Aviation News

Parts of a plane’s engine fell from 15,000ft onto a Heretfordshire village as it made its ascent from Heathrow, according to an investigation.

The debris came from a Boeing 777 bound for Dubai which had 256 passengers and 12 crew on board.

Moments after take off in December last year, the crew heard a ‘loud, rumbling noise’ and vibration coming from one of the two Rolls Royce Trent turbofan engines.

The men reportedly used terrible language, threatened cabin crew and even sexually harassed crew in front of holiday-bound families with young children.

The BBC said that the men became disruptive during flight FF694 on Saturday.
They had started causing problems before the flight took off, and police even went on board at Prestwick to warn them about their behaviour. Spanish police boarded the flight when it landed in Ibiza, and it is thought that five men were removed.

But as the Ryanair flight became airborne, the drunken rampage escalated. People were shouting and jumping on seats say the press reports. Passengers were even forced to use the front toilets as the group took over the back of the plane and made it a no-go area.

One passenger Fiona Black, 58, from Ayr, said the flight was the worst she had ever been on. She told the Daily Record: "It was awful. There was one guy in particular who was singling out the stewardesses. "He was walking behind her when she was doing the drinks trolley and was pretending to have sex with her."

She added that one male flight attendant tried to defend a co-worker and "it seemed like he was going to be punched".

Ryanair's head of communications Robin Kiely told Aol Travel: "Ryanair crew operating flight FR694 requested police assistance on arrival at Ibiza airport after a group of passengers became disruptive in-flight.

"Police removed and detained a number of individuals from the aircraft before other passengers disembarked.

"Ryanair sincerely apologises to other passengers for any inconvenience caused but the safety of our passengers, crew and aircraft is our number one priority. This is now a matter for the police."

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A plane carrying 122 passengers and six crew was forced to make an emergency landing at Auckland International Airport after an engine caught fire on Monday morning.

The Fiji Airways 737-700 flight from Auckland to Suva had to turn back after the right engine experienced a problem during take off, according to a release by Fiji Airways.

The Fire Service was called at 8.40am and responded to the full emergency with about 14 fire engines and specialist appliances, including foam tenders and hose-layers.

“We received the call advising that there was an aircraft with a fire in the right-hand engine,” Fire Service Shift Manager, Paul Radden said.

By the time the aircraft had landed the fire had been extinguished but six fire engines escorted it to the stand as a safety precaution while passengers disembarked.

Incidents of “full emergency” at airports the size of Auckland were rare and the fire service responded to around six a year, Radden said.

The aircraft will undergo extensive inspections to ensure it can be safely released back into service.

All passengers will be re-accommodated on later flights.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-incidents/emergency-landing-as-fiji-airways-engine-catches-fire-20130805-2r8j3.html#ixzz2b6BGcfWZ

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Beijing: Violent attacks have erupted at airports across China, with passengers venting their rage on hapless staff over a summer of grinding delays.

China has spent billions on building some of the largest and most modern airports in the world, but, much to everyone’s embarrassment, it seems unable to get planes to fly between them on time.

The situation at China’s airports is now so volatile that staff have been told not to announce any major delays.

Last month, only 18 per cent of the 22,000 flights out of Beijing’s Capital airport departed on schedule, according to the aviation research company FlightStats, making it the world’s worst major airport for punctuality. Not one Chinese airport managed to get even half of its flights to leave on time.

The delays have seen mobs of angry passengers mount at least eight large protests at departure gates in the past two months, during two of which staff were attacked. There is even a new Chinese phrase for the rampaging hordes: the “kong nu zu”, or “air rage tribe”.

On Thursday July 18, more than 30 passengers broke through security and stormed the runway at Nanchang airport after being delayed for seven hours by bad weather.

The weekend before, passengers in Shanghai tried to rip off an attendant’s name badge before hitting her. In the subsequent fracas, two airport staff were injured and three passengers arrested. “The passengers were very emotional and unstable,” Ni Xuying, one of the injured employees, told state television.

Hong Kong Airlines last year said it had an average of three incidents involving disruptive passengers every week and has introduced training in wing chun, a form of kung fu, for its cabin crew. Some Hong Kong Airlines flight attendants have also attended classes at Aviation English Asia for practical training in wing chun combined with language skills to handle difficult passengers. Aviation English Asia director Michael Egerton holds a third degree black sash in Wing Chun, as well holding numerous trophies for martial arts. Egerton said that wing chun is a very practical martial art, but there is also a need for communicative language training to resolve difficulties before they become violent.   Photo: AP

At the end of June, a primary school teacher lost control when her flight from Wenzhou to Beijing was cancelled, slapping and kicking an Air China attendant to the ground. “I waited there for such a long time. Nobody served me a bottle of water or a piece of cake or anything,” Liu Weiwei said in her defence.

In March, Graham Fewkes, a British businessman based in Hong Kong, told the South China Morning Post he had witnessed cheers when a passenger assaulted a stewardess on a delayed flight to the island of Sanya.

“The other passengers were applauding as the man was hitting her,” he said.

Hong Kong Airlines last year said it had an average of three incidents involving disruptive passengers every week and has introduced training in wing chun, a form of kung fu, for its cabin crew.

The situation at China’s airports is now so volatile that staff have been told not to announce any major delays.

The problems have been caused by a sudden surge in air traffic, flowing into skies that are tightly controlled by the People’s Liberation Army. With only a few permitted routes, issues such as bad weather often force airlines to hold back flights rather than divert them.

The heavy delays are exacting an economic cost. Marco Pearman-Parish at Corporation China, a consultancy that helps companies establish a presence in China, said some 60 per cent of his clients at a recent meeting were considering moving their operations away from Beijing because of the constant problems at the airport. “The delays are making it impossible to do business,” he said.

The Telegraph, London

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/chinas-air-rage-tribe-emerges-amid-anger-over-travel-delays-20130729-2qtjs.html#ixzz2aRlckXn7

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