Authorities: Flight 370 on autopilot when it crashed

BEIJING — Authorities believe missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was on autopilot for hours when it crashed into the southern Indian Ocean, Australian officials said Thursday as they announced the search for the jet will shift to a new area.

"Certainly for its path across the Indian Ocean, we are confident that the aircraft was operating on autopilot until it ran out of fuel," Martin Dolan, chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, said at a press conference in Canberra on Thursday.

Asked whether the autopilot would have been manually turned on, Dolan said, "The basic assumption would be that if the autopilot is operational it's because it's been switched on."

Transport Minister Warren Truss said officials wouldn't be able to accurately determine when the plane's autopilot was turned on, and have not attempted to. The flight from Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 carried 239 passengers and crew, including 153 Chinese citizens whose relatives have been highly critical of the investigation.

Source : theweek.co.uk

Track Amelia Earhart's Flight Around the World

A 31-year-old pilot took off from Oakland, California, Thursday, flying a single-engine plane and hoping to make history. And her name just happens to be Amelia Earhart (no relation to her famous namesake).

The modern-day Earhart is planning to recreate the same journey; an around-the-world flight that's expected to take nearly three weeks.

"When I think about the feelings of opening up the hangar door on the morning of the flight and seeing the same view that Amelia saw, it's really special to me," she said.

Interested in following her journey? There are a couple ways you can track her flight: here, on AmeliaEarhartProject.com, or on FlightAware.

Source : nbcnews.com

Travelport signs new global distribution agreement with United Airlines

Travelport, a leading travel commerce marketplace providing distribution, technology, payment and other solutions for the $7 trillion global travel and tourism industry, today announces a new long-term agreement with United Airlines.  This will add to the availability of United’s best inventory and prices, and provide access to ancillary products through the state of the art airline merchandising technology offered under the Travelport Merchandising Platform umbrella, including the adoption of Travelport’s Rich Content and Branding.

Rich Content and Branding enables airlines to more effectively present the value proposition for their products through detailing their offers, including services and/or ancillary services available for purchase, as well as options to upgrade to alternative products via the Travelport travel commerce platform and travel agencies in a manner more similar to the airline’s own consumer-focused website experience. United joins well over 40 other carriers around the globe — ranging from full-service, network carriers, to smaller regional airlines, to low-cost airlines — that have already signed up to use this solution which goes live in the next version of the Travelport Smartpoint agency desktop due this year.

Travelport was the first global distribution system to re-launch the capability for travel agents to sell the additional space and comfort of United’s Economy Plus seating. Travelport-connected agents have the ability to access Economy Plus seat availability and prices within the Travelport travel commerce platform with real-time booking and automated integration into the trip built for the travelling leisure or corporate consumer who has elected to use the services of a travel agency. This includes United’s complimentary Economy Plus seats for qualified MileagePlus customers and their companions.

“United’s array of travel offerings continues to expand and evolve into dynamic products tailored to our customers,” said Tom O’Toole, United’s senior vice president of marketing and loyalty and president of MileagePlus. “United is pleased this agreement enables us to offer the choices our customers value through additional shopping channels. We look forward to continuing to improve the shopping experience for our customers and their agencies through Travelport’s solutions.”

“United is one of the world’s leading airlines and we are delighted to expand our longstanding partnership with them and see them take advantage of the investments we have made in our pioneering merchandising technology, which has been designed to meet the changing needs of the global travel distribution chain,” said Simon Ferguson, Managing Director, Travelport UK and Ireland. “United will be able to leverage Travelport’s leading technology to grow their global reach, promote their brand to travelers all over the world and most importantly maximize the revenues they are able to generate per seat sold.”

Source : breakingtravelnews.com

Delta CEO Opposes Ex-Im Bank If No Reforms

Delta Air Lines chief executive Richard Anderson on Tuesday said he opposes renewing the US Export-Import Bank's charter unless there are changes to the way the bank finances the sale of wide-body aircraft.

"Without meaningful reform we are opposed to reauthorisation," he said.

Anderson, speaking at the Aero Club in Washington, also said there could be "a path" to reauthorisation if the bank takes steps to stop giving foreign airlines what he said was an unfair competitive advantage over US carriers.

The Delta CEO's comments come as the newly elected No. 2 Republican in the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, put the future of the bank in doubt by saying he opposes renewing its charter when it expires at the end of September.

Ex-Im helped finance USD$37.4 billion worth of US exports in 2013. Scrapping the bank would be a blow to Boeing, General Electric and other US companies that rely on Ex-Im financing to make sales in export markets where commercial lending is scarce.

The bank is the US government export credit agency and is intended to provide loans and loan guarantees to support exports.

While Delta has called for reforms at the bank, firms that benefit from its export finance support have launched a lobbying push to reauthorise the institution.

The Delta chief is due to testify on Wednesday before the House Financial Services Committee, where Chairman Jeb Hensarling is also an Ex-Im sceptic.

Anderson is due to tell Hensarling's panel that competition among airlines for international passengers is skewed in favour of carriers that are backed by their governments, and that Ex-Im makes matters worse.

"That fight is heavily tilted in favour of foreign airlines receiving government subsidies, both from those airlines' home governments, and, amazingly, from our own," Anderson said in testimony prepared for delivery on Wednesday.

Ex-Im loan guarantees to Emirates are equivalent to USD$20 million per plane, effectively giving the carrier one free plane for every eight new planes it buys, he said.

Anderson said reauthorisation of the bank's charter could be a vehicle for reforms.

First, he urged banning financing of wide-body aircraft to airlines that are owned by foreign governments or that are capable of obtaining credit in private markets. Delta also wants the bank to disclose fully the details of its wide-body plane financing, including information on the routes on which those aircraft will be deployed.

Anderson also called on the bank to conduct analyses of the impact on the US economy and air travel industry of all wide-body aircraft transactions and to allow interested parties to comment on each transaction.

Source : news.airwise.com

Asiana Crash Hearing To Focus On Pilots

A former head of the US NTSB said pilot error will likely be the focus of a hearing on Tuesday on the cause of an Asiana Airlines crash at San Francisco Airport last July in which three passengers died.

"I think things that they're looking at very closely have to do with the performance of the pilots - their training, their preparation," Deborah Hersman, former head of the National Transportation Safety Board, said on CBS "This Morning".

The board will examine causes of the July 6, 2013 crash landing of the Boeing 777, which also injured more than 180 passengers. It was the first fatal commercial plane crash in the United States since February 2009.

Asiana said in a report to the safety board that the crash likely was due to the pilots flying dangerously slow and an inadequate warning system that should have alerted them, according to documents released in March.

Hersman, who was board chairman until March, told CBS the board will likely focus on how well the pilots were trained.

"Were they familiar with the system and the different modes that they operated in? Was there confusion? Did they know what was happening and were they prepared for the landing that happened in San Francisco on a clear day?" she said.

She also said the board believed that two of the passengers who died in the crash were not wearing seat belts.

The third passenger who died, Chinese teenager Ye Mengyuan, 16, was covered in fire-fighting foam when she was run over by emergency vehicles at the crash site.

Hersman said the board will look at what went wrong in the emergency response to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Source : news.airwise.com

One Dead As Pakistan Airliner Shot At

Gunmen fired on a Pakistan International Airlines plane as it was landing in the northern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Tuesday night, killing a woman on board and injuring three crew members.

Flight PK 756 was carrying 178 passengers from Saudi Arabia when it came under attack as it was preparing to land, policeman Asghar Khan said at the airport.

The plane was hit by six bullets, police said, killing the Pakistani woman and narrowly missing the captain. At least one bullet struck the plane's engine.

The woman's daughter was sitting next to her when she was shot in the head, PIA official Mohammad Kifayatullah Khan said.

"When I went inside the plane, I saw the woman lying on the seat and her nine-year-old daughter was crying, 'My mother is dead, my mother is dead'," said Khan.

"All the passengers were panicked. Some of them wanted to get out as soon as possible because they were afraid of fire inside the plane.

"The captain of the plane had narrowly escaped," he said. "It would have been a disaster had he been hit."

The incident will raise further questions about whether the government is prepared for a Taliban backlash after officials announced a military operation to flush the militants from their mountain strongholds in North Waziristan on June 15.

Pakistani jets have pounded suspected militant hideouts and the Taliban have vowed counter attacks.

Islamabad has promised to tighten security at airports and other potential targets, but critics say decades of neglect of Pakistan's ragged police force has left citizens vulnerable.

On June 8, ten Taliban gunmen attacked the airport in the southern port city of Karachi, Pakistan's financial heart and home to 18 million people. Thirty-four people were killed in the five-hour gun battle. The Taliban fired on an academy for the security forces at the airport two days later.

On Monday, the government was forced to divert a plane carrying prominent cleric Tahirul Qadri after violence broke out on the ground in Islamabad, with hundreds of supporters armed with sticks battling police, who fired teargas.

The authorities, fearing an escalation of unrest, diverted the plane to the eastern city of Lahore, where Qadri and his supporters refused to leave the plane for hours.

Peshawar's Bacha Khan Airport has also been a target in the past - in 2012, a Taliban suicide squad staged a car bomb, rocket and gun attack on the airport and nine people, including the five attackers, were killed.

Source : news.airwise.com

Flight MH370: pilot 'practised landing on island runway'

The hunt for the missing flight MH370 could take decades, Malaysia Airlines has admitted, as it emerged that the pilot of the missing plane is the chief suspect in its disappearance. 

Investigators found that Captain Zaharie Shah had programmed a flight simulator in his home with scenarios rehearsing a landing into remote areas of the southern Indian Ocean and a landing on an island runway. Although he had deleted the drills before taking command of flight MH370, computer experts were able to retrieve them.

Speaking publicly for the first time since the aircraft's disappearance, Hugh Dunleavy, Malaysia Airline's British commercial chief, yesterday said that he also first blamed the pilot when the Boeing 777 failed to respond on 8 March. 

"My first thought was that the pilot had fallen asleep, or something had gone wrong with the communication system," he told the London Evening Standard.

Dunleavy said he believed that the aircraft was "somewhere in the south Indian Ocean", but he warned that it may not be found soon.

"When [a plane] hits the ocean it's like hitting concrete," he said. "The wreckage could be spread over a big area. And there are mountains and canyons in that ocean. I think it could take a really long time to find. We’re talking decades."

No sign of flight MH370, or the 239 people on board, has yet been found despite the most expensive search operation ever mounted. 

As the investigation continues, The Sunday Times has reported that the authorities are turning their attention to the pilot, and the flight simulator he kept in his home.

Police have so far failed to turn up any hard evidence against Captain Zaharie Shah, but he is now the prime focus of the criminal investigation after intelligence checks cleared all other passengers and crew.

"Investigators have previously refused to 'clear' the captain’s flight simulator of suspicious activity," The Independent reports this morning. "It now appears they found evidence of routes programmed to take a plane far out into the Indian Ocean and practising landing using a short runway on an island."

Detectives, who have conducted over 170 interviews, also found that Zaharie had made no social or professional commitments beyond the date of the missing flight, in contrast to his co-pilot and the rest of the flight’s crew.

The investigation has not ruled out the possibility that flight MH370 was lost due to mechanical failure or terrorism, but the police view is that if it was the result of human action, the captain is the most likely perpetrator.

Malaysia’s prime minister, Najib Razak, gave the first hint about the government’s suspicions of "deliberate action by someone on the plane" on March 15.

Zaharie's relatives have defended him against any suggestion of wrongdoing and Malaysian police have refused to confirm the contents of their interim report. 

"The police investigation is still ongoing," they told The Sunday Times. "To date no conclusions can be made as to the contributor to the incident."

Nevertheless, the paper says that the initial findings from the investigation have been sent to foreign governments and investigators.

Source : chicagotribune.com

Airlines cancel flights to America

World travel was thrown into chaos today after America was rocked by a series of terrorist attacks.

Many US-bound flights had already left the UK when American officials decided to close all US airports.

"We are trying to find out just where our in-flight America-bound travellers will be able to land," said a spokeswoman at Manchester airport.

She went on: "It could be that they may be able to put down in Canada. We also have a number of flights due to leave for America later today. We are expecting that people on those flights will not be able to travel."

Officials at other America-serving UK airports, including Heathrow and Gatwick, were trying to cope with the travel chaos.

These airports, too, had passengers already in the air and heading for America, with hundreds of others due to travel later today.

British Airways meanwhile confirmed it had cancelled all flights to America following the attack.

The airline offered its condolences to all those caught up in the actions in the United States today.

A spokesman said: "We can confirm that none of our aircraft have been involved in the explosions. BA flights en route to the USA will be diverted to the nearest available airport.

"Other aircraft recently departed will come back to the UK. We are cancelling all services in and out of America for the rest of the day.

"Passengers wanting information should call 0845 7799977."

Another major UK-US carrier, Virgin Atlantic, said it had suspended all American flights until further notice.

A Virgin spokesman added that flights that had already left the UK for America were returning to Britain.

A Virgin flight due to leave for Toronto in Canada this afternoon had not left by 4pm. However, the airline's Caribbean services were unaffected.

German air traffic authorities said on Tuesday all European flights to the United States had been suspended after the suspected terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

The government said it was shocked and dismayed after aircraft crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and its security council was convening under Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

"The foreign minister is dismayed and shocked by the reports from New York," a ministry spokeswoman told Reuters.

A spokesman for the German air traffic authority, citing the European-wide air traffic control office in Brussels, said all flights leaving Europe to the United States had been suspended.

The interior ministry said it had set up a cross-ministerial crisis committee but it was not immediately clear what steps would be taken to boost internal security.

Schroeder was expected to make a statement later.

None of Frankfurt's skyscrapers were evacuated and trading continued as share prices tumbled, with the DAX index of 30 blue chip shares plunging more than nine percent to its lowest level since mid-Oct 1998.

In Berlin, security was as always tight in front of the U.S. embassy with the four streets surrounding the building in the east of the city blocked off as usual.

The embassy press office declined any comment, but an armoured German police water cannon circled the building.

The Germany parliament suspended its debate on the 2002 state budget after the news.

"The situation in the United States has got worse. We have just learned there has been an explosion in the Pentagon, therefore I propose we suspend our session for half an hour," Anke Fuchs, who was chairing the meeting, said.

US carrier United said it had halted all its operations worldwide in line with directions of America's Federal Aviation Administration.

The airline went on: "We are working with all relevant authorities to obtain further information about today's tragic and terrible events.

"Our thoughts are with everyone who may have been involved in this situation."

Tonight, passengers attempting to return to the United States and those leaving on holiday were left stranded at Heathrow Airport following the closure of all American air space.

Laureen Kartsoonis, who was due to return to Boston at 6pm tonight with her family having spent a 12-day holiday in Greece, said: "We know we are here for the night, but it's irrelevant after hearing the news of the disasters back home. Our prayers go out to everybody.

"Our inconvenience is nothing and we'll spend here as long as we have to."

The family, travelling with three children aged under seven, were due to fly on the American Airlines flight and were informed of the cancellation when they arrived at the airport shortly after 2pm.

All desks at United and American Airlines were closed at Heathrow's terminal three with waiting passengers being informed that no flights would be leaving for the United States today.

Michael Parsons, 62, and his 59-year-old wife, Elizabeth Parsons from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, said they were due to leave on a United Airlines flight to New York this evening for a 15-day holiday.

Mr Parsons said: "We were travelling down on the coach when we heard the terrible news. We've been told to go home as they doubt they will have hotel accommodation for everybody.

"We've had a five hour journey and we are going to stay and try and get a room and who knows when we will be able to fly out. It's a complete tragedy for everyone involved and our sympathies go to all those involved and all their relatives and families."

Eddie and Brenda Hatton, of Felixstowe, Suffolk, said they were due to leave on the same flight as the Parsons and had also been informed that they were unlikely to get a flight to New York in the near future.

Mr Hatton said: "It's quite devastating news. We can't believe it's happened. We were going for a holiday to America and can't believe that this has happened. We are in a minor state of shock."

Passengers who continued to arrive at Heathrow Airport were met by banks of television screens showing all flights to North America had been cancelled.

Loud speaker announcements warned travellers to expect lengthy delays and armed police were patrolling the terminals in large numbers.

Source : dailymail.co.uk