Page 2 - Airplanes

Passenger held at Australian airport after exiting plane via emergency door

A passenger was arrested at an Australian airport after he left a stationary airliner through an emergency exit, walked along a wing, and then climbed down a jet engine to the tarmac on Thursday, officials said. Jetstar Flight JQ507 had arrived at Melbourne Airport from Sydney and had parked at a terminal gate when the man left the plane by the right-side exit, officials said. Opening the exit automatically deployed a slide from the back of the wing at the fuselage to the ground, a Jetstar statement said. But the man instead walked along the wing and climbed down one of the Airbus A320's two engines, an official said. Passenger Audrey Varghese said passengers screamed and shrieked as the man began erratic behavior shortly before he opened the hatch. The man was exhibiting some quite strange behavior, Varghese told Melbourne Radio 3AW. As soon as the plane started coming to a stop, he immediately got up and charged to where the emergency exit row is, Varghese added. Australian Fed

Plane with 19 onboard crashes in Kathmandu, only pilot survives: Updates

Kathmandu plane crash: The plane, owned by local operator Saurya Airlines, crashed at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu at around 11 am.

Airbus delivers 67 planes in first half of June, up 2% from last year

On a quarterly basis, the preliminary figure implies a 4 per cent drop since the second quarter of last year

Canada's WestJet cancels over 400 flights after surprise strike by union

Canada's second largest airline, WestJet, said it canceled 407 flights affecting 49,000 passengers after the maintenance workers union announced it went on strike. The Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association said its members started to strike Friday evening because the airline's unwillingness to negotiate with the union made it inevitable. The surprise strike affecting international and domestic flights came after the federal government issued a ministerial order for binding arbitration on Thursday. That followed two weeks of turbulent discussions with the union on a new deal. WestJet said it will continue to park aircraft through Sunday for the long weekend culminating in Canada Day on Monday. The airline has about 200 aircraft and says they'll operate approximately 30 by Sunday evening. The airline's CEO, Alexis von Hoensbroech, put the blame for the situation squarely on what he said was a rogue union from the U.S. that was trying to make inroads in Canada. Von Hoensbroech sai

WestJet to resume normal operations as mechanics rescind strike notice

Canadian airline WestJet has begun cancelling some flights in anticipation of a strike by aircraft maintenance technicians, saying it wants to avoid having passengers and planes stranded if there is a walkout. WestJet said it expected to cancel about 40 flights from Tuesday through Wednesday, affecting 6,500 passengers. By Wednesday afternoon Eastern time, the airline had cancelled 20 flights, or 4 per cent of its schedule, after cancelling five flights Tuesday, according to tracking service FlightAware. The low-fare airline said it was trying to find alternate arrangements for customers whose flights were dropped. WestJet and the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association are locked in negotiations for an initial collective-bargaining agreement covering about 680 mechanics. Earlier this week, WestJet asked the Canadian Industrial Relations Board to order both sides into binding arbitration. The union responded by notifying the airline of its intention to strike as soon as Thursday .

S'pore Airlines offers compensation to passengers on turbulent flight

Passengers with minor injuries have been offered $10,000 and those with serious injuries can discuss an offer to meet their specific needs

Malawi soldiers search for missing plane carrying vice prez, ex-first lady

Soldiers are searching mountainous forests near a city in northern Malawi after a military plane carrying the country's vice president and a former first lady went missing in the area Monday, President Lazarus Chakwera said. The plane carrying 51-year-old Vice President Saulos Chilima, former first lady Shanil Dzimbiri and eight others left the southern African nation's capital, Lilongwe, at 9:17 a.m. and had been expected to land 45 minutes later at Mzuzu International Airport, about 370 kilometers (230 miles) to the north. But air traffic control told it to not attempt a landing and to turn around because of bad weather and poor visibility, Chakwera said in an address broadcast live on state TV channel MBC. Air traffic control lost contact with the aircraft and it disappeared from radar a short time later, he said. I know this is a heartbreaking situation. I know we are all frightened and concerned. I too am concerned, Chakwera said. But I want to assure you that I am sparing no

Vistara Paris-Mumbai flight gets bomb threat, makes emergency landing

A Mumbai-bound Vistara flight with 306 persons onboard from Paris received a bomb threat after which a full emergency was declared at the city airport prior to its arrival here, a source said. The flight landed at 10:19 am on Sunday, the source said. Vistara on Sunday reported that its," flight UK 024 from Paris' Charles de Gualle airport to Mumbai received a hand written note on an airsickness bag threatening a bomb," said the source. Following this, full emergency was declared at 10:08 am, as per the source, who added that the flight landed at 10:19 am. "There were 294 passengers and 12 crew onboard the Paris-Mumbai flight," the source said. Vistara in a statement confirmed that "a security concern has been noted by our staff while onboard the airline's flight UK 024 operating from Paris to Mumbai on 2 June 2024." Following the protocol, the airline immediately informed the relevant authorities, a Vistara spokesperson said in the statement. It also said that the flight has lan

Airlines ride AI: Less work for agents, human-like responses for passengers

From human-like responses to reduced workload for customer service agents to utilisation of trillions of parameters for answering air passengers' queries, artificial intelligence is providing the technological tailwinds for Indian airlines as they cater to rising traffic. For Air India, which has embarked on a five-year transformation plan, Artificial Intelligence (AI) use will be "pervasive" and its generative AI virtual agent AI.g handles over 1,300 topics. And the country's largest airline IndiGo has AI chatbot 6Eskai that has 1.7 trillion parameters, allowing it to answer questions with ease. Also, the bot can understand written, typed language, and verbal instructions using speech-to-text models. Akasa Air, which describes itself as a "cloud-native and digital-native brand", said it will continue to invest heavily in proven technology solutions across all business functions. India, one of the world's fastest growing civil aviation markets, is seeing rising domestic air traffi

IndiGo reportedly buying 100 more ATR planes: How will it change things?

Turboprop planes have helped IndiGo rule the regional aviation network for the last five years. And there might be more coming

22 suffer spinal cord injuries, 6 head trauma on S'pore Airlines flight

Twenty-two passengers from a Singapore Airlines flight that was hit by turbulence May 21, have spinal cord injuries and six have brain and skull injuries, according to media reports. Twenty people remained in intensive care, although none were life-threatening cases, reported The Straits Times, citing Dr Adinun Kittiratanapaibool, director of Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital. The oldest patient at the hospital is 83, while the youngest is a two-year-old child who suffered a concussion. He added that there were 40 patients from Flight SQ321 at the hospital. The London to Singapore flight made an emergency landing in Bangkok. Nearly 60 passengers were injured after the flight on May 21 encountered "sudden extreme turbulence over the Irrawaddy Basin at 37,000 feet about 10 hours after departure". Forty-six passengers and two crew members aboard the SIA flight remain in the Thai capital for medical treatment. Sixty-five passengers and two crew members were still in Bangkok, said SIA in

Confident of meeting 2024 forecasts as air travel grows, says Rolls-Royce

Rolls-Royce, which makes engines for Airbus and Boeing's wide-body jets, aims to become more competitive company

Singapore Airline's deadly turbulence leaves 20 people in intensive care

More than 100 people had required medical care immediately after the flight landed in Bangkok

Boeing deliveries to China delayed due to regulatory review of batteries

The US planemaker said in a statement it is working with Chinese customers on the timing of their deliveries

Indian aviation industry suffers from low penetration despite rise in seats

India's total airline seats have doubled in a decade. So, why is the country not seen as realising its aviation potential?

IndiGo plans to expand regional network with order of 100 smaller planes

Budget airline already has 45 ATR-72 planes and is looking to expand its fleet to strengthen domestic network

AI Express operations improving; expects normalcy in 2 days, says official

The operations of Air India Express slowly started improving on Friday as more cabin crew members are joining back for duty, after significant flight disruptions caused by cabin crew strike that has been called off. The strike by a section of the cabin crew since Tuesday night that resulted in the cancellation of more than 170 flights was called off on Thursday evening and the airline also withdrew termination letters issued to 25 striking cabin crew. The Tata Group airline, which operates around 380 flights daily, has curtailed operations in the wake of the strike and the official on Friday said, normalcy is expected in the next two days. Cabin crew who were on strike are joining back and the airline is extending support to them in getting the fitness certificate, which is required to resume duty, the official added. The official also said that most international flights are in the evening time and the operations on that front are expected to be better from Friday onwards with the

US President Biden concerned over Boeing locking out its firefighters

Earlier this month, Boeing locked out nearly 130 members of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local I-66 who have rejected two contract offers

Boeing 737 catches fire, skids off runway in Senegal; 10 people injured

A Boeing 737 plane carrying 85 people skidded off a runway at the airport in Dakar, Senegal's capital, injuring 10 people, according to the transport minister and footage from a passenger that showed the aircraft on fire. Our plane just caught fire, wrote Malian musician Cheick Siriman Sissoko in a post on Facebook that showed passengers jumping down the emergency slides at night as flames engulfed one side of the aircraft. In the background, people can be heard screaming. Transport Minister El Malick Ndiaye said the Air Sngal flight operated by TransAir was headed to Bamako, in neighboring Mali, late Wednesday with 79 passengers, two pilots and four cabin crew. The injured were being treated at a hospital, while the others were taken to a hotel to rest. No other details were immediately available. Boeing did not respond to a request for comment. The Aviation Safety Network (ASN), which tracks airline accidents, published photos of the damaged plane in a grassy field surrounded by

Kerala airports see protests against AI Express' last minute cancellations

Protests by irate passengers were witnessed at all airports in Kerala on Wednesday against the last minute cancellation of their Air India Express flights. Passengers, mostly travelling to the Gulf nations, claimed that they were informed about the flight cancellations after they completed their security check and were waiting to board the flight. While Air India Express has offered a full refund or complimentary rescheduling to another date, passengers are not happy with that. Many of them claimed that they could lose their jobs if they do not reach their place of work today, while some others' work visas are about to expire. One woman, who was to travel from Kannur to Sharjah with twin babies and her husband, said she has to rejoin work on May 9, but Air India Express was offering her a flight from Kochi only on May 10. "What would be the point in me travelling on May 10? If I do not reach there before May 9, my boss will say not to come and I will lose my job," she told ...