MH370: Authorities 'Covering Up Vital Information' About Missing Jet, Says Aviation Expert

 An aviation expert has alleged that Malaysian and Australian authorities, who are handling the search for missing Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370, could be involved in a cover-up, local media reports said Sunday. Desmond Ross, who is also a pilot, also claimed that a breach of protocol by authorities made the ongoing search costly, The Malaysian Insider reported.

 Ross, who is a pilot and air-traffic management specialist, reportedly blamed the authorities' failure to release recordings from the first hours of the aircraft's disappearance for the delay in finding the Boeing 777. “If proper protocols had been followed, we would not be looking for the aircraft today,” Ross said, according to The Malaysian Insider.

Writing for Aviation Business Asia Pacific magazine, Ross also reportedly raised doubts over the official version of Flight MH370’s final moments.
“Many facts are missing, but many are available and should be released. We know that the initial period was filled with confusion and even misinformation from the airline itself which, at one stage, told ATC (Air traffic control) that it had contact with the aircraft in Cambodian airspace,” he reportedly said.
Ross also reportedly referred to a BBC documentary called “Where is Flight MH370?” in which Malaysian authorities in charge of the search said that they could not reveal the military’s tracking of the missing jetliner due to security reasons. He also claimed it could be a case of "criminal negligence" if there had been no recording of communication between civil air-traffic controllers at the Kuala Lumpur control center and military air defense officers.
“Nobody can tell us that the recordings do not exist,” Ross reportedly said, adding that Malaysia and Australia “could be accused of covering up vital information which would help the families and independent investigators to work out what happened.”

Drug cartels

Drug cartels in the Mexico state of Tamaulipas have turned their attention to prominent social media users.

behind every successful man there is a woman behind any unsuccesful man there are women.

behind every successful man there is a woman
behind any unsuccesful man there are women.

hoax;;;; NASA Confirms Earth Will Experience 6 Days of Total Darkness in December 2014!

WORLDWIDE - NASA has confirmed that the Earth will experience 6 days of almost complete darkness and will happen from the dates Tuesday the 16 – Monday the 22 in December. The world will remain, during these three days, without sunlight due to a solar storm, which will cause dust and space debris to become plentiful and thus, block 90% sunlight.

This is the head of NASA Charles Bolden who made the announcement and asked everyone to remain calm. This will be the product of a solar storm, the largest in the last 250 years for a period of 216 hours total. Reporters interviewed a few people to hear what they had to say about the situation with Michael Hearns responding “We gonna be purgin my n*gga, six days of darkness means six days of turnin up fam”.

Despite the six days of darkness soon to come, officials say that the earth will not experience any major problems, since six days of darkness is nowhere near enough to cause major damage to anything. “We will solely rely on artificial lig

Total CEO dead after jet's collision with snowplough

 

 

 

 

 

Chairman and CEO of the French company Total, Christophe de Margerie, died just after 23:57 local time, on October 20 in a private plane crash at Vnukovo Airport in Moscow, following a collision with a snowplough. Three crew members that were in the plane did not survive either.

Among the priority versions of the incident, investigation is considering actions of the snowplough driver, who was confirmed to be intoxicated with unknown substances during the incident; and error of the controllers. In addition, unfavorable weather conditions and pilot error are also considered. The airport said that visibility was at 350 metres at the time of the accident

Currently investigative team made inspection of the scene with the participation of representatives of the IAC, withdrawn technical papers on aircraft and fuel samples from the tanker, interrogated as witnesses employees Vnukovo airport. Organized set of necessary investigative actions aimed at establishing the circumstances and causes of the crash.

De Margerie was on a list of attendees at a Russian government meeting on foreign investment in Gorki, near Moscow, on Monday. Hours before his death he had met the Russian prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, at his country residence outside Moscow to discuss foreign investment in Russia, the Vedomosti business daily reported.

Given the large public outcry, the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia Alexander Bastrykin will hold a meeting with the operative investigative team and representatives of all services involved in the investigation of Incidents.

The French oil giant was one of the top foreign investors in Russia and has been hit by the worsening relations between Moscow and the West.

Source and image: Total, Vnukovo, Russia's Investigative Committee

 

Changes in aviation aftermarket influence spares demand patterns

As carriers worldwide are determined to benefit from the ever-growing demand, the largest aircraft manufacturers - Airbus and Boeing - have pushed their narrowbody production rates to 42 aircraft per month each, while announcing plans to go over 50 in the nearest future. Earlier, such developments within the industry would mean respective changes in airline spare parts stocking levels and parts demand, since increasing demand for air travel used to represent more flight hours and cycles across the global fleet, meaning that the parts in use wear out more quickly. However, some recent trends suggest that a significant structural shift is occurring.

“The recent uptick in traffic coincides with several new trends, which have emerged in the aviation aftermarket, namely the increased popularity of used serviceable material, greater reliability of components, improved aircraft utilization, as well as growing presence of the OEMs in the aftermarket processes. As a result, dependence of spare part sales on the demand for travel and aircraft use has become considerably weaker. In fact, part sales have been slower than suggested by the growth in global available seat kilometers,” shares Zilvinas Sadauskas, the CEO of Locatory.com.

While it may be too soon to draw definite conclusions, many industry players are inclined to believe that the increased used spares consumption in causing the most noticeable disruptions. After all, the worth of this considerably new market is currently heading towards $4 billion (a significant rise from slightly over $1 billion in 2001) at a rate of about 5.5%, as forecasted by IFC International. As a result, according to a recent survey conducted by Oliver Wyman, 84% of airlines are currently adopting an “active serviceable materials strategy”. In the meantime, Canaccord Genuity reports almost a third of parts bought from MROs and OEMs in the end of 2013 were used serviceable material.

As the demand for used materials grows, more and more airlines have been practicing buying entire aircraft for teardown, to get the most of the cost-cutting benefits surplus material provides. Moreover, some have even considered dismantling their own machines for own fleet support, as well as for sale. Consequently, roughly 80% of surplus parts in the aftermarket today come from part-outs. In addition, more and more carriers are requesting used parts support from their providers as a means of extending service lives of sunset fleet types, while becoming more efficient at managing their own spares.

“At the same time, PBH providers have also started offering used parts to lower the service costs, while some OEMs have been utilizing surplus material in order to make product overhauls more cost-effective. For instance, Boeing's recent deal with GA Telesis on selling used airframe and engine parts on the manufacturer’s Boeing Part Page is the latest example of OEMs getting deeper into the aftermarket in search of revenue - even if it means selling used material. All in all, as more and more players see the aftermarket as an increasingly perspective segment, it may well be expected that the familiar rules of the game will continue to change,” concludes the CEO of Locatory.com.

Source and image: Locatory.com

Press Release – FAA Statement on Ebola

The health and welfare of flight crews, airline workers and the traveling public is a top priority of the FAA. We work closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the aviation industry, as well as other Federal government partners on issues of public health and on disease awareness, when appropriate.
Guidance on training and procedures for the aviation industry are provided by the CDC, which is also the best source for studies and reports on infectious disease. The CDC’s traveler’s health notices and aviation industry guidance are available at http://www.cdc.gov/.
Frequently Asked Questions

• Under what circumstances will the FAA restrict flights to and from countries with citizens infected with Ebola? Decisions about flight restrictions in response to an international public health emergency would be an interagency decision.  The health and welfare of flight crews, airline workers and the traveling public is a priority of the FAA. We work closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as well as other federal government partners on issues of public health and on communicable disease awareness, when appropriate
  
  The CDC’s information for travelers is available online.
  
• What authority does the FAA have to restrict flights to and from another country? While the FAA has the authority to direct flight operations in United States airspace, any decision to restrict flights between the United States and other countries due to public health and disease concerns would be an interagency decision that would engage the Departments of Health and Human Services/CDC, State, Homeland Security, and Transportation. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the CDC have not recommended general travel restrictions to or from the countries affected by Ebola.
  
• How are airlines preparing for Ebola? The FAA is working with the CDC which has developed guidance for airline crews, cleaning and cargo personnel, and air medical transport. The CDC’s notices and guidelines are well publicized. U.S. airlines have CDC’s guidance and have been sharing the information with their crews. The FAA will continue to work collaboratively with the U.S. aviation industry and public health authorities.
  
  The CDC’s airline guidance is available online. The guidance for cabin aircrews was updated on October 15, 2014.
  
• Does the FAA require health screening of passengers bound to the United States? In early October, DHS, with the CDC, implemented enhanced screening measures at five airports around the country—New York’s JFK, Newark, Dulles, Atlanta, and Chicago. All passengers arriving in the United States from or through one of the three countries will be required to fly into one of these five airports that have the enhanced screening and additional resources in place. Passengers flying into one of these airports whose travel originated in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea are subject to secondary screening and added protocols, including having their temperature taken, before they can be admitted into the United States. At present there are no direct, non-stop commercial flights from Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea to any airport in the United States.
    DHS/U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the CDC have closely coordinated to develop policies, procedures, and protocols to identify travelers that are known by U.S. public health officials to have a communicable disease and to handle in a manner that minimizes risk to the public. These procedures have been utilized collaboratively by both agencies on a number of occasions with positive results.
  CBP personnel review all travelers entering the United States for general overt signs of illnesses (visual observation, questioning, and notification of CDC as appropriate) at all U.S. ports of entry, including all federal inspection services areas at U.S. airports that service international flights. When a traveler is identified with a possible communicable disease or identified from information that is received from the CDC, CBP personnel will take the appropriate safety measures by donning personal protective equipment (PPE), to include gloves and surgical masks, which are readily available for use in the course of their duties.  CBP personnel receive training in illness recognition, but if they identify an individual believed to be infected, CBP will contact CDC along with local public health authorities to help with further medical evaluation.
  
  
• What should a crewmember do if they suspect someone is infected with Ebola? The CDC, through a network of Quarantine Stations located at 20 ports of entry and land-border crossings, has routine health inspection procedures that consist of working with airline, cargo ship, and cruise ship companies to protect passengers and crews from certain infectious diseases. Quarantine inspectors meet arriving aircraft and ships reporting ill passengers and/or crew (as defined in the foreign quarantine regulations) and assist them in getting appropriate medical treatment. If the flight crew of a commercial aircraft ARRIVING in the U.S. becomes aware of an ill person on board which may include a person with Ebola symptoms, the captain is REQUIRED by law (42 CFR 71.21(b)) to report the illness to the nearest U.S. Quarantine Station, who will arrange the appropriate medical response at the flight’s destination airport. International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards and procedures provide for reports to be made to air traffic control. Once the FAA receives a report, it promptly communicates it to the CDC Emergency Operations Center (EOC).
  Information on U.S. Quarantine Stations is available at http://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/quarantinestationcontactlistfull.html, with major quarantine stations located in Anchorage, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, El Paso, Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York (JFK), Newark, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, San Juan, Seattle, and Washington, DC.
  
  The FAA has an agreement in place with CDC that outlines how the FAA and CDC will exchange notifications of reports that they receive of deaths, suspected cases of communicable disease, and other public health risks onboard aircraft.  The FAA notifies the CDC Emergency Operations Center of any of these reports received by FAA Air Traffic Services units.  There are ICAO provisions regarding the use of Air Traffic Service units to facilitate communications between airborne flights and public health authorities.