A small aircraft carrying five people crashed in a parking lot of a retirement community in Lancaster County, Pa., on Sunday afternoon, according to local officials, after the pilot reported there was an “open door,” air traffic transmissions show. The aircraft, a six-seater Beechcraft Bonanza, crashed outside of Brethren Village Retirement Community at 3:18 p.m. after it took off from Lancaster Airport, Scott Little, the fire chief of Manheim Township Fire Rescue, said at a news conference on Sunday. According to a spokesperson for Lancaster General Hospital, all five people on the plane were transported to Lancaster General Hospital on Sunday. Two people were then transported to Lehigh Valley Health Network’s burn center by emergency flight crews, and one person was transported there by ground ambulance. Two people remain hospitalized at Lancaster General, the spokesperson said. No one on the ground was hurt, officials said. Duane Fisher, police chief of Manheim Township, said at the news conference that it looked like the aircraft skidded about 100 feet after hitting the ground. About a dozen vehicles were damaged, though there was no damage to buildings.<br/>
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The U.S. FAA said on Friday that the previous day's explosion of a SpaceX Starship spacecraft disrupted about 240 flights, with space debris concerns requiring more than two dozen of those planes to divert. It was the second straight explosion of a SpaceX test launch. The FAA on Thursday issued ground stops that lasted for just over an hour for aircraft departing for four Florida airports -- Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and Palm Beach. The FAA said the incident resulted in 171 departure delays, 28 flights were diverted, and 40 airborne flights were held an average of 22 minutes while the agency's Debris Response Area was active. The 171 planes had an average delay of 28 minutes. he U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said on Friday that the previous day's explosion of a SpaceX Starship spacecraft disrupted about 240 flights, with space debris concerns requiring more than two dozen of those planes to divert. It was the second straight explosion of a SpaceX test launch. The FAA on Thursday issued ground stops that lasted for just over an hour for aircraft departing for four Florida airports -- Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and Palm Beach. The FAA said the incident resulted in 171 departure delays, 28 flights were diverted, and 40 airborne flights were held an average of 22 minutes while the agency's Debris Response Area was active. The 171 planes had an average delay of 28 minutes.<br/>
The Trump administration said Friday it is ending collective bargaining for more than 50,000 Transportation Security Administration officers that staff checkpoints at U.S. airports and other transportation hubs. The Homeland Security Department said the move will remove bureaucratic hurdles, while the union representing workers did not immediately comment. President Donald Trump on Jan. 20 forced out TSA administrator David Pekoske, whom he had named to the job in 2017 and was reappointed by former President Joe Biden. Trump has not yet named a candidate to replace Pekoske. The TSA reached a new seven-year labor deal in May 2024 with the American Federation of Government Employees after nearly a year of negotiations. The Biden administration expanded the scope of bargaining permitted in 2022. Workers got enhanced shift trade options, increased allowance for uniforms and the addition of parental bereavement leave and weather and safety leave.<br/>
The airport in Hamburg, Germany’s second largest city, said it had canceled all flights on Sunday because of a one-day strike over pay by ground staff called by a labor union that started its action earlier than expected with little warning. The airport had been expected to carry more than 40,000 passengers on Sunday, with 144 arrival flights and 139 departures, but only 10 flights took place before the strike took hold at 6.30 a.m. local time, Hamburg Airport said in a statement, which directed stranded passengers to contact their airlines. The airport said the strike, called by the labor union Verdi, had begun “without any notice” during a busy holiday. “The union is paralyzing the airport and without notice right at the beginning of Hamburg’s spring break,” Katja Bromm, head of communications at the airport, said in a statement. The airport mainly serves European destinations. The union, which represents public-sector service workers, said it had brought the strike forward by a day and minimized warning of the start time to maximize the pressure on the employer and to prevent the airport from bringing in nonunion workers. “We are very much aware that this strike may have hit families who have saved money to go on holiday, but the employer has left us no other choice,” said Lars Stubbe, the Hamburg representative of Verdi. The strike at Hamburg is the first of more than a dozen planned actions at airports across Germany on Monday, including at the country’s busiest airports, Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin Brandenburg, Stubbe said. Around 510,000 people will be affected by the strike on Monday, with more than 3,400 flights canceled, according to A.D.V., the association of Germany’s airport operators, German news media reported. The latest strike represents an escalation after Verdi, the full name of which is the Unified Services Union, staged walkouts in February.<br/>
Heathrow airport is exploring ways to cut the cost of its multibillion pound expansion plan, including whether to build a shorter third runway than originally planned. The airport is preparing a detailed proposal for a third runway to present to the government by the summer, after chancellor Rachel Reeves threw the government’s weight behind airport expansion in a bid to boost economic growth. As part of the process, Heathrow’s management is reviewing whether it should make changes to its previous expansion blueprint to cut costs, people familiar with the matter said. The previous master plan was costed at £14bn in 2014 prices, but was shelved in 2020 when the pandemic struck. A hugely ambitious project, it involved diverting the nearby M25 motorway into a tunnel, demolishing 750 homes, a primary school and an energy plant. Heathrow’s management have said they would like to stick with this “north-west runway” plan, which has been through years of scrutiny and preparation. But the airport is considering all options before making a final decision, one of the people said. One option would be to still expand to the north west, but to build a shorter third runway to avoid the need to divert the M25 motorway through a tunnel. The airport is exploring whether this option is feasible, the person said. One problem is that it could give the airport less operational flexibility, as some aircraft might not be able to use it, depending on its length.<br/>
It could be 2030 before Dublin Airport gets planning permission to grow passenger numbers to 40m, Kenny Jacobs, head of DAA, has told the Sunday Business Post. In the meantime, the airport will welcome 20,000 fewer tourists for St Patrick’s Day celebrations this week as capacity constraints at the airport continue, he said. In recent weeks Jacobs has spoken to two big US airlines who “can’t get their head around the winter cap” that is currently in place. Jacob’s warning comes as Darragh O’Brien, the new transport minister, is to meet attorney general Rossa Fanning in the coming days to find a “viable but sustainable” solution to removing the passenger cap, the Business Post can confirm. Taoiseach Micheál Martin will cite the contribution of big Irish-based companies like Ryanair and Aercap in defence of Ireland’s trade surplus with the US, when he meets US president Donald Trump on Wednesday in Washington DC, the Sunday Business Post is reporting. Officials at the Department of Foreign Affairs have drawn up an extensive document outlining Ireland’s economic footprint in the US, which shows there are 203,000 employees in Irish-owned companies in the US. Companies identified as having a big footprint already in the US by officials include Eaton, Kingspan, and Kerry Group.<br/>
A sharp fall in the number of private jets based in China in recent years shows the impact a weakening domestic economy, anti-corruption drives and the pandemic have had on the country's wealthiest, according to business aviation industry data and experts At the end of last year there were a third fewer private jets based in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau than the 2017 peak of 481 planes, according to data from business aviation consultancy and broker Asian Sky Group. In the same period, the number of private jets in the rest of the Asia-Pacific region grew by 20%, led by India, Australia and Japan. Business jets are specially designed and customisable aircraft bought or chartered by cash-rich and time-poor companies and wealthy individuals. Flying privately costs from a couple to many thousands of dollars per hour, depending on the size of the aircraft. Even used Falcon 8X jets, a popular long-range model made by France's Dassault Aviation, can cost about $42m, according to online listings. Much of the reduction in China has come from aircraft being sold, such as those owned by property firms like China Evergrande Group after the sector slipped into an unprecedented debt crisis in mid-2021. Others were moved to places like Singapore and Japan, mirroring an exodus of wealthy Chinese abroad in recent years. "We've picked up some nice management contracts from family owners, family offices that have moved down from Hong Kong into the more secure Singapore region," Stefan Wood, executive director at private aviation firm Air 7 Asia, told a business aviation conference in Singapore this week.<br/>
A China-built airport in Nepal’s second-largest town is set for its first scheduled international flight, two years after its inauguration raised hopes of attracting more carriers to fly directly to Pokhara. Himalaya Airlines will launch a weekly flight from Pokhara International Airport to Lhasa on March 31, marking a significant milestone for the airport. In a statement on Monday, the airline said the flight would improve connectivity between the countries and attract more Chinese tourists to Nepal. Tourism entrepreneurs in Pokhara, desperate for a commercial international flight from the new airport, welcomed the announcement and called it “long overdue”, but raised concerns about the route’s sustainability. “We’re excited but cautiously optimistic,” said Chet Bahadur Karki, general secretary of the Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents of Gandaki province. “The airline could have connected Pokhara to Chinese cities with better onward connections or labour-intensive markets in the Gulf,” he added. “Nevertheless, we will do our best to promote the Pokhara-Lhasa route to make it sustainable.” Pokhara, a picturesque town 200km west of the capital Kathmandu, has sought an international airport since the 1970s. However, progress only began in 2016 when Nepal and China signed a loan agreement for its construction. The US$216m airport opened in January 2023, but has seen only a few chartered international flights, mainly from China, for athletes attending sporting events in Pokhara. The absence of international flights had sparked concerns over the airport’s viability. Many speculated if it would suffer a similar fate as Sri Lanka’s China-built aviation hub – the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport – which had taken losses since opening in 2013 due to low demand. Aviation analyst Hemant Arjyal said Pokhara needed a large influx of passengers from surrounding regions to make it operational, adding that fewer travel restrictions to and from Tibet would also help.<br/>
Airfares are expected to remain high this year based on rising operating costs and supply chain disruptions, similar to last year when higher fares drove the revenue of major airlines operating in Thailand. Santisuk Klongchaiya, CE of Asia Aviation, the majority shareholder of Thai AirAsia, said higher airfares were the main contributor to an improving financial performance in 2024, with the airline securing 49.4b baht in revenue from sales and services, up 20% year-on-year. According to the airline’s report, rising costs from airport charges and ground handling fees would continue to affect airfares this year, along with high travel demand. The aviation industry’s supply chain disruption is expected to persist, resulting in stable airfares or an increase of no more than 10%. Last year the average airfare on Thai AirAsia increased by 10% year-on-year to 1,967 baht, surpassing the 2019 level by 33%. The airline recorded its first positive core operating profit since the pandemic, earning more than 3b baht in 2024. Thai AirAsia carried 20.8m passengers with an average load factor of 91%, earning a 40% share of the domestic market. Santisuk said the airline targets 23-24m passengers this year with a 90% load factor. Thai AirAsia projects 15% growth in revenue from sales and services, driven by fleet expansion and a favourable fare outlook.<br/>
Australia’s smaller and regional airports are rife with security vulnerabilities, industry insiders have warned, after the dramatic citizen’s arrest of a teenager who allegedly boarded a Jetstar flight with a shotgun and ammunition. Police charged a 17-year-old Victorian boy with a range of offences, including unlawfully taking control of an aircraft, orchestrating a bomb hoax and possessing a firearm. There is no permanent police presence – either state or federal – stationed at Avalon airport, near Geelong, about 50km south-west of Melbourne, where the alleged offences occurred. This is the case for most of the nation’s airports that are not designated to meet the security threshold required for such measures. The lack of police has raised alarms within the aviation sector. On Thursday afternoon, the teenager allegedly broke through the airport’s security fence dressed in hi-vis and with tools. Witnesses said they believed he was a maintenance worker. He then walked up to a plane on the tarmac – Jetstar flight 610 – where about 150 passengers had boarded the Airbus A320 bound for Sydney.Shortly after entering the cabin, crew and passengers noticed he was allegedly carrying a shotgun and ammunition. Former shearer and boxer Garry Clark, from seat 1C, tackled him to the ground. Clark and other passengers performed a citizen’s arrest, and had to wait for state police from the local area command 9km away to arrive and take the teen into custody. The Transport Workers Union, a key aviation union that represents ground workers among others, sought an urgent meeting with Jetstar on Friday to call for a review of security arrangements at Avalon airport, operated by transport logistics company Linfox. While it hosts few commercial flights – about 20 daily departures and arrivals combined – these are all operated by budget carrier Jetstar, which markets the airport as serving Melbourne. Avalon’s air fares have a slightly cheaper base rate than services from Melbourne airport in Tullamarine, a shorter 14km from the city.<br/>
A federal judge on Friday certified a class action accusing Boeing of prioritizing profit over safety and overstating its commitment to safe aircraft, prior to the January 2024 mid-air cabin panel blowout on an Alaskan Airlines 737 MAX 9. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, said shareholders led by Rhode Island's state treasurer who owned Boeing stock between January 7, 2021 and January, 8, 2024 may sue as a group for damages. Shareholders wanted the class period to begin in 2019, but Brinkema said it should start when Boeing resolved a U.S. Department of Justice criminal case related to MAX safety. Class actions can allow greater recoveries at lower cost than individual lawsuits. Boeing shareholders said the company's misleading statements inflated its stock price after two MAX planes crashed in October 2018 and March 2019, killing 346.<br/>
Annual bonuses for more than 100,000 Boeing employees this year will be tied to company-wide performance, rather than by business unit, as in previous years. Eighty percent of the bonuses are tied to Boeing's financial performance, with the remaining 20% tied to progress on improving safety and quality, and program execution, according to the 2025 proxy statement filed on Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The announced changes come two days after CEO Kelly Ortberg told employees the company's myriad business units have to work together as part of a wider cultural shift driven in large part by employee feedback that he said he expects to be "brutal to leadership." Ortberg's total compensation in 2024 was about $18.4 million, including a $1.2m signing bonus and $525,000 in salary since he joined the company in August. He also received $313,000 to relocate to Seattle to be closer to Boeing's commercial airplane production. The rest of his compensation was in equity grants. Former CEO Dave Calhoun received $15m in total compensation. He left the company in the wake of a mid-air panel blowout on a nearly new 737 MAX, which revealed widespread quality problems.<br/>
With a study predicting that by 2050 more than half of adults and a third of children and young people worldwide will be overweight or obese, a swathe of industries are adapting to accommodate larger bodies. From hospitals to transport, stadiums to crematoriums, here are some of the adjustments being made.Airlines are increasingly trying to squeeze more passengers on to flights as they respond to rising demand, and aeroplane seats are getting smaller as a result. Some airlines have rebranded their seats as “slimline” – in Air Canada’s introduction of slimline seats, widths dropped from 47cm (18.5ins) to 43cm. As a result, plane travel has become increasingly difficult for obese passengers, with many airlines suggesting larger passengers book two seats instead of one, often at full price, and offering seatbelt extensions. Although not specifically targeted at larger passengers, Ryanair allows flyers to book two flight tickets, one under the name “extra comfort seat”, giving them the width of two seats and more personal space. Air France offers a 25% discount on extra seats for larger-bodied passengers if “the width of the seat is not sufficient”. Under Canadian airline rules, obese passengers travelling domestically can request an extra seat free of charge if they provide their BMI, height, weight and seated width measurements.<br/>