The family of a victim of the Lion Air crash has started legal action against Boeing, after pilots and airlines said the manufacturer had not made them aware of new features in its 737 Max-8 aircraft that could be linked to the disaster. A Florida-based law firm has filed a suit against Boeing on behalf of the parents of Rio Nanda Pratama, a doctor who had been due to marry in Indonesia this week. His father, H. Irianto, said he was “seeking justice for my son and all of the people who lost their lives in the crash,” which killed all 189 people on board the domestic flight from Jakarta last month. Investigators have said that the doomed 737 was not correctly displaying altitude and speed readings. Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee said a sensor had been changed by mechanics in Bali the day before the crash, following similar problems on previous flights. The suit has been prompted in part by the reaction to Boeing advice issued nine days after the crash to airlines using its latest 737 model, with instructions on how pilots should react to “erroneous input from an angle of attack (AOA) sensor”. The sensor, which indicates if the plane may be at risk of stalling, could lead pilots – or the autopilot, if not overridden – to dangerously overcompensate if the information is wrong, according to safety experts. US pilots’ unions and Lion Air executives have now said the Boeing guidance was omitted from training manuals, and they had not been warned before of a significant change to the flight control system in this model, which could have led to onboard computers forcing the nose of a 737 Max plane down.<br/>
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A delay in securing equipment needed to find recordings of the pilots’ final conversations on the doomed Lion Air jet is hampering Indonesian authorities search for clues to the nation’s worst air disaster in two decades. The National Transportation Safety Committee expects to resume Sunday the search for the cockpit voice recorder of the Boeing 737 Max jet, which crashed Oct. 29 in the Java Sea off Jakarta, Deputy Chairman Haryo Satmiko said Wednesday. The agency will deploy a sub-bottom profiling system along with a remotely operated vehicle with side scan sonar to scour the site of the crash. The crew was previously scheduled to resume the search on Thursday but the shipment of the sub-bottom profiling system from Singapore was delayed, according to Soerjanto Tjahjono, chairman of the safety committee. Indonesian investigators have warned that the pinger of the cockpit voice recorder may have broken off from the device due to the impact from the crash. “Whatever equipment we have been using in the past are no longer useful as the pings are no longer there,” Tjahjono said by phone Wednesday. “We have to use new technique to basically scour the seabed.” <br/>
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has sought Tata Sons' help to rescue struggling Jet Airways India, people familiar with the matter said. Tata Sons is in talks with the government about a potential haircut to state-run banks on Jet’s loans as part of the plan, while Airports Authority of India may forgo some of its dues, one person said Thursday. The Tata Sons board is due to deliberate on the matter Friday, the people said. The structure of the potential deal has not been finalized, they said. One option is to combine Jet with Vistara, an airline venture Tata runs with Singapore Airlines, one person said. India’s Economic Times said earlier that the companies are weighing a potential all-stock merger of the carriers -- something Jet said was speculative. Jet shares rose 24%, the biggest single-day gain on record, to close at 320.90 rupees in Mumbai. Any investment by Tata Sons will catapult the group to the top league of Indian aviation, dominated by budget carrier IndiGo, while providing a lifeline to Jet, which is falling behind on payments to lessors and staff. A deal that prevents the airline from going bust will save Modi the embarrassment of a business meltdown ahead of a general election due early next year.<br/>
Access to competitive slots at London Heathrow continues to be a crucial factor in JetBlue Airways' deliberation over starting flights across the Atlantic, as the airline's chief executive persists in highlighting challenges faced by smaller carriers like JetBlue in an industry dominated by bigger rivals. "Many things have to fall into place," Hayes said. "We have to offer competitive schedules at airports like Heathrow when people will want to fly. We continue to work on that." JetBlue has been considering flights to Europe for years, a decision that will determine if it converts some Airbus orders to the A321LR. Securing slots at constrained airports like Heathrow continues to be one of the obstacles faced by JetBlue and other smaller carriers in a landscape overwhelmed by US mainline carriers and their overseas joint venture partners, says Hayes. This is not the first time that Hayes has urged more regulatory oversight of airline joint ventures. The airline has made a habit of urging the US government to restrict new joint ventures to a fixed period and to review them periodically before allowing such deals to be renewed, among other limitations. Hayes says JetBlue was "delighted" that the US DoT responded to such feedback when approving the joint venture between Delta and Aeromexico in 2016, by restricting it to five years. The two carriers were also required to divest slots at Mexico City airport, of which JetBlue received a handful. Despite this, the airline has found it an "ongoing struggle" to make them work in an environment dominated by Delta and Aeromexico, says Hayes.<br/>
H1 profit at Emirates plunged to its lowest in a decade, hit by higher fuel costs and unfavourable currency moves, and the Gulf airline said it faced a tough six months ahead. The Dubai-based carrier, which warned earlier this week that earnings were being squeezed, said on Thursday its net profit tumbled 86% to 226m dirhams ($62m) in the six months to Sept. 30. Revenue at the state-owned airline, one of the world’s biggest international carriers, rose 10% to 48.9b dirhams. Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum said higher fuel costs and currency devaluations in markets such as India, Brazil, Angola, and Iran cost the group 4.6 billion dirhams in profit, echoing recent warnings from other airlines. “The next six months will be tough,” he said. H1 profit for Emirates Group, which also includes airport and travel services company dnata, fell 53% to 1.1b dirhams. “We are proactively managing the myriad challenges faced by the airline and travel industry, including the relentless downward pressure on yields, and uncertain economic and political realities in our region and in other parts of the world,” Sheikh Ahmed said. Airline operating costs rose 13% with fuel costs on average up 42%, which Emirates said was largely due to higher oil prices rather than an increase in operations.<br/>
The CE of JetBlue Airways, which has made no secret of its desire to expand into transatlantic service, said Thursday that US and European regulators should review joint ventures that have allowed big airlines to dominate the market. JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes, speaking at an airline industry event in New York, said consumers were at risk of decades of high fares because of legacy transatlantic partnerships. JetBlue, the sixth largest US airline, wants to service Europe from its main hubs in New York, Boston and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but is concerned about challenges posed by the big three US legacy airlines’ control of important foreign markets through their global alliances. American Airlines Group, Delta and United Airlines are each part of a global airline alliance that together control nearly 80% of the transatlantic market. The three carriers also have joint ventures with member airlines in Europe that allow them to coordinate prices and schedules and share revenues. “We believe that regulators should be doing everything they can to make it possible for new players and new models to have a fair shot at competing,” Hayes said. Hayes believes competition authorities in the United States, the UK and the European Union should force slot divestitures to create a level playing field for new entrants, particularly in the wake of major consolidation among US carriers over the past decade.<br/>