Just days after a Lion Air Boeing 737 Max nosedived in Indonesia and killed all 189 people aboard, an Ethiopian Airlines pilot began pleading with his bosses for more training on the Max, warning that crews could easily be overwhelmed in a crisis and that one of their planes could be the next to go down. "We are asking for trouble," veteran pilot Bernd Kai von Hoesslin wrote in a December email obtained by The Associated Press, adding that if several alarms go off in the cockpit at once, "it will be a crash for sure." That prediction proved all too accurate. What Ethiopian Airlines did in response to his warnings is unclear, and whether it made any difference is a matter of dispute. But within weeks, an Ethiopian Max indeed went down, killing all 157 people on board. It slammed into the ground amid a flurry of alarms. <br/>
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United Airlines remained the worst-ranked traditional airline when it comes to consumer satisfaction, according to a new J.D. Power survey. But the airline improved over last year’s score. Customers gave Alaska Airlines the highest rating among the 5 traditional carriers in the study for the twelfth straight year, with a score of 801 on a 1,000-point scale, followed by Delta Air Lines with 788, J.D. Power said Wednesday. American Airlines came in third, followed by Air Canada and United. United was also the lowest-ranked carrier last year, when it scored a 708. This year, United scored a 723, J.D. Power said. While LCCs JetBlue Airways and Southwest Airlines earned the highest ratings overall, improvements in satisfaction were driven by the traditional carriers, according to the survey. <br/>
The Metropolitan Police had to be called to Heathrow Airport late Wednesday after nearly 300 furious passengers were left stranded airside after their Air India flight which was already 32 hours delayed failed to take off. A video shows passengers shouting at a lone member of staff from Heathrow and a group of firearms officers then arriving. Around midnight the passengers were ushered back through immigration and taken to another hotel with no information as to when they could fly. Nearly 600 passengers travelling between London and Mumbai had been stranded in an airport hotel all day Wednesday. A total of 293 passengers from the a grounded May 28 AI flight. Then a Wednesday AI flight also did not take off and those passengers were sent to the same hotel room. <br/>
Things are getting back to normal after Air Canada’s experienced a system outage Tuesday night, bringing down computer systems for passenger check-in across the country and leaving thousands of passengers waiting for flights. Air Canada said the outage impacted airport operations and call centres as well, so passengers were not able to call the airline for help. The airline said Wednesday that it was expecting a “normal day” after the technical issue responsible for the outage had been resolved, but urged passengers to check the status of their flights before heading to the airport. Some Wednesday flights have been cancelled due to planes being out of position after cancellations the day before, but Air Canada has said it plans to operate its full schedule. <br/>