The first-ever strike by BA pilots started at midnight on Sunday night, leading to the cancellation of hundreds of flights and travel disruption for thousands of passengers. Members of the British Airline Pilots’ Association (Balpa) have said they will walk out for 48 hours in a long-running dispute over pay, with a further strike set for 27 September if the row remains unresolved. Both BA and Balpa have indicated that they are willing to start new talks. Despite the slight thaw in previously tetchy relations, the vast majority of BA’s flights taking off from the UK on Monday and Tuesday have already been cancelled. BA has told passengers that if they have a flight booked on Monday and Tuesday, it is likely they will not be able to travel as planned. BA operates more than 800 flights a day, with most expected to be cancelled, affecting up to 145,000 passengers each day. Customers have been offered refunds or the option to re-book to another date of travel or alternative airline. It is expected that the problems will continue after the strike, because planes and pilots will need to be in position for subsequent journeys. Balpa’s general secretary, Brian Strutton, said: “British Airways needs to wake up and realise its pilots are determined to be heard. They’ve previously taken big pay cuts to help the company through hard times. Now BA is making billions of pounds of profit, its pilots have made a fair, reasonable and affordable claim for pay and benefits. The company’s leaders, who themselves are paid huge salaries and have generous benefits packages, won’t listen, are refusing to negotiate and are putting profits before the needs of passengers and staff,” he said. BA has offered an 11.5% pay rise over three years, which it said would take the pay of some captains to more than GBP200,000 a year. <br/>
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An American Airlines mechanic charged with sabotaging a plane because he was upset over stalled labor contract negotiations was fired from another airline several years ago and briefly had his mechanic's license suspended, according to court documents. Abdul-Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani appeared in federal court in Miami on Friday on a charge of willfully damaging or disabling a plane. Federal investigators say he admitted to tampering with a part that provides vital flight information to pilots. The pilots aborted the July 17 flight before takeoff in Miami. Alani, 60, was arrested Thursday. He had worked for American since 1988 but was suspended after his arrest. Court records from a lawsuit in California indicate that for some years, Alani worked both for American and Alaska Airlines until Alaska fired him in 2008 after several errors including failing to verify that repairs were working and installing the wrong battery on a plane. The FAA suspended his mechanic's certificate for 30 days, according to court documents. Alani, who was born in Iraq and became a US citizen in 1992, sued Alaska Airlines for discrimination based on national origin. A judge dismissed the lawsuit for lack of evidence. In Miami on Friday, Alani wore shackles as he spoke to Magistrate Judge John O'Sullivan through an Arabic interpreter. Mostly, he answered basic questions about his assets and whether he could afford a lawyer. The judge appointed a public defender and scheduled a bond hearing for next Wednesday and an arraignment hearing on Sept. 20. According to American, Alani is proficient in English. Nothing in the criminal complaint against Alani suggests any link to terrorism, and prosecutors did not indicate that any such charges are pending.<br/>
Ukraine has included a man suspected of involvement in the downing of a Malaysia Airlines flight over eastern Ukraine in 2014, which killed 298 people, in a prisoner swap with Russia, the Dutch government said on Saturday. Volodymyr Tsemakh, whom Ukraine’s security service has identified as a former commander of Russian-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine, was transferred to Russia in an exchange of prisoners between Moscow and Kiev, the Dutch Foreign ministry said. Dutch prosecutors had urged Kiev not to allow Tsemakh to travel to Russia, fearing this could jeopardize the investigation into Flight MH17. He was released on bail by a Ukrainian court on Thursday.<br/>