Pilot killed in plane crash North of Council Bluffs

 The pilot of a single-engine plane was killed when his aircraft crashed in the median of Interstate 29 north of Council Bluffs on December 10.

Pottawattamie County Sheriff Jeff Danker said, ""Right now we have one deceased."

The Sheriff said the pilot left Eppley Airfield around noon. Moments later he radioed back saying he was experiencing problems with the plane. He requested permission to return to the airport. According to witness reports the plane then clipped a power line and crashed.

The plane went down near mile marker 58 east of Eppley Airfield and north of downtown Council Bluffs.

Darrell Wade was traveling along I-29 just before the plane went down. He told us, "I looked at the other two guys in the truck with me and said, 'Oh crap, he's gonna crash."

Wade said, "We were heading south on Interstate 29. Plane was flying on the other side, following the railroad tracks. Cut a hard right. Landing gear dropped. Clipped one of the power lines. Cartwheeled and landed face-first in the dirt."

Wade said, "When his landing gear came down I knew that he was having some kind of mechanical issue, obviously." He said he saw no fire but the wreckage was surrounded by fuel.

He told us he checked the pilot - the lone person on board and said, "No response. No pulse."

Traffic was interrupted after the crash but was moving again by 1 p.m.

Air New Zealand installs futuristic bag drops

 Air New Zealand is claiming another world first with its new electronic bag drops at Auckland International Airport.

The national carrier said checking-in would be faster with the new bag drops which featured "world-first biometric technology".

The technology was similar to that used by SmartGates, where passengers scan their passports and boarding passes to have their identities verified by a biometric camera.

Once identification has been confirmed passengers weigh their bags which are then processed through the airline's baggage handling system.

Five bag drops have been installed at Auckland Airport with eight more being installed in early 2016.

In November Air New Zealand claimed another first by introducing monitoring bracelets for minors, called Airbands.

The wristband is embedded with a chip which is scanned at stages of the journey, triggering text notifications to be sent to up to five nominated contacts.

Source and image: Lenta.ru

Russia’s Transaero plans to come back in 2016

 In October 2016, AeroTime was pretty sure it is not yet a goodbye for Russia's second largest airline. Now, the founders of Transaero announced their plans to create a new airline, employing the rest of existing staff (over 200 people).

Read more: Known facts about Transaero and its bankruptcy to date

The news come from sources in an international aviation holding company engaged in airport construction holding, working on the development of the Moscow‘s fourth airport – Ramenskoye International. Russian newspaper ‘Izvestia’ claims that, according to the sources, Mikhail Prokhorov might finance the revival of Transaero scheduled for 2016.

It is expected that the name of the new company will most likely include the word "Transaero" and is planning to begin flights the first half of 2016. The flights will be carried out from Ramenskoye airport, which belongs to the state corporation Rostec and is scheduled to open in summer 2016.

The fleet of the newly established carrier will include from 7 to 9 aircraft, previously used by Transaero. The fleet can be expected to consist of 5-6 Boeing 737 and 2 or three Boeing 767 2-3 planes. The sources told that the new carrier will try to return some routes previously operated by Transaero. Most of them were lately re-distributed to Aeroflot, the state-run giant and largest rival of Transaero.

The total amount of Transaero‘s debt is around 260 billion rubles. A number of Transaero creditors is now trying to bankrupt the company. In particular, the claim on company's bankruptcy was filled in the by Sberbank and Alfa-Bank.

Ramenskoye International will be the fourth airport of the Moscow Aviation Hub which is currently being developed by Ramport aero group under the collaboration of Rostec and Avia Solutions Group. While operating the longest runway (5.5 km) in Europe, the airport will act as a major center of experimental, governmental and civil aviation.

Avia Solutions Group invested 1 billion RUB (over USD 30 million) into the Ramport share capital and control up to 75% of the newly established company stocks. The Russian industrial giant Rostec will contribute to the project by bringing in the land and real estate currently under its ownership in the territory of Ramenskoye aerodrome. In seven years’ time the total investment into the development of the fourth airport in Moscow is expected to top USD 236 million.

Star Alliance is set to expand its network under 'hybrid' model

Star Alliance is set to expand its network reach with the launch of its Connecting Partner Model. Under this new concept, routes operated by “low-cost” and “hybrid” airlineswill be able to connect to the Alliance network. This will allow customers of Star Alliance member carriers to select from an even wider choice of destinations and flights.

“With this innovative concept, we are breaking new ground. We see a definite trend of convergence between the ‘traditional full service’ and ‘low-cost’ business models in the airline industry,” said Mark Schwab, CEO Star Alliance. “At the same time, our customers are telling us that they need access to markets where we do not yet provide ideal coverage. In many cases network carriers are not in a position to fill this gap and hence working with future Connecting Partners will allow us to provide an extended network to our travellers.”

Connecting Partners will be carefully assessed for their fit into the existing Star Alliance network. While these selected airlines need to comply and adhere to the high operating standard required by the Alliance, they will not become a member of the Alliance itself.

Customers travelling on an itinerary which includes a transfer between a Star Alliance member airline and a Connecting Partner will be offered Alliance benefits such as passenger and baggage through check-in. Moreover, Star Alliance Gold Card holders will enjoy a tailored set of privileges in line with the different product offerings of the individual Connecting Partner.

Connecting Partners will enter into bilateral commercial agreements with selected Star Alliance member airlines, which may include additional Frequent Flyer Programme based privileges.

Innovative and multi-award winning South African low-cost airline Mango has been selected as the first airline with which Star Alliance will be implementing the new concept.

“We are delighted to be working with Mango as we marry traditional and low-cost or hybrid airlines for the first time in our Alliance’s history. The airline’s innovative and progressive style makes it an ideal candidate for launching our new Connecting Partner concept. We aim to have first customers using this new offer as of the third quarter of 2016,” adds Schwab.

Mango’s first flight took to the skies on November 15th, 2006. Since then, the airline has grown its fleet from four to 10Boeing 737-800 aircraft, operating between South Africa’s key domestic points as well as between Johannesburg and Zanzibar. The carrier remains the only African airline to offer on-board Wi-Fi. In addition, Mango has been recognised for its Customer Service Excellence by various awards, including the World Travel Awards and Skytrax.

“Innovation and a relentless pursuit of excellence are the cornerstones of Mango and fundamental to our culture as a business,” says Mango CEO Nico Bezuidenhout. Mango celebrates a decade in aviation next year and the carrier has recently become the largest low-cost airline in South Africa by passenger volume. “Participation in the development of, and ultimately becoming the launch Star Alliance Connecting Partner airline, wedges-in with our medium to long term business objectives,” he added.

Bezuidenhout said that while the Connecting Partner product flies in the face of convention, the common ground for the concept relates directly to the bottom line. “Becoming a Connecting Partner will give any low-cost or hybrid airline a competitive advantage that immediately grows market share while creating greater choice for travellers,” he said.

Turkish warplanes enter Iraq airspace

Turkish fighter jets carried out a new barrage of air strikes against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq overnight. 

The Turkish military said on December 9 that the overnight raids "destroyed" targets of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in four areas.

A PKK spokesman in Iraq, Dahmat Agit, said the strikes targeted three villages, adding that no PKK members were killed in the raid.

Turkey has been waging an offensive against PKK strongholds in the southeast of the country and in northern Iraq following the collapse in July of a two-year cease-fire with rebels.

Meanwhile, the presence of Turkish troops near the Islamic State-held city of Mosul in northern Iraq is a "violation" of international law, Iraq's president said Saturday.

President Fuad Masum called the move a "violation of international norms, laws and Iraq's national sovereignty," and said it was contributing to increased tensions in the region.

Hakim al-Zamili, the head of parliament's security and defense committee, went a step further, calling on Iraq's prime minister to launch airstrikes against the Turkish troops if they remained in Iraqi territory.

Turkey has said a military battalion equipped with armored vehicles has been in the Bashiqa region close to Mosul in the northern Ninevah province for the last five months as part of a training mission to help forces fighting the Islamic State group. Mosul fell to the extremists in June 2014 amid a stunning collapse of Iraqi security forces.

Plans to try to retake Mosul last spring were sidelined as the extremist group advanced on other fronts.

The founder of the training camp outside Mosul, former Ninevah governor Atheel al-Nujaifi, told The Associated Press that the Turkish trainers were at his base at the request of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeidi. He said the Turkish forces are training but not arming Sunni fighters.

"They didn't give us any weapons even though we asked them to," he said. "We equipped this force from the black market with our own money and we believe they're the best force to liberate Mosul... These people will be very effective to hold ground because they are from there and there'll be no resistance to them from local people."

Sunni fighters in Ninevah and the western Anbar province say the Shiite-dominated government has failed to provide them with the support and weaponry needed to defeat the IS group. The government fears that arming Sunni tribes and militias could backfire. Sunni grievances were a key factor fueling the rise of the IS group, and many Sunnis initially welcomed the extremists as liberators.

HondaJet receives type certification from FAA

The HondaJet received type certification from the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). 

The FAA presented the type certificate to Honda Aircraft Company President and CEO Michimasa Fujino in front of more than 2,000 people, including FAA Administrator Michael Huerta, government representatives, community leaders, HondaJet dealers, suppliers, and Honda Aircraft associates.

“Achieving FAA type certification for the HondaJet is a monumental milestone for Honda,” said Fujino. “We established Honda Aircraft as a new aerospace company and introduced our first product — an advanced light jet with technologies developed from serious research activities. We designed, tested, and have now certified this clean-sheet design aircraft – an unprecedented challenge for Honda.”

Honda Aircraft Company validated the HondaJet’s performance, safety, function and reliability through rigorous ground and flight tests with the FAA. Total flight hours exceeded 3,000, with testing conducted at more than 70 locations across the United States.

“This day was achieved through the collaborative efforts of the FAA and Honda Aircraft Company,” said Melvin Taylor, manager of the FAA’s Atlanta Aircraft Certification Office. “Collaboration is not easy, it often is a difficult subject. But when it is done successfully like this program, the rewards are gratifying to us all.”

The HondaJet’s innovative Over-The-Wing Engine Mount configuration, natural-laminar flow wing and composite fuselage make it a higher performance, more fuel-efficient and more spacious light jet. The HondaJet is the fastest in its class at 420 knots (483 mph) and the most efficient in its class.

With HondaJet FAA type certification achieved, Honda Aircraft is now ramping up production in Greensboro with 25 aircraft on the final assembly line. The Honda Aircraft workforce is nearing 1,700 people, as the company prepares for deliveries, pilot training and after-sales customer service and support by the end of the year.

“This is an exciting day for North Carolina and our state’s aerospace industry,” said North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory. “As far back as the Wright Brothers’ first flight at Kitty Hawk, our role in aviation has always been significant. Now, when we look up in the sky, we will see jets made right here in North Carolina. Congratulations to Honda Aircraft Company on this enormous achievement.”

Germanwings could replace Air Berlin for Berlin-Moscow route

German low-cost airline Germanwings could replace Air Berlin for the route Berlin-Moscow in the Domodedovo airport.

"Currently, direct flights between Russia and Germany are carried out by several partner airlines of the Domodedovo Airport — Lufthansa, S7 Airlines, Ural Airlines. Carriers are planning to carry out flights to Munich and Frankfurt in the upcoming winter navigation season, which will allow passengers of the airport to travel with comfort on these routes," a spokesman for the airport said.

Flights from Moscow (Domodedovo airport) to Berlin by the Germanwings airline are expected to start in the beginning of the autumn-winter season of 2015 (two daily flights).

It was reported earlier, that the second largest German airline Air Berlin decided to leave Russia due to the low demand. The route Dusseldorf-Moscow closes from November 9, Kaliningrad-Berlin — from January 10. The last flight between Berlin and Moscow will be conducted on January 18.

According to Air Berlin regional manager in Russia Yulia Vorotnikova, the company could come back in case the passenger demand recovers.

"In summer the passenger load was very good, which was followed by a serious decline. Therefore, it was decided to discontinue flights to Russia. But this does not mean that we are leaving for good. If the demand is stable, we will look at the possibility of coming back," she said.

"After the flights are closed all passengers with Air Berlin tickets will be transported by our partner companies, or will get their money back," Vorotnikova added.

In total he airline performed 32 weekly flight to Russian cities.