Free Republic

As they flew south along the Potomac River on the gusty night of Jan. 29, the crew aboard an Army Black Hawk helicopter attempted to execute a common aviation practice. It would play a role in ending their lives. Shortly after the Black Hawk passed over Washington’s most famous array of cherry trees, an air traffic controller at nearby Ronald Reagan National Airport alerted the crew to a regional passenger jet in its vicinity. The crew acknowledged seeing traffic nearby. One of the pilots then asked for permission to employ a practice called “visual separation.” That allows a pilot to...

ROCKDALE COUNTY, Ga. — A fire at Biolab, a chemical plant in Rockdale County, is causing the evacuation of people who live nearby as well as a number of road closures, including I-20. The sheriff’s office says they evacuated the area near Biolab on Old Covington Highway on Sunday morning, and are telling others to shelter in place for the time being. At 1 p.m., the Rockdale County Sheriff’s Office updated the zone where they are asking people to evacuate their homes. Officials say they are also blocking off I-20 in both directions between Salem Road and Turner Hill Road....

March 25 (Reuters) - Boeing Co CEO Dave Calhoun will step down by year-end, in a broad management shakeup brought on by the planemaker's sprawling safety crisis stemming from a January mid-air panel blowout on a 737 MAX plane. The planemaker also said that Stan Deal, Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO, would retire, and Stephanie Pope would lead that business. Steve Mollenkopf has been appointed the new chair of the board. Calhoun's has been under pressure ever since the Jan. 5 incident, when a door plug ripped off an Alaska Airlines flight about 16,000 feet above the ground. The...

A cargo plane has crashed on take-off near the international airport in South Sudan's capital Juba, with at least 25 killed. Some reports put the death toll as high as 40.

The latest revelations over Germanwings flight 4U9525 crash have turned the focus on the pilots, but the German budget carrier has so far refused to identify them. One of the pilots was locked out of the cockpit moments before the crash, the data from the cockpit voice recorder has reportedly revealed, placing the pilots at the focal point of the investigation. However, the company has refrained from disclosing the identity of the pilots. According to the New York Times , data showed the pilot inside the cabin ignored the appeals of his colleague to open the cabin door. As time...

An evacuation slide inflated inside a United Airlines plane as it flew from Chicago to California, filling part of the cabin and forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing in Kansas, the airline and passengers said. Mike Schroeder said he was flying to Orange County, California, late Sunday when he heard a hiss and pop. Schroeder said he turned around and saw the plane's evacuation slide — which would normally go outside the plane during an emergency — inflating inside the cabin.

CAIR said Muslims who object to full-body scans for religious reasons should know their rights if they are required to undergo a pat-down, including asking for the procedure to be done in a private place. In addition, CAIR offered a “special recommendation” for Muslim women who wear a hijab, telling them they should tell the TSA officer that they may be searched only around the head and neck.

The crash of Air France flight 447 from Rio to Paris last year is one of the most mysterious accidents in the history of aviation. After months of investigation, a clear picture has emerged of what went wrong. The reconstruction of the horrific final four minutes reveal continuing safety problems in civil aviation.

Plane flies despite safety problem Reuters | Tuesday, 12 June 2007 A pilot told nervous passengers travelling with a low-cost Spanish airline that nearly half the seats on their plane were out of use due to a safety problem but it was nothing to worry about, a Spanish newspaper reported. As passengers took their seats on the Lisbon to Madrid flight operated by Vueling Airlines on Sunday they noticed that all but three of the 32 rows on one side of the plane were taped off, according to an El Mundo reporter among the travellers. The captain told them on...

A Florida man who was fatally shot by U.S. air marshals at a Miami airport was a quiet, caring man, said Oklahoma missionaries who spent last week with him handing out eyeglasses to the poor in South America. Joy Sanders of Stillwater worked closely with Alpizar in the eye clinic and recognized him immediately when she saw the news reports of his death. Though the clinics were crowded and sometimes dirty, Alpizar was always patient, she said. "I remember looking over so many times and seeing him squatted down on these little tiny school chairs and bent over, leaning toward...

"the seventh time that the front wheels on an Airbus A-320 have gotten locked in the wrong position.. ..JetBlue's long-term maintenance of its aircraft. When the planes are inspected for damage and then reassembled, the work takes place either in Canada or El Salvador... JetBlue doesn't fly outside the United States.. Salvadoran mechanics make $300 to $1,000 a month..Roughly one-third of the Salvadoran mechanics have passed the exam that qualifies them for the Federal Aviation Administration's license, while in the United States, such licenses are required for all mechanics employed directly by the airlines."

Arrests raise air-safety concerns 3-12-05 By Taft Wireback Staff Writer News & Record GREENSBORO -- Air safety advocates are troubled by TIMCO's use of illegal immigrants to work on airplanes at Piedmont Triad International Airport not only for fear of terrorism, but also out of concern for mechanical errors that could put the flying public at risk. The company's use of undocumented immigrants could lead to a maintenance flaw with serious in-flight consequences, said Gail Dunham, president of the National Air Disaster Alliance/Foundation. "TIMCO hired them because they are cheap," said Dunham, a Summerfield resident whose Washington-based group claims to...

The FBI is investigating an incident of a bullet found in a plane at Charlotte Douglas International Airport. US Airways Flight 847 from Denver arrived here in Charlotte Monday at 11:30 a.m. A hole was found in the plane during a routine check of the A319 Airbus at the gate. WBTV spoke with the FAA in Charlotte and they tell us the FBI will be handling the case. The plane was shot in the right fuselage. The bullet has been recovered. There had been recent reports of bullets holes found in other US Airways planes, however investigations revealed those holes...

FORT WORTH, Texas - (KRT) - In what could become a major hassle for air travelers who smoke, the Homeland Security Department will ban all cigarette lighters beyond airport checkpoints beginning Feb. 15. The Intelligence Reform Bill that President Bush signed Dec. 17 orders the Transportation Security Administration to review its banned-items list and to prohibit passengers from carrying butane lighters aboard planes. Legislation stipulates that the ban must be in place in 60 days. "We are reviewing the necessary changes that the Transportation Security Administration will need to make based on the new intelligence legislation," TSA spokeswoman Andrea McCauley...

...As a result, 10 days later, Gore sent a letter to airline lobbyist Carol Hallett promising that the commission's findings would not result in any loss of revenue. ..

<p>Two recent incidents involving commercial airliners raise some disturbing questions about the security of commercial air passengers, and about the direction in which the government is heading in response.</p> <p>In one incident, a note found aboard a commuter jet forced its diversion from Washington's Reagan National Airport to Dulles International Airport. The other, a few days later, caused significant delays in flights from France to the U.S. because a woman passenger's jacket contained some wires. The first incident was the result of an apparently deranged person writing an apparently threatening note; the second of a legal piece of clothing with wires imbedded to in it to keep the wearer warm.</p>

More than seven years after TWA Flight 800 slammed into the Atlantic Ocean off Long Island, the reconstructed jumbo jet has been packed up and workers began shipping it Monday to a college in Virginia, where it will be used to train air safety investigators. All 230 people aboard Flight 800 died when the plane exploded in a fireball minutes after taking off from Kennedy Airport on a flight to Paris on July 17, 1996. The National Transportation Safety Board found that Flight 800 was destroyed by a center fuel tank explosion, likely caused by a spark from a short-circuit...

A flight attendant accused of setting a fire on ComAir flight was granted bond in federal magistrate court Wednesday after being indicted last week. Turhan Lamons is also accused of making a bomb threat while previously employed at AirTran Airways. U.S. District Magistrate Judge Walter Johnson granted Lamons a $15,000 bond. The government argued to keep Lamons in jail until he was tried on the charges of trying to set fire to ComAir Airlines Flight 5491 on May 8. The commuter jet made an emergency landing after smoke filled the cabin. In court, the government argued Lamons had, on...

<p>For years, the government touted federal air marshals as the best of the best -- an ''elite corps'' of undercover officers trained to stop hijackings on commercial flights.</p> <p>But today, after rushing to hire thousands of new marshals, the program is so beset with problems that sources say at least 80 marshals have quit, and other marshals say they are considering a class-action lawsuit over working conditions that they fear put travelers at risk.</p>

<p>Americans are not satisfied with internal security, despite newer and newer bureaucracies. And they are right.</p> <p>We've all been entertained by the ignorance of the Transportation Department's random search of a 79-year-old woman bent over with osteoporosis and a 7-year-old child instead of male adult potential terrorists. But there is an even greater ignorance in the Defense Department's policy of no longer flying regular fighter patrols over Washington and New York.</p>