777 Crashed at San Francisco

Breaking news,

A Boeing 777 bound from South Korea crashed Saturday upon landing at San Francisco International Airport, sending up a huge fireball and spinning before finally coming to a stop -- having lost its tail and, eventually, much of its charred roof.




Asiana Airlines Flight 214 left Seoul's Incheon International Airport earlier Saturday, according to FlightAware, a website that offers tracking services for private and commercial air traffic. An airline spokesman told media that 291 passengers and 16 staff members were aboard.   The U.S. Coast Guard has transported one person to Stanford Hospital, said Corrine Gaines of the military branch. She did not provide additional information on the patient's status.

In brief remarks to reporters around 2 p.m. (5 p.m. ET), airport spokesman Doug Yakel did not offer any details on the conditions of the plane's passengers. Anthony Castorani, who witnessed the flight land from a nearby hotel, said he saw the plane touch the ground then noticed a larger plume of white smoke. "You heard a pop and you immediately saw a large, brief fireball that came from underneath the aircraft," he told CNN.

 Plane loses tail during crash landing Plane crashes at San Francisco airport'Large, brief fireball' as plane landed Kristina Stapchuck saw the dramatic scene unfold from her seat on a plane on the airport tarmac. Soon after Flight 214 touched down, "it looked like the tires slipped a little bit and it rocked back," she said to the media.  Parts of the plane began to break off as it rocked and then began to spin. Follow latest developments in the story "It all happened so suddenly," Stapchuck said. A photo provided to tv news by Eunice Bird Rah -- and shot by her father, who was a passenger on the plane -- shows flames and smoke bursting out of many of the aircraft's windows. Rah's father knew something bad was coming, he told his daughter, telling her the plane was coming in too low and the pilot tried to raise it at the last minute. Rah said her father "is doing fine, thank God," but noted that others appeared to be hurt. Said Rah: "It's heartbreaking." Video taken soon after the crash and posted on YouTube showed dark gray smoke rising from the plane, which appeared to be upright. That smoke later became white, even as fire crews continued to douse the plane.

CNN iReporter Timothy Clark was on an eighth-floor balcony of a nearby hotel when he heard the noise and saw a "dust cloud." "Then people running from the plane, then flames," Clark said. A photograph posted to Twitter shows what appear to be passengers walking off the plane, some of them toting bags, as smoke rises from the other side. "I just crash landed at SFO," read the accompanying message from David Eun. "Tail ripped off. Most everyone seems fine. I'm ok. Surreal..."

The Boeing 777-200LR has been in service since March 2006 The plane can carry 301 passengers and travel a maximum distance of 9,395 nautical miles Asiana Airlines operates 71 aircraft and serves 14.7 million passengers annually The airline was voted Airline of the Year by Global Traveler in 2011 In 1993, Asiana Airlines Boeing 737 crashed killing 68 people The top of the aircraft was charred and, in spots, gone entirely, according to video from CNN affiliate KTVU. The plane was on its belly, with no landing gear evident and the rear tail of the plane gone. Debris settled from the water's edge, along San Francisco Bay, up to where the plane eventually came to a stop. Fire trucks were on site; first responders could be seen walking outside the aircraft. Evacuation slides could be seen extending from one side of the aircraft, from which there was no apparent smoke. Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer and author of the book "Lean In," was supposed to be on the flight. But she wrote on her Facebook page that she'd switched instead to a United flight, arriving about 20 minutes before the Asiana flight crashed.

The Bay Area airport was closed to incoming and departing traffic after the crash, the Federal Aviation Administration said on its website, adding that the time when it's expected to reopen is unknown. Flights destined for San Francisco's airport -- known by its call letters, SFO -- were being diverted to airports in Oakland, Sacramento, San Jose and Los Angeles, said Francis Zamora from the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management. He added his office is working with San Mateo County's Office of Emergency Services in responding to the incident, Zamora said. San Francisco International Airport, located some 12 miles south of downtown San Francisco, is California's second busiest, behind LAX. There were a few clouds in the sky around the time of the crash, and temperatures were about 65 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. Winds were about 8 miles per hour.

The National Transportation Safety Board is sending a "go team" that will be led by chairwoman Deborah Hersman to investigate the crash, the agency said. Boeing is "preparing to provide technical assistance" to investigators, company spokesman Miles Kotay said in a statement. There are no signs of terrorism related to the crash, a national security official told CNN. Asiana Airlines -- one of South Korea's two major airlines, the other being Korean Air -- is investigating the cause of the crash, a company spokesman told CNN. The airline got the plane involved in the incident in 2006, according to the Aviation Safety Network. The craft has two Pratt & Whitney engines, it said. Asiana operates many of its flights out of Incheon International Airport, which is the largest airport in South Korea and considered among the busiest in the world. According to information on Asiana Airlines' website, the company has 12 Boeing 777 planes. They have a seating capacity of between 246 and 300 people and had a cruising speed of 555 mph (894 kph). 

Lufthansa strike sees 'massive' flight cancellations

 

Passengers have been warned to expect "massive" cancellations

• Boeing 787: Facts and history
• A brief history of airliner problems
• What are the battery problems?
• The great London airport debate

German airline Lufthansa has cancelled the majority of its flights scheduled for Monday due to a strike.

The airline said about only about 30 of its flights would run as planned on Monday, out of more than 1,700 originally scheduled.

Ground staff have called a one-day strike in a pay dispute.

Last week Lufthansa rejected union demands for a 5.2% wage increase over the next 12 months.
Strikers are also looking for guarantees over job cuts.  Like many airlines, Lufthansa is looking to cut costs in the face of stiff competition from low-cost carriers and big Gulf airlines, as well as rising fuel prices.

Unions staged a similar one-day strike last month. Short "warning strikes" are a common tactic among German unions, designed to put pressure on wage negotiations.
In a statement on its website, Lufthansa said passengers should expect "massive" flight cancellations and delays that will start to affect long-haul flights from Sunday.

Travel Books - Adam Shepard takes off on an epic adventure - One Year Lived!

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to feel the wind in your hair, be free and  take off for a year to travel the world?  No fixed itinerary set in stone, no restrictions on the time you could spend in one particular place before moving on to the next destination, or the things that you do there?   Imagine that freedom and that excitement, wouldn’t that be one awfully big adventure.

 From late 2011 to late 2012 that is exactly what author, motivational speaker and the Worlds slowest bar-tender, Adam Shepard did, as Jason Shaw recently found out.   Shepard saved up some money,  packed up a backpack with the bare basic essentials and after saving up for a while he set off on one of life’s massive adventures,  during which he visited seventeen countries on four continents and remarkably he spent less that it would have cost him to stay at home. 

In Australia he hugged a koala, in Slovakia, he bungee jumped off a bridge, in the Philippines  e went wake-boarding   but it wasn’t all relaxation and pleasure. Shepard also dug wells in Nicaragua to install pumps for clean water and in Honduras he served with an organisation that helps to improved the lives of poor children.

Shepard is no stranger to adventure,  even before this epic journey around the world, just three years earlier he made national headlines for taking a year to test the viability of the American Dream.  With just $25 in his pocket, he boarded a train and headed to Charleston, SC.  Where he lived in a homeless shelter for seventy days. He took odd jobs until he managed to find a full-time job, eventually earning enough money to buy a pickup truck and a furnished apartment. He wrote about his experiences  in the book Scratch Beginnings, which garnered a lot of publicity and interesting in the media, being featured on the Today Show, CNN, FOX along with many other publications.

 This time the handsome man from North Carolina has written with a passion and a refreshing view on his travels in the book One Year Lived,  published on 18th April.  Shepard hopes his story of an epic adventure will spur on young American’s to really become global citizens and travel beyond America’s shores.   “In Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Europe, it’s normal for people to pack a bag, buy a plane ticket, and get ‘Out There.” Shepard says, “But in the U.S., though, we live with this very stiff paradigm—graduate college, work, find a spouse, make babies, work some more, retire—which can be a great existence, but we leave little room to load up a backpack and dip into various cultures, to see places, to really develop our own identity.

  I recently caught up with Adam to find learn more his book One Year Lived and his epic adventure,  I started by asking him if the prospect of spending a year away from home comforts, family and friends was at all scary or daunting? 

“The prospect of being away was not daunting or scary, because I knew that home was waiting on the back end. I didn’t think twice about what I was giving up (career, etc.) by leaving, because I knew that this experience would supersede what I was skipping out on.”

 “The toughest parts of this journey were leaving places where I had spent a month or more, where I had developed friendships with people. I likely won’t ever see any of them again in my life, and I knew that as I left the place. “

“My mom? Dad? Matt? Korey? I knew I would see them again. Beatríz (my home stay mom) in Antigua, Guatemala? Likely not.”

  During this journey of discovery, you've visited so many places,  experienced so many different things,  are there any that really surprised you?

 “Many things opened my eyes. The three biggest things that surprised me were: How far an American dollar goes abroad. I took this trip when we were still “in a recession” but in many countries I went to (Central America and Asia especially), I was still able to do a lot on a little. How unrestricted many countries are. A lot of things you see abroad would never fly in the States. High alcohol-content liquors (absinthe, for example) are normal in Europe. In the Philippines, cockfighting is a staple. In Thailand, you can just go to the firing range and rent an AK-47 while drinking your beverage of choice. That it took me four months to get robbed. “

 That sounds nasty and could have been a real disaster?
 “Getting robbed in Nicaragua could have been a lot worse. They got me for a couple hundred cash and my ATM card, but if I would have lost my emergency credit card, too, and my passport, my journey would have been devastatingly stalled for a good amount of time.”

How far out of your comfort zone did you go? “The trip itself was not far out of my comfort zone. I always knew I wanted to take a trip like this; it was just a matter of timing and affordability.”

 “But the challenge I laid for myself was to make sure I didn’t leave any experience undone. I knew that I had the opportunity to live a pretty unique year, and I made sure I was front and center whenever there was a volcano to climb or corral to explore.”

 “The best example is with the volunteering I did. I believe in giving back, but I’ve done this with a few hours at a time or writing a check to my college. But for my trip around the world, one-third of the year was dedicated to service, namely on two projects: working with a vacation activities program for children in Honduras and digging for clean water pumps for the native Miskito people of Nicaragua.”

 “The most wonderful experiences of my year involved volunteering in Honduras and Nicaragua, and as such, one can say that the best times for me came when I stepped outside of the box of what my life had previously been.”

  Where there any scary moments during the trip?

Photography Lighting Kits That Work

Grow lights are an important part of hydroponics, and selecting the right photography lights can be a big decision. There are lots of different photography lighting kits and lights available from www.thelashop.com. There are tons of different nutrient additives that you can add to your hydroponics set-up to make your plants successful. Happy plants are healthy plants and you can be sure that with the right nutrients, you will be growing a fantastic indoor garden. With the right supplies and the right amount of knowledge, anyone can turn into a super hydroponics grower! If you want plants that will be grown in stable environment as opposed to outdoors where weather can harm them, try hydroponics! You don’t have to wait for a certain season, you can start growing tonight if you wanted. There is lots of information available online for people to learn about indoor plant growing, and it is continuing to be a growing trend in many communities. This is very helpful to those cities that dwell in colder areas since crops are harder to grow outdoors. Hydroponics is the answer to most of outside gardenings problems! Having a hydroponics garden is extremely smart if you want to start growing food for your family all year round to save on groceries, as well as for hobby growing! No matter what the plant, with the right grow lights and nutrients you will have a wonderful garden and collection. Choosing the right grow light can be crucial to making sure your plants grow as they should.

787 Makes Emergency Landing.

 

 

Japan's two main airlines have grounded their Boeing 787 Dreamliners after one was forced to make an emergency landing because of battery problems.

All Nippon Airways (ANA) grounded its fleet of 17 Dreamliners when its flight NH 692 from Yamaguchi Ube was forced to land shortly after take-off.

Japan Airlines followed suit, saying it would ground its fleet of seven 787s from 16 January until further notice.

This is the latest setback for Boeing and its problem-hit Dreamliner planes.

In recent weeks, Dreamliners have suffered issues including fuel leaks, a cracked cockpit window, brake problems and an electrical fire.

"You're nearing the tipping point where they need to regard this as a serious crisis," said Richard Aboulafia, a senior analyst with the Teal Group in Fairfax, Virginia.

"This is going to change people's perception of the aircraft if they don't act quickly."

Battery malfunction

On Wednesday, ANA's flight NH 692 left Yamaguchi Ube in western Japan at 08:10 local time (23:10 GMT) and headed for Tokyo's Haneda airport.

Helicopter Crashes Over London

 
 
Breaking news,  live from London.   Shortly after 8am this morning a helicopter, believed to be an Augusta 109 clipped the top of a crane and crashed down onto the road below engulfing in a fireball.  So far there are no reports of casualties either from the helicopter or on the ground, although early indications are that up to three cars have been caught up on the following fire.
The London Fire Brigade said it had received multiple calls of a helicopter hitting a crane in the Vauxhall area,  not far from the Battersea helicopter centre.  Eyewitness's have reported seeing the helicopter clipping a crane on top of a building under construction and then plummeted straight into the ground before it burst into a ball of flame as the aviation caught alight.
Police sources said they first received calls at 08:00 this morning, London Ambulance Service confirmed it had sent a number of paramedic units to the scene.
It was a misty morning in central London and the building the helicopter hit has been shrouded in mist for some time.  The crane at the top of the building was now hanging down the side of the building, and is now being treated as a second scene by the emergency services.
There are believed to be three cars involved on the ground and at this stage it is unclear if the occupants managed to escape before flames took hold.  Early reports indicate that the helicopter was an Augusta A109 with no passengers on-board, being flown by one pilot.





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New Boss For Virgin

Virgin Atlantic has announced that American Airlines executive Craig Kreeger will be its next chief executive.

Mr Kreeger will take up the job on 1 February, replacing Steve Ridgway, who is retiring after 11 years.

The news comes a month after US carrier Delta Air Lines bought Singapore Airlines' 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic for $360m (£224m).

Dreamliner Review

 

 

US regulators have ordered a review of the 787 Dreamliner plane after a series of incidents put a question mark over the safety of Boeing's flagship plane.  The review by the Federal Aviation Administration will look at the design and manufacture of the planes.

It is not clear whether the planes in the air at the moment will be grounded.   An electrical fire, a brake problem, a fuel spill and cracks in the cockpit's windshield have affected Dreamliner flights in the past week.  "We are absolutely confident in the reliability and performance of the 787," Boeing spokesman Marc Birtel said. "We are working with the FAA and our customers to ensure we thoroughly understand any introductory issues that arise.  While we take each issue seriously, nothing we've seen in service causes us to doubt the capabilities of the airplane."

More 787 Dreamliner Problems

 

 

It has been confirmed that a brake problem forced an All Nippon Airways flight to be cancelled in Japan  - the third glitch in as many days involving a brand new Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

It was scheduled to fly from the Yamaguchi prefecture in western Japan to Tokyo's Haneda Airport.

But the domestic flight was grounded by Japan's ANA because brake parts to the rear left undercarriage needed replacing, a spokesman at Yamaguchi Ube Airport said.

An ANA spokeswoman said: "In the cockpit, an error message related to its brake system was displayed.

"The exact nature and the cause of the error message is not clear yet."

All 98 passengers on board were switched to another flight for Tokyo.

On Tuesday, a Japan Airlines jet was grounded at Boston Logan International Airport in the US following a fuel leak, a day after another plane of the same type suffered a fire.

About 40 gallons (150 litres) of fuel spilled from the jet that was supposed to be bound for Tokyo from Boston last night.

On Monday, smoke was spotted in the cabin and cockpit of a JAL Boeing 787

Russian plane 'crashes into road outside Moscow'

 

 

Breaking News

Lufthansa Moves Scottish Route

 

German airline Lufthansa Regional has switched its Düsseldorf service from Edinburgh Airport to Glasgow Airport.

From 8 April 2013, Lufthansa will run six flights per week from Glasgow, then a daily service from 24 June.

Glasgow Airport said it was delighted to host the route which connected two "economic powerhouses".

Edinburgh Airport said it could not understand the commercial logic behind the move and believed its service would have better served Scottish passengers.

Glasgow said Lufthansa's decision would see it host direct flights to Düsseldorf for the first time in 20 years.

Etihad Looks Into Two Indian airlines

 

 

Etihad Airways has looked at expansion for a long time and reported this week,  it has identified two Indian airlines as potential targets for investment. 

Etihad boss James Hogan wouldn’t be drawn on the names of the two airlines he’s been looking at, however all indications are going to be troubled Kingfisher Airlines who issued a statement saying it was in talks with the Gulf carrier. The other airlines could be its codeshare partner,  India’s Jet Airways. 

Etihad is keen to exploit India’s fast-growing aviation market after India opened the aviation sector to overseas investment for the first time in September of this year.   “We’re looking at a couple of opportunities in India,” Mr Hogan said in an interview in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday. “We’re going through the due diligence at the moment. If we believe we can meet the criteria, we’ll then discuss that with our board.”

If any deal is done, it would be a minority stake, “we don’t want to take over someone’s airline,” he added. Owned by Abu Dhabi’s oil-rich government, Etihad last year bought a 29.2 per cent stake in Air Berlin and has also expanded its global network through three other equity stakes including a 10 per cent holding in Virgin Australia, a 40 per cent stake in Air Seychelles and 2.987 per cent in Aer Lingus.

Virgin & BA to Clash Over Scotland

 

 

Virgin plans to compete with British Airways on Heathrow links with Scotland.  It is to fly six round trips between the London airport and Edinburgh, with three round trips linking it with Aberdeen.

The airline says 150 people will be employed as a result of the move.  Virgin Atlantic will take over landing slots from BMI, after it was bought by British Airways owner, IAG.

From 31 March 2013, the planes are to be operated by Aer Lingus, but will be in Virgin Atlantic livery.

Delta To Buy Virgin Stake

The US airline, Delta has agreed a super deal to buy the 49% Singapore Airlines' stake in Virgin Atlantic for $360m (£224m).

Virgin Group and Sir Richard Branson will retain a 51% shareholding, and the Virgin brand will remain in place, the new partners said in a joint statement.   Obviously the deal is subject to regulatory approval in both the US and Europe.  Already expected is a challenge from the horrifically immoral Willie Walsh,  boss of IAG group, owners of BA and financially crippled Iberia.    
Mr Walsh offered to wager a "knee in the groin" in a bet with Sir Richard over whether the Virgin brand would still be around in five years.  However Branson, hit back offering a £1million bet offered by Sir Richard on Monday.

Virgin and Delta said the deal would allow allow them to "overcome slot constraints" and offer more flights from Heathrow.  The carriers will operate 31 peak-day round trips between the UK and North America.  "Our new partnership with Virgin Atlantic will strengthen both airlines and provide a more effective competitor between North America and the UK, particularly on the New York-London route," said Delta boss Richard Anderson.

Sir Richard said it was an "exciting day" in Virgin's history.  "It signals the start of a new era of expansion, financial growth and many opportunities for our customers and our business."  Singapore Airlines says it is selling its stake, which it has owned since 1999, because of increased competition in its local market, where it wants to keep its focus.

Loizos Heracleous, professor of strategy and organization at Warwick Business School, said the airline had always faced this issue and that the move really reflected Singapore Airline's disappointment with its investment.
"Singapore Airlines has made it known years ago that it was considering options with respect to its Virgin stake. Virgin Atlantic has not been very profitable, posting a loss for the most recent financial year and slim returns in the years where it did make profits.
Singapore Airlines has itself launched a low-cost carrier, Scoot, and has been putting money into its regional service, SilkAir.

Crash Test Not Dummies.

A test crash of a Boeing 727 in the Sonoran desert to learn more about what actually happens to passengers when a plane goes down found that simply bracing for impact could help save lives.

In one of the most ambitious tests ever undertaken in the name of airline safety, Discovery TV had a Boeing 727 equipped with more than a half a million dollars worth of crash test dummies, 38 specialized cameras and sensors, and a crew of incredibly daring pilots. The pilots, who'd donned parachutes, bailed out of a hatch in the back of the aircraft minutes before the huge jetliner careered into the ground in a horrific crash that tore the plane apart.

Staged last spring as part of the Discovery Channel's "Curiosity Plane Crash," the test crash was the result of four years of planning and consultations with a huge team of experts, all to better understand what happens to passengers when an aircraft goes down.