The US FAA late Sunday recommended operators of Boeing 737-900ER aircraft visually inspect mid-exit door plugs to ensure the component is properly secured. The FAA on Jan. 6 grounded 171 Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes following the mid-air cabin blowout of a door plug on an eight-week old Alaska Airlines jet. The FAA said the Boeing 737-900ER is not part of the newer MAX fleet but has the same door plug design. The FAA issued a "Safety Alert for Operators" Sunday disclosing some airlines have conducted additional inspections on the 737-900ER mid-exit door plugs "and have noted findings with bolts during the maintenance inspections." A Boeing spokesperson said in an email that "we fully support the FAA and our customers in this action." The Boeing 737-900ER has over 11m hours of operation and 3.9m flight cycles. The FAA said the door plug has not been an issue with this model.<br/>
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Mike Whitaker knows first hand how challenging flying can be. The head of the US’s aviation safety agency once damaged his Cessna after a bungled landing soon after gaining his private pilot’s licence. The incident took place in his first stint at the FAA when he was the agency’s deputy head during Barack Obama’s presidency. No one was hurt but the FAA did investigate. “I was in the unusual position of being the number two guy at the FAA now being investigated by the FAA for not being a very good pilot,” Whitaker recalled during a 2019 interview on Aviation News Talk’s podcast. Whitaker had decided to get a pilot’s licence after he was appointed to the agency in 2013, hoping to understand its work and the air traffic control system better. “I needed to just not understand it at a theoretical level, but actually operate in the system,” he said. Whitaker, who returned to the FAA as its administrator last October, will need all that thoroughness to steer the agency through its current challenges. The aviation watchdog already had a long to-do list: a shortage of air traffic controllers has periodically crippled air traffic in the US, while safety concerns have increased after airline near misses. Precarious Congressional funding has hampered investment in infrastructure. On top of all this is the crisis at Boeing. The US plane maker is under pressure again after a section of a Boeing Max 737 9 aircraft blew out in mid-flight a fortnight ago.<br/>
A Boeing cargo plane headed for Puerto Rico was diverted back to Miami International Airport shortly after takeoff when an engine failed, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The episode is another potential setback for Boeing, which has been thrust into the spotlight in recent weeks over quality control concerns. Atlas Air Flight 5Y095 landed safely after experiencing an “engine malfunction” shortly after departure, the airline said early Friday. Video taken from the ground appeared to showed flames repeatedly shooting from the plane as it flew. The FAA said in its initial report on the incident that a post-flight inspection revealed “a softball-size hole” above the No. 2 engine. It said it would investigate further. “The crew followed all standard procedures and safely returned” to the airport, Atlas Air said in a statement. “At Atlas, safety is always our top priority and we will be conducting a thorough inspection to determine the cause.” It was unclear what kind of cargo the plane was carrying. Data collected by FlightAware, which tracks flight information, showed the aircraft was a Boeing 747-8 that left its gate at Miami International at 10:11 p.m. on Thursday. It returned to the airport around 10:30, the F.A.A. said. A spokeswoman for Boeing said early Friday that the company was deferring comment to Atlas Air. Atlas Air, which started in 1992 and is based in New York, claims to operate the world’s largest fleet of Boeing 747 freighter aircraft, according to its website. The company also provides customers with a selection of planes, including Boeing 777s and 737s, for cargo and passenger operations.<br/>
Travelers flying to the UK and Ireland are being forced into lengthy diversions and even to different countries as storm Isha throws planes off course. Passengers on Ryanair Flight FR633 had an experience that ultimately ended up being a 10-hour trip to another destination. The Copenhagen to Dublin flight, normally two hours long, diverted to Manchester before a four-hour stopover. In a second attempt to reach Dublin, it circled for three hours, before being diverted to Liverpool. The UK’s meteorological agency said in a post on X that Isha was bringing heavy rain and strong winds to many parts of the country. Northeast Scotland was placed under the highest weather alert for “extremely strong” winds that could endanger lives and cause structural damage to buildings. Passengers onboard Ryanair Flight 5911 to Dublin from Lanzarote in Spain diverted to Bordeaux in France, making that a six-hour trip again not to their final destination. Another Ryanair service, Flight FR2970 from Tenerife, another one of the Canary Islands in Spain, attempted to land in Edinburgh before diverting to Cologne in Germany.<br/>
Airlines cancelled 102 flights in and out of Dublin airport on Sunday due to a storm that was forecast to rage for the rest of the day, the airport operator said. Storm Isha had also forced 24 aborted landings by 1700 GMT, while 27 flights opted to divert to other airports, Dublin Airport said in a post on social media platform X. Ireland's national meteorological service Met Eireann issued an orange weather warning early on Sunday for most of the country, including Dublin, meaning the winds could significantly impact people, property and activity in an area. Parts of the west and northwest were placed under a more severe red warning.<br/>
The UK’s biggest airports are balking at a long-awaited change that promises to ease the slog through passenger security queues, as the hubs struggle to meet a June deadline to switch over to next-generation scanners. London Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Stansted airports — the four largest in the UK — will all miss the target or only partially implement the new equipment on time. The more-powerful machines use X-ray technology to scan liquids and electronics inside hand luggage, eliminating the need for passengers to remove the items for pre-flight checks. Tardy progress toward the new system casts a cloud over boarding requirements during the busy summer season, as travelers prepare to pass through security lanes hosting a mix of new and old scanners. In practical terms, passengers across the UK will still need to separate their shampoo and laptops, just in case they wind up in a queue with the older equipment. An incomplete transition “could create a lot of confusion for travelers about what the rules are for liquids and removing electronics at different UK airports, leading to more delays,” said Rory Boland, editor of non-profit consumer guide Which? Travel. “Over the past few years, certain airports have struggled with delays and keeping up with demand at peak holiday times.” Security waits can last an hour or more at the worst-performing UK airports, according to a November 2022 Which? survey. The government set the current deadline after postponing an original 2022 cutoff because of the Covid-19 pandemic. <br/>
A rescue team has reached a private jet that crashed in northern Afghanistan and is treating survivors at the site, according to Russia’s Federal Agency for Air Transport. According to preliminary information, four of the six people aboard the Dassault Falcon 10 aircraft are injured but alive, the Russian authority said, citing the Russian embassy in Afghanistan. The fate of the other two is not yet known, the statement said. The accident occurred in Badakhshan province at about 7 p.m. local time on Saturday, the Afghan aviation ministry said in a statement. The Moroccan-registered plane was an air ambulance that was flying from Thailand to Moscow and refueled at Gaya airport, according to India’s civil aviation ministry. “The plane crashed in the high mountains of Badakhshan province,” Zabihullah Amiri, the provincial head of information and cultural department, said by phone. The aircraft is co-owned by an unidentified individual and Atletik Grup LLC registered in the Moscow region, the Russian authority said, adding the flight departed from Gaya, India, and was headed for the Zhukovsky airport near Moscow. <br/>
Air travel to and from Israel plunged in the last three months of 2023 amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, but the number of passengers travelling through Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv still rose 10% in 2023. The number of international travellers reached 21.1m in 2023, up from 19.2m in 2022, the Israel Airports Authority (IAA) said in a report on Sunday. Over the first 9 months of the year, before the Oct. 7 attacks by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, passenger traffic surged by an annual 38.5%, to 19.1m. But since then, traffic has plunged, culminating in a 78% drop in November and 71% dive in December, the IAA said. With almost all foreign carriers having halted flights to and from Israel as a result of heavy rocket attacks from Gaza and the war, flag carrier El Al Israel Airlines benefited, with the number of passengers rising 32.5% to 5.5m in 2023 for a 26.3% market share at Ben Gurion.<br/>
Japan’s transport ministry is expecting landing aids damaged during the Tokyo Haneda runway collision to be restored to operation on 20 January. The accident on 2 January occurred when a Japan Airlines Airbus A350-900 touching down on runway 34R struck a Japanese coast guard De Havilland Dash 8 waiting to take off. Precision-approach path indicator lights on the north side of the runway were damaged during the accident. The A350 rolled along the runway before veering off the north side and being consumed by fire – although all 379 occupants successfully evacuated. Runway 34R returned to operation on 8 January although the lighting damage meant flights arriving to the opposite-direction 16L had to use different approach strategies. “As the restoration work and functionality confirmation for the facility has been completed, it will resume operation on [20 January],” the ministry states.<br/>
India will not have to wait too long for a Boeing aircraft that is designed and manufactured in the subcontinent, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the inauguration of the planemaker's engineering center in Bengaluru on Friday. The Boeing India Engineering & Technology Center (BIETC) in the capital city of the southern Indian state of Karnataka is the company's largest facility outside of the United States and will focus on research and development. The company said it had invested $200m in the campus, which is spread across 43 acres, but did not provide details on the number of people the facility will employ. Boeing currently employs more than 6,000 people in India across its various centers. At the event, which was also attended by senior Boeing executives including COO Stephanie Pope, Modi stressed the need to build an aircraft manufacturing ecosystem in India. "Given that there is so much potential in India, we need to rapidly build an aircraft manufacturing ecosystem in the country," Modi said.<br/>
Indian private aircraft provider JetSetGo is planning to offer more flights connecting smaller cities, as it seeks to cash in on growing demand for travel from a mushrooming class of wealthy individuals beyond the urban centres. India is the world's fastest-growing aviation market and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has been pushing to build more airports, but there is also heightened demand for private jets as the ultra wealthy spend more. Indian airport officials, for example, have been scrambling this week to provide parking space for private jets at many airports near the northern city of Ayodhya, where a grand Hindu temple is set to open. JetSetGo on Friday said it has partnered with makers of smaller jets - Horizon Aircraft, Electra.aero and Overair - to acquire 150 aircraft in a deal valued at $780m that will provide connectivity to smaller cities in India.<br/>
Foreign investors would feel more confident about increasing their aircraft leasing business in India if the country firmed up legislation on the repossession rights of lessors, a top executive at AerCap Holdings said. Debate over the rights of lessors in India came to the fore last year when budget carrier GoFirst filed for bankruptcy, a move that blocked lessors from repossessing their aircraft. This sparked a confidence crisis among lessors who warned of rising leasing costs in future. Many are still embroiled in a legal battle to recover their assets. India in 2008 ratified the Cape Town Convention, an international treaty protecting rights of lessors over their aircraft in case of defaults by airlines, but has yet to pass a law. "Legislating the Cape Town Convention is going to give the confidence to the world that India understands what it takes to manage when foreign investors put mobile assets into a country," Suthesh Selvaratnam, vice president, leasing for Asia Pacific at AerCap told Reuters.<br/>