Free Republic

Algeria's national airline, Air Algerie, says it has lost contact with one of its planes flying from Burkina Faso. Contact was lost about 50 minutes after take-off from Ouagadougou, the airline is quoted by Algeria's state news agency as saying. The passenger airliner, last seen at 0155 GMT, was bound for the Algerian capital Algiers, it added. Flight AH 5017 had 110 passengers and six crew on board, officials said. "In keeping with procedures, Air Algerie has launched its emergency plan," Air Algerie officials, quoted by APS news agency, said. The plane is chartered from Spanish airline Swiftair. In a...

A man whose wife died when a Nigerian commercial airliner crashed into a crowded neighborhood in that country's largest city filed a lawsuit in the United States on Thursday that blames the accident, at least in part, on U.S. companies that designed, manufactured and sold the ill-fated plane. An American attorney filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Chicago on behalf of David Chukwunonso Allison, whose wife, Joy Chiedozie Allison, was on the Dana Air MD-83 that went down in the African nation Sunday afternoon. The crash killed 153 people who were on the plane and an undetermined number...

A passenger plane has crashed into a two-story building in the Nigerian city of Lagos. The Nigerian Civial Aviation Authority has confirmed there are no survivors. ­Thick clouds of black smoke can be seen at the site of the crash. Emergency services have been dispatched to the location. The head of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority said the Dana Air flight was heading to Lagos from the capital Abuja. Local residents have reportedly witnessed bodies burning at the crash site. Officials of the Lagos Fire Service and other rescue workers are evacuating residents of nearby houses.

Alaska jet repaired after accident 06:47 PM PST on Thursday, December 29, 2005 By GLENN FARLEY / KING 5 News SEATAC, Wash. - A gash in an Alaska Airlines jet caused by a baggage handler has been fixed, according to the airline, but experts Thursday offered some perspective on the forces that came to bear on the plane when the hole popped open at 26,000 feet. No one was injured in the incident, which included cabin depressurization and a rapid descent to 10,000 feet so passengers could breathe. The plane is not yet back in service as the airline continues...

SEATTLE (AP) -- A 12-inch hole in the fuselage of an Alaska Airlines jet caused the plane to lose cabin pressure, forcing the pilots to make an emergency descent and return to the airport, authorities said Tuesday. The incident Monday involved an MD-80 jet en route from Seattle to Burbank, Calif. The plane landed safely at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, and none of the 140 passengers was hurt. A baggage handler acknowledged that he failed to report immediately striking the plane at the gate Monday with a baggage cart or baggage-belt machine, said Jim Struhsaker, a spokesman for the National Transportation...

Hole found in Alaska plane 05:30 PM PST on Tuesday, December 27, 2005 KING5.com Investigators: Problems spike after ramp work outsourced SEATTLE – An Alaska Airlines plane was forced to return to Seattle Monday after a gash in the plane’s fuselage caused the aircraft to lose pressurization. The incident began when a ramp worker hit the plane with a baggage cart or baggage belt machine, according to National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Jim Struhsaker. The accident created a crease in the skin of the plane which opened up into a hole when the pressure on the plane changed at 26,000...