Travel Safety Update.

Oct 9, 2006

Fatter Passengers Hit Chinese Airlines' Bottom Line. Chinese airlines are being forced to rearrange their seating to accommodate a burgeoning number of overweight passengers but risk squeezing their profits into the bargain, Xinhua news agency said on Friday. A source with China Eastern Airlines was quoted as saying the company had imported all its aircraft from the West, where people were generally bigger, but the company planned to reduce by about 20 the number of seats on the new Airbus A321 to enlarge the bottom-line seating space, the agency said. Oct 6, 2006

Russia will increase air traffic control fees to foreign carriers next year, the head of the Federal Air Navigation Service told Russian media yesterday. "We would like to establish fair tariffs," Alexander Neradko said, adding that the body has yet to consult with IATA. "We are not expecting the prices for tickets to go up more than RUB60-70 ($2.20-$2.60)," he said, adding that domestic carriers face a 90% increase in charges effective Nov. 1 that also will not have a significant effect on ticket prices. He told reporters that a 747 currently is charged $87 per 100 km. compared to the UK's $229, Belarus's $143 and Ukraine's $142. Oct 5, 2006

Britain favors a tough approach on greenhouse gas emissions to including the sector in a European carbon trading scheme -- which caps industry emissions but allows firms to buy pollution cuts from each other -- rather than a unilateral tax on jet fuel, Pearson said on Thursday. But Britain was also considering a tax on air passengers, possibly through requiring them to offset emissions by funding green initiatives like tree-planting. Britain wants to include all flights in and outside Europe in the EU carbon trading scheme, rather than just flights within Europe, Pearson said, ahead of proposals the European Commission will detail next year. Including flights outside the EU could set up a battle with the United States which has so far taken a softer approach on capping greenhouse gas emissions. Oct 5, 2006

UK Prefers Carbon Trading Over Jet Fuel Tax. Britain wants to curb rising aviation greenhouse gas emissions through a European trading scheme and possibly a tax on passengers, rather than a British tax on jet fuel, climate change minister Ian Pearson said. Emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide from aviation rose 85 percent between 1990 and 2004 says the European Union, and its part in mankind's total contribution to climate change is set to rise. Oct 5, 2006

Indonesia Urges Airport Landing Review Due To Haze. Indonesia on Wednesday urged airports in areas shrouded by thick smoke from forest fires to close if conditions made landings' hazardous, after a jet with more than 100 on board skidded off a runway in Borneo. The passenger jet operated by Mandala Airlines skidded off the runway on landing in thick haze in Indonesia's East Kalimantan province on Tuesday as fires spread choking haze to neighboring Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore. The current regulations allowed a pilot to decide whether it was safe enough to land, he said. Raharjo said haze had contributed to the mishap involving the Mandala Boeing 737-200 aircraft. No one was hurt after the jet skidded 50 metres off the runway in Tarakan. An air traffic controller at Cilik Riwut Airport in Central Kalimantan said there had been some landing delays on Wednesday. The haze, caused mostly by farmers and plantation owners setting fires to clear land, has forced many flights to be delayed or cancelled in Indonesia in recent days. South-southwesterly winds have blown smoke from fires in central and south Sumatra to Singapore and Malaysia, obscuring sunlight and reducing temperatures and visibility. The haze appeared to worsen in Malaysia on Wednesday, with pollution hitting unhealthy levels in more areas. The Borneo state of Sarawak, blanketed by smog for weeks, was the worst hit. Oct 4, 2006

Old Equipment, Disorder Plague Russia ATC. Antique equipment, administrative mess and discord among civilian and military services threaten flight safety, Russia's chief air traffic controller said on Tuesday presenting a plan to reform the ailing sector. Drawing a grim picture of its current state, the head of the state air navigation service Alexander Neradko cited an example of a computer which manages a huge air zone around Moscow in the regional traffic control center. Oct 4, 2006

Air safety -- a traditional headache for the Russian governments -- again came into the spotlight after more than 300 passengers died in three separate crashes this year alone. President Vladimir Putin ordered a government investigation into the problems facing the sector and appointed his close aide, Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov, to oversee air safety. After a meeting of top prosecutors and transport officials on Monday, Transport Minister Igor Levitin said poor training of pilots and poor servicing of aircraft were to blame for many problems and vowed that heads of those responsible will roll. Neradko highlighted another aspect of the problem -- a lack of clarity over who is in charge of Russian airspace. Neradko said civilian air controllers manage 90 percent of flights, while keeping only effective control over 15 percent of the country's air space. The rest is controlled by their military colleagues. His other complaint was the number of commercial companies entitled to issue certificates to civilian aircraft and airports. According to Neradko, 70 percent of Russian planes carry outdated navigation systems. The reform, presented by Neradko, stretches in time to 2025. It is aimed at creating a modern and unified air navigation system, which would include all elements from aircraft to airfields. He did not give an estimate on how much the reform could cost, but analysts have said that modernization of ground systems and re-equipping aircraft could cost up to RUB282 billion roubles (USD$10.54 billion) by 2025. Oct 4, 2006

Helicopter flights in the state have been stopped in Indonesia on Wednesday indefinitely because of poor visibility, news agency Bernama said. It also said the state government would distribute one million masks. Oct 4, 2006

Jet Skids Off Indonesia Runway In Smoky Haze. A passenger jet skidded off the runway upon landing in thick haze in Indonesia on Tuesday as forest fires in the country spread a pall of smoke around the region. A Boeing 737-200 jet skidded 50 metres off the runway in the town of Tarakan in Indonesia's East Kalimantan province on Borneo island. The haze, caused mostly by farmers and plantation owners setting fires to clear land, has forced many flights to be delayed or cancelled in Indonesia in recent days, with five cancellations in the Sumatra island province of Jambi on Tuesday. Purwasto, a senior official in Indonesia's Environment Ministry, said that the PSI reading was "more than 100" in the worst-hit parts of the country. Each year, uncontrolled slash-and-burn practices by farmers, plantation owners and loggers on the Indonesian islands send a smoky haze to Singapore, Malaysia and southern Thailand. The NEA said satellite pictures showed 97 hotspots and dense smoke haze in Sumatra, a large Indonesian island west of Singapore. The haze has also begun to envelop Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur, obscuring hills surrounding the city. But residents said it was nowhere near as bad as last year's choking smog. The Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah on Borneo were the worst affected on Tuesday. In one area of Sarawak, which has been blanketed by heavy smog for weeks, the air-pollution index approached "very unhealthy" levels at the daily 0300 GMT reading. Local media said authorities plan to seed clouds over Sarawak in an effort to clear the haze, but have not said when the operations will begin. Oct 3, 2006

Bulgaria Vows To Meet EU Air Rules. Bulgaria said on Thursday it would fully comply with the European Union's aviation safety rules upon entry next year to avoid a ban on its airlines' access to the bloc. Oct 2, 2006

The head of the Brazilian aviation authority, Milton Zuanazzi, said he did not know how long the removal of bodies would take. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has decreed three days of national mourning for the victims of the disaster. Search planes spotted the crash site in Mato Grosso state, about 600 miles (1,000 km) northwest of Brasilia on Saturday. Authorities lost radar contact with the flight on Friday afternoon as it flew from the principal Amazon city of Manaus to the capital Brasilia. Oct 2, 2006

Delta Air Lines, Bombardier

Two Injured In Delta Flight Evacuation At Boston. Two people were injured when a Delta Air Lines flight to Boston was evacuated on Friday after the pilot detected smoke in the cabin upon landing, an airport official said. Delta flight 1908, with 40 passengers and five crew members, completed its trip from New York's LaGuardia Airport at 7:26 a.m. and was taxiing at Boston's Logan Airport when the pilot noticed the smoke, said Richard Walsh, a spokesman for Massport, which runs the airport. Walsh said one of the injured people was taken to hospital, but he did not know the extent of the injuries or how they were caused. All passengers have been evacuated and the plane is now being inspected, he said. Oct 2, 2006

Embraer

Aircraft manufacturer Embraer said one of its executive jets, a Legacy 600 owned and operated by a client, had been involved in a collision and made an emergency landing at Cachimbo air force base with five passengers on board. No injuries were reported. Oct 2, 2006

Gol, Boeing

Brazil Steps Up Search For Air Crash Victims. The Brazilian government on Sunday sent an extra 80 troops to join a search in the Amazon rainforest for victims of Brazil's worst plane disaster which killed 154 people. They reinforce 37 soldiers who have been combing the remote forest area in northern Brazil where a Boeing 737-800 of low-cost airline Gol crashed on September 29. By Saturday night, soldiers had recovered 117 bodies, the Brazilian Air Force said in a statement. Relatives of the victims have complained that the corpses may soon become too decomposed to be identified and that body parts could be devoured by wild animals. Oct 8, 2006

Gol, Boeing

Gol Plane Skids Off Runway, No Injuries. Brazilian low-cost carrier Gol said on Friday one of its planes slid off the runway at Sao Paulo's Congonhas domestic airport but no passengers were hurt. Gol flight 1941 from Cuiaba in Mato Grosso state landed at the Sao Paulo airport at 6:05 a.m. local time (0505 EDT/1005 GMT), sliding up to a grassy area, where it stopped. A Gol spokesman said the plane skidded off the runway because of light rain. Sao Paulo's domestic airport, the busiest in Brazil, halted all landing and takeoffs briefly while Gol's plane was removed from the runway. A Boeing 737-800 belonging to Gol crashed into the Amazon jungle last week, killing all 154 people onboard. Oct 6, 2006

Gol, Boeing

Air Force commander Luiz Carlos Bueno said on Monday the two planes invloved in Brazil's worst plane disaster were flying at 37,000 feet, which means that one of them had abandoned its flight plan. In any case, it was not clear why the modern collision avoidance equipment installed on both planes didn't prevent the accident, local aviation authorities said. The black box from the Boeing will probably be taken to the United States for analysis, after which it will be compared with the data from the Legacy jet, made by Brazil's Embraer, Bueno said. The US National Transportation Safety Board also sent investigators to Brazil to assist in the probe of the Gol crash. Oct 3, 2006

Gol, Boeing

Brazilian Planes Collide, 155 Missing. A Brazilian Gol passenger plane with 155 people on board disappeared over the Amazon jungle on Friday after colliding with a small plane, the company and news reports said. The mayor of a remote town in the central state of Mato Grosso said the plane had crashed on a farm in Peixoto de Azevedo municipality. Gol flight 1907, flying from the principle Amazon city of Manaus bound for the national capital Brasilia, disappeared after losing radar contact, the company said. The head of Brazil's airports authority, Infraero, said the Gol aircraft collided with another smaller plane, Globo news agency reported. The smaller plane, an executive jet, was able to land in a town called Serra do Cachimbo even though it suffered wing damage, Globo reported. Cachimbo is deep in the jungle about midway between Manaus and Brasilia. Celso Gick, a spokesman in the Amazon region for Infraero, said the Boeing 737-800 was carrying 149 passengers and six crew members. Oct 2, 2006

Gol, Boeing

First Bodies Recovered From Brazil Plane Crash. Rescuers recovered the first two bodies from the wreckage of a crashed Brazilian passenger plane in the Amazon jungle on Sunday and reported that none of the 155 people on board had survived, the Brazilian Air Force said. The crash of the new Boeing 737-800 belonging to low-cost airline Gol is Brazil's worst aviation disaster. Search and rescue teams had to rappel down from helicopters while others hacked their way through thick jungle to reach the wreckage after the plane went down in remote Mato Grosso state on Friday. They found the first two bodies before halting their search when night fell, an air force statement said. The corpses were loaded onto helicopters and taken to an air force base. All 149 passengers and six crew on board had been killed, the air force said, confirming what had been feared. The crash appeared to have been caused by a collision between the Boeing and a small executive jet, the aviation authority ANAC said in a statement. Oct 2, 2006

Gol, Boeing

Gol officials said there were 113 men and 42 women on board flight 1907 that carshed, including an 11-month-old boy and four children. The airline said there were only about half a dozen foreigners on the flight, though the company didn't disclose their nationalities. Authorities lost radar contact with Gol flight 1907 on Friday afternoon during its journey from the principal Amazon city of Manaus to the capital Brasilia, the airline said. Search planes found the crash site in Mato Grosso state, about 1,000 km northwest of Brasilia. Friends and relatives, many wearing dark sunglasses and hugging and crying, gathered on the patio of a hotel in Brasilia waiting for details. Most could not utter more than one word before bursting into tears. Denise Abreu, director of civil aviation authority ANAC, said signs indicated there had been a mid-air collision with a smaller jet, which landed safely. Oct 2, 2006

Gol, Boeing

The Gol plane that crashed in the Amazon jungle was received new from Boeing on September 12 and had only 234 flight hours, the company said. Until now, the worst air disaster in Brazilian history was the June 1982 crash of a Vasp flight which hit a mountain near Fortaleza in northeastern Brazil, killing 137 people. Oct 2, 2006

Gol, Boeing, ExcelAire, Embraer

A Boeing 737-800 of low-cost airline Gol crashed on September 29 Brazil's air traffic control has said that the accident occurred after an executive jet piloted by two US citizens crossed paths with the passenger plane. The jet, which lost a winglet, made a safe emergency landing. On Saturday, a Brazilian court ordered that the new ExcelAire Embraer Legacy business jet be retained in Brazil while an investigation into the crash continues. Police last week confiscated the passports of the US pilot and co-pilot. Preliminary results of the crash probe are expected in coming days. Any pilot or controller found guilty in the crash could be jailed for up to five years, state security officials said. Brazil's chief air traffic controller, Brig. Lt. Roberto Vilarhino, said on Thursday that the executive jet was flying at the wrong altitude when it crossed paths with the Gol airliner. But he said that he could not yet blame anyone for the crash and did not rule out equipment failure. Vilarhino said that the Legacy's transponder, which gives details about an aircraft's location, was apparently not working. Some Brazilian officials have suggested that the pilots may have turned off the instrument. Oct 8, 2006

Gol, Boeing, ExcelAire, Embraer

Air Force commander Luiz Carlos Bueno said on Monday both planes involved in the Gol fatal crash were flying at 37,000 feet, which means that one of them had strayed from its flight plan. Investigators want to know why modern collision avoidance equipment installed on both planes did not prevent the accident, local aviation authorities said. Brazilian news reports have offered a range of conflicting theories about the accident's cause, some speculating that the Embraer Legacy business jet may have deviated from its flight plan. Christine Negroni, with US law firm Kreindler & Kreindler which is not involved in the investigation, said all planes heading west in Brazil fly at even multiples of 1,000 feet, and those heading east at odd multiples. Oct 4, 2006

Gol, Boeing, ExcelAire, Embraer

At the Gol crash site in a dense, remote area in the Brazilian rain forest, salvage crews had recovered the remains of about 50 victims by Tuesday, including the airliner's two pilots. A badly damaged black box from the Boeing will probably be taken for analysis to the United States or Canada, after which it will be compared with the data from the business jet, aviation authorities said. As it often does, the US National Transportation Safety Board sent investigators to help with the probe in Brazil. Grieving relatives were asked to provide dental records or descriptions that could help identify the bodies, as well as blood samples for DNA tests. Oct 4, 2006

Gol, Boeing, ExcelAire, Embraer

Bodies Found At Brazilian Plane Crash Site. Searchers found dozens of bodies at the Amazon site of Brazil's worst plane disaster on Tuesday and started to fly remains to the capital as investigators tried to determine how two planes collided. An air force spokesman said coroners and rescue workers were trying to separate human remains, but could not say how many corpses had been found. All 155 people on board the Boeing 737-800, owned by budget airline Gol, died in Friday's crash. The first remains found on Sunday were being sent to Brasilia today, he said. Earlier, aviation officials said more than 100 bodies had been found, but the air force, which is in charge of the search, could not confirm the number. Meanwhile, two US pilots of a smaller Legacy executive jet that authorities believe clipped the Boeing arrived in Rio de Janeiro from the Amazon for medical and psychological tests at the Aerospace Medical Center as part of the investigation. They cannot leave Brazil while the probe is on. The ExcelAire Embraer Legacy 600 jet, landed at a military base in the jungle at Cachimbo, after losing a winglet in a collision. None of the seven people on board were hurt. Oct 3, 2006

Gol, Boeing, ExcelAire, Embraer

Brazilian Crash Victim Relatives Journey To Site. Grieving relatives of 155 people killed in Brazil's worst aviation disaster arrived in the Amazon on Monday to fly over the wreckage as searchers tried to recover corpses in the dense jungle. The relatives had earlier complained that authorities kept them in the dark about the search for bodies and the investigation into Friday's crash of a brand-new Boeing 737-800 belonging to Brazil's budget airline Gol. All 149 passengers and six crew died in the crash after the plane and a smaller executive jet appear to have clipped wings in mid-air. The Brazilian Air Force reported that rescue teams recovered the black box flight recorder of the Gol plane. The air force flew a group of six victims' relatives to the crash site in northern Mato Grosso state, about 1,000 km northwest of Brasilia. An air force spokesman said the idea was to show to them how difficult it was for rescue workers to reach the plane, which plunged nose first into the rain forest and disintegrated. Only two bodies were recovered by Sunday. The disaster site was found on Saturday and rescuers had to rappel down from helicopters while others hacked through thick jungle guided by local Indians to reach the wreckage. The smaller executive jet involved in the incident made an emergency landing at the Cachimbo air force base on Friday with five passengers on board, none of whom was hurt. The Gol plane had departed from Manaus, a river port, tourist center and manufacturing zone in the heart of the Amazon, bound for Brasilia with a final destination of Rio de Janeiro. The previous worst air disaster in Brazilian history was the June 1982 crash of a Vasp flight which hit a mountain near Fortaleza in northeastern Brazil, killing 137 people. Oct 3, 2006

Gol, Boeing, ExcelAire, Embraer

Gol said the flight that crashed had 155 passengers on board but made no mention of crew members. Brazil's civil aviation authority said the plane was transporting 155 people and lost contact around the town of Sao Felix do Xingu. At Brasilia airport, dozens of friends and relatives, many weeping, gathered anxiously to await news. Gol is a low-cost carrier that has expanded rapidly in recent years to become Brazil's number two airline and to offer flights to neighboring countries. With its orange and white colors and stylized casual uniforms, it is an instantly recognizable brand in Brazil and one of its most successful new businesses. Manaus is host to a number of foreign-owned manufacturing plants making motorcycles, computers and other goods in its duty free zone. It is also a base for tourism in the Amazon, the world's largest rain forest, and a headquarters for several environmental groups. CBN radio said at least 20 passengers were employees of Yamaha, the Japanese conglomerate. The flight left Manaus at 2:36 p.m. local time (1836 GMT) but did not arrive in Brasilia at 6:12 p.m. (2112 GMT) as scheduled, a spokesman for Manaus Airport said. This is the first major crash involving Gol, which was founded in 2001. In the last major airline crash in Brazil, 33 people were killed when a plane belonging to regional carrier Rico Linhas Aereas crashed in the Amazon flying from Sao Paulo de Olivenca to Manaus on May 14, 2004. Oct 2, 2006

Gol, Boeing, ExcelAire, Embraer

No Sign Of Life At Brazilian Jet Crash Site. Military searchers on Saturday were at the site of the wreckage of a Brazilian passenger plane that crashed a day earlier in remote Amazon jungle with 155 people on board. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said there was no sign of survivors. The new Boeing 737-800 operated by Brazilian low-cost carrier Gol probably crushed into the ground nose first after it clipped a smaller executive jet, the head of Brazil's airport authority Infraero said. If the death toll is confirmed, it will be the worst aviation accident in Brazil's history. Brazil's military suspended the search and rescue mission as dusk set in the thick forested area and will resume Sunday morning. Earlier in the day, the two soldiers who rappelled from a helicopter into the area were cutting down dense jungle to make a helicopter landing area and authorities had recruited Indian trackers to find a path to the remote jungle crash site for relief teams. The small size of the wreckage area indicated that the chances of survivors among the 149 passengers and six crew members on board were slim. Oct 2, 2006

Gol, ExcelAire, Embraer

Brazil Seizes Passports Of US Pilots Tied To Crash. Brazilian authorities confiscated the passports of two American pilots on Tuesday who were flying a business jet that apparently collided with a Gol commercial airliner that crashed last week deep in the Amazon jungle, killing all 155 people on board. Judge Tiago de Abril in Mato Grosso state, where the plane went down, said police had seized the passports of Joe Lepore and Jan Paladino on his orders for the duration of the investigation. The two pilots, who were flying a newly built executive jet that authorities believe clipped the Boeing 737-800 in midair, arrived on Tuesday in Rio de Janeiro for medical and psychological tests as part of the investigation. They face more questioning on Wednesday. Oct 4, 2006

Gol, ExcelAire, Embraer

The business jet involved in the Gol fatal crash, an Embraer Legacy 600 made by Brazilian manufacturer Embraer, was recently purchased by ExcelAire Service, a charter company based in Ronkonkoma, New York. The pilots were flying it to the United States when it apparently hit the airliner flown by low-cost Brazilian carrier Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes. The business jet was able to land safely at a military base in the jungle. None of the seven people on board were hurt. Oct 4, 2006

Gol, ExcelAire, Embraer

The executive jet involved in the Gol crash, a Legacy 600 made by Embraer and owned by Excel Airways, made an emergency landing at Cachimbo air force base on Friday with five passengers on board, none of whom was hurt. Its black box was being examined at Embraer's headquarters at Sao Jose dos Campos in Sao Paulo state. The Gol plane's black box has not yet been found. Oct 2, 2006

Helios Airways

The Helios Airways August 14, 2005, crash was the worst aviation disaster in Europe in 2005 and the worst on record for Greece or Cyprus. Communications Minister Haris Thrassou declined to comment on the report, saying the official findings of the investigation had not yet been given to the authorities. "I expect this should happen in the coming week," he said. Oct 6, 2006

Helios Airways, Boeing

Cyprus Helios Airways Crash Probe Blames Human Error - Report. Human error was the main cause of Cyprus's worst airline disaster, in which an aircraft crashed into a hillside north of Athens last year killing all 121 people on board, a Cypriot newspaper reported on Friday. Errors by ground and air crew were among eight factors logged by Greek investigators who are expected to hand the result of their official probe into the disaster to Greek and Cypriot authorities next week, the daily Phileleftheros said. Cypriot authorities declined to comment on the report. The crash was highly unusual because the Boeing 737-300, operated by Helios Airways on a Larnaca-Prague flight, flew on autopilot for two hours, its pilots slumped over the controls, before crashing into a Greek hillside when it ran out of fuel. Two Greek air force fighters were scrambled when the plane lost radio contact, and their pilots saw a flight attendant, apparently the only person still conscious on the plane, grappling with the controls before the aircraft crashed. A failure to switch the aircraft's decompression system to automatic from manual mode, by both technicians on the ground and the pilots themselves, triggered the sequence of events, Phileleftheros reported. The system regulates the oxygen supply, which therefore decreased as the aircraft gained altitude and rendered the pilots and passengers unconscious. Oct 6, 2006

Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur was also covered by haze with the API level rising to just below the "unhealthy" mark. Visibility at the capital's main airport fell to 3,000-4,000 metres from the usual 10,000 metres, an airport official said. Oct 4, 2006

South African Airways 

South African Flight Aborted After 'Verbal Threat'. A South African airliner aborted a flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg on Friday after a "verbal threat" from two passengers, an airline official said. A spokeswoman for Kulula.com, a local low-cost airline operated by Comair, a franchised partner of British Airways, said the captain followed standard procedure and returned the aircraft to Cape Town airport. Zvenyika said the "unknown verbal threat" was made less than 30 minutes into the flight of MN120 taking off from Cape Town for the two-hour flight to Johannesburg. Police and emergency services surrounded the plane, carrying 151 passengers and six crew, immediately after it landed and was parked at an isolated section of the airport. All passengers were later escorted off the plane into waiting buses and taken back to the airport terminal. Police spokesman Billy Jones said two South Africans were taken in for questioning to determine whether criminal charges would be filed. Oct 6, 2006

Editor: Aram Gesar, eMail: [e-mail]

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Oct 2, 2006