At least 68 people were killed Sunday when an aircraft went down near the city of Pokhara in central Nepal, a government official said, the country’s deadliest plane crash in more than 30 years. Seventy-two people – four crew members and 68 passengers – were on board the ATR 72 plane operated by Nepal’s Yeti Airlines when it crashed, Yeti Airlines spokesman Sudarshan Bartaula said. Thirty-seven were men, 25 were women, three were children and three were infants, Nepal’s civil aviation authority reported. Search efforts were called off after dark, Army spokesman Krishna Prasad Bhandari said, and will resume Monday morning. Hundreds of first responders had been still working to locate the remaining four individuals before then, Bhandari said. Sunday’s incident was the third-deadliest crash in the Himalayan nation’s history, according to data from the Aviation Safety Network. The only incidents in which more people were killed took place in July and September 1992. Those crashes involved aircraft run by Thai Airways and Pakistan International airlines and left 113 and 167 people dead, respectively. The civil aviation authority said that 53 of the passengers and all four crew members were Nepali. Fifteen foreign nationals were on the plane as well: five were Indian, four were Russian and two were Korean. The rest were individual citizens of Australia, Argentina, France and Ireland. The aircraft had been flying from the capital of Kathmandu to Pokhara, the country’s second-most populous city and a gateway to the Himalayas, the country’s state media The Rising Nepal reported. Pokahara is located some 129 km west of Kathmandu.<br/>
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The computer failure that prompted a halt of all US flight departures was caused when a data file was damaged as a result of a failure to follow government procedures, the Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday. Unspecified “personnel” were responsible for corrupting the file, which led to the outage of an FAA computer system that sends safety notices to pilots, the agency said in a statement. That triggered the FAA to order a halt to all US departing flights, causing thousands of delays and cancellations Wednesday. “The system is functioning properly and cancellations today were below 1%,” the agency said. The preliminary indications are that two people working for a contractor introduced errors in the core data used on the system known as Notice to Air Missions, or Notam, according to a person familiar with the FAA review. The person asked not to be identified as speaking about the sensitive, ongoing issue. Notams are advisories to pilots on safety-critical conditions at airports and other areas aircraft might traverse, including everything from warnings about bird activity to runway construction. Like other computer systems critical to operating flights, the FAA has imposed procedures to ensure data aren’t damaged by technicians working on them, said the person. The file or files were altered in spite of rules that prohibit that kind of change on a live system. Agency officials are attempting to determine whether the two people made the changes accidentally or intentionally, and if there was any malicious intent, the person said. When the system began having problems Tuesday night, technicians switched to a backup. But because the backup was attempting to access the same damaged data, it also didn’t work, the person said. <br/>
In the days leading up to Christmas, the CE of Southwest Airlines, Bob Jordan, thought the company would quickly recover from the frigid weather that forced thousands of flight cancellations nationwide. But that changed by Dec. 25 when it became clear that the airline’s problems were spiraling out of control. After a sleepless night, Jordan and his team decided that the only way to pull the airline’s operations back from the brink would be to cancel even more flights: around two-thirds of its schedule for several days. In an interview this week, Jordan described how things went so wrong for Southwest. The company’s meltdown disrupted the lives of about 2m customers, ruined countless holiday trips and left travelers sleeping in airport terminals. Regulators and lawmakers are calling for investigations and stiff penalties against the company. More than two weeks after the crisis began, the airline is still trying to fully understand why its operations, long considered by analysts to be among the most efficient in the airline industry, failed so spectacularly. It has hired a consulting firm, Oliver Wyman, to study the debacle. Jordan also said Southwest was working with GE Digital to add new functions to software that the airline uses to assist in scheduling crews. The airline’s scheduling system, often referred to as SkySolver, has been criticized by labor union leaders for not reassigning pilots and flight attendants quickly enough after flights were canceled or delayed, even as other airlines snapped back to normal. Perhaps the most daunting task for Jordan, who has been with Southwest since 1988 but has been CE for less than a year, is regaining the trust of employees and customers. The interview is condensed and edited for clarity.<br/>
A group of more than 120 US lawmakers told the FAA its computer outage on Wednesday that disrupted 11,000 flights was "completely unacceptable" and demanded the agency explain how it will avoid future incidents. House Transportation Committee Chair Sam Graves and the top Democrat on the panel Rick Larsen said in a Friday letter from committee and other House colleagues to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg that they intend to "conduct vigorous oversight of the Department of Transportation’s plan to prevent these disruptions from occurring again." Lawmakers want details of what went wrong with a pilot messaging database that led to the first nationwide grounding of departing flights since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. They want Buttigieg to provide an "estimated cost to commercial airlines and passengers due to the delays resulting from the outage" even though Buttigieg has said the government will not compensate passengers for delays caused by an FAA computer issue. The House lawmakers want a briefing and detailed responses to questions including about the causes of the system failure, the FAA’s response to the problem and the redundancy built into the system. Buttigieg's office and the FAA did not immediately comment on Friday. <br/>
A Hawaiian Airlines pilot said that a cloud “shot up” like a smoke plume just before the airplane experienced severe turbulence that injured 25 people last month, according to a preliminary report by federal investigators. The NTSB said in the report that the captain of the flight reported that conditions were “smooth with clear skies.” Then, “a cloud shot up vertically (like a smoke plume) in front of the airplane in a matter of seconds, and there was not enough time to deviate,” the report said. The captain alerted the lead flight attendant that the flight might experience turbulence and within one to three seconds the airplane encountered severe turbulence, the report said, citing the captain’s account. “Shortly after the turbulence-related upset, the lead flight attendant informed the flight crew that there were multiple injuries in the cabin,” the report said. It added that a post-accident examination of the weather in the area “revealed that there was an occluded frontal system with an associated upper-level trough” moving toward the Hawaiian Islands. The turbulence left 25 people injured — six of them seriously — on the Dec. 18 flight from Phoenix to Hawaii that had 281 passengers and 10 crew members, according to the report. Previously, officials said that three dozen people were injured, 11 of them seriously, and that there were 238 passengers aboard. The turbulence struck about 40 minutes before the flight was scheduled to land at Honolulu International Airport. The plane sustained minor damage, though the report did not provide details.<br/>
Sunwing Airlines said it failed to serve customers because of a shortage of pilots over the holiday. Air Canada blamed bad weather for chaos at airports that left thousands of customers stranded. “We know we could have done better,” Sunwing President Len Corrado said at a Canadian House of Commons committee hearing on Thursday. Winter storms of snow and ice, a lack of airline staff, and operational problems at airports forced Sunwing, a leisure carrier, to cancel 67 flights. The company has received 7,000 complaints; some passengers were stuck for days in Mexico without knowing when they would return. Sunwing went from 40 pilots during the Covid pandemic to more than 400 for this season, Corrado said. But it still couldn’t hire quickly enough: More than 60 pilots were expected under a government program for temporary foreign workers, but their applications weren’t successful. Air Canada executives said the airline was fully staffed, with a prudent schedule and 15 aircraft set aside to help handle disruptions. Still, storms and cold weather caused bottlenecks in Vancouver, Calgary, and Toronto. “In such situations, we prioritize international flights, which are more difficult to recover because of the long flight times,” said Kevin O’Connor, Air Canada’s vice president for system operations control. “Overall, we operated 98% of international flights during the holiday period.” But in many cases, luggage didn’t show up on time. Transport Minister Omar Alghabra plans to strengthen air passenger regulations in the coming months. “Passengers are told too often that they are not entitled to compensation when they really are,” he said. “This situation has generated an avalanche of complaints to the Transportation Agency since last summer.” The minister said airlines must provide refunds within 30 days when flights are canceled. “Passengers are not on the hook for a canceled flight even if it was the weather or a pandemic.”<br/>
Middle Eastern carrier Emirates is to offer Inmarsat’s GX Aviation high-speed broadband connectivity on its Airbus A350 fleet, which it expects to enter service next year. Emirates says the A350s will be the first aircraft in its fleet to use the GX satellite network. The Dubai-based carrier has 50 A350s on order, all currently listed as the -900 variant. Emirates revealed last year that it had selected the Thales Avant Up in-flight entertainment system for installation in the twinjets. The system includes 4K displays to support its entertainment product ‘ICE’. Emirates says the GX Aviation broadband service will offer “enhanced” connectivity and greater coverage on its flights, including Middle East-North America services passing near the Arctic region. “We understand the importance of being connected during flights,” says Emirates COO Adel al Redha. “The advanced capabilities being introduced by the forthcoming satellites are particularly important, as this will boost capacity across our global network.” Emirates says the GX network currently includes five Ka-band satellites with seven additional satellite payloads planned. Two Inmarsat-6 satellites are set to enter service this year, followed by three geostationary and two high-elliptical orbit satellites for high-latitude coverage.<br/>
Saudi Arabia-based carrier Flynas said its board approved establishing local units in two more countries as part of a plan to become the Middle East’s largest discount airline and one of the five biggest globally. Flynas, headquartered in Riyadh, said it would seek so-called Air Operator Certificates in two unidentified countries as it looks to double the scale of its operations, according to a statement to Bloomberg. Saudi Arabia is pumping money into the aviation industry as part of the country’s push to make the economy less dependent on oil and become one of the world’s top tourism destinations by 2030. The plans include a new airport in Riyadh and a new airline, both to be owned by the kingdom’s powerful sovereign wealth fund. As part of the push, Flynas plans to expand its existing jet orders to 250 and previously said it was considering widebody models such as the Boeing Co 787 and Airbus SE A350 , pivoting beyond its current fleet of Airbus SE narrowbody jets. Flynas, which began flying as Nas Air in 2007, is partly owned by Kingdom Holding Co., the investment vehicle of Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal.<br/>
India's national company law tribunal has allowed the ownership of carrier Jet Airways to be transferred to a consortium, led by UAE-based businessman Murari Lal Jalan and London-based Kalrock Capital, two sources told Reuters. Once India's biggest private airline, Jet ran out of cash in April 2019. It was supposed to resume operations by the first quarter of 2022 under its new owners. However, it is deadlocked with creditors over the resolution plan to lift the airline out of bankruptcy. Jet owes its lenders about 180b rupees ($2.21b). "The next step will involve the Jalan committee bringing in capital, implementing the plan and restarting operations," a direct source aware of the judgement said. The lenders will take a call on any subsequent steps after deliberation among the lender consortium, post the entire order is uploaded, a banker said. The tribunal, which had already approved the consortium's resolution plan for Jet, also set the effective date of ownership as Nov. 16, 2022, one of the sources said.<br/>
Hong Kong’s Greater Bay Airlines launched a regular service to Japan on Thursday, hoping to serve passengers aching to travel after years of Covid-19 restrictions. The flight departed for Tokyo’s Narita International Airport at about 9.20am, while inbound passengers are expected to touch down in Hong Kong at 4pm. The carrier already flies five times a week to Taipei, while its service to Seoul is due to begin next Tuesday. “Greater Bay Airlines will create a new aviation chapter with an innovative operation mode,” chairman Bill Wong Cho-bau said at a ceremony at Hong Kong International Airport before take-off. “Along with the Greater Bay Area development, we can help to turn Hong Kong into an international aviation hub.” Secretary for Transport and Logistics Lam Sai-hung said the airline’s launch showed the market had full confidence in Hong Kong’s aviation industry. Airline CEO Stanley Hui said the flight was more than 80% full with over 150 passengers on board. “I am happy with this result as we only rolled this out in a short period of time,” he said.<br/>
Bain Capital said on Monday it is looking to relist airline Virgin Australia, in a move that would come as the domestic aviation market bounces back strongly from pandemic lows. A listing of Australia's second-biggest carrier would likely be one of the country's largest initial public offerings (IPOs) in 2023 after capital markets activity plunged last year amid global financial market uncertainty. "In the coming months we will consider how to best position Virgin Australia for continued growth and long term prosperity," Mike Murphy, a Sydney-based partner at the U.S. private equity firm, said in a statement. "It is Bain Capital's current intention to retain a significant shareholding in a future IPO of Virgin Australia." Bain said it would seek advice on the best timing and structure to return the airline to the Australian Securities Exchange but added that no decisions had been made as to if and when that would happen. It sent a request for proposals on the listing to investment banks on Monday and expects to make appointments within a month, said two people with direct knowledge of the matter, declining to be identified as they were not authorised to speak with media. Boutique firm Reunion Capital has been appointed as a financial advisor on the deal, the people said, and will oversee the appointment of investment banks to lead the IPO.<br/>
Firefighters, aviation authorities and most recently ... an animal psychic have joined the Bolivian government's mission to help find Tito, a gray and white male tabby cat that went missing on a domestic flight last month. The plight of Tito and its determined owner, Andrea Iturre, has captivated the nation. Consumer Rights Minister Jorge Silva said last week that authorities had even called in a physic to try to make contact and locate the cat. "Through her techniques, (the psychic) can communicate with Tito to find out where he is," Silva said in a radio interview. "We are exhausting all our resources to find Tito." The cat went missing on Dec. 8, Iturre recounted on a social media post that went viral, after she was told by the airline the cat had to travel in the hold of plane flying from Tarija to Santa Cruz. When she landed, her pet was nowhere to be found. On Dec. 12, Public Works Minister Edgar Montano announced a big state-led search effort. "The cat likes tuna, so we have left out tuna," he told a news conference, adding he suspected the cat may have been roaming the original airport since the departure date. Some animal lovers have criticised the airline, BoA, over the missing cat. BoA has said little publicly about the case so far and it did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment on Friday.<br/>