The families of Brazilians killed in the Chapecoense air crash are appealing for justice and reparations and said in interviews on Wednesday that they feel “abandoned” by the soccer club and media companies. On the same day that Chapecoense players met the Pope in Rome, representatives from the Association of Families and Friends of the Victims of the Chapecoense Flight said more must be done to help them financially and psychologically. They also demand answers to questions about responsibility for the crash. Seventy-one passengers and crew died when a plane carrying the Chapecoense team crashed in Colombia last Nov. 28. All but three of the players onboard perished, along with dozens of officials and journalists accompanying the team to the final of the Copa Sudamericana in Medellin. Colombian aviation authorities found that Bolivian airline company LaMia had skimped on fuel, causing the plane to plummet into a mountainside before it could reach the airport. The airline’s CE, who was jailed pending a trial for manslaughter, denies the charges. The company’s co-owner was the plane’s pilot and died in the crash. One of the association’s main complaints is that the club insisted on hiring LaMia even after the company’s methods were questioned by players.<br/>
unaligned
Ryanair will not bid for any assets of insolvent Air Berlin, its CE Michael O’Leary said Wednesday, describing the process as “a stitch-up”. Air Berlin, Germany’s second-largest airline, filed for bankruptcy protection this month after shareholder Etihad Airways withdrew funding following years of losses. O’Leary, the head of the Irish budget airline, has complained that the insolvency process was designed to help strengthen leading German airline Lufthansa. “If there was a fair and open process we would get involved but we are not getting involved in this process because it’s a stitch-up,” he told a news conference in Berlin Wednesday, adding Ryanair had not been in contact with anyone from the German government, Air Berlin or the administrator. Taking his argument directly to Berlin, he said Ryanair had asked German and European anti-trust authorities to investigate what he said was a “conspiracy” between Air Berlin, Lufthansa and the German government which would lead to higher prices for consumers. “(The insolvency process) is designed to deliver Air Berlin to Lufthansa sometime in the middle of September before the German election,” he said.<br/>
A man who disrupted a Hawaiian Airlines flight so much that the plane had to turn around and return to Honolulu last year instead of heading to New York must pay the airline nearly $100,000, a federal judge ruled. New Jersey resident James August was ordered to pay restitution on Monday after he was sentenced to three months of probation in June, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported. He pleaded guilty to interfering with flight crew members and flight attendants in February. August was accused of drunkenly threatening his girlfriend, her children, other passengers and crew members during the flight and slapping a flight attendant on her shoulder, according to an FBI affidavit. August said he did not remember what happened but did not dispute accounts that he was threatening and disruptive. The payment of $97,817 represents reimbursement of Hawaiian Airlines' costs for turning the jet around — including fuel, maintenance, ground crew, replacement flight crew, landing fee and re-catering.<br/>
Nam Air, a subsidiary of Sriwijaya Group, starting Sept. 9 is set open routes from Jakarta to Bima in West Nusa Tenggara and Jakarta to Tambolaka in East Nusa Tenggara, both of which would transit through Denpasar in Bali. The routes would be served once a day in a return flight for each route, where both would be flying with a Boeing B737-500. The plane has a capacity of 120 seats, comprising 112 economy seats and eight executive. "With the opening of this route, it would be easier for passengers to travel from Jakarta to Bima and Tambolaka," Agus Soedjono, NAM Air senior corporate communications manager, said Monday. Agus said the flight from Bima to Denpasar would also be able to connect travellers to other big cities in Indonesia, such as to Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Labuan Bajo and Makassar. <br/>