Doomed Air France plane was not destroyed in flight
July 2, 2009 ·
The Air France plane that crashed into the Atlantic last month with 228 people on board was not destroyed in mid-air but hit the water intact and at high speed, French investigators said Thursday. Flight AF 447 went missing during a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on June 1. The exact cause of [...]
Air China to offer direct Beijing-Tibet flights
July 1, 2009 ·
Air China will begin offering direct flights from Beijing to Tibet this month, shaving two hours off the current travel time in a bid to boost tourism, state media said Wednesday. The official Xinhua News Agency said the new service to Tibet’s capital of Lhasa will depart Beijing daily from July 10. Currently, all flights [...]
Boeing again delays initial 787 test flight
June 23, 2009 ·
Boeing Co. said Tuesday it has again delayed the first test flight of its long-awaited 787 jetliner, citing a need to reinforce part of the aircraft. The inaugural test flight of the 787, a next-generation aircraft built for fuel efficiency with lightweight carbon composite parts, was originally planned for late 2007. But Boeing has postponed [...]
FAA to propose new rules on airline pilot hours
June 16, 2009 ·
Obama administration officials said Monday they will propose new limits on how many hours airline pilots can fly in an effort to curb pilot fatigue, an issue safety officials have been urging action on for two decades. Randy Babbitt, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration, said he will propose the new rule in the [...]
Panel explores safety issues in Hudson ditching
June 10, 2009 ·
When US Airways Flight 1549 landed in the Hudson River in January, the fuselage ruptured, sending water gushing into the cabin, and there didn’t appear to be enough room in the available life rafts for all the passengers and crew. Those were among the issues the National Transportation Safety Board was to address Wednesday in [...]
US Airlines say more flights on time in April
June 10, 2009 ·
Flights on U.S. airlines were on time more frequently in April than the month before and improved from a year earlier, according to data released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Hawaiian Airlines had the best on-time performance, while Comair — a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines Inc. — had the worst. Among legacy [...]
Flight 1549: The miracle that almost wasn’t
June 8, 2009 ·
Even after Flight 1549 glided to a near-perfect forced landing on the Hudson River in January, the plane and its 155 passengers and crew came within inches of catastrophe when someone cracked open a rear door, sending water gushing into the cabin. Who opened the door is one of the questions the National Transportation Safety [...]
