Aviation News

About 220 passengers and 12 crew members used emergency chutes to evacuate from an American Airlines aircraft arriving from France after its landing gear began burning Friday afternoon at O’Hare Airport.

No one was hospitalized, but a few with “bumps and bruises’’ were being checked out.

About 2 p.m. there was a report of a fire aboard American Airlines flight 41, arriving at O’Hare from Charles de Gaulle Airport in France, Chicago Aviation spokeswoman Karen Pride said.

There were 219 passengers and 12 crew members aboard the flight, Chicago Fire Department spokesman Quention Curtis said.

Passengers used the emergency chutes after crews extinguished a small fire that started on the right landing gear, according to Curtis.

Eight people were checked out on the scene but signed refusals and were not taken to hospitals, fire spokesman Richard Rosado said.

A few others were being looked at for “bumps and bruises,’’ Rosado said.

“It was a great job by everyone,’’ said Curtis of the rescue

Source: http://southtownstar.suntimes.com

Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific is investigating claims that a couple travelling First Class from Toronto used the crew rest area in a Boeing 777 to join the “mile-high club.”

A purser allegedly invited the couple to use the off-limits area to have sex when he saw them getting intimate in their seats that fold out into beds in the new-style first class cabin.

The passenger, an American doctor in his 20s, posted pictures on a blog of himself lying on the bunk – used by pilots to rest between shifts on long-haul flights – as evidence of what he calls his “amorous adventure.”

The unnamed passenger, who has posted several previous blogs describing his front-end flying experiences, says the visit to the rest area on board the Cathay 777-300ER was made possible by a purser called Alvin who he knew from previous flights.

Three other people were in he first class compartment on the flight and the passenger wrote on his blog: “On these long, long flights there isn’t really anything to do after the meal service so my gf (girlfriend) and I were cuddling and watching movies.

“With the magnificent large bed one thing led to another and soon my friend Alvin was at our side saying would you like the privacy of our crew rest upstairs? It is currently unoccupied…”

Two photographs which appear to have been taken by his girlfriend show the suited blogger – with his face deliberately obscured – sitting in the seat in front of the crew bunk and lying down on one of the bunks, which has ruffled sheets and blankets.

“I felt like a celebrity,” he wrote on his blog which also features pictures of the first class bathroom, the pilots in the cockpit and every plate of food served up the flight which costs more than 4,000 pounds sterling for a one-way ticket.

Cathay Pacific said it was examining the blog, posted earlier this month, to see if the purser broke the rules by allowing passengers into the crew rest area.

An airline spokeswoman said, “We are looking into the case. It is a company’s policy that the cabin crew and cockpit crew rest bunks can only be used by operating crew and not for any staff or passengers.”

A senior Cathay Pacific pilot, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, “I frankly think it’s unlikely this really happened.

“On a flight from Toronto there will be someone in the cockpit crew rest area almost all the time. There are four pilots and two will be in there at a time apart from the breaks between shifts which will only be about 15 minutes.”

Air France have ordered that only male stewards work in their first class cabin when former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn flies with them, a French newspaper claims.

The instructions were reportedly given as lawyers for the New York hotel maid, Nafissatou Diallo – who said Mr Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her in May – sought to talk to Air France staff about their experiences with the once globetrotting international banker.

Le Parisien newspaper said the lawyers were given an anonymous letter stating Air France decided “only male employees were to work in the first class lounges when [Mr Strauss-Kahn] travelled” and that the French national carrier had received “hundreds of complaints” about him.

Kenneth Thompson, a member of Ms Diallo’s legal team, confirmed to Reuters he received the letter.

“We’re now looking to talk to Air France employees,” Mr Thompson told Reuters by email.

Ms Diallo’s lawyers were fighting to keep a criminal case against Mr Strauss-Kahn going after New York prosecutors said raised doubts about her credibility.

An Air France spokeswoman would not confirm whether the company had been contacted by Ms Diallo’s team or say whether the airline was aware of any complaints by flight attendants.

Mr Strauss-Kahn, 62, spent much of his life on planes in his job as IMF head and travelled regularly on Air France.

Police escorted him off an Air France plane in New York minutes before take-off on May 14 before he was charged with attempting to rape Ms Diallo.

He has denied any wrongdoing in that case, which wrecked his IMF career overnight and destroyed his chances of running in France’s 2012 presidential election, where he had been seen as a frontrunner.

Diallo, 32, has embarked on a media campaign experts said was designed to either pressure prosecutors to press on with their case or raise the stakes before a possible civil settlement.

The next court hearing for the case is set for August 23.

PASSENGERS and crew have been evacuated from a Virgin plane at Sydney airport following an incident.

The plane, which was set to fly to Adelaide on Thursday morning, left the gate, but did not take off.

There are unconfirmed reports that the plane is grounded because of a bomb threat. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that a passenger was arrested for making the hoax bomb threat on flight DJ402 earlier this morning.

Australian Federal Police (AFP), who attended the scene, said the incident was being treated seriously.

But they were unable to confirm media reports of a bomb threat.

“All passengers and crew have been safely removed from the aircraft,” an AFP spokeswoman said today.

“There is no danger to the travelling public.”

Police and emergency services remain on the scene.