The last words of Flight QZ8501's pilot

The last words of Flight QZ8501's pilot have been revealed. Captain Iriyanto is said to have asked Indonesian state navigation operator AirNav for permission to turn left to avoid a storm. His request was granted and the jet turned left seven miles. According to AirNav standards and safety director Wisnu Darjono, the captain then asked if he could climb, saying: "Request to higher level." The air traffic controller responded: "Intended to what level?", to which Iriyanto said he wanted to go to 38,000 feet. It was the last AirNav heard from the pilot. The revelation came as the search for missing Flight QZ8501 entered its third day. Ships and aircraft from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia are scouring the Java Sea for any trace of the AirAsia plane, which disappeared on Saturday with 162 people on board. The Airbus 320-200 had been flying from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore when it vanished. Weather conditions were poor in the Java Sea when the aircraft disappeared. The man leading the search for Flight QZ8501 has said it is likely "at the bottom of the sea".

SH13BN JKIA RUNWAY PLAN GATHERS SPEED

Kenya Airports Authority’s plan to build a second runway at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport has gathered speed with the national environment regulator inviting public input on the project before its approval.

In a gazette notice on Friday, the National Environment Management Authority, released the environmental impact assessment report for the 5.5km runway at the airport inviting public opinion.

The second runway, whose construction was to start last year at a cost of Sh13 billion, is expected to facilitate direct travels to long haul destinations.

NON-STOP FLIGHTS

It was meant to open non-stop flights between Kenya and United States, but its construction has delayed since June 2013 due to funding hitches.

The runway will comprise a 45-metre pavement and will be 5.5 kilometres long with shoulders, drainage and taxi ways.

FAA proposed $317,500 civil penalty against United Air Lines

The U.S Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is proposing a $317,500 civil penalty against United Air Lines, Inc. of Chicago, Ill., for allegedly operating an aircraft that was not in compliance with Federal Aviation Regulations.

The FAA alleges that on January 19, 2013, United mechanics removed and replaced a nose landing gear wheel and tire on a Boeing 767 without installing a required axle washer. The Boeing and United maintenance manuals warn that the wheel bearing can fail if the washer is not installed. An FAA inspector discovered the missing washer during a routine inspection.

United allegedly operated the aircraft on 35 passenger flights when the washer was missing. The aircraft was not in an airworthy condition during those flights, the FAA alleges.

United has requested to meet with the FAA to discuss the case.

Discovery of AirAsia flight QZ8501 debris confirmed

Discovery of AirAsia flight QZ8501 debris confirmed

Indonesian rescuers have confirmed the discovery of the wreckage of the liner. In Indonesia, the Ministry of Transport said that the objects found off the coast of Borneo, are likely to be the fragments of the missing aircraft AirAsia, reportsLenta.Ru citing Reuters. According to various sources, more than 40 bodies have been already retrieved. 

According to RIA Novosti, the Indonesian Air Force also found human bodies. "There was a person in the water. After I reviewed the photos on my laptop, I have realized that the body was of the deceased, " said lieutenant Prabowo.

Earlier, the authorities said that about a dozen "red-white" (color airline AirAsia) large and many smaller items  were found in the sea. According to Agus Dwi Putranto, Indonesia's aviation Vice-Marshal, objects were found approximately 10 kilometers from the place where the radar recorded the missing aircraft for the last time; two of them resembled the door liner and emergency chute.

Airplane Airbus A320-200 Malaysia's AirAsia, flying QZ8501 flight from Surabaya in Indonesia Singapore, disappeared from the radar on the night of December 28. On board were 162 people, including 17 children.

Russia wants to ban foreign pilot employment

According to deputies, the recent shortage of pilots was replaced by an unprecedented oversaturation of the market, according to Izvestia.

State Duma deputy Mikhail Degtyarev prepared a bill repealing the amendments adopted earlier in 2014, which prohibited Russian companies specializing in air transport to hire foreign pilots. The draft law proposed to  declare null the changes in Art. 56 Air Code and Art. 14 of the Federal Law "On the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens in the Russian Federation."

According to the Parliament, the admission of foreign citizens in the Russian flight crew poses a threat to national security. In the context of international instability and sanctions to employ foreigners it would be a manifestation of indulgence to the West, was confident MP.

According to the Vice-President of the aircrew Trade Union, Oleg Prikhodko, personnel market is going through hard times, and the end of 2014 about 400 pilots lost their jobs.

Meanwhile, one of the largest Russian airlines said that the abolition of the recently adopted rules was premature.

In April, the aeronautical authorities assessed the shortage of personnel to be in the 1-1.4 thousand. It was assumed that Russian airlines will attract 200 pilots annually until 2019.

US sends warship as Indonesia expands search for AirAsia plane

JAKARTA, INDONESIA

A US warship Tuesday joined an expanded search for an AirAsia passenger plane missing off Indonesia as the pilot's last words to air traffic control were revealed.

The recording shows the pilot wanted to avoid a menacing storm system before all communication was lost, an Indonesian air safety official said.

More than 48 hours after the Airbus A320-200 carrying 162 people lost contact en route from Indonesia's second largest city Surabaya to Singapore, no clue has been found as to the plane's final location or fate.

Before take-off the pilot had asked for permission to fly at a higher level to avoid a storm but his request was not approved due to heavy traffic on the popular route, AirNav, Indonesia's flight navigation service, said Tuesday.

In his final communication, the pilot asked to alter his course and repeated his original request to ascend to avoid bad weather.

"The pilot requested to air traffic controllers to deviate to the left side due to bad weather, which was immediately approved," Wisnu Darjono, the safety director for Indonesia's flight navigation service AirNav told AFP.

"After a few seconds the pilot requested to ascend from 32,000 to 38,000 feet but could not be immediately approved as some planes were flying above it at that time," Darjono said.

That was the last communication with AirAsia Flight QZ8501.

"Two to three minutes later when the controller was going to give a clearance to a level of 34,000, the plane did not give any response," he said.

At take-off the pilot had requested permission to fly at 34,000 feet but due to traffic it could not be approved, he said.

"At that time there were 11 planes flying route M635," he said, adding that 160 flights a day used the route to Singapore.

NO SIGN OF AIRCRAFT

Details of the pilot's final contact came as the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) said it had expanded the search.

The hunt is focused on waters around the islands of Bangka and Belitung in the Java Sea, across from Kalimantan on Borneo Island, but the army has also been asked to carry out ground searches, including in mountainous areas.

Basarnas chief Bambang Soelistyo told reporters the search zone had been expanded from seven sectors to 13, covering 156,000 square kilometres (60,000 square miles).

"We intensified today's search operation by expanding the search area on sea from the coordinates where the plane was missing and on land to the east and west of Borneo island," deputy operations chief Tatang Zainuddin told AFP.

As the search resumed at dawn for a third day, he said oil spills spotted on Monday had been tested but were not aviation fuel.

ADVERTISEMENT

"The oil leak is actually from fishermen's boats, not from the AirAsia plane," Zainuddin said.

"We haven't found any signs of the aircraft's whereabouts up to now."

Indonesian officials however appear to be preparing for the worst, with Soelistyo saying Monday it was likely the plane was at "the bottom of the sea", based on its estimated position.

INTERNATIONAL EFFORT

Australia, Singapore and Malaysia have sent maritime surveillance aircraft and warships to assist in the search, joining Indonesian planes, ships and scores of fishing boats scouring the waters for signs of the ill-fated aircraft.

Washington said it was deploying the USS Sampson to join the growing international effort, with the destroyer expected to arrive in the search zone Tuesday.

South Korea said it was sending a P-3 reconnaissance plane that was involved in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 which vanished in March.

While the operation has drawn comparisons with the ongoing search for MH370, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot said it did not appear to be a great mystery.

"It doesn't appear that there's any particular mystery here," Abbott told Sydney radio station 2GB on Monday.

"It's an aircraft that was flying a regular route on a regular schedule, it struck what appears to have been horrific weather, and it's down. But this is not a mystery like the MH370 disappearance and it's not an atrocity like the MH17 shooting down."

China, which had 152 citizens onboard MH370, said it was sending a frigate and military aircraft to help with the new search.

AirAsia said 155 of those on board were Indonesian, with three South Koreans and one person each from Singapore, Malaysia, Britain and France. The Frenchman was the co-pilot.

The missing plane was operated by AirAsia Indonesia, a unit of Malaysian-based AirAsia which dominates Southeast Asia's booming low-cost airline market.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago with poor roads and railways, has seen explosive growth in low-cost air travel over recent years.

But the air industry has been blighted by low safety standards in an area that also experiences extreme weather.

AirAsia, which has never suffered a fatal accident, said the missing jet last underwent maintenance on November 16.

The plane's disappearance comes at the end of a disastrous year for Malaysian aviation.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March with 239 passengers and crew, and in July flight MH17 was shot down over unrest-hit Ukraine, killing all 298 on board.

AirAsia QZ8501: Search zone for missing plane expanded

The hunt for AirAsia flight QZ8501 has entered a third day, with the search area widened to cover land and sea.

Indonesian officials say they are sending teams to investigate reports of smoke on an island in East Bilutung, inside the expanded search zone.

The Airbus A320-200, carrying 162 people, disappeared on Sunday shortly after leaving Surabaya in eastern Java, Indonesia, on its way to Singapore.

The pilot's last contact was a request to divert around bad weather.

Countries around the region as well as the US, France and Australia are joining the search over the Java sea.

Indonesian officials say air traffic control approved one request, then gave clearance to a second request - asking permission to climb - two to three minutes later.

No reply was received and the plane disappeared from radar. No trace has yet been found.

President Joko Widodo dismissed suggestions that debris and oil from the fuel tanks may have been discovered by saying: "We have to tell it like it is... So far our efforts haven't found clarity about the plane's position."

While some relatives will keep the fire of hope burning, there is the developing, devastating realisation for others that their loved ones will not be found alive.

It is an agony that people here are beginning to get used to as time drags on and optimism and hope ebb away.

On board the plane were 137 adult passengers, 17 children and one infant, along with two pilots and five crew.

Most were Indonesian but the passengers included one UK national, a Malaysian, a Singaporean and three South Koreans.

Pilot Capt Iriyanto had more than 20,500 flight hours, almost 7,000 of them with AirAsia. The co-pilot was French national Remi Emmanuel Plesel.

On Tuesday, Indonesian search and rescue officials said they were deploying teams to investigate reports of "billowing smoke" on Long Island, just south of Belitung island, inside the search zone.

At least 30 ships, 15 aircraft and seven helicopters joined the operation when it resumed at 06:00 local time, said Indonesian officials, with the search now covering 13 different areas across land and sea.

The multinational operation, led by Indonesia, has been joined by Malaysia, Singapore and Australia, with other offers of help from South Korea, Thailand, China and France. The US destroyer USS Sampson is on its way to the zone.

The BBC's Alice Budisatrijo at Surabaya's Juanda airport says those offers come as welcome news to the relatives, who understand the limited technical capabilities of the Indonesian authorities to locate and retrieve the plane, especially if it is underwater.

Bambang Soelistyo, the head of Indonesia's search-and-rescue agency, told the Associated Press that military helicopters had been despatched to scour land over Borneo island.

"Until now, we have not yet found any signal or indication of the plane's whereabouts," he said.

On Monday, he said he suspected the aircraft was at the bottom of the sea, but there is so far no evidence of this.

Indonesian officials confirmed on Tuesday that material spotted on the seas off Belitung island was not aviation fuel as had been thought.

'Then no reply'

The plane had left Surabaya at 05:35 Jakarta time and had been due to arrive in Singapore two hours later.

Wisnu Darjono, AirNav safety director, said Capt Iriyanto requested permission to bank left at 06:12 to avoid a storm. The request was immediately granted and the plane changed course.

According to state navigation operator AirNav Indonesia, the pilot then asked to take the plane from 32,000ft (9,800m) to 38,000ft but did not explain why he wanted to do so.

Indonesian air traffic control staff told the pilot he could take the plane to 34,000ft but no higher because another AirAsia airliner was flying at 38,000ft.

"It took us around two to three minutes to communicate with Singapore," Mr Darjono said. "But when we informed the pilot of the approval at 06:14, we received no reply."

The plane was officially declared missing at 07:55.

It is unclear what happened next but one report suggests the plane may have tried to climb through the storm.

Former pilots say a climb could have led to reduced stability and possibly a fatal stall, as cross winds and down draughts battered the plane.

The AirAsia plane was delivered in 2008, has flown 13,600 times, completing 23,000 hours, and underwent its last maintenance in November.

AirAsia previously had an excellent safety record and there were no fatal accidents involving its aircraft.

ICAO, 3.2bn passengers used air transport in 2014

Some 3.2 billion passengers used air transport for their business and tourism needs in 2014, according to preliminary figures on scheduled services released today by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The annual total passengers was up approximately 5 per cent compared to 2013 and is expected to reach over 6.4 billion by 2030, based on current projections.

Aircraft departures reached 33 million globally during 2014, establishing a new record and surpassing the 2013 figure by roughly one million flights. Solid global economic growth and improving world trade helped world scheduledpassenger traffic grow at a rate of 5.9 per cent in 2014 (expressed in terms of revenue passenger-kilometres or RPKs), compared to 5.5 per cent in 2013.

The Asia/Pacific region was the world’s largest air travel market in 2014, with a 31 per cent share in terms of world RPKs. The second and third largest air travel markets were Europe and North America, representing 27 per cent and 25 per cent, respectively. The Middle East Region, accounting for 9 per cent of world RPKs, recorded the fastest growth rate at 12.8 per cent. The Latin America and Caribbean Region increased by a solid 5.9 per cent while African growth registered in at 1.5 per cent.

International scheduled passenger traffic grew by 6.3 per cent in 2014, up from the 5.7 per cent recorded in 2013. With recovery in the Eurozone economy, European traffic increased by 5.7 per cent and accounted for the largest share of international RPKs with 38 per cent. Asia/Pacific had the second largest share with 27 per cent, growing by 5.8 per cent. North America was also up by 3.1 per cent, in line with its improving economic conditions.

With its combined economic strength and airline network expansion, the Middle East recorded the highest international passenger traffic growth at 13.4 per cent compared to 2013. The Latin America/Caribbean meanwhile grew by a solid 6.2 per cent despite weakness in some of its economies, and carriers in Africa experienced the slowest growth rate of 1.7 per cent.

Scheduled domestic passenger traffic increased by 5.1 per cent compared to 2013, with North America and the Asia/Pacific accounting for a combined 82 per cent of worldwide domestic traffic (44 per cent for North America, 38 per cent for Asia/Pacific). The Asia/Pacific domestic market experienced the fastest growth, 7.9 per cent compared to 2013, driven mainly by Chinese airlines which accounted for approximately 60 per cent of the region’s total domestic traffic.

Overall air transport capacity, expressed in available seat-kilometres (ASKs), increased globally by 5.7 per cent in 2014. The overall passenger load factor was relatively stable compared to 2013 at 79.5 per cent. Carriers in North America achieved the highest passenger load factor in 2014, 83.5 per cent, followed by European carriers at 80.4 per cent.

Source and image: ICAO

Air China signs deal to purchase 60 Boeing B737 aircraft

The largest carrier in China, Air China, said Monday that it has signed an agreement with American jet maker Boeing for 60 B737 planes for a total price of nearly $6 billion. The Chinese flag carrier in a statement to Hong Kong stock exchange said that the aircraft are to be delivered between 2016 and 2020 as per the agreement. Boeing also confirmed the latest deal with an air carrier from an emerging economy.

The deal will include "next generation" 737 and 737 MAX airplanes, which are known for their fuel efficiency, Boeing said.

"Our long-standing and productive partnership with Air China dates back to the airline's beginning and we are proud the 737 has been part of their success," said Ihssane Mounir, Boeing's vice president of sales and marketing for Northeast Asia. Boeing officials have highlighted strong commercial growth as a key offset to weakness in its government business in light of defence budget cuts.

Source and image: Boeing 

Air disasters timeline

A chronology of major air disasters since 1998:

2014

28 December: AirAsia QZ8501 flying from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore goes missing over the Java sea. The pilot radioed for permission to divert around bad weather but no mayday alert was issued. There were 162 passengers and crew on board.

24 July: Air Algerie AH5017 disappears over Mali amid poor weather near the border with Burkina Faso. The McDonnell Douglas MD-83 was operated by Spain's Swiftair, and was heading from Ouagadougou to Algiers carrying 116 passengers - 51 of them French. All are thought to have died.

23 July: Forty-eight people die when a Tawainese ATR-72 plane crashes into stormy seas during a short flight. TransAsia Airways GE222 was carrying 54 passengers and four crew to the island of Penghu. It made an abortive attempt to land before crashing on a second attempt.

17 July: Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashes near Grabove in eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board, 193 of them Dutch. Pro-Russian rebels are widely accused of shooting the plane down using a surface-to-air missile - they deny responsibility.

8 March: The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines MH370 during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing leads to the largest and most expensive search in aviation history. Despite vast effort, notably in the hostile South Indian Ocean, to date no debris of any kind has been found from the flight.

11 February: A military transport plane - a Hercules C-130 - carrying 78 people crashes in a mountainous part of north-eastern Algeria. Reports suggest there is one survivor from among the military personnel, family members and crew.

2013

17 November: Tatarstan Airlines Boeing 737 crashes on landing in Kazan, Russia, killing all 50 people on board.

16 October: Forty-nine people, including foreigners from some 10 countries as well as Laotian nationals, die when a Lao Airlines ATR 72-600 plunges into the Mekong River as it came in to land.

2012

3 June: A Dana Air passenger plane with about 150 people on board crashes in a densely populated area of Nigeria's largest city, Lagos.

20 April: A Bhoja Air Boeing 737 crashes on its approach to the main airport in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, killing all 121 passengers and six crew.

2011

26 July: Some 78 people are killed when a Moroccan military C-130 Hercules crashes into a mountain near Guelmim in Morocco. Officials blamed bad weather.

8 July: A Hewa Bora Airways plane crash-lands in bad weather in Democratic Republic of Congo, killing 74 of the 118 people on board.

9 January: An IranAir Boeing 727 breaks into pieces near the city of Orumiyeh, killing 77 of the 100 people on board. The pilots had reported a technical failure before trying to land.

2010

5 November: An Aerocaribbean passenger turboprop crashes in mountains in central Cuba, killing all 68 people on board.

28 July: A Pakistani plane on an Airblue domestic flight from Karachi crashes into a hillside while trying to land at Islamabad airport, killing all 152 people on board.

22 May: An Air India Express Boeing 737 overshot a hilltop airport in Mangalore, southern India, and crashed into a valley, bursting into flames and killing 158.

12 May: An Afriqiyah Airways Airbus 330 crashes while trying to land near Tripoli airport in Libya, killing more than 100 people.

10 April: A Tupolev 154 plane carrying Polish President Lech Kaczynski crashes near the Russian airport of Smolensk, killing more than 90 people on board.

More than 100 people died when this Afriqiyah Airways plane crashed during landing at Tripoli airport in Libya in May 2010

25 January: Ethiopian Airlines passenger jet crashes into the sea with 89 people on board shortly after take-off from Beirut.

2009

15 July: A Caspian Airlines Tupolev plane crashes in the north of Iran en route to Armenia. All 168 passengers and crew are reported dead.

30 June: A Yemeni passenger plane, an Airbus 310, crashes in the Indian Ocean near the Comoros archipelago. Only one of the 153 people on board survives.

1 June: An Air France Airbus 330 travelling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashes into the Atlantic with 228 people on board. Search teams later recover some 50 bodies in the ocean.

20 May: An Indonesian army C-130 Hercules transport plane crashes into a village on eastern Java, killing at least 97 people.

12 February: A passenger plane crashes into a house in Buffalo, New York, killing all 49 people on board and one person on the ground.

2008

14 September: A Boeing-737 crashes on landing near the central Russian city of Perm, killing all 88 passengers and crew members on board.

24 August: A passenger plane crashes shortly after take-off from Kyrgyzstan's capital, Bishkek, killing 68 people.

20 August: A Spanair plane veers off the runway on take-off at Madrid's Barajas airport, killing 154 people and injuring 18.

2007

30 November: All 56 people on board an Atlasjet flight are killed when it crashes near the town of Keciborlu in the mountainous Isparta province, about 12km (7.5 miles) from Isparta airport.

16 September: At least 87 people are killed after a One-Two-Go plane crashed on landing in bad weather at the Thai resort of Phuket.

17 July: A TAM Airlines jet crashes on landing at Congonhas airport in Sao Paulo, in Brazil's worst-ever air disaster. A total of 199 people are killed - all 186 on board and 13 on the ground.

5 May: A Kenya Airways Boeing 737-800 crashes in swampland in southern Cameroon, killing all 114 on board. The official inquiry is yet to report on the cause of the disaster.

1 January: An Adam Air Boeing 737-400 carrying 102 passengers and crew comes down in mountains on Sulawesi Island on a domestic Indonesian flight. All on board are presumed dead.

The tail of a Spanair jet that crashed on take off at Madrid airport on 20 August 2008

2006

29 September: A Boeing 737 carrying 154 passengers and crew crashed into the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, killing all on board, after colliding with a private jet in mid-air.

22 August: A Russian Tupolev-154 passenger plane with 170 people on board crashes north of Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine.

9 July: A Russian S7 Airbus A-310 skids off the runway during landing at Irkutsk airport in Siberia. A total of 124 people on board die, but more than 50 survive the crash.

3 May: An Armavia Airbus A-320 crashes into the Black Sea near Sochi, killing all 113 people on board.

2005

10 December: A Sosoliso Airlines DC-9 crashes in the southern Nigerian city of Port Harcourt, killing 103 people on board.

6 December: A C-130 military transport plane crashes on the outskirts of the Iranian capital Tehran, killing 110 people, including some on the ground.

22 October: A Bellview airlines Boeing 737 carrying 117 people on board crashes soon after take-off from the Nigerian city of Lagos, killing everyone on board.

5 September: A Mandala Airlines plane with 112 passengers and five crew on board crashes after take-off in the Indonesian city of Medan, killing almost all on board and dozens on the ground.

16 August: A Colombian plane operated by West Caribbean Airways crashes in a remote region of Venezuela, killing all 160 people on board. The airliner, heading from Panama to Martinique, was packed with residents of the Caribbean island.

14 August: A Helios Airways flight from Cyprus to Athens with 121 people on board crashes north of the Greek capital Athens, apparently after a drop in cabin pressure.

16 July: An Equatair plane crashes soon after take-off from Equatorial Guinea's island capital, Malabo, west of the mainland, killing all 60 people on board.

3 February: The wreckage of Kam Air Boeing 737 flight is located in high mountains near the Afghan capital Kabul, two days after the plane vanished from radar screens in heavy snowstorms. All 104 people on board are feared dead.

The remains of the Helios Airways passenger plane which crashed north of Athens in August 2005

2004

21 November: A passenger plane crashes into a frozen lake near the city of Baotou in the Inner Mongolia region of northern China, killing all 53 on board and two on the ground, officials say.

3 January: An Egyptian charter plane belonging to Flash Airlines crashes into the Red Sea, killing all 141 people on board. Most of the passengers are thought to be French tourists.

2003

25 December: A Boeing 727 crashes soon after take-off from the West African state of Benin, killing at least 135 people en route to Lebanon.

8 July: A Boeing 737 crashes in Sudan shortly after take-off, killing 115 people on board. Only one passenger, a small child survived.

26 May: A Ukrainian Yak-42 crashes near the Black Sea resort of Trabzon in north-west Turkey, killing all 74 people on board - most of them Spanish peacekeepers returning home from Afghanistan.

8 May: As many as 170 people are reported dead in DR Congo after the rear ramp of an old Soviet plane, an Ilyushin 76 cargo plane, apparently falls off, sucking them out.

6 March: An Algerian Boeing 737 crashes after taking off from the remote Tamanrasset airport, leaving up to 102 people dead.

19 February: An Iranian military transport aircraft carrying 276 people crashes in the south of the country, killing all on board.

8 January: A Turkish Airlines plane with 76 passengers and crew on board crashes while coming in to land at Diyarbakir.

2002

23 December: An Antonov 140 commuter plane carrying aerospace experts crashes in central Iran, killing all 46 people aboard. The delegation had been due to review an Iranian version of the same plane built under licence.

27 July: A fighter jet crashes into a crowd of spectators in the west Ukrainian town of Lviv, killing 77 people, in what is the world's worst air show disaster.

1 July: Seventy-one people, many of them children die when a Russian Tupolev 154 aircraft on a school trip to Spain collides with a Boeing 757 transport plane over southern Germany.

25 May: A Boeing 747 belonging to Taiwan's national carrier - China Airlines - crashes into the sea near the Taiwanese island of Penghu, with 225 passengers and crew on board.

7 May: China Northern Airlines plane carrying 112 people crashes into the sea near Dalian in north-east China.

7 May: On the same day, an EgyptAir Boeing 735 crash lands near Tunis with 55 passengers and up to 10 crew on board. Most people survive.

4 May: A BAC1-11-500 plane operated by EAS Airlines crashes in the Nigerian city of Kano, killing 148 people - half of them on the ground.

15 April: Air China flight 129 crashes on its approach to Pusan, South Korea, with over 160 passengers and crew on board.

12 February: A Tupolev 154 operated by Iran Air crashes in mountains in the west of Iran, killing all 117 on board.

29 January: A Boeing 727 from the Ecuadorean TAME airline crashes in mountains in Colombia, killing 92 people.

2001

12 November: An American Airlines A-300 bound for the Dominican Republic crashes after takeoff in a residential area of the borough of Queens, New York, killing all 260 people on board and at least five people on the ground.

8 October: A Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) airliner collides with a small plane in heavy fog on the runway at Milan's Linate airport, killing 118 people.

4 October: A Russian Sibir Airlines Tupolev 154,en route from Tel Aviv to Novosibirsk in Siberia, explodes in mid-air and crashes into the Black Sea, killing 78 passengers and crew.

3 July: A Russian Tupolev 154,en route from Yekaterinburg in the Ural mountains to the Russian port of Vladivostok, crashes near the Siberian city of Irkutsk, killing 133 passengers and 10 crew.

2000

30 October: A Singapore Airlines Boeing 747 bound for Los Angeles crashes after take-off from Taipei airport in Taiwan, killing 78 of the 179 people on board.

23 August: A Gulf Air Airbus crashes into the sea as it comes in to land in Bahrain, killing all 143 people on board.

25 July: Air France Concorde en route for New York crashes into a hotel outside Paris shortly after takeoff, killing 113 people, including four on the ground.

17 July: Alliance Air Boeing 737-200 crashes into houses attempting to land at Patna, India, killing 51 people on board and four on the ground.

19 April: Air Philippines Boeing 737-200 from Manila to Davao crashes on approach to landing, killing all 131 people on board.

31 January: Alaska Airlines MD-83 from Mexico to San Francisco plunges into ocean off southern California, killing all 88 people on board.

30 January: Kenya Airways A-310 crashes into Atlantic Ocean shortly after takeoff from Abidjan, Ivory Coast, en route for Lagos, Nigeria. All but 10 of the 179 people on board die.

1999

31 October: EgyptAir Boeing 767 crashes into Atlantic Ocean after taking off from John F. Kennedy Airport in New York on flight to Cairo, Egypt, killing all 217 on board.

24 February: China Southwest Airlines plane crashes in a field in China's coastal Zhejiang province after a mid-air explosion. All 61 people on board the Russian-built TU-154 flying from Chongqing to the south-eastern city of Wenzhou are killed.

1998

11 December: Thai Airways International A-310 crashes on a domestic flight during its third attempt to land at Surat Thani, Thailand, killing 101 people.

2 September: Swissair MD-11 from New York to Geneva crashes in the Atlantic Ocean off Canada killing all 229 people on board.

16 February: Airbus A-300 owned by Taiwan's China Airlines crashes near Taipei's Chiang Kai-shek airport while trying to land in fog and rain after a flight from Bali, Indonesia. All 196 on board and seven people on ground are killed.

2 February: Cebu Pacific Air DC-9 crashes into mountain in southern Philippines, killing all 104 people aboard.