unaligned

The pilot who safely landed a stricken Southwest flight Tuesday got her first flying experience in the US Navy, touching down F-18 fighter jets at 150 miles per hour on aircraft carriers. Tammie Jo Shults, 56, may have drawn on her Navy skills when one of the two engines on her Boeing 737-700 blew and broke apart at 32,000 feet on Tuesday, forcing her to implement a rapid descent toward Philadelphia International Airport. The explosion killed one passenger and nearly sucked another out of a shattered window. One of the first female fighter pilots in the US Navy, Shults calmly told air traffic control that part of her plane was missing, and she would need ambulances on the runway. “So we have a part of the aircraft missing so we’re going to need to slow down a bit,” Shults told a controller. Many of the 144 passengers sang her praise on social media after Shults thanked them for their bravery as they left the plane. “The pilot Tammy Jo was so amazing! She landed us safely in Philly,” said Amanda Bourman on Instagram. Passengers identified Shults as the pilot. Southwest Airlines declined to name the crew of flight 1380 and Shults was not immediately available for comment. Shults might never have become a pilot if she had not been so determined to fly from a young age. She is quoted on fighter plane blog F-16.net saying she tried to attend an aviation career day at high school but was told they did not accept girls. She never lost the urge to fly and, after studying medicine in Kansas, applied to the Air Force. It would not let her take the test to become a pilot, but the US Navy did.<br/>

Despite Southwest suffering its first accident fatality, business and stock analysts said Wednesday the airline responded effectively and shouldn’t have lasting problems from the engine failure during a flight. Richard Levick, CEO of Levick public-relations who specializes in crisis management, compared the pilot, Capt. Tammie Jo Shultz, landing safely after the engine failure Tuesday to Capt. Chesley Sullenberger landing a US Airways flight on the Hudson River in 2009. “This is a story that could have been far, far worse. The dominant narrative is the hero pilot,” Levick said. “If there was anything that was done wrong, it will be the follow up story a year from now. Barring any malfeasance, Southwest looks like they handled it as well as US Airways with Sully Sullenberger.” Jim Corridore, a stock analyst at CFRA Research, said the incident was “troubling and unfortunate” after nine years without accident fatalities on US passenger airlines. But he didn’t expect long-term impact on Southwest, whose stock symbol is LUV. “Overall, we think US airlines including Southwest are very safe,” Corridore said. "We do not see a likely long-term impact on LUV shares or passenger demand to travel on Southwest, as long as this tragic incident remains an isolated one.”<br/>

The airline safety demonstrations at the beginning of flights have become so routine for fliers that many hardly pay them any attention. But a viral image captured on Southwest Flight 1380 before the plane made emergency landing shows that travellers need to start looking up from their smartphones when the flight attendant is speaking. An image shared by passenger Marty Martinez shows him other passengers wearing their masks over their mouths. But when the oxygen masks are deployed passengers are supposed to place them over both their noses and mouths. Properly wearing an oxygen mask is important in a situation where a plane suddenly has a dramatic drop in cabin pressure. Martinez admitted his focus was more on capturing the moment on Facebook Live than putting on his mask. "All I could think about was how can I can I get a message out to loved ones," Martinez said. "And rather than put on my oxygen mask I reached for my laptop in an effort to buy WiFi as the plane was going down." <br/>

Sudan Airways, the national carrier that’s cut almost all flights, may fire 80% of staff as it awaits benefits from the lifting of two-decade-old US sanctions, a state minister for transport said. The airline will probably dismiss 1,200 of its 1,500 employees as it tries to overcome difficulties in international banking transactions and importing vital spare parts, according to the minister, Ibrahim Yousif Banj. In October the carrier had grounded 12 of its 14-strong fleet after it couldn’t source parts from Boeing and Airbus. Staffing “is too large at a time when we have no planes flying currently -- the only two planes we maintained recently have now stopped,” Banj said, without giving the number of aircraft. The company now hires planes from other carriers for its remaining services, he said. One of Africa’s oldest carriers, Sudan Airways was touted as a potential major beneficiary when the US last year removed some trade restrictions it imposed in 1997 on accusations that Sudan sponsored terrorism. The North African nation is struggling to revive an economy that lost three-quarters of its oil reserves with South Sudan’s independence in 2011. Sudan Airways’ general director, Hamad Alnil Youssef, declined to comment on any potential cuts. <br/>

Shanghai-based Juneyao Airlines reported a 2017 net profit of CNY1.3b, up 6.1% from CNY1.2bi in 2016 because of robust market demand growth and yuan appreciation. Operating revenue for 2017 rose 25% to CNY12.4b while expenses jumped 27.4% to CNY9.9b, which was mainly attributed to a 49.4% increase in fuel costs to CNY2.9b. Passenger boardings grew 25.2% to 16.7m with an average load factor of 87%, up 1.3 points over 2016. Passenger capacity increased 22.3% to 31.5b ASKs against a 24.1% rise in revenue to 27.4 RPKs. Cargo traffic volume rose 14.3% to 85,916 tonnes. As of Dec. 31, 2017, Juneyao operated a single fleet of 67 Airbus A320 family aircraft on more than 90 domestic and international routes—at least 40 services originated from its Nanjing supplementary operating base.<br/>

The US DOT has levied $375,000 in fines on Allegiant Air and Hawaiian Airlines, citing both airlines for violating airline consumer protection rules. Allegiant Air was fined $250,000 after DOT’s Aviation Enforcement office determined the carrier “failed to provide passengers with disabilities adequate and timely assistance in moving within airport terminals, and did not adequately respond to complaints filed by passengers with disabilities.” Allegiant was also cited for failing provide timely responses to consumer complaints and failed to make prompt refunds to consumers when they were due. Hawaiian Airlines was fined $125,000 based on DOT’s determination that Hawaiian “failed to provide adequate responses to individuals with disabilities who filed written complaints about damage to their assistive devices and failed to properly categorize and report disability-related complaints.” Additionally, DOT said Hawaiian underpaid compensation to passengers who were involuntarily denied boarding.<br/>

Emirates said it is eyeing the Mexican market to expand its passenger network in Latin America, and is interested in adding services there. Thierry Antinori, executive VP and CCO of Emirates, said Wednesday the carrier is “looking at different options” with regards to flights to Mexico. His comments come just a few months after Emirates announced it plans to launch a service to Santiago in Chile via Sao Paulo. “Mexico is an interesting market. We are flying there with the freighters. It’s the only country in the world with a population of a 100 million where Emirates is not flying, so it’s a market we should go [to], and we will go one day,” he said. <br/>

Scandinavian leisure carrier Primera Air received its first Airbus A321neo aircraft on April 16 and plans to begin using it soon on services from the UK to New York, Boston and Toronto, the airline said. The aircraft is the first of three A321neos the Nordic low-cost, long-haul carrier is leasing from GE Capital Aviation Services in 2018. The A321neo has already made its first flights from Hamburg to Copenhagen and Billund, the airline said, which is jointly based in Denmark and Latvia and is part of the Primera Travel Group of travel agencies and tour agencies across Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland and Estonia. The airline is tapping into the trend for increasing low-cost, long-haul flight options.<br/>