The federal judge overseeing SAS AB’s Chapter 11 process approved a $7m breakup fee to Apollo Global Management Inc. if its planned bankruptcy financing package for the Scandinavian airline falls through. Apollo said it would provide roughly $700m to help SAS continue to operate during bankruptcy on the condition that the court signed off on the breakup fee and a $1m deposit to help cover the investment firm’s expenses in putting together the deal. US Bankruptcy Judge Michael Wiles approved the fee on the basis that SAS, the company’s creditors committee and the US Trustee supported the terms, but questioned their necessity. “I have never had a case where someone sought transaction protections in connection with a DIP loan,” Wiles said in a hearing Thursday. A representative for the US Trustee said the federal bankruptcy watchdog didn’t file an objection to the fee because SAS said there was a risk of Apollo walking away from the deal, and there were no other contenders to provide SAS with the financing. A hearing on the company’s debtor-in-possession financing package is set for Sept. 7. <br/>
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Brisbane’s Airport’s wasp infestation almost caused another major incident involving an international airline, but an eagle-eyed refueller prevented a potential disaster. Wasps have been dangerous pests at the airport, building nests inside sensitive airspeed sensors on airliners and requiring them to be covered. Singapore Airlines flight 256, bound for Changi Airport, was being pushed back from the international terminal on May 27 this year when a refueller at an adjacent bay noticed the Airbus A350’s airspeed sensors were still covered. The sensors sit within narrow tubes, called pitot probes, and inform pilots how fast the plane is flying — vital information for air navigation. To protect the pitot probes, airline staff at Brisbane Airport routinely have them covered once they land, but planes have been known to take off with those covers attached. That has resulted in several heavy landings over the years, in which planes have had to turn back to Brisbane and land with full fuel tanks. In the latest incident being investigated by Australian Transport and Safety Bureau, the Singapore Airlines plane was seconds away from taxiing to the runway for take-off when the issue was spotted. “At about the same time, the flight crew requested pushback approval from air traffic control and turned on the aircraft beacons,” the ATSB noted. “The aerobridge began to retract away from the aircraft.” With two minutes to spare before SQ256’s scheduled departure, the pitot covers were removed and the flight left without incident. A full report on the incident will be produced after the ATSB investigation. <br/>
Air New Zealand passengers on a flight from Los Angeles to Auckland overnight had an “alarming wakeup call” when a fault caused an emergency warning to go off and oxygen masks to drop down. The airline has confirmed the event was “not an emergency situation”, and was wrongly triggered when the Boeing 777-300 aircraft descended from 34,000 feet to 27,000 feet to avoid forecast turbulence. “During this descent an automated emergency warning activated requesting customers put on their oxygen masks,” said Captain David Morgan, Air New Zealand’s chief operational integrity and safety officer. “We are sorry for the alarming wakeup call on this flight. This was not an emergency situation and the oxygen masks were not required.”<br/>Morgan said while cabin crew and pilots worked quickly to reassure those onboard, the airline recognised it was a “distressing” event. Engineers were inspecting the cabin monitoring system of the aircraft to determine the cause of the fault, so it could be rectified before the next flight. The aircraft, designated ZK-OKQ, was grounded in June 2020 due to the pandemic. It returned to service in February, after undergoing maintenance in Auckland.<br/>