Southwest Airlines, the largest operator of the grounded Boeing 737 Max, said the discovery of a new safety issue with the jetliner is extending its absence “well beyond” what was hoped, forcing the carrier to reassess its schedule for the rest of the year. The latest problem, “unfortunately, is going to delay the timeline for returning the Max to service,” in early October, CE Gary Kelly told employees Monday. “That’s very disappointing.” The new glitch doesn’t directly involve the flight-control software that was linked to 2 crashes since October. Fixing the problem, which Boeing has said can be done with a software patch, could take as much as 3 months, people familiar with the matter have said. Southwest has canceled 150 daily flights during the busy summer travel season. <br/>
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A SpiceJet De Havilland Dash 8 Q400 carrying 43 passengers and 4 crew members suffered a runway excursion while landing. The turboprop was operating flight SG3722 from Bhopal to Surat in India the evening of June 30 when the incident occurred. According to SpiceJet, all passengers were evacuated “normally”. The airline adds: “All passengers and aircraft are safe.” On Surat Airport’s official twitter account, the airport director says there was heavy rain when the incident occurred. Airport operations had to be suspended, and flights had to be diverted. After more than 6 hours, airport operations resumed after the aircraft was cleared away. Pictures on social media suggest that the aircraft appears to have travelled through mud and come to a stop. No damage is immediately apparent. <br/>
Russian investigators have revealed that sloppy procedures and a poor safety culture pervaded Saratov Airlines before the fatal Antonov An-148 crash outside Moscow early last year. The An-148 came down some 6 minutes after take-off when – owing to the pilots' failure to activate the pitot-static heating system – all 3 of its pitot-static sensors became blocked with ice, generating unreliable airspeed information which overwhelmed the crew. Flight 6W703 was behind schedule because the inbound service had been late, and the crew was rushing their preparations, the Interstate Aviation Committee states in its final conclusions. Saratov Airlines had a "low safety culture", the inquiry says, and there was a systemic non-compliance by crews of the "dark cockpit" principle, in which instruments showed no warning indications. <br/>