general

In the weeks after a medical transport plane crashed in northeast Philadelphia in January within a minute of takeoff, killing seven people, investigators had hoped that the plane’s cockpit voice recorder would contain clues to what had gone wrong. But after the recorder was recovered from beneath eight feet of soil and debris, those hopes were dashed: The recorder did not record anything during the jet’s final, fatal flight. In fact, it “had likely not been recording audio for several years,” according to a preliminary report released on Thursday by the National Transportation Safety Board. Jeff Guzzetti, a former accident investigator for the N.T.S.B. and the FAA, said the finding was “shocking.” Federal rules for medical transport flights on planes registered in the United States require the use of cockpit voice recorders, though the plane in this case was registered in Mexico. “It really hobbles the investigation at this point, given the lack of other information due to the destruction of this wreckage,” he said. N.T.S.B. officials did not discuss their four-page report, which contained little information to point to the cause of the crash. It said the flight crew was in communication with air traffic control and that no distress calls from the crew had been received. Investigators also recovered the computer for the plane’s Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System, which helps pilots avoid collisions. The computer was still being evaluated to determine whether flight data could be recovered, according to the report. The small medical transport jet crashed less than a minute after it took off, killing seven people and engulfing homes and vehicles in flames in a densely populated residential and commercial area of northeast Philadelphia. <br/>

The FAA briefly halted flights to several Florida airports on Thursday night after a SpaceX Starship testing failure. The incident marks the second time this year that SpaceX experienced a mishap during a flight test of Starship resulting in debris raining down and commercial flights disrupted. Affected airports included Miami International Airport, which is an American Airlines hub, and airports serving Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, and Orlando, Florida. The regulator said, in a statement on Thursday, it is now requiring SpaceX to “perform a mishap investigation into the loss of the Starship vehicle during launch operations on March 6.” During the event, the FAA said, it “activated a Debris Response Area and briefly slowed aircraft outside the area where space vehicle debris was falling or stopped aircraft at their departure location. Normal operations have resumed.” SpaceX said, in a post on X on Thursday night: “During Starship’s ascent burn, the vehicle experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly and contact was lost. Our team immediately began coordination with safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses.”<br/>

Dutch authorities are expected to review a controversial noise-reduction plan for Amsterdam Schiphol airport after a European Commission analysis found it had not given sufficient consideration to potentially influential aspects. Part of the plan involves capping annual flight movements at 478,000. Under a process known as ‘Balanced Approach’ for noise control, European Union member states must consider measures including reducing aircraft noise at source, land use and planning, and noise-abatement procedures, before limiting flights. The Commission has examined the Dutch plan and states that, while authorities “largely” followed the correct procedures, there are “some shortcomings” – particularly the decision to exempt business and general aviation. Treating commercial aviation differently from these other sectors, despite their noise contribution of 2.5%, is “discriminatory”, says the Commission. “While these services are not in direct competition with each other, the discrimination stems from including both categories in calculating the noise situation around Schiphol,” it states. The Commission adds that the plan only “partially” considered the effect of fleet renewal, even though there is a natural trend by carriers to modernise aircraft, and did not fully explore the potential of revised flight procedures. Its verdict does not block the Dutch cap but is intended to prompt a rethink over the influence of fleet-renewal and operational procedures, and consider whether business and general aviation affect the situation.<br/>

Airlines are turning to a network of third parties to pay fees to Afghan authorities as more planes use the country's airspace, increasing the risk of legal disputes and money laundering, according to pilots, aviation executives and lawyers. In the last year more airlines have started flying over Afghanistan as conflict in the Middle East widened and as aviation regulators softened their stance on using Afghan airspace. The Taliban says publicly that this has led to a surge in overflight payments - fees that countries typically charge airlines for navigation services in their airspace. However, the process of making these payments to the Taliban-run aviation authorities is complicated by the freezing of Afghanistan's government bank accounts overseas and Western sanctions on Taliban leaders. The challenges airlines face making overflight payments to Afghanistan, including a reliance on intermediaries and a lack of invoices, are detailed here for the first time. Before the Taliban came to power in 2021, the IATA industry group collected overflight charges on behalf of Afghanistan's aviation authority. IATA told Reuters that it ceased this service in September 2021, leaving millions of dollars in charges collected for the previous Afghan government frozen in its accounts. Airlines and private jet operators have instead turned to third-party intermediaries, known as trip support firms, to process payments to the Afghanistan Civil Aviation Authority, according to six people familiar with the process, including pilots, airline officials, and third-party payment firms.<br/>

Narita Airport is banking on an increase in takeoffs and landings to avoid falling into “oblivion,” but it faces a number of challenges regarding human resources, safety and noise pollution. The yearly cap on arrivals and departures at Narita Airport, located in Chiba Prefecture just outside of Tokyo, will be raised from the current 300,000 to 340,000 in October to cater to growing flight demand to Japan. The airport operator will also introduce a third runway in 2029 as part of Narita’s “second grand opening.” It plans to eventually scale up the annual takeoff and landing capacity to 500,000. On Jan. 24, officials from airport operator Narita International Airport Corp. (NAA), the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Chiba Prefecture and nine nearby municipalities held a meeting at the prefectural government’s office. The session approved the plan presented by the government and NAA to raise the flight cap to 340,000. “This project is crucial for us both to win the competition among Asian airports and to foster development of surrounding areas,” Chiba Governor Toshihito Kumagai said.<br/>

Malaysia’s air passenger traffic exceeded pre-Covid 19 pandemic volumes for the first time in January with 9.2m passengers. In a statement, the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) said the air passenger traffic reached 106.1% of January 2019 levels, highlighting the continued growth of the country’s aviation sector. “Passenger volumes grew 3.8% month-on-month (m-o-m) from December 2024 and 28.2% year-on-year (y-o-y) from January 2024, reflecting continued momentum in both domestic and international travel.” Mavcom said domestic air passenger traffic stood at 4.4m, registering a 6.9% m-o-m increase and 32.7% y-o-y growth. “International air passenger traffic stood at 4.8m, showing a 1.2% m-o-m decline but a 24.4% y-o-y increase.“International traffic growth was largely fuelled by non-Asean markets, which saw 2.6m passengers, representing a 7.1% m-o-m increase and 34.9% y-o-y growth.” <br/>

Thousands of residents in Australia's east were ordered to evacuate ahead of Tropical Cyclone Alfred's landfall on Saturday as the storm brought heavy rains, huge waves and strong winds that cut off power, eroded beaches and closed airports. Alfred has been moving slowly toward the coast raising concerns it could result in a longer and prolonged period of heavy rainfall. The system is still expected to land as a Category 2 storm north of Brisbane, Australia's third-most populous city, the Bureau of Meteorology said. Wind gusts of more than 100 kph (62 mph) smashed the coastal border regions of the states of Queensland and New South Wales overnight, while the storm sits around 200 km (124 miles) offshore, the weather bureau said.<br/>"Overnight we saw it packed a punch," Queensland Premier David Crisafulli said. "You will continue to see the winds during the course of today but then there is that rain and often in cyclones, that rainfall, lots of it in a short window can also be really problematic," Crisafulli told ABC News. Brisbane Airport shut down operations on Thursday afternoon while public transport in the city has been suspended. <br/>

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg is inviting employees to help expose deep-seated problems — even if the response is “brutal” to the planemaker’s leaders. “I want to hear what the employees have to say,” Ortberg said during his second companywide address to Boeing workers on Wednesday. “And what we’ll do is we’re going to put an action plan on those things, and I think they’re going to be brutal to leadership, quite frankly.” Speaking to workers on location in St. Louis with tens of thousands more tuning in via a webcast, Ortberg touched on topics ranging from employee bonuses to the role that Elon Musk and DOGE are playing on the tardy Air Force One jets that Boeing is preparing for the Pentagon. But much of the session was spent addressing the company’s internal dysfunction, an effort Ortberg sees as crucial to improving quality and safety in its factories and engineering labs, according to people who monitored the webcast. Ortberg said he has set up a “culture working group” of workers to advise him on the values and “behaviors” of the company. They represent a cross-section of Boeing sites, unions and other employee groups. The new CEO, who started in August, also expressed dismay over Boeing’s culture, echoing remarks he made during his first all-hands session in November. It’s a reference to the lack of civility with which people treat each other — as well the harsh backlash that lower-level workers and managers can face for flagging operations breakdowns, as whistleblowers have documented.<br/>

Airbus is looking to pursue the manufacturing of significant A400M aircraft components in the UAE, reported Emirates News Agency (Wam) citing its top official. Airbus plans to establish comprehensive maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) facilities for the A400M, a versatile multi-role military transport aircraft, alongside a dedicated training centre, said Gabriel Sémelas, the President of Airbus in Middle East and Africa. These developments are projected to solidify the UAE's standing as a premier regional hub for aviation excellence, he stated. Talking to Wam, Sémelas elaborated that this strategic initiative would facilitate deeper integration of UAE-based entities, including EPI and Strata, into the global aerospace supply chain. He underscored Airbus's commitment to fostering local talent through targeted training and technical assistance programmes, coupled with strategic research partnerships that support the advancement of future industries in the UAE.<br/>