The airline has yet to reveal the specific reason behind the tire blowout, but it has thanked the flight crew for ‘their professionalism’ and its customers for ‘their patience.’ The airline also rescheduled their flights for free, and other passengers who decided not to change their flight time received a $100 voucher to use toward future airfare. The airline has yet to reveal the specific reason behind the tire blowout, but it has thanked the flight crew for ‘their professionalism’ and its customers for ‘their patience.’ The airline also rescheduled their flights for free, and other passengers who decided not to change their flight time received a $100 voucher to use toward future airfare. A short time later, she noticed the chaos throughout the aircraft and that the tire blowout had apparently compromised its hydraulic system. ‘We saw the flight attendants run… Turning all the lights on inside the plane and them saying, we might have an emergency landing and we have to brace for a crash,’ she said. ‘A lot of passengers were crying and screaming… There was definitely a moment I was like, OK, I may die on this flight, and I know fellow passengers around me felt the same way.’ She added that crew members and passengers were excited when they realized everything was under control. ‘Everyone was like screaming and clapping and cheering. And I know, on some normal flights, people do that. But it was so different,’ said Donadio. ‘It was just like, just such a thankful, like appreciation to the flight attendants and the pilot.’

This week’s incident was not the first time that an issue occurred with a Southwest Airlines aircraft that flew out of DEN. Southwest Airlines Flight 3695 which was flying out of DEN to Houston in April, made an emergency landing at the airport after the engine fell off and hit the wing flap during takeoff. Pilots made a successful emergency landing that morning, but videos of what happened inside the plane went viral.

Lisa, one of the flight passengers, told ABC News that the engine ‘peeled off within the first 10 minutes.’ ‘We all felt kind of a bump, a jolt, and I looked out the window because I love window seats, and there it was,’ she said. Flight 3695 passenger Cooper Glass also told ABC News that the entire experience was ‘frightening.’ ‘People in the exit row across from me started yelling up to the flight attendants and showed them the damage,’ he said. Although Glass was frightened during the flight, he praised its pilot, who he believed ‘did a great job on landing.’ Daily Mail has reached out to Southwest Airlines and Denver International Airport for comment.

The post Southwest Airlines flight to Colorado makes emergency landing appeared first on flights review.

Airbus and Boeing, along with CFM International partners Safran and GE Aerospace, are among the founding partners of the Aviation Supply Chain Integrity Coalition.

Its formation follows the high-profile investigation into UK-based parts distributor AOG Technics, which is the subject of a criminal inquiry after components sourced from the company were suspected of having falsified documentation.

CFM in particular has been affected by the controversy, the manufacturer having identified dozens of CFM56 engines as containing suspect parts obtained through AOG Technics.

The CFM56 is a popular powerplant, fitted to older-generation Boeing 737 and Airbus A320-family jets.

Safran states that CFM took “prompt and decisive actions” last year when the parts situation was uncovered.

“While an extensive review found that less than 1% of CFM engines were affected – and most parts involved were non-serialised items like bolts, washers and bushings – the coalition will take a broader look at preventing future similar actions,” it says.

Along with the manufacturers the coalition includes US carriers American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, plus US-based maintenance firm StandardAero.

Former National Transportation Safety Board chair RobertSumwalt and former US deputy transportation secretary John Porcari will co-chair the organisation.

“We were able to stop a rogue actor and quarantine the parts last year thanks to swift action from the aviation industry,” says Sumwalt.

“But more is needed to stop anyone who tries to take a shortcut in the future.”

Safran says the coalition has embarked on a 90-day review to examine potential measures to reinforce the supply chain.

“This work will form the basis of a comprehensive report with recommendations to ensure compliance with safety standards, and prevent the introduction of unapproved aviation parts into the supply chain,” it adds.

The post Unapproved parts scandal appeared first on flights review.

The new advertising campaign, which is part of the Explore France campaign run by Atout France, will transform the traditional vision of travel by strengthening the notoriety and cultural influence of the South of France. Inspiring travelers to embrace Provence’s Autumn charm and the sereneness of the Côte d’Azur winter; travelers will be encouraged to, “Linger longer and delve deeper into the heart of the South of France.”  The advertising campaign will help support responsible tourism by motivating travelers to visit this popular region out-of-season, generating demand for tourism businesses all-year-round.  The multi-million-euro investment further strengthens the already well-established cooperation between Expedia Group, Atout France and CRT Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and is the biggest investment yet to promote a single region in France.

CRT Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur will use Expedia Group’s industry-first shoppable platform technology via a dedicated microsite which gives travelers the tools to shop and book travel as they are watching travel content. The shoppable platform was designed and created by Expedia Group’s Media Studio; an in-house, award-winning creative agency. Starting from the end of September, US travelers will see beautiful scenes of the South of France on the shoppable platform and then be able to book by tapping into Expedia Group’s great choice of places to stay, whilst unlocking a special discount code when they book.  The campaign also includes Display Ads of the stunning scenery and cities of the South of France. The Ads will go live in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Switzerland.

“The campaign we are launching with Expedia Group and CRT Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur is part of our national strategy to offer travelers from all over the world wonderful experiences in France off the beaten track. We’re delighted to invite them to come and discover the breadth of cultural richness and unique landscapes of the Cote d’Azur and Provence during Autumn and Winter.  It’s a perfect time to get up close and personal with a destination, to discover a different side of it… There are so many exceptional experiences to enjoy in France all year round!” says Caroline Leboucher, CEO Atout France.

“We love to create advertising which inspires people to travel to incredible locations. This new campaign uses our innovative technology to bring the South of France to life for US travelers by showing them what they can see and do in the quieter months. Our data shows a twenty-five percent increase in US travelers searching for France this Autumn versus the last  year[1]. We also see good signs from other inbound markets, all of which will support tourism businesses in Cote d’Azur and Provence.” explains Ariane Gorin, President of Expedia for Business.

“We want people to savor the South of France beyond the summer: Tourism was born in France, two centuries ago on the French Riviera and it was… in the winter! It is time to remember that and to develop our tourist economy with a new customer experience, different from that of the very high season. There is so much to experience here and many great places to stay all year round. Winter is the new summer, welcome to Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur.” commented François de Canson, CEO CRT Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur.

On the 5th of October, tourism professionals from across the region will meet at the Opera in Nice to announce a new “Nice Cote d’Azur in Winter” campaign part of the joint campaign between Expedia Group, Atout France and CRT Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and with the support of Nice Côte d’Azur and Menton Riviera tourism boards. 

Read more ….

The post Expedia Group, Atout France and CRT Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Sign a Multi-Million Euros Campaign to Promote Cote D’Azur and Provence in the Low Season appeared first on flights review.

Marco Polo Airport in the north-eastern Italian city closed at 09:45 local time (07:45 GMT).

Flights were diverted to Treviso, Verona, Trieste and Milan before normal operations resumed at 11:20.

Bird strikes at airports are most common during take-off and landing, and can cause damage to aircraft.

Marco Polo Airport apologised to passengers who were affected by the disruption.

Ten flights due to depart between 09:40 and 12:15 on Friday were cancelled, according to the airport’s website, while several others were delayed.

Four arrival flights were also cancelled in the morning, with many delayed and others diverted to alternative airports.

More than nine million passengers used Venice airport last year, and almost 8,000 flights transited through the hub last month.

In the city itself, seagulls are a common sight and Venice hoteliers came up with a novel way of attempting to fend off the birds from tourists last year.

Some hotels left orange water pistols in rooms for tourists to use to scare off the birds.

Paolo Lorenzini, director of the Gritti Hotel, told Italian media: “As soon as they see the pistols, they fly away.

“You don’t even need to use them, you just need to keep them on the table.”

Read more …..

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The profession of an Air Hostess is both challenging and demanding, but at the same time it’s thought by many to be one of the most glamorous jobs in the world. No doubt, flight attendants are the face of the airline they represent and the truth is there is a lot of training and hard work required before you are allowed to work as flight crew.

Presently, airlines are giving particular thought to the selection and appearance of their Air Hostesses. From their height, figures and smile to their uniform, flight attendants are the most important aspect of the advertisement of any airline.

Here is our list – Hot Air Hostess Top Ten. No matter where you are flying, flight attendants always look hot, cute and elegant. It all adds to the overall experience. Whether you are flying for fun or business, having a hot Air Hostess walking up and down the aisle can’t hurt.

In years gone by, there were rules and regulations outlining acceptable practices regarding the age and attractiveness of the so-called trolley dollies, although employment legislation now means that anyone can apply and be employed to work as cabin crew – even men!

That doesn’t mean that the hot Air Hostess is a thing of the past. Uniforms may be more modest and demure than they used to be back in the 1960s and 1970, but airlines still like to employ pretty young women to serve on their planes.

The post Sexy Flight Attendants appeared first on flights review.

The second-ever private astronaut mission to the International Space Station (ISS) remains on track to lift off this weekend.

NASA, SpaceX and Houston company Axiom Space held a flight readiness review (FRR) today (May 15) for the Ax-2 mission, which is scheduled to launch four people toward the International Space Station on Sunday afternoon (May 21).

“At the end of that review, the full team polled ‘go,'” Ken Bowersox, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate, said during a post-FRR press conference this afternoon. If all goes according to plan, Ax-2 will launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 5:37 p.m. EDT (2137 GMT) on Sunday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. The Ax-2 astronauts will ride a SpaceX Dragon capsule to the orbiting lab, getting there around 9:30 a.m. EDT (1330 GMT) on Monday (May 21).

The mission will spend eight days docked to the ISS, team members said today. That’s a slight change from the previous plan, which had called for a 10-day ISS stay.

If Ax-2 can’t get off the ground on Sunday, it has another chance on Monday (May 22). If the mission misses that backup opportunity, however, it will have to wait a while to get to space: NASA and SpaceX will then shift toward preparing for the launch of CRS-28, SpaceX’s 28th robotic cargo mission to the ISS, which is slated to lift off from KSC on June 3.

“And then, at that time, Axiom, NASA and SpaceX will get together and look for the next best opportunity as we look at the missions that we have this summer,” Joel Montalbano, manager for NASA’s International Space Station Program, said during today’s telecon.

Those other flights include crewed jaunts to the ISS such as Boeing’s Crew Flight Test (currently targeted for July 21) and SpaceX’s Crew-7 mission, as well as “other missions that use the pad facilities at Kennedy Space Center,” Montalbano said.

As its name suggests, Ax-2 will be the second crewed flight to the ISS operated by Axiom Space using SpaceX hardware. The first, Ax-1, sent four people to the orbiting lab for more than two weeks in April 2022.

Ax-2 is groundbreaking in its own way as well. Two of the mission’s crewmembers are Rayyanah Barnawi and Ali AlQarni, who will become the first Saudi Arabians to visit to the ISS. Barnawi will be the first Saudi woman ever to reach space. 

The other crewmates are investor and paying customer John Shoffner and former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who now works for Axiom and will command the mission. Whitson has racked up a total of 665 days off Earth — more than any other American and any other woman.

NASA currently requires that all private astronaut flights to the ISS be led by a former agency spaceflyer. Ax-1 was commanded by Michael López-Alegría, who racked up four spaceflights while working for NASA.

Read more By Mike Wall

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Warsaw needed re-export approval from Berlin to allow it to transfer the aircraft to Ukraine. Poland is in the process of transferring its entire MiG-29 fleet to Ukraine, bolstering the war-ravaged country’s air force inventory. 

The Polish government made the request for re-export on April 13, with the German government responding the same day, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said. “I welcome the fact that we in the federal government have reached this decision together … that shows you can rely on Germany.” 

Germany absorbed 24 MiG-29s into its air force from the inventory of the East German Air Force when the East and West unified at the end of the Cold War.  

In 2003—after more than a decade of service in the German Air Force including operational use in the quick reaction alert mission—the remaining 22 aircraft were purchased by Poland for a symbolic €1. 

According to the German defense ministry, included in the contract with Poland was an end-user clause which stipulated that the MiG 29s may not be passed on to third parties by Poland without the written consent of Germany. 

Poland and Slovakia are transferring their MiG-29s to Ukraine, to be backfilled by deliveries of Korea Aerospace Industries FA-50 Golden Eagles for Poland and Block 70-standard F-16C/Ds for Slovakia.

Read more by Tony Osborne

The post Berlin OKs Poland’s Transfer Of Ex-East German MiG-29s To Ukraine appeared first on flights review.

Rather than seeing the fiery disintegration of Musk’s colossal, next-generation Starship system as a setback, experts said the dramatic loss of the rocket ship would help accelerate development of the vehicle.

Images of the Starship tumbling out of control some 20 miles up in the sky while mounted to its Super Heavy rocket booster before the combined vehicle blew to bits dominated media coverage of the highly anticipated launch.

SpaceX acknowledged that several of the Super Heavy’s 33 powerful Raport engines malfunctioned on ascent and that the booster rocket and Starship failed to separate as designed before the ill-fated flight was terminated. But SpaceX executives including Musk – the founder, CEO and chief engineer of the California-based rocket company – hailed the test flight for achieving the major objective of getting the vehicle off the ground while providing a wealth of data that will advance Starship’s development.

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

At least two experts in aerospace engineering and planetary science who spoke with Reuters agreed that the test flight delivered benefits.

“This is a classical SpaceX successful failure,” said Garrett Reisman, an astronautical engineering professor at the University of Southern California who is a former NASA astronaut and is also a senior adviser to SpaceX.

Reisman called the Starship test flight a hallmark of a SpaceX strategy that sets Musk’s company apart from traditional aerospace companies and even NASA by “this embracing of failure when the consequences of failure are low.” No astronauts were aboard for the crewless flight, and the rocket was flown almost entirely over water from the Gulf Coast Starbase facility in south Texas to avoid possible injuries or property damage on the ground from falling debris.

“Even though that rocket costs a lot of money, what really costs a lot of money are people’s salaries,” Reisman told Reuters in an interview hours after Thursday’s launch.

Reisman said SpaceX saves more money in the long run, and takes less time to identify and correct engineering flaws by taking more risks in the development process rather than keeping “a large team working for years and years and years trying to get it perfect before you even try it.”

“I would say the timeline for transporting people (aboard Starship) is accelerated right now compared to what it was a couple of hours ago,” Reisman said.

Planetary scientist Tanya Harrison, a fellow at the University of British Columbia’s Outer Space Institute, said clearing the launch tower and ascending through a critical point known as maximum aerodynamic pressure were major feats on the first flight of such a large, complex launch system.

“It’s part of the testing process,” she said in an interview. “There are a lot of accidents that happen when you’re trying to design a new rocket. The fact that it launched at all made a lot of people really happy.”

She said the risks of a single flight test were small in comparison to the ambitious gains at stake.

“This is the biggest rocket that humanity has tried to build,” she said, adding that it is designed to carry “orders of magnitude” more cargo and people to and from deep space than any existing spacecraft.

Whereas NASA is working on a mission to retrieve samples of Martian soil and minerals measured in kilograms being collected by the Mars Perseverance rover, Starship will carry back many tons of rock, as well transport dozens of astronauts and entire lab facilities to and from the moon and Mars, Harrison said.

Musk has billed Starship as crucial to SpaceX’s interplanetary exploration goals as well as its more near-term launch business, with commercial satellites, science telescopes and eventually paying astro-tourists expected to use the fully reusable rocket system for rides to space.

Citing SpaceX’s rapid pace of development since its 2002 founding, leading to dozens of commercial missions a year with its workhorse rocket for low-Earth orbit, the Falcon 9, Harrison said, “it wouldn’t surprise me if we had humans on Mars with Starship in the next decade.”

Read more by By Steve Gorman and Arlene Eiras

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“I almost hit one of those damn things!” the flight leader, still shaken by the incident, told us shortly after in the pilots’ ready room. We all knew exactly what he meant. “Those damn things” had been plaguing us for the previous eight months. I joined the U.S. Navy in 2009 and underwent years of rigorous training as a pilot. Specifically, we are trained to be expert observers in identifying aircraft with our sensors and our own eyes. It’s our job to know what’s in our operating area. That’s why, in 2014, after upgrades were made to our radar system, our squadron made a startling discovery: There were unknown objects in our airspace.

Initially, the objects were showing up on our newly upgraded radars and we assumed they were “ghosts in the machine,” or software glitches. But then we began to correlate the radar tracks with multiple surveillance systems, including infrared sensors that detected heat signatures. Then came the hair-raising near misses that required us to take evasive action.

These were no mere balloons. The unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) accelerated at speeds up to Mach 1, the speed of sound. They could hold their position, appearing motionless, despite Category 4 hurricane-force winds of 120 knots. They did not have any visible means of lift, control surfaces or propulsion — in other words nothing that resembled normal aircraft with wings, flaps or engines. And they outlasted our fighter jets, operating continuously throughout the day. I am a formally trained engineer, but the technology they demonstrated defied my understanding.

After that near-miss, we had no choice but to submit a safety report, hoping that something could be done before it was too late. But there was no official acknowledgement of what we experienced and no further mechanism to report the sightings — even as other aircrew flying along the East coast quietly began sharing similar experiences. Our only option was to cancel or move our training, as the UAP continued to maneuver in our vicinity unchecked.

Nearly a decade later we still don’t know what they were.

When I retired from the Navy in 2019, I was the first active-duty pilot to come forward publicly and testify to Congress. In the years since, there has been some notable coverage of the encounters and Congress has taken some action to force the military and intelligence agencies to do much more to get to the bottom of these mysteries.

But there has not been anything near the level of public and official attention that has been paid to the recent shoot downs of a Chinese spy balloon and the three other unknown objects that were likely research balloons.

And that’s a problem.

Advanced objects demonstrating cutting-edge technology that we cannot explain are routinely flying over our military bases or entering restricted airspace.

“UAP events continue to occur in restricted or sensitive airspace, highlighting possible concerns for safety of flight or adversary collection activity,” the Director of National Intelligence reported last month, citing 247 new reports over the last 17 months. “Some UAP appeared to remain stationary in winds aloft, move against the wind, maneuver abruptly, or move at considerable speed, without discernible means of propulsion.”

The Navy has also officially acknowledged 11 near misses with UAP that required evasive action and triggered mandatory safety reports between 2004 and 2021.Advanced UAP also pose a growing safety hazard to commercial airliners. Last May, the Federal Aviation Administration issued an alert after a passenger aircraft flying over West Virginia experienced a rare failure of two major systems while passing underneath what appeared to be a UAP.

One thing we do know is these craft aren’t part of some classified U.S. project. “We were quite confident that was not the explanation,” Scott Bray, the deputy director of the Office of Naval Intelligence, testified before Congress last year.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio confirmed in a recent interview that whatever the origin of these objects it is not the U.S. military. “We have things flying over our military bases and places where we’re conducting military exercises and we don’t know what it is and it isn’t ours,” said Rubio, who is vice chair of the Intelligence Committee.

President Joe Biden rightly points out the real national security and aviation safety risks, from “foreign intelligence collection” to “hazard to civilian air traffic,” that arise from low-tech “balloon-like” entities. I applaud his new order to create an interagency UAP taskforce and a government-wide effort to address unidentified objects, and his proposal to make sure all aerial craft are registered and identifiable according to a global standard is good common-sense. However, what the president did not address during his press conference Feb. 16 were the UAP that exhibit advanced performance capabilities. Where is the transparency and urgency from the administration and Congress to investigate highly advanced objects in restricted airspace that our military cannot explain? How will this new taskforce be more effective than existing efforts if we are not being clear and direct about the scope and nature of advanced UAP?

The American public must demand accountability. We need to understand what is in our skies — period.

In the coming days, I will launch Americans for Safe Aerospace (ASA), a new advocacy organization for aerospace safety and national security. ASA will support pilots and other aerospace professionals who are reporting UAP. Our goal is to demand more disclosure from our public officials about this significant safety and national security problem. We will provide credible voices, public education, grassroots activism and lobbying on Capitol Hill to get answers about UAP.

President Biden needs to address this issue as transparently as possible. The White House should not conflate the low-tech objects that were recently shot down with unexplained high-tech, advanced objects witnessed by pilots. Our government needs to admit that it is possible another country has developed game-changing technology. We need to urgently address this threat by bringing together the best minds in our military, intelligence, science and tech sectors. If advanced UAP are not foreign drones, then we absolutely need a robust scientific inquiry into this mystery. Obfuscation and denial are a recipe for more conspiracy theories and greater distrust that stymie our search for the truth.

We need a coordinated, data-driven response that unites the public and private sectors. The North American Aerospace Defense Command, the U.S. Space Force and a host of other military and civilian agencies need to be marshaled in support of a much more aggressive and vigilant effort, along with our scientific community and private industry. Right now, the pieces of the UAP puzzle are scattered across silos in the military, government and the private sector. We need to integrate and analyze these massive data sets with new methods like AI. We also need to make this data available to the best scientists outside of government.

We have strong supporters of more data sharing. Sen. Rubio has suggested the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), which was set up by Congress last year, share its data on unidentified objects with academic institutions and civilian scientific organizations. The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Galileo Project at Harvard, tech startups like Enigma Labs, and traditional defense contractors could all play a role.

Unfortunately, all UAP reports and videos are classified, meaning active-duty pilots cannot come forward publicly and FOIA requests are denied. These are two major steps backwards for transparency, but they can be mitigated with data-sharing.

I am impressed by the recent whistleblower protections enacted last year to encourage more pilots and others to come forward, and I support the fresh push by Rubio and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) for full funding of AARO. Given the stakes, Congress also needs to fund grants for more scientific inquiry of UAP.

Above all, we need to listen to pilots. Military and civilian pilots provide critical, first-hand insights into advanced UAP. Right now, the stigma attached to reporting UAP is still too strong. Since I came forward about UAP in 2019, only one other pilot from my squadron has gone public. Commercial pilots also face significant risks to their careers for doing so.

New rules are needed to require civilian pilots to report UAP, protect the pilots from retribution, and a process must be established for investigating their reports. Derision or denial over the unknown is unacceptable. This is a time for curiosity.

If the phenomena I witnessed with my own eyes turns out to be foreign drones, they pose an urgent threat to national security and airspace safety. If they are something else, it must be a scientific priority to find out.

Read more

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Southwest and other airlines are still racing to hire and train staff to cater to a rebound in travel demand, which executives expect to hold up this fall, led by strong leisure bookings.

Airlines were prohibited from laying off staff during the Covid pandemic under the terms of a $54 billion federal bailout but were allowed to offer employees extended leaves of absence or early retirement.

Southwest said it currently has more than 62,000 full-time equivalent employees. That’s more than the 60,800 it had at the end of 2019, before the pandemic. 

Southwest has also hosted three “Hiring Blitzes” at its corporate campus in Dallas, where flight attendant candidates are interviewed, perform physical performance standards tests and other screenings with a potential for on-the-spot contingent job offers. Another is scheduled for this week, Southwest said in an employee memo last week.

The carrier told staff that it has 7,000 flight attendant candidates in its hiring pipeline and that its attrition rate among new cabin crew members has dropped to 2.5% compared with 6.1% in 2019.

The hiring spree comes as Southwest flight attendants’ union and management have been locked in contract negotiations. Talks with a federal mediator are set to begin Nov. 1 in Dallas, according to the memo.

Southwest and United Airlines flight attendants, which are represented by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, are set to picket at major airports on Tuesday to demand better working conditions.

Separately on Monday, Southwest announced it was promoting its chief commercial officer, Andrew Watterson, to replace COO Mike Van de Ven, who will become an “executive advisor” for the airline in 2023.

Read more by Leslie Josephs@lesliejosephs

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