News Archive

The manner in which the Jet Airways cabin crew handled the emergency evacuation of passengers on the Mumbai-Chennai flight on Friday has highlighted two major drawbacks in the aviation industry.

One, the minimum cabin crew guidelines set by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) clearly make it difficult to handle emergency situations.

Two, the training imparted to the cabin crew to handle such situations is far from perfect.

Passengers on that flight have reported that the crew was as panicky as they were.

A British Airways (BA) pilot caused a mid-air scare when he pressed a wrong button, triggering an announcement that the aircraft was about to make an emergency landing on water.

The mistake activated an automated female voice that said: 'This is an emergency announcement. We may shortly need to make an emergency landing on water.'

The Sun on Friday that there were 275 passengers flying from Heathrow to Hong Kong and they prepared for the worst over the North Sea.

Then cabin crew ran down the aisles and said that it was a mistake.

Brazil's offshore oil industry is expected over the next five years to draw 60-70 new helicopters into a fleet that now stands at about 120 aircraft, but operators are starting to feel the effects of a severe pilot shortage that is already curtailing services.The impetus for this coming surge in fleet numbers is the opening of deepwater pre-salt oilfields, believed to contain some of the world's largest reserves. However, the expected oil boom is raising the spectre of a pilot shortage, especially for flyers rated in larger types such as the Sikorsky S-76.

Turkish Airlines 1st half year of 2010 consolidated financial statements were reported to Istanbul Stock Exchange.

According to the financial statements sales revenue has increased by 28 percent in Euro, reaching to 1.8 bn Euro and net profit increased by 181 percent to 134 million Euro. Turkish Airlines operating profit stood at 55 million Euro, a 34 percent decrease compared to the same period in 2009, due to increasing fuel prices hence 74 percent increase in fuel expenses compared to last year.

Following the Colgan Air Bombardier Q400 crash on approach to Buffalo last Feb the FAA are about to make changes to the minimum licensing standards.  The crash killed 50 people and raised serious questions about pilot fatigue and upset-recovery competence.

Two Turkish businessmen have teamed up with a Dutch aviation academy and together they have stepped up to the plate to deliver private pilot training courses in the Mediterranean province of Muğla.