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Families of some of the people who died in two Boeing 737 Max crashes are asking federal officials to fine Boeing $24.8b and move quickly to prosecute the company on a criminal charge that was set aside three years ago. A lawyer for the families said in a letter Wednesday to the Justice Department that a large fine is justified “because Boeing’s crime is the deadliest corporate crime in U.S. history.” The lawyer, Paul Cassell, also wrote that the government should prosecute officials who were leading Boeing at the time of the crashes in 2018 and 2019, including then-CEO Dennis Muilenburg. In all, 346 people were killed in the crashes. The first crash occurred when a Boeing 737 Max 8 operated by Indonesia’s Lion Air plunged into the Java Sea in October 2018 — and the second in March 2019, when an Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max 8 crashed nearly straight down into a field six minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa. The push by the families comes as the Justice Department considers whether to revive a dormant criminal charge of fraud against Boeing. Last month, prosecutors determined that the company violated a 2021 settlement that protected the company from being prosecuted for allegedly misleading regulators who approved the Max. The Justice Department has until July 7 to tell a federal judge in Texas whether it will revive the case. During a hearing Tuesday, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said there is “mounting evidence” that the company should be prosecuted. Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company previously has said it met its obligations under the 2021 settlement.<br/>

At least two major airlines have warned pilots that if a bird hits one of the engines on a Boeing 737 Max, the passenger cabin could become filled with smoke. Documents newly obtained by CNN detail that Boeing warned Southwest Airlines and American Airlines of the potential problem in February and both airlines in turn sent alerts to their respective pilot groups. “Boeing has received two reports of CFM LEAP-1B engine failures following large bird strikes on takeoff and initial climb,” said the alert to American Airlines pilots. Southwest’s alert says such a strike could cause oil to burn and the “immediate presence of smoke and fumes” entering the passenger cabin “through the air conditioning system.” The issue was not made widely public until being first reported by The Seattle Times but is significant as it could signal another potential issue with 737 Max aircraft which have been dogged by manufacturing and design issues. Engine maker CFM International says their engine has met “bird ingestion certification requirements, and the engines performed as designed during these events.” The company underscored that birds in the two incidents that prompted pilot bulletins were much larger than required for certification testing and that the CFM engine still performed as designed. The FAA says it “will continue working with Boeing on the investigation into these incidents and will determine if additional actions are required based on the findings.”<br/>

Producers of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in the European Union cannot increase output fast enough to meet quotas, the CEO of Frankfurt airport operator Fraport said, adding the new European Commission would have to address the issue. The fuel, made from bio-based materials such as used cooking oil or wood chips could cut carbon emissions by up to 80%compared with conventional fuel, and is regarded in the sector as essential to making it more sustainable. "There is not enough sustainable fuel to meet the quotas," Fraport CEO Stefan Schulte said at an event late on Tuesday. "Production is not ramping up fast enough," he said. The 27-nation European Union, which will be led by a new set of European Commissioners and members of the European Parliament following elections this month, has adopted rules requiring flights departing from EU airports to carry progressively increasing amounts of SAF. The quota will increase to 70% by 2050 and start with 2% of total fuel in 2025, compared with just 0.2% of global jet fuel use now. One of the reasons for the slow uptake is price: biofuel-based SAF costs between three to five times more than traditional jet fuel. SAF producers have complained they lack certainty in terms of how much fuel to produce and that they could face oversupply issues in the coming years.<br/>

Extra workers at Birmingham Airport have been brought in to "explain cabin baggage liquid rules to passengers" who are continuing to face long queues to get through security. The short-term move follows continuing criticism over lengthy hold-ups that have caused some people to miss flights. An enlarged temporary structure with a number of so-called "liquid check stations" has now opened, the airport said. "The more we can do together to reduce the number of bags that don't comply with these rules, the more we can reduce queues at security screening," added CE Nick Barton. Barton previously spoke of his disappointment that restrictions on carrying liquids of more than 100ml in hand luggage, which had been eased, were temporarily reintroduced by the UK government. The airport has spent GBP60m on new scanners in the expectation rules on liquids would be relaxed. Described as next generation security checkpoints, they will scan luggage bags that contain bottles of liquid of up to two litres. Barton said the extra "third-party customer service specialists" would in the meantime explain current rules and help passengers "prepare for security". "These new measures are designed to give passengers a smoother and easier experience though security," he added. The airport boss has previously claimed about one in six passengers going through Birmingham are not following procedures on liquid limits.<br/>

The N'Djamena-Hassan Djamous International Airport of Chad has resumed its regular international passenger flights after hours of suspension following an explosion at an ammunition depot, Senoussi Hassana Abdoulaye, director of the Civil Aviation Authority of Chad, said on Wednesday afternoon. Abdoulaye said in a statement that a Turkish Airlines plane with 58 passengers in transit and other aircraft were grounded at the airport overnight into Wednesday to preserve "the physical and material integrity of these fellow citizens and guest passengers but also of airport infrastructures and aircraft." The explosion, which killed nine people and injured 46 others, occurred Tuesday night at the depot in the Chadian capital of N'Djamena, where the airport is located. "The takeoff of a regular flight of the ASKY company as well as several aircraft prove that the airport installations are spared," Abdoulaye said.<br/>

Hong Kong aviation authorities took about 24 minutes to tell pilots of departing and landing flights that an airport runway was closed due to a cargo plane bursting a tyre, only sharing further details more than an hour after sending the initial warning. Monday’s incident involving Atlas Air cargo flight 5Y4304 resulted in the closure of the city airport’s north runway, one of only two that is currently operational, for more than eight hours and caused delays for about 450 flights. It also raised questions about the facility’s ability to effectively handle emergencies. The Civil Aviation Department told the Post on Wednesday that it began telling aircrew at 7.36am, about 24 minutes after the incident, using an automated information dissemination system to warn pilots of departing and landing flights. The department then gathered information from the Airport Authority and other relevant parties before providing an update at 8.53am and confirming the condition of the closed runway, it added. The Anchorage-bound cargo flight requested permission to make an emergency return at around 6am on Monday, two hours after it had departed Hong Kong. The Boeing 747 freighter burst a tyre as it landed at 7.12am, with airport staff dispatched to help unload its cargo and replace its tyres. The plane was later moved from the runway at around 3.15pm, with the landing strip reopening 30 minutes later. Ng Kam-hung, an assistant professor at Polytechnic University’s department of aeronautical and aviation engineering, said the time frame seemed reasonable given authorities also needed time to perform an on-site investigation.<br/>

For all the mistakes and safety problems Boeing has managed under CEO Dave Calhoun’s watch — resulting in a dozen corporate whistleblowers, multiple groundings and a chunk of a plane’s fuselage literally blowing off in midair — virtually no one has held him to account. Not Boeing’s board of directors, which has responded by lavishing him with a salary and stock options worth more than $20m a year, plus a $45m golden parachute when he retires later this year. Not its customers, aka airlines — and that’s by design. People often call Boeing and Airbus a duopoly, but that suggests there’s some kind of legit competition happening. Once an airline commits to a tribe, it can’t just switch if it decides the other one is making better planes, because that’d involve a ton of money and time retraining staff who tend to specialize in one or the other. And naturally, we the flying public can cry all we want and it won’t matter a lick to Boeing, because we have even less choice than the airlines to pick the aircraft we fly. Until recently, the government had also been largely snoozing. Calhoun was supposed to be overseeing efforts to reform a safety culture that was so broken, Boeing has acknowledged its lapses led to the deaths of 346 people in two separate crashes in 2018 and 2019. It wasn’t until January 5 this year, when a Boeing jet’s door plug blew off shortly after takeoff, that regulators and lawmakers appeared to snap to attention. Tuesday marked the first time ever that Calhoun has had to testify before lawmakers. He faced an intense grilling, fielding one biting question after the next from both Republican and Democratic senators.<br/>

Smoke in the cabin. A tire blowout. A cracked windshield. No shortage of problems can affect a flight, fueling traveler anxiety and contributing to thousands of daily delays and cancellations around the world. But for all of the frustration and alarm such events cause, it can be difficult to interpret and understand their severity. Here’s how aviation safety experts say travelers should think about disruptions when they occur. Several alarming air travel incidents have made headlines in recent weeks — a sharp plunge toward an ocean, an unnerving wobble that damaged the tail of a plane and an aborted departure after an apparent engine fire. But the most common mishaps and malfunctions, even if hair-raising, are not typically severe, experts said. A hydraulic leak, for example, is a familiar occurrence that pilots take seriously, but it is not as disruptive as it may sound. That’s because planes have backup hydraulic systems, which are used to power equipment like the landing gear, brakes, wing flaps and flight controls, allowing planes to take off, fly and land. A plane veering off a runway, in what is known as a runway excursion, makes for captivating video and a possibly terrifying experience for those on board. But it doesn’t necessarily cause significant damage to an airplane or threaten the safety of those on board. The same is true of the wide range of mechanical or maintenance issues that can come up before takeoff, which might force a pilot to hold a plane at its gate or return to the gate from taxiing. Those incidents are important to understand and address, but they are often minor, experts said. Story has more.<br/>

Airbus is expecting its A330neo to secure clearance to operate at higher-altitude airports early next year, following a series of flight tests in Latin America to demonstrate performance capabilities in hot-and-high environments. The airframer flew the A330-900 flight-test airframe, MSN1795, to Mexico and Bolivia for a two-week campaign in the second half of March to illustrate take-off and landing capabilities in the warm and rarified atmospheres. While the earlier A330-200 and -300 models are each certified by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency to operate at airport altitudes up to 12,500ft, the authority has only formally approved the A330-800 and -900 to altitudes of 8,000ft. Airbus says it should obtain 12,500ft certification for the A330neo in Q1 2025. “This will be especially beneficial for airline customers whose networks require such operations,” it states. Airbus conducted tests at Toluca airport, just west of Mexico City, which has a runway elevation of 8,461ft (2,579m). But it also carried out flights at Bolivia’s La Paz airport, where the runway lies at 13,111ft, presenting a greater challenge to aircraft owing to the reduction in lift and thrust from air thinned not only by the high altitude but also the warm local climate. Airbus evaluated climb and approach performance as well as systems checks covering engine starts, low-speed taxiing and rejected take-off. “In the case of the engine starts – a crucial part of the campaign – the tests included special instrumentation to measure the starter air pressure, which would be affected by the high airport altitude,” it states.<br/>

GE Aerospace is developing a hybrid electric engine with the hopes it will power next-generation narrow-body jets by the middle of the next decade. While the technology is still being tested, should GE be successful, it could produce hybrid-engine jets - like a Toyota Prius of the skies - that would go a long way toward cutting the aviation industry's carbon emissions worldwide, half of which come from single-aisle jets. Hybrid cars are common on the roads, but decarbonizing the aerospace industry is considered much more difficult. In hybrid engines, an aircraft uses several energy sources while in flight. Airbus estimates the mix of energy sources - jet fuel or sustainable aviation fuels combined with electricity – reduces fuel consumption by up to 5% compared to a standard flight. GE Aerospace is working with NASA on a project that will embed electric motors or generators in a high-bypass turbofan to supplement power during different phases of operation, company executives said. On Wednesday, the company said it has completed the initial tests of the hybrid components and a baseline test of the engine. It next plans to test the components and the engine together. The global aviation industry has set a goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. But technologies such as electric and hydrogen-powered aircraft are still unproven, making decarbonization a formidable challenge for the industry, which generates about 2% of global emissions.<br/>

A GE Aerospace executive said on Wednesday global supply chains will likely remain challenged even next year, despite a production slowdown at Boeing. Russel Stokes, head of GE Aerospace's commercial engines and services, said while the company is aligned with Boeing's production rates for this year, it is working with suppliers to support a ramp up in production in coming years. "I'm confident that over time things are going to get better," he said. "But...it's still a challenged environment for this year and probably next year." GE Aerospace co-produces the engine for Boeing and Airbus narrow-body jets with France's Safran through their CFM joint venture, which is the sole supplier to Boeing's 737 MAX family of jets. Boeing's jet production has slowed sharply as regulatory scrutiny has mounted since January when a door plug blew off an Alaska Airlines jetliner in mid-air. GE Aerospace has slashed estimates for LEAP jet engine production this year. The slowdown could help a stretched supply chain catch up with demand, but there is also a risk of it further worsening the situation. GE Aerospace CEO Larry Culp has attributed ongoing supply-chain challenges to the pandemic, which led to a plunge in air travel demand, forcing the aviation industry to lay off thousands of workers. Supply chain problems have left the global industry hamstrung. They have not only made it tougher to increase jet production, but have also increased the turnaround time at jet engine repair shops.<br/>