SPAIN’S national airline pilots’ union has said the airline’s planes are “absolutely safe”, despite last week’s crash that killed 154 people.In a statement, the Sepla union, which also represents Spanair pilots, said the carrier’s “flights and planes are absolutely safe and respect all operational security standards”.”At Spanair no pilot faces pressure to fly a plane that does not meet all the standards of operational security,” said the statement.Daily newspaper El Mundo cited an unnamed former Spanair pilot on Friday who said “the airline put pressure on mechanics for them to authorise planes to take off even if they are not ready.”
Only 18 people, including three children, survived the crash which happened shortly after a Spanair MD-82 plane took off from Madrid for the Canary Islands.The death toll rose to 154 after the death of a woman who initially survived despite suffering burns to 72 percent of her body.The news comes as another Spanair MD-82 was forced to make an unscheduled landing at an airport in .The plane landed safely at Malaga on the southern coast after the pilot detected a technical problem, and the 141 passengers were put up in a hotel until they could resume their journey.
Monthly Archives: August 2008
THE Tower of Pisa is being challenged by a lesser-known 12th-century building in the northern Dutch town of Bedum as most steeply leaning tower of .Retired geometrician Jacob van Dijk said measurements this week on Bedum’s 36m church tower of Walfridus revealed it is now leaning more than its Italian rival, which lost part of its tilt following restoration works.At a height of 55.86m, Pisa’s tower leans about 4m, while Bedum’s tower leans 2.61m on its height of 35.7 metres. If both towers were the same height, Bedum would have a greater tilt of 6cm, Mr Van Dijk argues.”In Italy they’re happy with the result, but here in Bedum we are much more happy, because the tower of Pisa is now leaning less than the tower of Bedum,” he said.
TWO aircraft, one from Russia and the other from , were one minute away from a mid-air, head-on collision near Puerto Rico, but manoeuvred in time to avert catastrophe.A Delta Boeing B737-800 and a Transaero Boeing B747-400, registered in Russia, were travelling toward one another on Thursday at the same altitude of 33,000 feet, Peter Knudson of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said.The two aircraft “came within zero feet vertical and one minute lateral separation at an altitude of 33,000 feet,” Mr Knudson said. “The Transaero 747 descended 200-300 feet after receiving an alert from its Traffic Collision Avoidance System,” he said.He did not say how many passengers were aboard the two airplanes.The near miss occured over the Atlantic Ocean, 288km north of San Juan, Puerto Rico.Fifteen minutes of lateral separation between planes was required in that area, Mr Knudson said.Delta Flight 485 was en route from New York’s Kennedy Airport to Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.The NTSB did not indicate the route of the Transaero jet.
A CANADIAN airline is removing life vests from all its planes to cut weight and save fuel.A spokeswoman for Air Canada’s regional carrier Jazz said Transport Canada regulations allowed airlines to use flotation devices instead of life vests within 80km of shore, the Associated Press reported.Safety cards in seat pockets now told passengers to use seat cushions as flotation devices.Jazz spokeswoman Manon Stuart said Jazz was a transcontinental airline that never flew over the ocean.Jazz planes do fly over the Great Lakes and along the eastern seaboard from Halifax to Boston to New York.Ms Stuart said all Jazz’s flights operated within 80km of shore.Jazz operates 880 flights daily to 85 destinations in but said the number of flights over water were minimal.A commercial life vest weighs roughly 500g.
HUNDREDS of Australian travellers have been left stranded in Thailand after authorities closed three airports due to protests.THAI Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej has met the nation’s king on escalating protests that have closed three key airports and sparked clashes with riot police. After the protests erupted into skirmishes with police yesterday, causing minor injuries and rattling nerves in the coup-prone kingdom, Mr Samak flew from Bangkok around midnight to the nearby town of Hua Hin to meet the king at his seaside palace.”He reported to the king on the current situation and he will return to Bangkok today,” the government official said. About 15,000 passengers are stranded on the holiday isle of Phuket as hundreds of anti-government protesters block access to the island’s airport.hailand’s second-busiest airport was closed yesterday afternoon after 5000 protesters set up a blockade and marched down the tarmac, forcing authorities to suspend flights to and from the island.About 400 protesters from the so-called People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), which is also squatting on the main government compound in Bangkok, blocked access to the airport today.Frustrated travellers carrying backpacks and rolling luggage behind them tried to enter the terminal. About 100 made it inside before the protesters started turning them away.”I want to go home. I have nothing to do with this situation,” one frustrated Australian man said.Wicha Nurnlop, director of Phuket International Airport, said the airport would remain closed at least until 6pm (9pm AEST) today.So far more than 100 flights have been cancelled, including 25 on international routes, leaving 15,000 passengers stranded, Mr Wicha said.Tourists have been given free hotel rooms until the airport reopens, while authorities are scrambling to arrange buses for about 100 passengers trying to connect to onward flights in Bangkok.Airports at Krabi and Hat Yai in the country’s south were also closed as protests spread across the country yesterday.Hat Yai reopened today.Hundreds of travellers from have been caught up in the protests, with Jetstar diverting its Sydney-Phuket flight to Bangkok last night. A spokeswoman said Australian passengers booked on the return flight from Phuket to Sydney had been put up in accommodation as they waited for the airport to reopen.The People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) have demanded Mr Samak resign and accuse him of acting as a puppet for ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra.The same group helped topple Mr Thaksin in 2006, and has openly called for the palace, the military and Thailand’s traditional elite to take a greater role in politics. The PAD rails against popular democracy, saying it has encouraged corruption, and in July unveiled a plan for a new system of government in which 70 per cent of the seats in parliament would be appointed rather than elected. Although the demonstrators regularly invoke the king, both in speeches and with royalist imagery, he has remained silent in the stand-off, staying away from the protests in his beachfront Klaikangwon palace, whose name means “Far from worries”. The king has little formal political power, but he holds enormous sway over his subjects and has acted as a referee during past political crises in his six decades on the throne.Despite torrential rains early today, at least 6000 protesters barricaded themselves for a fifth day inside Bangkok’s main government complex. A handful of activists wearing motorcycle helmets practiced combat techniques with homemade shields and bamboo rods. Nearby, free food was distributed to the protesters.”We will not quit. We will not go home until we win,” one woman shouted from a makeshift stage set up in their camp. Hoping to defuse the crisis, Mr Samak has called for an emergency parliamentary debate tomorrow but has refused to step down or call new elections.
AN EXTRA four weeks of daylight saving in will bring the state into line with New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria and Tasmania.The South Australian Industrial Relations Minister Paul Caica said daylight saving would start on Sunday, October 5, and run to Sunday, April 5, 2009.This will be three weeks earlier and a week later than usual, matching the dates of other states.Mr Caica said the changes were part of an ongoing trial and were supported by a majority during community consultations.”An extensive consultation process last year, which resulted in submissions received from almost 7000 people, told us that two-thirds of South Australians supported extended daylight saving,” Mr Caica said.Mr Caica said the change would help boost tourism and recreational activities and the State Government was also mindful of the impact on business if South Australia was 90 minutes behind the eastern states for a four-week period.
East Timor would one day rival Bali as a draw card for tourists from , its Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao has claimed.He told the Herald Sun that drawing Australian tourists to East Timor would be another way of driving the economy forward.Only a handful make the 90-minute flight from Darwin to East Timor each month, but new hotels, scuba-diving firms and the publication of a Lonely Planet travel guide had made the country more attractive as a destination, the report said. “I believe that when Australians know our country they will prefer our country instead of Bali for example,” Gusmao was quoted saying.
Vietnam’s Phu Quoc Island will develop a complex of tourism, entertainment, and casino services in a pilot scheme that could spread nationwide, VietnamNet Bridge has reported. The government is now reported to be drawing up criteria for the multi-billion dollar investment projects.Phu Quoc Island, an hour’s flying from, has a 150km coastline and has welcomed around 128,000 travellers during the first eight months of this year, up 8.33% year-on-year. The island is expected to earn VND26 billion (US$1.6 million) from tourism revenue in 2008.However the scheme to develop Phu Quoc into a leisure paradise will aim to attract 2-3 million visitors a year. The scheme was first approved in late 2005 by the then Prime Minister, Phan Van Khai. However the provincial government also has now earned a conditional green light from the current central Government to develop casinos on the island.Pham Vu Hong, head of the management unit in charge of investment projects in Phu Quoc, said that the island had so far given investment certificates to 21 projects worth a US$1.72 billion.
A 24-hour strike by security staff at Stansted airport has been suspended, after their employers agreed to re-open negotiations.Thirty-three baggage scanners walked out on Monday, in an ongoing dispute over pay, and had planned to repeat the action tomorrow.The two sides are now expected to meet to discuss an improved offer.Earlier today, the GMB union, which represents the workers, accused Airline Services, which employ the 33 security staff, of putting passengers’ safety at risk by using catering staff from sister company Gate Gourmet as cover for staff who walked out on Monday.A spokesman for the GMB said it has lodged a complaint with BAA and is writing to the Secretary of State for Transport over the issue.Airfield Services claims that the replacement staff received appropriate training prior to Monday’s walk out.The dispute with Airline Services centres over workers’ demands for a pay rise of five per cent. GMB says worker were offered a pay increase of just 1.5 per cent more than nine months ago, with subsequent discussions proving unsucessful.Gary Pearce, GMB’s regional officer, said: “I have been told that there will be fresh talks with the company and at these talks an improved offer will be put on the table.“On that basis GMB members have agreed to suspend tomorrow’s strike and we hope that the new offer is good enough to put out to ballot.”
The no-frills carrier has said the daily to East Midlands and Glasgow Prestwick airports from Cork will stop at the end of October.Michael O’Leary, the airline’s chief executive, also blamed increased charges levied by Cork airport for his decision to axe the routes.He said: “We regret that we have to close these two daily routes to and from Cork,” Mr O’Leary said.”However, a 20 per cent increase in airport charges on these routes reduces our ability to offer really low fares at a time of higher oil prices and these higher costs will make these two new routes loss-making this winter.”These were the latest flights to be grounded by Ryanair and other carriers as the industry struggles to cope with the soaring cost of aviation fuel.Ryanair has already announced that it will drop 250 services during the winter, while easyJet has reduced its capacity at Stansted by 12 per cent.
British Airways has also cut frequencies over the winter and the trend of grounding planes has been repeated throughout the world, as airlines look to cut costs at a time when demand for travel has been hit by economic problems.A spokesman for the airport said their had been no increase in standard charges, but there had been a cut in the discount offered to the airline.He said: “This is a completely transparent predetermined reduction in discount from 100 per cent to 80 per cent which was signed up to this time last year.”
