Ethiopian Airlines’ former chief engineer said in a whistleblower complaint filed with regulators that the carrier went into the maintenance records on a Boeing 737 Max jet a day after it crashed this year, a breach he contends was part of a pattern of corruption that included fabricating documents, signing off on shoddy repairs, and even beating those who got out of line. Yonas Yeshanew, who resigned this summer and is seeking asylum in the US, said that while it is unclear what, if anything, in the records was altered, the decision to go into them at all when they should have been sealed reflects a government-owned airline with few boundaries and plenty to hide. “The brutal fact shall be exposed … Ethiopian Airlines is pursuing the vision of expansion, growth, and profitability by compromising safety,” Yeshanew said in his report, which he gave to The AP after sending it last month to the US FAA and other international air safety agencies. Yeshanew’s criticism of Ethiopian’s maintenance practices, backed by three other former employees who spoke to AP, makes him the latest voice urging investigators to take a closer look at potential human factors in the Max saga and not just focus on Boeing’s faulty anti-stall system, which has been blamed in two crashes in four months. It’s not a coincidence, he said, that Ethiopian saw one of its Max planes go down when many other airlines that fly the plane suffered no such tragedy. Ethiopian Airlines portrayed Yeshanew as a disgruntled former employee and categorically denied his allegations, which paint a blistering counterpoint to the perception of the airline as one of Africa’s most successful companies and a source of national pride. Story has more.<br/>
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Latin American airline Avianca said Monday it will receive a $200m loan from controlling shareholders United and Kingsland Holdings Limited after it successfully exchanged hundreds of millions of dollars in bonds. The struggling airline can receive up to $175m in additional financing from shareholders and other third parties, Avianca said to Colombia’s financial regulator. United and Kingsland agreed to the loan, which should be made by around Oct. 15, on condition of a successful bond exchange which took place last month. United launched a management overhaul at Avianca in May, removing top shareholder German Efromovich from controlling the cash-strapped airline.<br/>
A United flight en route to Amsterdam from San Francisco made an emergency landing in Maine early Monday, an airline spokesman said. The flight, carrying 197 passengers and 13 crew members, was diverted to Bangor, Maine, due to a cabin pressurization issue, according to United Airlines spokesman Jonathan Guerin. No injuries were reported and passengers disembarked normally after the plane landed at Bangor International Airport and taxied to a gate on its own power just after 1 a.m., Guerin said. Oxygen masks were released due to the cabin pressure change but it is unclear whether passengers were told to use the masks. Passengers were given lodging in Bangor overnight, the airline said. They'll be redirected to Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey where another flight will take them the rest of the way. They're expected to arrive in Amsterdam early Tuesday morning.<br/>
Polish flag carrier LOT will begin flights to San Francisco from Warsaw on 5 August 2020. The route will be operated four times a week with Boeing 787s, LOT says. Noting that the route launch coincides with Poland being added to the USA's visa waiver programme, LOT chief executive Rafal Milczarski states: "We do believe that now Poles will be more willing to travel to the United States for both tourist and business purposes." Together with the San Francisco service, LOT will offer a total 11 direct routes to US destinations from Warsaw, Krakow, Rzeszow, and Hungarian capital Budapest. "Each year, nearly 300,000 passengers travel between central and eastern Europe and San Francisco, and I do believe that with our connection this figure will grow even further," Milczarski says. San Francisco will become LOT's 20th long-haul service, following the launch of routes from Warsaw to Beijing and from Krakow to New York, which are set to begin later this month and in May 2020, respectively.<br/>
Austrian Airlines has taken delivery of the first of 10 additional Airbus A320s that will be introduced to replace its Bombardier Q400 turboprop fleet by 2021. The Lufthansa Group carrier says the 2012-built A320 (OE-LZD) arrived in Vienna on 6 October and is currently being modified by maintenance department Austrian Technik before joining the fleet later this month. The aircraft is one of four dating to 2012-13 that will be leased from Aviation Capital Group and were previously part of Avianca Brasil's fleet. Avianca Brasil entered bankruptcy proceedings earlier this year and was grounded by Brazil's regulator in May. OE-LZC, another of the four A320s, has been transferred to Fokker Services' facility in Woensdrecht, in the Netherlands, and is scheduled to enter Austrian's fleet in November. Sister aircraft OE-LZE will also be modified by Fokker for introduction in November, while OE-LZF is in US city Jacksonville and will join Austrian's fleet later this month, the airline says. In addition to the four jets, Austrian plans to introduce in January 2020 a pair of 2007-vintage A320s currently in operation at Juneyao Air. These will be leased from CBD Aviation. <br/>
EgyptAir announced the operation of its first flights between Cairo and Budapest with its latest planes of the A220-300 Airbus type, as four flights will be plying the air route every week. In a statement released on Monday, the national carrier said the operation comes in light of the strategies adopted by the company to develop services presented to its customers worldwide. Egyptair’s A220-300 is configured in a two-class cabin layout of a total of 140 seats which are split into 15 premium economy and 125 economy class seats. <br/>