A second man has been arrested in the theft of over $250,000 in cash as it was being transferred to a plane at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Federal prosecutors say Emmanuel Asuquo Okon, of Queens, was arrested over the weekend. They say Okon is a friend of Quincy Thorpe, the Delta baggage handler who was arrested at his Brooklyn home last week. Federal prosecutors say video surveillance showed Thorpe scanning and loading several bags of currency onto a Delta flight bound for Miami, but putting aside one bag and leaving with it. Thorpe says he's innocent. Prosecutors say a vehicle owned by Okon's domestic partner was seen at the airport during the theft at JFK on Tuesday. Okon's lawyer says the allegations are untrue and "completely circumstantial.".<br/>
general
Owners of a concession to operate Istanbul’s new $11b airport abandoned a plan to potentially sell a stake in the venture, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The four construction firms also terminated a mandate given to Lazard Ltd to provide a valuation of the airport and manage discussions with possible buyers, the people said, asking not to be identified because the process is confidential. It is too early to sell a stake in the consortium, IGA Havalimani Isletmeleri AS, because the airport only started operating in April, one of the people said. Five Turkish builders won the right to build and operate the airport and were each awarded equal holdings in the venture. IGA declined to comment, while Lazard didn’t respond to an email seeking comment. The new airport, which Turkish Airlines is using as its new hub, is designed to eventually serve 200m passengers when all six runways are operational.<br/>
Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg unveiled a structural overhaul intended to sharpen the plane-maker’s focus on safety after two accidents of its 737 Max killed 346 people within a five-month span. Acting on a recommendation from the board, Muilenburg is creating a new product and services safety organization to centralize responsibilities across the plane-maker’s business and operating units. The new group will be run by Beth Pasztor, a 34-year Boeing veteran who will report to a new board aerospace committee as well as the company’s chief engineer. Pasztor will have responsibility for all aspects of product safety, including investigating concerns raised anonymously by employees, Boeing said in a statement Monday. The company’s accident-investigation team, safety-review boards and engineering and technical experts who represent the FAA in aircraft certification will all report to Pasztor, who previously oversaw product safety at Boeing’s jetliner division. “Beth is a proven leader, she’s a collaborator,” Muilenburg said. He also considered external candidates before deciding that Pasztor’s deep knowledge of Boeing would give her a running start. “She, from a technical qualification standpoint, is the best.” The CEO is under pressure to show airlines, travellers and global regulators that safety is woven into the century-old manufacturer’s designs and culture. Both have been called into question given the lapses that have prompted regulators to ground two brand-new Boeing jetliners this decade. Story has more details.<br/>
"This is the future of aviation," Oskar Meijerink tells me in a café in Rotterdam airport. His company, in partnership with the airport's owners, is planning the world's first commercial production of jet fuel made, in part, from carbon dioxide (CO2). Based at the airport, it will work by capturing CO2, the gas which contributes to global warming, from the air. In a separate process, electrolysis splits water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen is mixed with the captured CO2 to form syngas, which can be transformed into jet fuel. The pilot plant, which aims to produce 1,000 litres of jet fuel a day, will get is energy from solar panels. The partners in the project hope to produce the first fuel in 2021. They argue that their jet fuel will have a much smaller CO2 impact then regular fuel. "The beauty of direct air capture is that the CO2 is reused again, and again, and again," says Louise Charles, from Climeworks, the company which provides the direct air capture technology. Story has more.<br/>