When the pilot of Feb 6 international flight spilled a cup of coffee on the cockpit controls midway over the Atlantic Ocean, it melted one of the buttons and the plane was diverted to Ireland, an investigation concluded Thursday. The Condor airlines flight had been carrying 337 people, including 11 crew members, from Frankfurt to Cancún, Mexico, when the episode occurred aboard the Airbus A330, according to the UK aviation authority. The coffee was on a tray table in the cockpit when the pilot accidentally knocked it over, spilling most of it onto his lap and some of it onto the communications equipment, investigators said. The pilot’s and co-pilot’s audio control panels were both disabled by the spill and there was a small amount of smoke in the cockpit, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch said. <br/>
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Start-up regional operator Great Dane Airlines is expanding its fledgling network from Aalborg into its Scandinavian neighbourhood. It is planning to open services to Stockholm, serving Arlanda airport, as well as the city of Gothenburg. Although flights will commence Nov 14, the services will be relatively infrequent, just once every 2 weeks. Great Dane says the departures to Stockholm will take place in "odd weeks" and Gothenburg in "even weeks". While there are no air services connecting Aalborg to either Swedish city, both are served multiple times daily from Copenhagen. Aalborg is geographically closer to Gothenburg than to Copenhagen, but Great Dane would be competing with frequent ferry services to Gothenburg out of the Danish port of Frederikshavn. <br/>
Two French carriers are intending to open services from Paris Orly to New York next year. Leisure operator Corsair says it will commence flights on the route to the US gateway from June 1. But it is already facing competition from long-haul budget operator French Bee, part of Groupe Dubreuil, which is also to serve New York from June 2020. Both carriers will open ticket sales on the route next week, they state. Corsair has indicated that it will use Airbus A330neo twinjets on the route. The airline is planning to lease 3 A330-900s as part of a fleet modernisation. French Bee exclusively uses Airbus A350-900s for its low-cost, long-haul operations. The carrier already includes San Francisco on its US network. Air France and the all-premium operator La Compagnie already fly the city pair from Paris Orly airport. <br/>
The co-pilot of an Airbus A319 on approach to land left the flightdeck after experiencing an anxiety attack, the UK’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) has revealed. The report, published Sept 12, said the co-pilot “experienced anxiety—which developed into an anxiety attack” during the approach to Glasgow International Sept 30, 2018. “He could not continue to operate the aircraft and left the flightdeck,” the report stated. The aircraft commander completed a single-pilot landing. There were no injuries. According to the report, the episode was triggered by the co-pilot having experienced a go-around the previous day, which built up anxiety over the course of his shift the next day. The AAIB does not identify airlines involved in incident reports, but the aircraft is identified as having belonged to EasyJet since delivery in 2011. <br/>