unaligned

A Fly Jamaica Airways Boeing jet en route to Toronto crash landed after returning to Guyana with a fault. Six people are reported injured and pictures show substantial damage to the starboard wing and engine. Fly Jamaica Flight 256 headed back to the Guyanan capital Georgetown because of a technical problem, the airline said in a statement on its website, adding that all 118 passengers and 8 crew members are safe. The aircraft, a Boeing 757-200 according Flightradar 24, was bound for Canada when it suffered a hydraulic issue after take-off, AFP reported, citing Guyana’s infrastructure minister, David Patterson. The twin-engine jet skidded off the runway, injuring half a dozen people, according to the report. The plane is a much older model than the Boeing 737 Max operated by Indonesia’s Lion Air that nosedived into the Java Sea last month, killing 189 passengers and crew. Boeing delivered the final 757 in 2005 after more than two decades of production. The aircraft involved in the Guyana incident is 19 years old, according to information from Airfleets.Net, based on the registration number given by Flightradar 24. <br/>

IndiGo has switched 125 of its existing Airbus A320neo jet orders to the longer range A321neo model, according to an Airbus source. IndiGo now has 150 of Airbus' A321neo jets on order, the source said. The orders showed in the official October review on Airbus’ website. InterGlobe Aviation’s IndiGo is one of Airbus’ biggest global customers with 430 jets on order. It has almost triple the market share of nearest rival Jet Airways, which recently grounded some planes as it struggles to conserve cash and turn its business around. IndiGo had previously said it plans to add to its fleet of Airbus A320neos and ATR 72 turboprops at a rate of around 6 planes a month. It will add 30% capacity this financial year to maintain dominance of the world’s fastest growing aviation market, although its parent company has just recorded its first quarterly loss since listing.<br/>

Storms, strikes, computer failures — you can now add "your plane has been seized by the government" to the list of things that can delay your flight. In France, 149 passengers were preparing to take off for London late Thursday when French authorities ordered their Ryanair Boeing 737 impounded. The budget carrier owed money and it was "regrettable that the state was forced" to evacuate the plane, the civil aviation authority said. The passengers had gone through passport control and security and were about to walk on the tarmac to board the plane when airport authorities told them to turn around, passenger Boris Hejblum said. "The airport staff told us there was an issue with the plane," he said. No Ryanair staff members were available, and the only communication from the airline was two text messages saying simply that the departure was delayed, and a 5-euro ($5.75) voucher for food, the 30-year-old Frenchman said. "I found it strange that the police were the only ones giving us information," he said. The passengers were put on another flight that finally brought them to London's Stansted airport — five hours late. The multi-million dollar jet, meanwhile, was released only Friday after Ryanair paid a bill of E525,000.<br/>

Indonesia’s national rescue agency ended a search for victims of the Lion Air plane that crashed into the Java Sea about two weeks ago, while those trying to locate the cockpit voice recorder face a new challenge as an electronic signal from the device fades. The task of finding victims or their remains has been left to local teams, Muhammad Syaugi, head of the National Search and Rescue Agency, said in a statement Saturday. Separately, a new underwater locator with better sensitivity to detect the ping from the so-called black box is ready for deployment to help the search. “The ping sound is getting hard to detect and is disappearing,” Haryo Satmiko, deputy chief of Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee, said Saturday. “We suspect the cockpit voice recorder is covered by mud because the flight data recorder, when it was found, was about a half meter deep buried in the mud.” If the new locator fails, the safety committee will deploy a ship with mud-suction ability to try to recover the voice recorder. The recovery of the voice recorder would help investigators piece together the final moments before flight JT610 dove into the sea with 189 people on board on Oct. 29. Preliminary findings based on information from the data recorder, which has been recovered, indicated a technical snag related to faulty airspeed reading. That prompted Boeing to alert operators of the 737 Max aircraft worldwide that the airflow sensor can provide false readings in certain circumstances.<br/>

A JetBlue flight from Boston landed in Havana Saturday, as the US airline expanded its routes to Cuba despite a drop in American visitors amid tensions between the countries. The plane with more than 120 passengers on board was received with flags from both countries at the Jose Marti airport in Cuba's capital. "From the first day we've been willing to commit ourselves to this island long term," said Giselle Cortes, director of international airports at JetBlue. "We've been the only one who has not canceled any routes but have added Havana to Boston." Commercial flights between the countries were ended a half century ago during the Cold War. But they resumed in 2016 amid the rapprochement between Washington and Cuba that followed the 2014 return of diplomatic relations under the Obama administration. However, Donald Trump took over the US presidency and placed new restriction on travel to Cuba. The number of US visitors to the island dropped. A Cuban report shows that in the first quarter of 2018 the number of Americans visiting the island fell by 43% compared to the same period last year. Airlines such as Alaska, Spirit, Frontier and Delta dropped service to Cuba because of weak demand.<br/>

Emirates plans to sever ties to Paris Saint-Germain as the soccer team seeks a more lucrative sponsorship deal and relations between the club’s Qatari owners and the United Arab Emirates sour. A contract that’s seen the Emirates name emblazoned on PSG players’ jerseys since 2006 ends next year and won’t be renewed, a spokeswoman for the airline said. PSG told Bloomberg it’s seeking more cash after the high-profile signings of Brazilian star Neymar and teenage World Cup winner Kylian Mbappe. The sponsorship deal has also become an uncomfortable fit since the UAE and three other countries led by Saudi Arabia imposed a trade and travel embargo on Qatar last year after accusing it of supporting terrorism. PSG has been owned by Qatar Sports Investments since a 2011 takeover that made it the richest soccer club in France and one of the wealthiest in the world. Emirates declined to say whether it’s looking to sponsor a rival French team, though the company’s football portfolio features a club in each of Europe’s major leagues.<br/>