Is it time to apply the rules of common sense to the photo ID fetish in transport security? A report in today’s SMH says that “a parliamentary joint committee on law enforcement, which is holding hearings into the adequacy of Australia’s aviation and maritime security, has heard testimony that criminals are exploiting airlines’ self check-in [...]
Update, May 5: The customer has received a detailed and sincere apology from the in-flight shopping provider and a full refund. On January 28 a passenger on QF1 between Sydney and Bangkok purchased from its on board shopping service a Minox 5.1 camera as shown in the in flight magazine. However on opening the packaging [...]
There was a bit of cabin drama on a Jetstar A332 flight JQ8 from Singapore to Melbourne on Easter Saturday night, April 23, resulting in its cancellation. These two accounts by passengers are not all negative, in that Jetstar provided accommodation, meals, a phone call credit, a voucher, transfers and in one case, upgrades into [...]
True to its record for keeping aircraft makers honest, Singapore Airlines has ‘gently’ blow torched Boeing and Airbus over their delivery commitments for its orders for 20 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners and 20 Airbus A350-900XWBs. This article in the Singapore Business Review does this by repeating Singapore Airlines’ faith in the promises made by both manufacturers [...]
The casing or chassis of the flight data recorder from Air France flight AF447 has been found (above) at a depth of 4000 metres at the mid Atlantic crash site but the memory module is missing. This diagramatic photo, also released by the French accident investigator, the BEA, shows the chassis and missing component before [...]
April 27, 2011 – 10:21 am
Breaking news: Flightblogger, Jon Ostrower is reporting that dozens of partially completed 787s will each require the replacement of thousands of fasteners in their wings to ensure the jets are compliant with lightning strike protection certification requirements. This updates the earlier report, below, that previewed the Boeing quarterly briefing which takes place early tomorrow morning [...]
April 26, 2011 – 11:39 am
If the experiences of Captain X on regional airline Z are indicative of the regulatory environment in Australia, the notion of the confidential reporting of safety issues is deeply flawed in practice. Captain X made an in camera submission to the soon to report Senate inquiry into pilot training and airline safety. His testimony has [...]
In terms of action rather than emergencies, there are some big May Day calls coming from Australian airlines next month. On May 4, the Senate inquiry into pilot training and airline safety standards is due to report, possibly on the same day that Virgin Australia confirms that it will be Virgin Australia (while keeping [...]
April 23, 2011 – 12:28 pm
Just before Easter Boeing sent me an email of this great desktop image, and somehow it was lost in a torrent of messages. Then I thought it must have been a dream. The message was gone and I didn’t see the image headlining across any of the web sites I monitor, so it couldn’t have [...]
The situation for Easter holiday travellers on Tiger Airways today is that its network is crippled with delays, some claimed to be of around six to seven hours duration, with much of this attributed to one of its 10 A320s being unserviceable with a damaged windscreen seal. The spokesperson for the carrier is angry with [...]
