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The president of the pilots' union at American Airlines says Boeing made mistakes in its design of the 737 Max and not telling pilots about new flight-control software on the plane. Daniel Carey says Boeing's zeal to minimize pilot-training costs for airlines that would buy its 737 Max jet contributed to errors that led to two deadly crashes and left a "crisis of trust" around aviation safety. Carey is scheduled to testify Wednesday before a House subcommittee that is looking into Boeing and the 737 Max airliner, which remains grounded after accidents that killed 346 people. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, the captain who safely landed a disabled jetliner on the Hudson River in 2009, is also expected to testify. He has said that Boeing was more focused on protecting its product, the Max, than protecting the people who use it. The comments underscore the challenges that Boeing still faces in winning the confidence of pilots that the Max can be made safe. Those pilots, in turn, are key to convincing reluctant passengers to fly on the plane. "That bond between the passenger and the pilot is one that is critical," Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg said during an investor presentation in April. Pilots had complained to Boeing for not telling them about flight software called MCAS until after the October crash of a Lion Air jet in Indonesia. That same software was implicated in a second crash five months later of an Ethiopian Airlines jet.<br/>

Flights were being delayed and hundreds of people were waiting to go through security screening at Honolulu's airport on Tuesday after an active shooter scare. Passengers who had already passed through screening and were boarding flights at Terminal 2 were told to go through security checkpoint again, which was holding up flights. Hawaii transportation department spokesman Tim Sakahara told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser rumors of an active shooter appeared to be linked to a laptop that malfunctioned, popped and started giving off smoke at a checkpoint. Leslie Ryan was on board an American Airlines flight to Los Angeles with her husband and two children when they were all ordered to get off the plane and go back through the security line. Two hours later she was still waiting to go through security. She said hundreds of passengers around her in the airport's open-air lobby were doing the same. "It's hot and we finally got a little water," Ryan said. Ryan said airport vendors and shops had to shut down and send their employees out to be rescreened as well.<br/>

TSA screeners at Newark Liberty International Airport discovered six smoke grenades in a passenger's carry-on bag as he attempted to board a flight to the Dominican Republic. The TSA says an officer pulled the bag off the X-ray conveyor belt after spotting something unusual on Sunday and found the grenades neatly wrapped in bubble wrap. TSA deputy federal security director Christopher Murgia says while not illegal, the grenades are prohibited from being brought on an airplane because they could fill the cabin with smoke. The passenger handed the grenades off to a companion who was not traveling and boarded the flight. His name was not released.<br/>

Heathrow airport will stagger the construction of its contentious £14bn expansion to manage costs and ban night flights once a third runway is complete to appease residents’ concerns, it revealed on Tuesday. Dividing the project into four phases is part of Heathrow’s efforts to keep the passenger service charge “close to 2016 levels”, said one person briefed on the airport’s plans. Heathrow’s fee of GBP22 per person is already one of the most expensive in the world. But the UK’s busiest airport said that the staggered construction would not delay the third runway, which will be built in the first phase and is scheduled to become operational in 2026. The final phase is scheduled for completion in 2050. The plan attempts to address concerns from residents and anti-expansion campaigners with a ban on scheduled night flights, running from 11pm to 5.30am. This will come into force when the third runway opens. Both meet the requirements of the government’s national policy statement, which set out the principles for expansion after the House of Commons approved the project last June. Detailed costs are still to be outlined, but the airport is expected to submit its initial business plan to the Civil Aviation Authority for review towards the end of this year. In addition to the ban on scheduled night flights, Heathrow’s additional proposals to mitigate noise pollution include alternating the use of the three runways to provide predictable periods of noise relief and a GBP700m insulation scheme for those homes affected.<br/>

The drone attack that disrupted Gatwick for three days in December cost the airport GBP1.4m. While early estimates of the costs ran into tens of millions, the brunt has been borne by airlines – although Gatwick has since spent an extra GBP4m on anti-drone technology. The airport was closed for 36 hours and then shut down again briefly on 21 December after multiple reported sightings of a drone or drones in the vicinity. Police and military were called in to help at Britain’s second-largest airport, but the perpetrator was never found. More than 1,000 flights were disrupted in the runup to Christmas, with 140,000 passengers affected. EasyJet, which operates about half of all flights at Gatwick, said the attack cost it GBP15m in compensation and welfare payments to passengers, as well as lost revenue. Announcing annual profits of GBP208m, the CE of Gatwick, Stewart Wingate, said he “fully stood by the decisions taken back then” to close the airport. He added: “When we came under a sustained attack, as we did, we didn’t waver.” He claimed Gatwick had installed “some of the most sophisticated counter-drone equipment of any airport in western Europe”.<br/>

An electric plane capable of flying up to 650 miles with nine passengers made its debut at the Paris Airshow on Tuesday, with its manufacturer targeting regional commuter routes such as the French capital to the southern city of Toulouse. Eviation Aircraft said the plane - called Alice - was a radical rethinking of the cost, experience and environmental impact of regional travel. The impact of air travel on the environment has become a key focus of climate campaigners and airlines have long been looking at ways to address emissions and their costs through new designs and cleaner technologies. “Operating at a fraction of the costs of conventional jetliners, our Alice will redefine how people travel regionally and usher in a new era of flying that is quieter, cleaner and cost effective,” Eviation CEO Omer Bar-Yohay said. The company said it would be aimed at high traffic commutes such as Paris to Toulouse, Norway’s Oslo to Trondheim and America’s San Jose to San Diego. It said its first commercial customer would be Cape Air, one of the largest independent regional airlines in the United States, serving 35 cities there and in the Caribbean. Cape Air has a “double-digit” purchase option for Alice, a statement said. “We see tremendous opportunities to reduce the environmental impact of our operations,” Cape Air founder and CEO Dan Wolf said in a statement released from the airshow, which has been dominated by deals for industry heavyweights Boeing and Airbus.<br/>