Aviation - General, Disasters, Investigations

[Jake Smethurst]

As many of you know, I am very interested in aviation after meteorology, and it works well considering meteorology is a major factor in the industry. I started this in the other forum, but totally forgot to start it up again in this forum, but considering the latest aviation incidents I thought I would get it started again.

This thread is designed basically for anyone else that is an aviation lover; you can talk about anything to do with the industry, including flights that you have experienced, your preferred airliner or aircraft, aviation incidents and reports, and investigations. Travel chaos as well.

There has been quite a number of accidents since the start of this year in regards to commercial aviation. Below, I have posted the two most recent disasters, including an accident that has just occurred in India which has overshot the runway and killed over 160 people, the aircraft type was a Boeing 737. The last stroy I have posted is in regards to Virgin Blue and is much happier than the other two, a positive for the industry.

Indian plane overshoots runway
Updated: 13:34, Saturday May 22, 2010
At least 160 people are feared dead after an Air India plane crashed on landing in the southern Indian city of Mangalore on Saturday.

Amid conflicting reports, officials initially feared as many as 160 people of the 169 said to be on board had been killed.

Senior Mangalore police official R. Ramesh said the plane, which was arriving from Dubai, crashed after severely overshooting the runway.

'So far I have only heard of seven survivors. Many are feared dead,' Ramesh told AFP by telephone.

The Press Trust of India said at least 60 people were feared dead.

Television footage suggested the plane had partially broken up, with smoke billowing from the main fuselage, as rescue workers sought to douse the fire with foam.

Officials in the state of Karnataka said of the 169 people believed to be on board, only six or seven might have survived.

'This is a major calamity,' Karnataka Home Minister V.S. Acharya told CNN-IBN TV.

Air India spokesman K. Swaminathan said the Boeing 737 carrying 160 passengers and six crew members overshot the runaway and crashed about one kilometre from the Mangalore airport into hilly terrain.

Swaminathan could not confirm the number of people feared killed.

Firefighters were working to put out the flames, he said.

Seemant Singh, a police official at Mangalore airport, told the NDTV news channel that conditions at the airport were poor when the plane overshot the runway at about 6am (local time).

'We fear there are casualties,' Mangalore airport manager Peter Abrahams told NDTV.

No information on Aussies in plane crash
Updated: 12:34, Saturday May 22, 2010
There's no information to suggest Australians were aboard a plane which crashed on a remote mountain in Afghanistan, Australian authorities say.

The Antonov-24 operated by Pamir Airways disappeared on Monday on a flight from Kunduz to Kabul.

There were reports that up to three Australians were among the 44 people on board after Afghan officials told The Associated Press that eight foreign passengers were on the plane.

However the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said on Saturday that while Australian Embassy officials were working with authorities in Kabul, there was no available evidence that Australians were on the flight.

'There's no information to suggest Australians were on the flight,' a DFAT spokeswoman told AAP.

Afghanistan's Aviation Minister Mohammadullah Batash told The Associated Press that ground searchers reached the crash site, about 38km north of Kabul, on Friday but found no survivors.

The wreckage was spotted on Thursday by a search plane on a 4100-metre mountain in Shakar Darah district north of Kabul.

Afghanistan's chief aviation investigator Ghulam Farooq told the AP eight foreign passengers were aboard the plane which crashed north of the capital Kabul on Monday.

There were three Britons, one American, and Australian and Pakistani nationals on board, but he did not know the number of Australians, he said.

Late on Friday night, DFAT said the Afghan interior ministry had confirmed the crash but at that stage it could not confirm if any Australians were on board.

Virgin Blue named best low-cost carrier
Updated: 06:12, Saturday May 22, 2010
Virgin Blue has been named best low-cost airline in the Australia-Pacific region at the Skytrax world airline awards.

It's the fourth time the airline is claiming the title, beating Qantas offshoot Jetstar and Tiger, who came in second and third.

Skytrax chairman Edward Plaisted says Virgin Blue is clearly capturing the customer's hearts in what is an extremely competitive region for low cost airlines.

Malaysian-based AirAsia took out the award as the world's best low-cost airline for the second straight year.

Qantas finished seventh in the overall category, but won for best premium economy class.

The 11-year-old Skytrax awards are based on a survey of 17.9 million air travellers taken between July 2009 and April 2010.

They were handed out in Hamburg.