The US Justice Department has issued updated guidelines for victim and witness assistance after the government came under harsh criticism from the families of those killed in two Boeing 737 MAX crashes. US District Judge Reed O'Connor in Texas ruled on Friday that people killed in two Boeing 737 MAX crashes are legally considered "crime victims." He still must decide on what remedy should be imposed after making the determination. The revised guidelines detail "when and how department employees work with victims and witnesses of crime to ensure that their voices are heard and that they are protected during criminal justice proceedings," the Justice Department said. In December, some victims' relatives argued the department violated their rights when it struck the January 2021 agreement with Boeing over the two crashes in a five-month period that killed 346 people. The families argued the US government "lied and violated their rights through a secret process," and asked a judge to rescind Boeing's immunity from criminal prosecution, which was part of the $2.5b agreement, and arraigning Boeing on the felony charges. The revised guidelines significantly expand support for people significantly harmed by crime but may not meet the statutory definition of "victim." They also require earlier notification and consultation and say "prosecutors should, as appropriate, notify victims of plea agreements, deferred prosecution agreements, and non-prosecution agreements before a charging document is filed."<br/>
general
Major US airlines are criticizing the Biden administration's latest plans to publicly pressure them into offering additional passenger benefits. The group that represents the nation's largest air carriers, Airlines for America, says the Department of Transportation's latest ask of air carriers involves delayed passengers and would be "punitive" rather than provide transparency to customers. "We support practical solutions that will actually improve the customer experience and strengthen operations across the National Airspace System -- this latest request by the Department of Transportation is not one of those," Airlines for America said. Ahead of the busy Labor Day weekend, DOT rolled out a so-called dashboard specifying what benefits the 10 largest US airlines have committed to provide travelers when flights are interrupted. The dashboard was launched in response to a summer that saw nearly 56,000 flight cancellations, and when airlines and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg were sparring over whose staffing issues were most to blame for the mess. The White House said launching the dashboard pressured airlines to improve their fine print policies. But airlines are taking exception to the DOT's plans to add additional information to the dashboard. Airlines for America and the Department of Transportation declined to comment on the specifics of the government's request and plans. Reuters reported the ask is that airlines commit to providing travelers who they delay by more than three hours with credits, frequent flier points or $100. Airlines were asked to respond to the request by Monday.<br/>
The long-awaited arrival of free, dependable Wi-Fi on planes will be a boon to fliers in the coming years. Investors, maybe not so much. Anyone who has tried to use in-flight Wi-Fi over the past two decades knows that, when available, the service is slow and frustrating. The historic market leader, Colorado-based Gogo, based its coverage on cell towers, which struggled to serve planes flying at high altitudes, leading demand to permanently undershoot forecasts. When Gogo started contracting satellite coverage for overseas trips, it appeared to pave the way for a revolution fueled by the ongoing boom in the satellite industry and the wider space economy. Yet massive cost overruns and the pandemic drove Gogo to sell its commercial-aviation unit in 2020 to Intelsat, a satellite company then undergoing bankruptcy. British peer OneWeb went bust the same year. The sorry saga underscores the uncertain path of investor returns in this promising yet capital-hungry industry. The potential is clear: Leased in-flight Wi-Fi capacity is forecast to increase 19-fold by 2031, according to Euroconsult, much of it in the underexploited "Ka-band." Story has more. <br/>
The propeller — a relic from the dawn of powered flight more than a century ago — is making a comeback as an emblem of aviation’s greener future. Rotors are proliferating on futuristic air taxis and plane prototypes powered by hydrogen and electricity. The old-school feature is also central to a radical new engine that could one day replace the turbofans on today’s jetliners as climate change pushes the industry to innovate its way out of fossil-fuel dependence. That design, developed by General Electric and France’s Safran, could burn 20% to 30% less fuel with similar or less noise than their latest offering for single-aisle jets, executives say. They’re angling to put the engine, with its giant whirling propellers, on workhorse planes by the mid-2030s. The invention push makes for some dizzyingly expensive and consequential wagers for some of the sector’s most prominent companies. Boeing, Airbus and enginemakers such as Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc need to plow billions of dollars into producing more environmentally friendly planes that will fly well past the 2040s. But it’s not clear yet which technologies will provide the best path forward, or when airlines will be ready to embrace them. The financial toll of a misstep could linger for decades — or even wipe out a company — while engineering hurdles and regulatory scrutiny loom as potential roadblocks.<br/>
The head of one of the world’s largest air cargo handlers has brushed off the deteriorating outlook for global trade, arguing that the rise of ecommerce and growing demand for faster deliveries are driving a long-term shift towards moving goods by plane. Worldwide Flight Services CE Craig Smyth said that air cargo, historically a relatively small part of the global supply chain, was playing an increasingly significant role as more shipping groups invested in aircraft fleets. “We’re pretty excited about [that] growth,” he said. “Because of ecommerce . . . there’s definitely a shift that is structural, that is permanent,” he said. Online shopping deliveries now account for a fifth of the cargo that WFS is moving in some parts of the world. Paris-based WFS, which provides ramps, cargo handling and other on-the-ground services to airlines, is one of several companies involved in a dealmaking spree in the air cargo sector. In September, Singapore ground handling business Sats completed a E1.2b takeover of WFS, a move that the companies said would create the industry’s largest group in terms of cargo volume handled. Meanwhile, the world’s biggest shipping container group, Geneva-based Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), is preparing to launch its first air cargo service in the coming months following a bid earlier this year to acquire a majority stake in ITA Airways, successor to bankrupt Alitalia.<br/>
Archer Aviation said it aims to make about 250 battery-electric air taxis in 2025 and scale up production in the following years, after setting a goal of getting its aircraft certified by the end of 2024. "In our first year, we will build 250 aircraft, our second year will build 500 aircraft, our third year will build 650 aircraft and then we scale it up to around 2000 aircraft per year," CEO Adam Goldstein said. Archer aims to certify its pilot-plus-four-passenger aircraft, 'Midnight', by end-2024, though the US FAA is still in the process of drawing up certification rules for these futuristic aircraft. "In terms of aircraft production, we have estimated in our Archer model around 20 units in 2025," JPM analyst Bill Peterson said. "We are not negative on the space, but think it will take a little longer to play out with the ramp not as steep as these companies had projected in their SPAC decks from over a year ago," he added. Archer shares haven fallen 54% so far this year. Once certified, the California-based start-up's electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft will compete in a crowded market with dozens of other developers such as Joby Aviation and Vertical Aerospace Ltd vying to revamp urban transportation.<br/>
A first-of-its-kind panel organized by NASA opened a study on Monday of what the government calls "unidentified aerial phenomena," commonly termed UFOs, bringing together experts from scientific fields ranging from physics to astrobiology. The 16-member panel, convened with little fanfare, will focus its inquiry entirely on unclassified sightings and other data collected from civilian government and commercial sectors, according to NASA. The team's inquiry is separate from a newly formalized Pentagon-based investigation of unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs, reported by military aviators and analyzed by US defense and intelligence officials. The parallel NASA and Pentagon efforts highlight a turning point for the US government after spending decades deflecting, debunking and discrediting observations of unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, dating back to the 1940s. The term UFOs, long associated with notions of flying saucers and alien spacecraft, has been replaced in official government parlance by "UAP." Announcing the formation of its panel in June, NASA said: "There is no evidence UAPs are extraterrestrial in origin." A Pentagon report issued a year earlier likewise found insufficient data to determine the nature of more than 140 credible sightings documented by military observers since 2004, mostly Navy personnel. <br/>