American Airlines is working to make international travel easier. A pilot program with U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced Tuesday will allow some passengers connecting from international to domestic flights to skip collecting and re-checking their bags. The program, called International Remote Baggage Screening, will allow passengers arriving in the U.S. and connecting to domestic flights to proceed straight from passport control to the Transportation Security Administration checkpoint. The bags will still be screened to ensure everything that's packed meets existing regulations, but they will automatically be checked through to the next flight. The program is being trialed on flights leaving Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport in Australia and arriving at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). “We are excited to collaborate with CBP on this innovative initiative,” Vice President of Global Corporate Security at American Airlines Gary Tomasulo said in a statement. “By leveraging advanced technology and working with Sydney Airport and our vendor partners BagCheck and Brock Solutions, we are enhancing safety and security while streamlining the CBP baggage inspection process to make global travel smoother and more convenient for our customers.” In its press release, American Airlines did not mention plans for expanding the trial to other routes or airports at this stage. American Airlines also announced in February a trial program to make connecting easier for passengers transiting through London's Heathrow Airport. Previously, passengers would have to clear security again after arriving in London before connecting to another international flight. Still, under the One Stop Security pilot, American Airlines passengers from Dallas Fort Worth International Airport arriving at Heathrow terminal 3 or 5 will not need a secondary security screening before connecting to another flight.<br/>
oneworld
A Japan Airlines plane bound for Kitakyushu made an emergency stop after beginning its takeoff at Haneda Airport in Tokyo on April 7 night, according to the transport ministry. The 35.8m-wide aircraft was running nearly 30m left of the 60m-wide runway’s centerline. It ran with its left main landing gear and wing off the runway for about 300m before hitting an aviation light on the runway’s left side and coming to a stop. The Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry and other authorities suspect the pilots mistook the runway lights for the centerline and are investigating the details of the incident. According to the ministry and the airline, JAL377, a Boeing 737-800 with 80 passengers and crew on board, entered Runway D－2,500m-long － from Taxiway D2 at around 7.10pm on April 7. The aircraft began its run toward the northeast after air traffic control gave clearance for takeoff. Before the emergency stop, JAL377 was not running near the white centerline lights － which indicate the middle of the runway － but was instead 30m away from the centerline near the runway lights － also white － at the left end of the runway, according to officials. After accelerating to 90-130kph, the captain and his crew noticed the leftward deviation and decided to abort takeoff and moved the aircraft toward the center of the runway. However, before coming to a stop, the aircraft hit a 70cm-long blue taxiway light, located beside taxiway D3. No injuries were reported in the incident.<br/>