly registers 101-year-old as baby

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Airport staff surprised by arrival of centenarian instead of infant after American Airlines booking system errors

A 101-year-old woman has been regularly mistaken for an infant because an airline’s booking system was unable to compute her date of birth.

The woman, named only as Patricia, was born in 1922, but the American Airlines system apparently does not recognise that year, defaulting instead to 2022, the BBC reported.

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Air Canada apologizes after headdress of First Nations chief removed to hold

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Politicians decry ‘shameful’ incident on domestic flight in which Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak’s headdress was taken by airline staff

Canada’s largest airline has apologized to a prominent First Nations chief after her ceremonial headdress was removed from the plane’s cabin, wrapped in a plastic bag and moved to the baggage hold.

Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, national chief of the assembly of First Nations, was flying domestically on Wednesday when she said her headdress was taken by airline staff.

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Heathrow expects summer holiday season to be ‘busiest on record’

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Passengers numbers this year predicted to hit 82.4m but airport’s future uncertain, with proposed £6bn sale in doubt

Heathrow is expecting its busiest ever summer holiday season but faces uncertainty over its long-term future as the proposed £6bn sale of the UK’s biggest airport remains in doubt.

The airport said on Wednesday that the summer getaway this year was expected to be “the busiest on record” and promised to have “robust” plans in place to keep the airport “running smoothly”, even if staff strikes held last year are repeated.

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Dubai floods: Chaos, queues and submerged cars after UAE hit by record rains

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Passengers report being stranded in the desert city as the international hub struggles in the wake of unusually heavy rain

Dubai is wrestling with the aftermath of extraordinary torrential rains that flooded the desert city, with residents describing harrowing stories of spending the night in their cars, and air passengers enduring chaotic scenes at airports.

Up to 259.5mm (10.2in) of rain fell on the usually arid country of the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, the most since records began 75 years ago. The state-run WAM news agency called the rains on Tuesday “a historic weather event” that surpassed “anything documented since the start of data collection in 1949”.

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Heathrow urges government to scrap £10 fee for transit passengers

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London hub says charge for overseas travellers using UK airports puts country at competitive disadvantage

Heathrow has called on the government to scrap a new £10 charge for overseas travellers using UK airports to connect to other flights, warning that it puts UK airports at a competitive disadvantage compared with other European rivals.

The government introduced the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) in November for non-UK residents travelling to the UK from Qatar, with a wider rollout for other countries throughout 2024.

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Investigation launched after Boeing engine cover falls off during takeoff

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Southwest flight returns to Denver airport after latest accident to afflict airline’s Boeing fleet

US airline regulators have launched an investigation after an engine cowling on a Boeing plane fell off during takeoff and struck the wing flap.

The Southwest Airlines flight 3695 rose to about 10,300ft (3,140 metres) before returning safely 25 minutes after takeoff to Denver international airport at about 8.15am local time on Sunday. It was towed to the gate after landing. The Boeing aircraft with 135 passengers and six crew members aboard had been headed to Houston. No one was injured.

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Dozens of UK flights cancelled as Storm Kathleen forecast to bring 70mph winds

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Met Office says temperatures may hit 22C in East Anglia on potentially hottest day of year but warns of strong gusts and rain

Storm Kathleen has brought disruption to the UK and Ireland with dozens of UK flights cancelled and about 34,000 left without power as Saturday provisionally become the hottest day of the year.

The highest temperature of 20.9C was reached in Santon Downham, Suffolk, on Saturday afternoon.

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Two passenger planes clip wings on Heathrow runway

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Footage on social media shows wing of Virgin Atlantic plane overlapping wing of BA aircraft

Two passenger planes clipped wings on the runway while one of the aircraft was being towed at Heathrow.

Footage on social media shows the wing of a Virgin Atlantic plane overlapping the wing of a British Airways aircraft while emergency services surround the area at the UK’s busiest airport.

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Liquid restrictions at UK airports to remain in place until June 2025

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Travellers will have to wait another year for 100ml limit to be lifted after government extends deadline for new scanners

Holidaymakers will continue to face limits on the amount of liquid they can carry on flights out of the UK this summer after the government extended the deadline for airports to install new security scanners by a year.

The Department for Transport had previously set a target for the introduction of 3D scanners in all UK airports by 1 June, but this has now been extended by 12 months because some major airports will not be ready in time.

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Heathrow Border Force staff vote to strike in dispute over shift patterns

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No dates announced for industrial action, but stoppages could begin as soon as 8 April, says PCS union

Border Force staff at Heathrow have voted to strike in a dispute over shift patterns.

The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) said 600 of its members, who carry out immigration controls and passport checks, voted 90% in favour of strike action.

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Dutch airline KLM misled customers with vague green claims, court rules

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Operator also found by Amsterdam court to have painted ‘overly rosy picture’ of sustainable aviation fuel

The Dutch airline KLM has misled customers with vague environmental claims and painted “an overly rosy picture” of its sustainable aviation fuel, a court has found.

In a greenwashing case brought by the campaign group Fossielvrij, the district court of Amsterdam ruled on Wednesday that KLM had broken the law with misleading advertising in 15 of the 19 environmental statements it assessed. They include claims that the airline is moving towards a “more sustainable” future and statements on its website about the benefits of offsetting a flight.

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United Airlines Boeing plane loses external panel in flight

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FAA investigating loss of panel before Boeing 737-800 landed safely in Oregon

The US Federal Aviation Administration is investigating how a United Airlines Boeing 737-800 lost an external panel before landing safely in Oregon.

United flight 433 landed at Medford airport at about 1.45pm on Friday carrying 139 passengers and six crew after departing from San Francisco, the FAA and airline said.

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Russia suspected of jamming GPS signal on aircraft carrying Grant Shapps

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RAF jet was taking defence secretary back to UK from Poland, and flying near Russian exclave of Kaliningrad

Russia is believed to have jammed the satellite signal on an RAF aircraft carrying Grant Shapps back from Poland, according to government sources.

Defence sources said there was no danger to Shapps, who was travelling back to the UK, though they called it a “wildly irresponsible” act of electronic warfare.

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Europe is unprepared for risks from Russia and Trump, says Airbus boss

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Aerospace group chief executive urges UK and Europe to pool efforts and merge fighter jet programmes

Europe is unprepared for war with Russia or the risk that Donald Trump could withdraw the US from Nato and needs to ramp up spending on defence equipment, the boss of Airbus has said.

Guillaume Faury, the chief executive of Europe’s biggest aerospace and defence company, said it was a “defining moment” for the continent’s defence industry, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 brought war to western Europe’s borders.

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Indonesia opens inquiry after pilots fell asleep on flight carrying 153 people

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Pilot and co-pilot unresponsive for nearly 30 minutes, prompting review of country’s night flight operation

Two Indonesian pilots fell asleep for almost 30 minutes mid-flight, an investigation has revealed.

A pilot and co-pilot were simultaneously asleep for about 28 minutes. The Batik Air flight was travelling from South East Sulawesi to the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, on 25 January, a preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) said.

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Helicopter patrolling US-Mexico border crashes killing three

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Chopper in federal government’s border security mission went down near Rio Grande City, leaving two national guard soldiers and a border patrol agent dead

A helicopter flying over the US-Mexico border in Texas has crashed, killing two national guard soldiers and a border patrol agent, the US military has said.

Another soldier on board was injured.

The UH-72 Lakota helicopter was assigned to the federal government’s border security mission when it went down near Rio Grande City on Friday, the joint taskforce north said. The cause was under investigation.

The crash happened mid-afternoon while the helicopter was conducting aviation operations, according to the taskforce’s statement.

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Texas’s San Antonio airport will get a 420lb autonomous security robot

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City council approves year-long contract with Knightscope to rent a K5 robot to respond to door alarms at the airport

An autonomous robot is due to become the latest addition to San Antonio International Airport’s security apparatus.

Following a 7 to 3 vote on Thursday by the San Antonio city council, city officials approved a year-long contract with Knightscope, a California-based developer of autonomous security robots, to rent its K5 robot for $21,000.

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Snow from nor’easter storm leads to canceled flights in north-eastern US

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Meteorologists predicted New York City could get as much as eight inches of snow, with a foot or more possible in Boston

A strong nor’easter storm hit the north-east of the United States overnight on Tuesday, causing airlines to cancel more than 1,000 flights and disrupt the morning work commute for millions.

Meteorologists predicted New York City could get as much as eight inches of snow, with a foot or more possible in Boston. However, warm ground temperatures meant that snow was not yet heavily accumulating in Manhattan.

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