Federal officials are investigating a Southwest Airlines flight that veered off course and flew close to the air traffic control tower at LaGuardia Airport last month. The FAA said Thursday that the plane flew off course due to bad weather as it approached for landing at the busy New York City airport. After circling the airport once, the plane flew as low as 300 feet (90 meters), according to data from Flightradar24.com. An air traffic controller – speaking in an unusually urgent tone – told the pilots to abandon their landing and climb to 600m, according to audio captured by LiveATC.net. The controller said the plane was not lined up with the runway; it appeared to be east of the intended landing route. “He was not going to land on the runway,” the controller said. The March 23 flight was diverted to Baltimore, where the plane landed safely. After a brief stop, the plane flew back to New York, Southwest said. “The FAA is investigating and will determine if the aircraft flew over the tower at LaGuardia,” an agency spokesperson said. The National Transportation Safety Board said it was also investigating but did not plan to issue any immediate reports.<br/>
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Turkish carrier Southwind Airlines is rejecting allegations that it has connections with Russia, after being refused permission for operations to European destinations. Southwind operates services from Antalya and has about a dozen aircraft including Boeing 777-300s and Airbus A330-200s, as well as single-aisle types. Finnish transport and communications agency Traficom had received a request from Southwind to start operations to Finland, but in March the agency stated that it had informed Southwind that its services were not permitted. Traficom believes Southwind’s main ownership and effective control “does not belong” to Turkish citizens as required by the bilateral air services agreement. “According to our assessment, the company is backed by Russian entities,” says Traficom chief Jarkko Saarimaki The agency says operation of the airline, as a result, is not compatible with European Union sanctions against Russia over the Ukrainian conflict. Southwind says Finnish authorities filed a complaint to the European Union and an “airspace ban” has been imposed. But it claims this measure – put in place on 28 March, just before the Easter holiday period – has been implement “without providing any evidence or concrete justification”.<br/>
The latest in a string of “disappearing” flight attendants from Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) did not simply walk away and vanish during a Toronto layover, but was arrested for carrying two counterfeit Canada Border Service Agency (CBSA) port stamps, and not passports as multiple Pakistani news sources reported it to be. According to the Pakistan news channel ARY News, a flight attendant arrived in Toronto March 28 on flight PK789 from Lahore. The outlet reported that she was then arrested by Canadian immigration authorities after they found several passports belonging to different people in her luggage. The Express Tribune, an English-language newspaper based in Pakistan, also referred to passports in a news story about the incident published March 29. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the CBSA confirmed the arrest but said the items were not passports. “On March 28, 2024, a flight attendant for Pakistan International Airlines arriving at Pearson International Airport was sent to Secondary for examination and within one of their suitcases the examining border services officer located two counterfeit CBSA port stamps,” she said. The 43-year-old female flight attendant has been charged with one count of smuggling, one count of forgery instruments and one count of counterfeiting mark. “To be clear, [the flight attendant] … had two physical CBSA counterfeit port stamps, not stamp impressions.” A port stamp is a rubber stamp used by border officials to indicate the date and location of an entry or exit from that country.<br/>
Gulf Air, the national carrier of the Kingdom of Bahrain, will launch four weekly flights from Bahrain to Munich, Germany starting July 2024. This move is part of the airline’s plans to enhance its network throughout Europe, offering passengers an array of options while meeting their increasing demand for both leisure and business travel. Gulf Air will operate from Bahrain International Airport to Munich International Airport, ensuring convenient connectivity using its Airbus 321neo aircraft. In addition to the Munich route, the airline continues to strengthen its European presence through seasonal destinations, including the recently added summer flights to Nice Geneva, Malaga, and Bodrum. The addition of Munich increases the airline’s Germanic operations to 11 weekly flights, as Gulf Air operates daily flights to the cosmopolitan city of Frankfurt. The first scheduled flight between Bahrain and Germany was operated in 1986, when Gulf Air’s inaugural flight from the Kingdom of Bahrain to Frankfurt commenced.<br/>