Determining why a Boeing passenger jet flown by China Eastern plummeted to the ground from 29,000 feet (8,840 meters) is a thorny task in itself. Now, politics risks complicating the investigation and amplifying the fallout. With relations between Washington and Beijing at their lowest ebb in years, the probe into China’s worst aviation disaster in more than a decade -- the crash of a US-made plane run by a Chinese, state-owned airline -- has turned the two archrivals into reluctant bedfellows. Both sides stand to lose if the investigation becomes politicized, ensnared in a wider fight for dominance between the two superpowers that’s touched everything from trade and the origins of the coronavirus to the war in Ukraine. A transparent inquiry into the March 21 crash would bolster China’s ambition to be a leader in global aviation as a regulator, and eventually a planemaker on par with Boeing and Airbus. “How they’re perceived around the globe is at stake,” said George Ferguson, a defense and aerospace analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence. A prolonged investigation would be damaging for Boeing, leaving the U.S. manufacturer sidelined in its largest overseas market, where it’s working to resume deliveries of the 737 Max jet after three-year halt. A shortage of narrow-body jets could crimp China’s airlines once Covid recedes, especially if Boeing were to reassign their Max delivery slots to other customers. Airlines around the world are watching the proceedings closely. That’s because the model involved in the fatal accident, Boeing’s 737-800, is one of the most widely flown aircraft on the planet. The Chicago-based planemaker delivered more than 5,100 of the type over two decades before wrapping up production of the passenger version in 2019. Story has more.<br/>
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An airport-based coronavirus surveillance program in the US for travelers arriving from abroad detected the first known US case of the highly contagious Omicron subvariant BA.2 in December, according to a new study. The results, which have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, suggest that pooled testing of international travelers may be an effective and efficient way to keep tabs on new variants and pathogens. “Travelers are really an important population when tracking new and emerging infectious diseases because they’re mobile, they have the potential for exposure to disease during travel and they can spread disease from one place to another,” said Dr. Cindy R. Friedman, chief of the Travelers’ Health Branch at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the study’s lead investigator. The program actually detected the first known US cases of two Omicron subvariants, BA.2 and BA.3, which are similar to, but genetically distinct from, BA.1 and B.1.1, the versions of Omicron that drove a winter surge in US cases. The voluntary program, which screened more than 16,000 travelers this fall and winter, was conducted by the CDC and two commercial partners: the XpresSpa Group, which offers testing in airports, and Ginkgo Bioworks, a biotech company with a testing initiative and a network of laboratories across the country. The program combined nasal samples from multiple people arriving from the same country or on the same flight — an approach, known as pooled testing, that allows scientists to search for the virus in multiple people at once. The researchers hope to expand the traveler surveillance program and are also preparing to launch a pilot study that will search for signs of the virus in the wastewater from airplane bathrooms, Dr. Friedman said.<br/>
Lloyd’s of London faces major claims this year related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but this will not lead to solvency issues, the commercial insurance market said on Thursday. Lloyd’s is asking its member syndicates to give details of their exposure to the conflict, Chairman Bruce Carnegie-Brown said, adding it was too soon to estimate the size of the loss. Lloyd’s has around 100 members that underwrite complex risks such as planes, ships and oil rigs. The aviation insurance market is seen as particularly exposed to the impact of what Russia has described as a “special military operation” and of the West’s subsequent sanctions. Global leasing companies face an imminent sanctions deadline for the repossession of more than 400 jets worth almost $10b from Russian airlines. Analysts say legal wrangling between airlines, lessors and insurers could last a decade.<br/>
A drawn-out conflict between Russia and Ukraine could further drive up oil prices and end African airlines’ recovery from the pandemic slump, the head of the industry’s association said on Thursday. Unless the conflict is resolved as soon as possible, it will harm economies, increase ticket prices and curb demand for travel and tourism on the continent, Abderahmane Berthe, secretary general of the African Airlines Association, said. “It will be another crisis our industry will have to face,” he said. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, African carriers are expected to lose a total of $23.7b by the end of this year, said Berthe, whose association brings together 44 airlines, including the continent’s biggest: Ethiopian Airlines. Passenger traffic on the continent stands at about half of the pre-COVID level, Berthe said, reflecting lower vaccination rates that have forced many governments to keep travel restrictions in place. “Many airplanes are still grounded,” he said. To boost the sector’s recovery, African governments should allow unvaccinated passengers to travel if they present negative COVID-19 test results, he said. The continent has vaccinated just 15% of its adult population, the WHO says. The sector also requires financial support, including tax deferral, tax cuts and access to financing, Berthe said, adding that a $25b support package for aviation, mooted by the African Union in 2020, did not materialise. Already African carriers’ share of intercontinental passenger traffic had halved to 20% in the two decades leading up to the onset of the coronavirus crisis, the secretary general said. He called for consolidation and co-operation among the companies to help to cut costs and allow more effective competition with their counterparts in Europe, the United States and the Middle East.<br/>