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Super-jumbos could be allowed to land at Heathrow for more than 20 hours a day under plans being considered by ministers.

• security

Pronunciation: EY

Directions: Practice by saying the word pairs and example sentences, then speak the words from this reading.

Word Pairstake-tick, bail-bill, late-lit, fate-fit, rain-ran

Example sentence:Faith takes away the tray.

Examples from this reading:Investigating -

Reading

Directions: Read the following passage carefully.

The crew of a Korean Air 777 airliner was forced to make an emergency landing at a military airbase on Vancouver Island after the airline received its second bomb threat in two days.

Korean Air flight 72, with 149 people on board, had taken off from Vancouver International Airport headed for Seoul, South Korea, at 2:30 p.m. PT Tuesday.

The crew turned back off the north coast of B.C. after a bomb threat was made in a telephone call to the airline's Los Angeles office, a Korean Air spokesman told CBC News.

The flight was diverted to the airbase at Comox, on Vancouver Island, escorted by U.S. Air Force F-15 fighter jets that had been scrambled from Portland, Ore., according to Victoria's Search and Rescue Co-ordination Centre.

Another threat was phoned in on Monday against Korea Air flight 72 before it took off, forcing a two-hour delay as RCMP cleared passengers off the aircraft to check for explosive devices, said James Koh, of Korea Air's Vancouver office.

Koh said the caller spoke English and authorities have a voice recording of both calls and are investigating.

Tuesday's flight landed at about 5:50 p.m. PT, without incident.

It's not clear yet when the flight will be able to takeoff from Comox, about 120 kilometres northwest of Vancouver, and whether or not it will be able to resume its course to Seoul.

Comprehension Questions

Directions: Read the following questions and answer each to the best of your ability.

1. Identify a quote from the text that you think is very important and explain why.

2. What part of the text is hard for you to understand? What do you think it means?

3. Imagine that you are the teacher, what three questions would you ask your students to see if they understood this text?

4. What connections can you make between the text and other texts, information, or experiences?

5. What is the tone of this text?

Focus on Grammar

The present progressive describes an activity in progress right now, like "I am typing," or in a more general now, like "I am living in Boston." How is the present progressive used in the sentence(s) below?

   Directions: Identify how the present_progressiveis used in the sentence(s) below

1. Another threat was phoned in on Monday against Korea Air flight 72 before it took off, forcing a two-hour delay as RCMP cleared passengers off the aircraft to check for explosive devices, said James Koh, of Korea Air's Vancouver office.Koh said the caller spoke English and authorities have a voice recording of both calls and are investigating.

Word Roots & Stems

Rule: The suffix ionchanges a verb into a noun, like education.

Directions: Identify the word that ends with -ion in each sentence and write it on the line.

1. , according to Victoria's Search

Directions: Fill in the blanks below, just as in the models.

Vocabulary Practice

FILL IN THE BLANK

Directions: Use the word bank to identify the word that best completes the sentence.

1. "the pilot managed to _______________ the aeroplane safely"
2. The police chief was not in the office when the _______________ exploded in the parking lot.
3. The dog growled as a _______________ to the stranger.
4. The police _______________ the murder.
5. The _______________ blast hurt many people and burned the store.
6. The ship is on a _______________ to Spain.
7. He took a year off from college to travel but _______________d as soon as he got home.
8. The police _______________ the president to the airport.

Vocabulary Practice

MATCHING

Directions: Write the letter of word that matches the definition on the line. If it helps, feel free to also draw a line between the definition and the matching word.

1. bomb
2. explosive
3. resume
4. investigating
5. threat
6. course
7. escorted
8. landing

• 
  _______ (air travel) cause to come to the ground
• 
  _______ A weapon that causes an explosion.
• 
  _______ Message or signal of plan to hurt or punish.
• 
  _______ To study the facts of something.
• 
  _______ Loudly and violently breaking apart.
• 
  _______ Line of motion or direction.
• 
  _______ Begin again.
• 
  _______ Armed police or soldiers who travel guard and protect during a trip.

“We cut costs wherever possible and the changes will represent a significant reduction in weight,” said Ryanair spokesman Stephen McNamara in an interview in the Telegraph. He described how the in-flight magazine has been reduced in size and that the amount of ice carried on board has been cut too. “We even encourage staff to watch their weight.”

The weight of trolleys and seats have also been tackled. Ryanair insists these measures are for the good of customers, and has said it will not introduce fuel surcharges – something Virgin Atlantic and British Airways have done – to combat the rising cost of fuel.

McNamara suggested an incentive for Ryanair cabin crew to slim down would be the chance of appearing in the charity calendar – another Ryanair initiative that has sparked controversy.

In February this year the airline had two newspaper adverts banned following complaints that they were sexist and exploitative. They featured images of cabin crew members in swimwear and underwear, taken from the charity calendar.

What are your views? Do you think Ryanair is helping promote cabin crew as a legitimate profession, or is this obsession with weight and body image damaging, and likely to offend? Is this the best way for Ryanair to get publicity? Share your comments below.

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Traffic controller 'thought flight emergency was prank'

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating after an air traffic controller was accused of ignoring a request for an emergency landing in Denver after a commercial airline pilot reported smoke in the cabin.

The controller thought it was a prank and dismissed the emergency call, according to recordings obtained by KUSA-TV.

The United Express plane from Peoria, Illinois, was evacuated on Tuesday after landing at Denver International Airport. An FAA report said firefighters extinguished a fire in the instrument panel. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Controllers apparently realised the mistake when the pilot made another emergency call saying the plane had already landed and was evacuating on the runway. It was only then that fire trucks responded.

One of the 21 passengers was taken to the hospital.

A transcript of the recording seems to indicate that the controller misunderstood the airliner’s flight number. The FAA says the pilots didn’t initially indicate their airline when talking to controllers.

“Although the pilots of ExpressJet Flight 5912 did not initially indicate their call sign when they contacted air traffic control to declare an emergency, the controllers were able to quickly identify and locate the plane with the help of ground surveillance equipment and immediately alert the fire department, whose first truck arrived shortly after the plane came to a full stop,” the FAA said in a statement Friday.

According to KUSA-TV, a voice from the cockpit, either the co-pilot or pilot, is heard saying, “Emergency, smoke in the cockpit, roll trucks please” as the plane was coming in for a landing.

A controller in the tower responds, asking, “Who was that?”

The voice responded “5912″ – the flight number that air controllers were tracking.

After some confusion, the controller responds about 10 seconds later, asking: “United 12, what’s your position?”

After no response, more time elapsed before the controller says, “Did you hear that? I know that’s BS. I know it is.” Controllers said they were not aware of a United Flight 12.

The National Transportation Safety Board said the investigation has been turned over to the FAA.

An FAA spokeswoman wouldn’t comment on the controller’s statements on the recording.

The airline refused comment.

Aviation analysts and a former pilot said on Friday the first response from a controller should be to clear the decks of other aircraft after a pilot declares an emergency and treat the call as authentic.

Sid McGuirk, who teaches traffic management at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, said pilots are in control when there is an emergency and failure by controllers to respond would be a major violation of procedure that could result in discipline or retraining.

“They have to assume it’s a real emergency, whether it’s a Cessna or a 747 jumbo jet. If it later turns out to be a spoof, it’s a federal crime,” McGuirk said.

William Voss, president of the Flight Safety Foundation in Alexandria, Virginia, said pilots who declare an emergency are busy dealing with the problem, and it’s easy to create confusion.

He said radios with airline frequencies are easily available and have been misused to report false emergencies.

The National Transportation Safety Board said the investigation has been turned over to the FAA, which said it would comment later on Friday. The airline refused comment.

The union representing air traffic controllers did not return phone calls seeking reaction.

Patrick Shanahan, a retired controller who worked at one of the world’s busiest air traffic control facilities in New York, said he has never heard of anyone from the public or another controller pretending to be an airline pilot with an emergency.

Even if that were the case, “it’s beyond belief to me that a controller would just let that go and think someone was playing with him”, said Shanahan, a former union official.

Katie Pribyl, a former United Express pilot, said she’d never heard of an air traffic controller not taking a request for an emergency landing seriously, but she said she also never heard of someone faking an emergency landing request.

“In my experience as a regional jet pilot, controllers normally took reported malfunctions very seriously,” Pribyl said.

“One of their first questions is usually, are you declaring an emergency?”

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/

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