A Tibet Airlines A319 caught fire on takeoff

 

A Tibet Airlines A319 aborted takeoff then veered off the runway.

All 113 passengers & 9 crew of #TV9833 have been evacuated.

Tibet Airlines TV9833/A319/B-6425 from Chongqing to Nyingchi was on fire during take-off .

12 passengers and 3 cabin crew members seriously injured onboard SpiceJet #SG945 due to severe turbulence

At least 40 people on board a SpiceJet flight from Mumbai to Durgapur in West Bengal Sunday suffered injuries, with 12 of them being seriously hurt

The Boeing 737-800 plane encountered severe turbulence during its descent. India’s aviation safety regulator — the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) — has deployed a multi-disciplinary team to carry out a regulatory investigation into the incident.

A SpiceJet flight operating Sunday evening from Mumbai to Durgapur in West Bengal underwent severe turbulence that resulted in mild to serious injuries to at least 12 passengers onboard the Boeing 737-800 aircraft, according to DGCA officials.

The aircraft took off from Mumbai a few minutes after 5 pm on Sunday and was on its approach to Durgapur’s Kazi Nazrul Islam Airport after a two-hour flight when it encountered severe turbulence that caused the passenger injuries.

The 189-seater aircraft, however, landed safely at Durgapur at 7.15 pm, following which the injured passengers were provided medical attention. It was not just the passengers but also some cabin crew members who suffered injuries. These people received head and spinal injuries.

Authorities at the Andal hospital have said that the condition of the 12 passengers is critical but they are out of danger.

The flight was about to land when it began hobbling and the cabin baggage fell on passengers in the midst of a massive turbulence due to extreme bad weather. A probe is currently underway to ascertain how the plane got caught in a storm.

A dad captains his daughter’s first flight as Southwest pilot.

 

Mackenzie was a kid the first time she rode on a Southwest plane flown by her dad, Captain Kyle.

Last month, they had another special “first” together: sharing the flight deck for Mackenzie’s first flight as a Southwest pilot!

Father/Daughter bonding time.

Indian Civil Aviation authorities have barred 90 SpiceJet pilots from flying the Boeing 737 MAX until more training

 

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has found 90 SpiceJet pilots unfit to operate the Boeing 737 Max aircraft and has barred them from flying it until they successfully complete another round of training.

“…we have barred these pilots from flying Max and they have to retrain successfully for flying MAX. We will take strict action against those found responsible for the lapse,” said DGCA director Arun Kumar, without specifying what the issues were.

A spokesperson for the airline said DGCA, the civil aviation regulator, “had [an] observation on the training profile” followed by 90 Pilots. “…therefore, as per the advice of DGCA, SpiceJet has restricted 90 pilots from operating MAX aircraft until these pilots undergo retraining to the satisfaction of DGCA.” The spokesperson added these pilots continue to remain available for other Boeing 737 aircraft.

SpiceJet, which has 650 pilots trained for Boeing 737 MAX operations, is the only Indian airline to operate them. It has 11 such aircraft in its fleet. Billionaire Rakesh Jhunjhunwala’s Akasa Air, which plans to begin operations this summer, has ordered 72 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.

The spokesperson said the restriction will not impact 60 daily flight operations by MAX aircraft. “…144 pilots are required to operate these 11 aircraft. Of the 650 trained pilots on the MAX, 560 continue to remain available, which is much more than the current requirement,” the spokesperson said.

Boeing 737 MAX resumed operations in December 2020 two years after they were grounded after the 2018 Lion Air and 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crashes, which left 346 people dead. A faulty flight handling system meant to keep the plane from stalling as it ascends was blamed for the crashes. The automated system was found to have pushed the nose of the plane downwards.

Aviation authorities in the US later directed Boeing to revamp the planes and implement new training protocols for the pilots. The ban on Boeing 737 MAX was lifted in India in 2021.

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.