Boeing debris found at Reunion Island washed up 3 months ago

A blue 'plane seat' washed up three months ago on Reunion Island where wreckage thought to be a part of the wing from flight MH370 was found, it has been claimed. Man walking on beach reportedly claimed he found suitcases but set them alight after mistaking them for rubbish.

Nicolas Ferrier reportedly said he was on his daily patrol of La Reunion picking up debris from the beach, when he spotted what he thought looked like a bus seat.The island native said he found the seat in early May - along with suitcases which he burned after mistaking them for rubbish.

Malaysia said on Sunday the piece of debris, a 2-2.5 meter (6.5-8 feet) wing surface known as flaperon, had been identified as being from a Boeing 777, the same model as the missing Malaysian plane. Investigators in France are expected to determine whether the piece came from MH370 or not by Wednesday.

The investigators in France would also be on the lookout for other organisms such as tube worms, coralline red algae or shellfish that could also provide clues.
Marine archaeologists study barnacles for clues about shipwrecks but this was believed to be the first time they will be studied to determine the fate of an airliner.

Two bottles found washed up on Friday, with special drinking water given to the pilots to keep them awake during long flights.

For the past four days the beach has been abuzz with activity; on Friday around a dozen police patrolled the beach, while helicopters hovered overhead. Local people took it upon themselves to fly drones over the waves, in the hope of spotting more debris.

Iran plans to buy 90 planes to revamp ageing fleet

Tehran plans to purchase around 90 Boeing and Airbus planes in a bid to upgrade its ageing fleet of commercial airliners, a senior aviation official said.

"We need to add 80 to 90 airplanes (to the fleet) each year in order to have 300 young and active airliners by the next five years," Mohammad Khodakarami, deputy head of Iran's Civil Aviation Organization, told in Tehran.

Back in April, Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi announced preparations for major investment in Iran's civil aviation industry as soon as the international sanctions are lifted under a comprehensive nuclear deal.

According to the minister, Tehran is in extensive talks with foreign companies to refurnish its air fleet and develop its airlines.

On July 14, Iran and the 5+1 Group of international mediators (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) finalized the text of an agreement on Iran’s nuclear energy program in Vienna.

Later, the 15-memebr United Nations Security Council unanimously passed a resolution endorsing the text of the deal.

Boeing has revised plane's performance specifications

     Boeing updated the technical specifications of its jetliners to reflect the way airlines use them and also the trend toward heavier passengers, seats and cargo. The world's biggest plane maker stressed that the airplanes themselves have not changed. Instead, the specifications were altered a few days ago to better reflect their actual performance, a shift industry experts called long overdue.

Boeing increased the seat count on its main widebody planes, the 787 and 777, which makes the cost per seat lower for airlines. Seat counts for the narrow-body 737s remain unchanged. Boeing cut the range for all of the planes, with the recently introduced 787-9 falling the most, by 665 nautical miles (1,230 km).

Those changes reflect the fact that the new premium seats, often lie-flat beds, are about 100 pounds heavier than in the past. Assumptions for passenger and luggage weights also are higher, but Boeing declined to say what assumptions it uses.

"That weight gain, coupled in a slight uptick in the average weight that airlines allocate for passengers and their luggage, means we’ve made slight adjustments in the average range figures for our products: about 600 nautical miles less on average for twin-aisle airplanes, and 100 or so nautical miles less for our single-aisles", says Boeing.

The larger seating capacity on its widebody jets was not an effort to show better operating economics, the company said.

Rather it reflects the fact that many airlines are flying with two-class configurations in widebody planes, rather than three-class.

However, industry sources said decisions about standard seat counts can give broad clues to the way planemakers want their products to be perceived by airlines and lessors.

Boeing's changes were first reported by industry publication Flightglobal. They come after Europe's Airbus made similar revisions to its aircraft performance figures, also showing more seats on some of its widebody jets. Under the new measurements, Boeing's biggest plane, 747-8, is no longer its largest in terms of standard capacity.