Boeing’s head of corporate communications, Anne Toulouse, elected to step down from her role and would retire next year, the world’s largest planemaker said on Friday. Toulouse, a 30-year Boeing veteran, is the second high-ranking female communications leader to leave the embattled US planemaker as it fights to rebuild trust with airline customers and the flying public after two recent crashes of its 737 MAX killed 346 people in the span of five months. Boeing said it would name her successor in the near future. “This past year has been all-consuming and profoundly difficult for all of us at Boeing - albeit nowhere close to the experience of the families affected by the MAX accidents,” Toulouse said. “As we look ahead, I am confident the hard lessons learned will make Boeing better and that we will deliver on our important commitments... As we move into that next phase, I can best serve the company by turning over the role to someone with fresh perspective and, therefore, made the difficult decision to retire.” It was not clear whether Toulouse’s departure was the result of repeated criticism Boeing has faced over its public responses to the crashes. Some airline customers, corporate crisis experts, and victims’ family members criticised the company’s public comments as stilted and contradictory and appeared driven by company lawyers.<br/>
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Boeing on Friday said it’s unveiled the largest version of its beleaguered 737 Max line, despite a worldwide grounding of the planes after two fatal crashes. The manufacturer showed off the new jet to employees at its Renton, Washington, factory, but the plane isn’t scheduled for its first flight until next year. The ceremony comes amid one of the worst crises in Boeing’s more than 100-year history. Regulators ordered airlines to stop flying the planes after two 737 Max 8s crashed within a span of five months. Boeing said on Nov. 11 that it expects regulators to clear the manufacturer to start delivering the Max planes to airlines again as early as December, but officials have repeatedly said that they don’t have a firm timeline. The company has developed a software fix for the planes after a flight-control system — which was erroneously activated and repeatedly pushed the planes’ nose down in the two flights — was implicated in both crashes. Boeing has more than 550 orders for the Max 10, the largest variant, making it a small portion of the backlog of around 4,400 Max jetliners. The Max 10 can fit 188-204 passengers in a two-class configuration, compared with 162-178 passengers on the Max 8 in two classes.<br/>
Now, for the first time, major commercial airlines must tell the Department of Transportation each month how often they gate-check wheelchairs and scooters, as well as how often passengers report those devices as damaged, lost, delayed or stolen. That requirement took effect in December, but some airlines reported challenges providing accurate figures that month. Between January and September – the latest month for which data is available – US carriers reported having mishandled at least 7,747 chairs. That's an average of 29 times a day. While it’s just 1.6% of the chairs and scooters checked on flights, dozens of travellers said that damage to their mobility aids can have significant medical, emotional and financial consequences. Some avoid flying altogether, saying the risks are too great. “They are essential mobility equipment. It’s important stuff,” said Ben Mattlin, a Los Angeles writer and power chair user. “God, if that many pets were injured every day, it'd be an uproar.” uckworth said the general public fails to grasp the severity of the situation when a wheelchair is damaged or lost. “These medical devices are essentially a part of a disabled person’s body,” Duckworth said. “Imagine if in a single year (that many) people had their legs broken by an airline as a result of flying. The effect is the same.” Story has more.<br/>
The Los Angeles County district attorney's office is warning travellers using LAX of a new scheme targeting people who need a quick boost at public USB charging stations. The USB charging scam, also known as "juice jacking," involves hackers spoofing charging stations to steal information. Similar to credit-card skimming, fake charging stations are set up via port or cable, and unknowing users who plug into them expose their devices to malware attacks that can lock their devices and export sensitive contents such as passwords and bank account numbers into the hands of waiting information thieves. "#ICYMI: Avoid using public USB charging stations at airports and other locations," the district attorney's office wrote on Twitter. Deputy District Attorney Luke Sisak says investigators from his office have seen scammers whom they know to be involved in identity-theft schemes with the software and hardware capable of performing the "juice jacking" scam. He says his office wants to give travellers the information they need to protect themselves. "It's something that people should be aware is possible," he said. "And they mostly don't know that it is." Sometimes phone security is taken for granted, he says, along with the knowledge that the phone's charging port is also how the phone sends and receives data. "The big thing we tell people is to try to use [a power] adaptor instead of finding a random USB socket somewhere," he says. <br/>
In aviation, it would seem, claiming you're going green is becoming as important as competing on fares. When European budget airline easyJet released its annual results this week, they paired the report with an announcement that from November 19, it would become the world's first airline operating net-zero carbon flights. It would achieve this, it announced, by carbon offsetting all its flights. The airline plans to do this with "forestry, renewable and community based projects." It has also signed an agreement with Airbus to research the possibilities of hybrid-electric aircraft. EasyJet is the third airline to announce a carbon offset scheme this month alone. It joins Qantas, which has pledged to go net-zero on carbon emissions by 2050, and British Airways, which will carbon offset all its UK domestic flights from 2020. BA's parent company IAG has also pledged to go net-zero on carbon emissions by 2050. Meanwhile Dutch carrier KLM launched an advertising campaign advising passengers not to fly unless necessary. Other airlines, including Air Canada and Air NZ, operate their own carbon offsetting schemes. With aviation accounting for at least 2% of global carbon dioxide emissions, and aircraft movement expected to grow at least 1.9% annually over the next 20 years, according to the Airports Council International, there's arguably a need for positive action on reducing environmental impact. The latest moves by airlines have been announced amid the rapidly growing "flight shame" movement, which has taken off in Europe, where aviation fuel is not taxed. It is thought to be responsible for an 8% dip in Swedish aviation. Story has more.<br/>