US airlines are dropping their face mask requirement

 

United, American, Southwest, Delta, Alaska and other airlines late Monday said they were dropping their face mask requirement effective immediately given a federal judge’s ruling in Florida and the White House response to it.

The mask mandate, announced in January 2021, had been set to expire Monday. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced last week that it would keep it in place until May 3 to allow more time to study the BA.2 omicron subvariant of the coronavirus that is responsible for the majority of cases in the country.

It was the mask mandate’s fifth extension despite repeated requests from airlines and other travel industry officials to ease restrictions.

The court ruling moved up the timeline, barring any appeals, so passengers boarding flights late Monday are doing so without masks for the first time in nearly two years. Airlines began requiring masks before the government did, with JetBlue Airways the first carrier to announce the move.

The airline’s policy was quickly matched by other carriers.

U.S. airlines canceled more than 1,500 flights due storm

 

U.S. airlines canceled more than 1,500 flights Sunday as they tried to dig out of problems caused by severe thunderstorms in Florida and other disruptions that hit during the peak spring travel season.

Southwest canceled 400 flights Sunday, or 10 percent of its total, down from approximately 600 scuttled flights as of late Saturday, according to the airline, which sought to assuage irritated customers with what it called an “all hands on deck” effort to get them where they were trying to go.

“Annoyed and let down,” was data analyst Max Baldwin’s summary after Southwest canceled his flight from Nashville on Sunday and told him the earliest the airline could get him back to St. Louis was Tuesday.

Baldwin’s two shepherd mixes and greyhound mix were going to lose their dog-sitter, and he had to get back for work, so his dad is schlepping him 300 miles home in his truck instead, he said, given fellow passengers had already grabbed all the rental cars.

The problems were widespread through the weekend. JetBlue canceled nearly a third of its total flights Sunday, about 352 dashed departures. American Airlines and Spirit also each canceled more than 250 flights Sunday.

INCIDENT: LATAM A320 landed with its landing gear locked at a 90-degree angle

 

A LATAM flight was forced to return to proceed an emergency landing following a nose landing gear issue.

The Airbus A320-200 (reg. CC-BAS) was performing flight LA4292 from Medellín-José María Córdova Airport (MDE) to Cartagena-Crespo Airport (CTG) in Colombia.

Shortly after takeoff, the pilots detected an issue with the nose landing gear. After notifying ATC, the aircraft entered a holding pattern to burn enough fuel.

The aircraft landed with its landing gear locked at a 90-degree angle.

“The landing was carried out in a controlled manner in safe conditions for the occupants of the aircraft and the personnel on the ground,” reported Aerocivil, the Civil Aviation Authority of Colombia.

Operations at José María Córdova Airport were suspended while the passengers were deplaned, and the aircraft was removed from the runway.

No injuries among the crew or passengers were reported.

Qatar Airways A350 diverted to Pakistan due to smoke in cargo hold

 

A Qatar Airways Airbus A350 en route to Doha was forced to divert to Karachi after cargo hold smoke indication.

The A350 was performing a flight from Delhi to Doha as flight QR-579 when the occurrence forced it to divert to Karachi. The aircraft was met by emergency service in Karachi, and they found evidence of heat and fire in one of the containers.

In a statement, Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority’s spokesperson said:

“The pilot requested to make an emergency landing, and the control tower and CAA personnel responded immediately given the nature of the problem.”

No injuries were reported, and the passengers disembarked the aircraft via mobile stairs and were bussed to the terminal. Passengers reached Doha on replacement flight QR3139 with a delay of about 9 hours.

“Qatar Airways flight QR579 from Delhi to Doha on March 21 diverted to Karachi, having declared an emergency due to the indication of smoke detected in the cargo hold. The aircraft landed safely at Karachi where it was met by emergency services, and passengers disembarked orderly via stairs,” Qatar Airways said.

Jet2 LS895 from Manchester forced to divert after an ‘out of control woman’ slapped other passengers

 

A Jet2 flight heading from Manchester to Turkey was forced to divert to Vienna after an “out of control” woman became disruptive and slapped other passengers.

A plane was forced to divert after an “out of control” woman became aggressive and allegedly slapped another passenger on board.

The Jet2 flight headed to Antalya, Turkey left Manchester at around 9.15am Monday morning – with an expected flight time of nearly four-and-a-half hours.

But as the flight #LS895 pushed over the half-way mark, an incident involving a “disruptive” passenger forced the pilot to divert to Vienna.

Passengers had to wait on-board in the Austrian capital before setting off for Antalya for a second time at 1pm -with the plane finally touching down at 3pm.

A man got up to try and calm the situation before taking her to the back of the plane.

As the plane landed, the woman was said to have slapped another passenger as she was getting off.

ALERT U.S. to deploys two Patriot anti-aircraft missile batteries in Poland

 

The Pentagon is sending two Patriot surface-to-air missile batteries to Poland.

A move U.S. European Command said would “proactively” counter “any potential threat” to U.S. and NATO forces in the alliance’s territory.

About 4,700 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division were dispatched to Poland last month to bolster NATO’s deterrence posture as Russian forces invaded Ukraine.

The Patriot is a surface-to-air missile (SAM) system, the primary of its kind used by the United States Army and several allied nations.

Patriot uses an advanced aerial interceptor missile and high-performance radar systems.

It is manufactured by the U.S. defence contractor Raytheon and derives its name from the radar component of the weapon system.

ALERT Japan Airlines forced to cancel all flights to Europe on 3RD of March 2022

 

Japan Airlines said they would cancel all flights to and from Europe on Thursday.

The airlines, which normally use Russian airspace for their Europe flights, join a growing number of carriers that have cancelled or rerouted flights between Europe and north Asia in the wake of the crisis.

The airline is citing safety concerns following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.“We are continuously monitoring the situation, but given the present situation in Ukraine and the different risks, we have decided to cancel flights,” a JAL spokesperson told Reuters.