GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The 89 passengers of a Boeing 737 flying from Vladivostok to Krasnodar are safe after their pilots landed the plane without incident after being temporarily blinded by a laser, reports the Moscow Times. The number of lasers beamed at pilots has jumped from five in 2010 to 50 this year. Legislation is under review to create penalties of up to 10 years in laser injury cases, says the newspaper.
Scores of ravers were injured after lasers at a giant outdoor party near Moscow burned their eyes in 2008.
Switzerland recently tightened its laws after a number of incidents, most involving helicopter pilots. The federal government announced in May that high-level lasers will be banned after government statistics published in March showed 80 laser attacks on pilots in 2010. Penalties for causing damage were increased in October 2011 about the time that a man in Vevey, near Lausanne, was fined CHF2,750 and given a three-year suspended fine sentence of CHF5,000 for his laser attack, while he was drunk, on two military helicopters.
Links to other sites: New Scientist, Rega magazine (Fr)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – AF447, the Air France flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris that crashed into the ocean two-and-a-half hours after taking off, killing 228 people, was out of the pilots’ control for a little over four minutes before crashing, a report by the French investigating authority shows.
France’s BEA Friday 27 May provided an initial report Friday that gives a chronology of events in the cockpit. The BEA says it is too early to draw conclusions, but it appeara likely now that the three pilots were not receiving accurate speed readings.
The conclusions, which may be part of a report the BEA says it will issue in July, could result in major legal and financial problems for Air France and Airbus if they are found to be responsible for malfunctioning and a lack of training for the pilots to handle the situation.
Reuters, in English, and Le Monde, in French, provide detailed articles on the BEA report.
US fighter jet crashes in Libya due to technical problems
Four journalists who work for the New York Times were freed Monday and recounted their five-day ordeal, after being captured by Libyan soldiers 15 March. Turkey was instrumental in freeing the four, one of whom is a woman and who said she was constantly groped by soldiers while held captive.
A US Air Force jet crashed over Libya Tuesday due to technical failure. The two pilots are safe. The Pentagon announced the news: “Two crew members ejected from their US Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle when the aircraft experienced equipment malfunction over northeast Libya, March 21, 2011 at approximately 10:30 p.m. CET. Both crew members ejected and are safe.
The aircraft, based out of Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England, was flying out of Aviano Air Base in support of Operation Odyssey Dawn at the time of the incident. The cause of the incident is under investigation. The identities will be released after the next of kin have been notified.”
Links to other sites: New Yorker, Yahoo News
Vaud police issue warning on illegal lasers
US Air Force laser experiment (photo, wikipedia)
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland recorded 80 incidents in 2010 where aircraft pilots were injured by lasers pointed at them. The figure was double that of the previous year, with 40 in 2009. Rega, the helicopter emergency service, filed 11 complaints, two of which resulted in charges being pressed, although they were dropped in one case.
Police in canton Vaud say that the problem involves legal pointers, the kind used in presentations, but also far more powerful ones.
Legal pointers range from 0.4 to 1 mW (milliwatt), but other lasers are available, notably online, from 5 to 2,000 mW.
The two Northwest airline pilot who overflew Minneapolis airport 21 October have put part of the blame on air traffic controllers, who were not following standard procedures, court documents show. The documents, filed 24 November, have just been made public. The two are appealing to the Federal Aviation Administration, which removed their pilots’ licenses. They were out of contact with radio control for 77 minutes but the many stories that have circulated about what they were doing have not been confirmed or clarified.
The two Northwest Airlines pilots who overshot Minneapolis by more than 150 miles were using laptops and were distracted, they have admitted, according to US aviation safety officials. They were initially reported to have been arguing, but have denied this. The airline has said it is firing the two, aged 57 and 54, both of whom have thousands of flying hours and clean safety records. The two were reported by officials to have been discussing flight scheduling because a new system is being put in place.
Links to other sites: CNN, CS Monitor
The entire crew of an Air India flight from the United Arab Emirates to India was suspended pending an investigation after two suffered bruises after coming to blows inside the plane, early Saturday 3 October. Passengers became alarmed when an argument became physical while flying over Pakistan. A female flight attendant accused two pilots of harassment inside the cockpit. The pilots accuse the flight attendants of making up the story. The plane landed safely in Delhi. BBC, Guardian
Title: International fly-in at Prangins
Location: Prangins, Vaud
Link out: Click here
Description: An open-day, tax-free, for all pilots and their planes, and of course, a day for all plane watchers as well.
Date: 20 Jun 2009
Geneva, Switzerland and Paris, France (GenevaLunch) – A strike by pilots at Air France, in its fourth day, is expected to end at midnight Monday, but only 65-70% of long-haul flights are operating Monday and about 50% of medium-haul flights.
