A man charged with groping a woman aboard a plane, who after being arrested cited US President Donald Trump’s past statements about women, appeared in federal court in New Mexico Tuesday. Bruce Alexander, 49, was arrested after a woman on Sunday accused him of twice grabbing her breast as they were seated on a Southwest flight from Houston to Albuquerque, New Mexico, according to the criminal complaint filed in US District Court in Albuquerque. Alexander, a heavy equipment operator from Tampa, Florida, later told authorities: “The president of the United States said it’s OK to grab women by their private parts,” according to the court document. The White House had no immediate comment on Alexander’s statement. During the 2016 presidential campaign, a videotape surfaced of then-candidate Trump bragging about groping women. After it aired, Trump said in a video, “I said it, I was wrong and I apologize.”<br/>
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A Southwest flight from New Hampshire to Orlando, Florida, was struck by lightning Tuesday afternoon and diverted to Hartford, Connecticut. The plane took off from Manchester-Boston Regional Airport at 5:42 p.m. local time and landed safely at Bradley International Airport at 6:51 p.m. local time, according to flight tracker FlightAware. Southwest confirmed that "Flight 2515 experienced a lightning strike after departure, and landed safely at Bradley International Airport." The airline said the flight would proceed on a different aircraft and that the 135 passengers would arrive in Orlando about four hours behind schedule. Lightning strikes aren't uncommon. In fact, another Southwest flight in the region apparently also was struck by lightning Tuesday, according to a passenger report on Twitter.<br/>
Allegiant Air is settling a lawsuit filed by a captain who was fired after ordering an emergency evacuation when smoke was detected coming from one of the plane's engines. Allegiant and a lawyer for Jason Kinzer declined comment Tuesday on terms of the confidential settlement reached just before a scheduled trial in a Nevada court. In 2015, Kinzer circled back to St. Petersburg, Florida, shortly after takeoff. He ordered an evacuation after an emergency worker reported engine smoke. Allegiant said it wasn't necessary to evacuate, and several passengers were hurt on escape slides. The incident received extensive coverage and was the focus of a CBS "60 Minutes" report in April that questioned safety at Allegiant.<br/>
Ryanair has instructed the Portuguese cabin crew accused of posting a fake photo of themselves sleeping on an airport floor to attend a disciplinary meeting in Dublin this week. The Irish discount airline released CCTV footage to Twitter on Oct. 17 which it claimed showed the crew staging the photo at Malaga airport in Spain. The staff have been told they are “required to attend an investigative meeting under the disciplinary procedure,” according to a letter seen by Bloomberg. The purpose of the meeting is to “discuss the circumstances surrounding the distribution on social media of a photograph which faked events that occurred on Oct. 13,” according to the letter. The story was first reported by Ireland’s RTE. Ryanair didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. <br/>
Philippine Airlines (PAL) is on the verge of permanently retiring the Airbus A340-300, as its A350-900s get up to speed on long-haul routes. The carrier has one A340-300 that can be put in use should there be a technical issue with another aircraft, says Jose Perez, VP of corporate communications at PAL. He says that recent unsourced reports that the type has been permanently retired are “close to the truth.” “We actually made a decision to retire them sooner rather than later,” he says. “We might have an announcement to make at some point. There is one aircraft we can use if [there are] technical difficulties with one of our 777s or A350s. [Utilisation is] very low. It may fly to Los Angeles or San Francisco, and then be parked again. Right now, we're reviewing that. We might have to make a decision at a certain point to ground all the aircraft.” The permanent retirement of the type will mark the end of A340 operations in the Asia-Pacific.<br/>
Ryanair subsidiary LaudaMotion will close two crew bases in Austria as part of a cost-cutting program, an airline spokesperson said. “We will close crew-bases in Graz and Salzburg in the coming months, affecting a total of 28 crew members [because of] costs and economic reasons; there are no plans to base aircraft at these airports. The colleagues will be offered jobs in Vienna, Dusseldorf and Stuttgart,” the spokesperson said. LaudaMotion CEO Andreas Gruber said the Austrian carrier will continue to grow significantly; however, it is expected to post a E150m loss because of startup costs in the first year. Also, high fuel prices are creating additional pressure. LaudaMotion expects to carry 3m passengers this year; the new airline has achieved load factors of over 90% and plans to double its Airbus fleet to 18 aircraft next year. “LaudaMotion will grow again by at least 20% in 2019 to 5m guests per annum,” Gruber said.<br/>