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Bush pilots know that wildlife can be a hazard to your health. Aircraft have collided with giraffes and other large animals on various remote African airstrips, and there are numerous stories of downed pilots being hassled by predators after making forced landings out in the boonies. Lion and hyena are also know to be partial to certain aircraft components, tyres being a documented favourite of the big cats. My father was once left with the (hefty) bill after a gang of hyenas chewed his wingtip navigation lights and strobes (both wings) and then did a runner after dinner. These pictures...

Last month, the U.S. Air Force created four new UAV squadrons (29th Attack Squadron, 6th Reconnaissance Squadron, 16th Training Squadron and 849th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron). All these new units are actually training squadrons. The air force is training 220 operator crews (each with a pilot and one or two sensor operators) a year. In two years, this will increase to 400 a year, which will enable the air force to run 50 CAPs (Combat Air Patrol; UAVs in the air over a combat zone) simultaneously. The large number of new crews are needed because the pilots only operate UAVs for...

Last month, a Russian Il-76 transport crashed after taking off from a Siberian airport. The aircraft had just unloaded a cargo. This accident was no surprise, in general, because of growing problems with the aging Il-76 fleet. For example, a month ago, all Il-76s were grounded because the engine fell off one of them while it was preparing to takeoff. All Russian Il-76s remained grounded until recently, when it was determined that the problem was not common to all Il-76s. The recent crash led to another mass grounding, and growing unease among the many foreign nations that use the Il-76.....

U.S. and international air forces are becoming interested and open to utilizing off-the-shelf equipment in low-intensity, counter-insurgency and counter-drug operations in remote areas. The U.S. Navy is already evaluating an armed version of Embraer’s EMB-314 Super Tucano under a classified evaluation program known as ‘Imminent Fury’. The Navy is currently evaluating a single aircraft and is seeking a budget of $44 million to embark on a larger program. The Special Operations Command, Air Force and US Marine Corps are also interested in employing off the shelf assets for low-intensity Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance and rapid target engagement. Armed Super Tucanos...

-snip- WSMV-TV in Nashville reported that a passenger had to be subdued by other passengers after he began quoting Bible passages. -snip-

Note: Photos included. SNIPPET: "ALBANY, Ind. — A single-engine plane crashed into an Indiana field on Wednesday after the pilot, who was seen slumped over, lost consciousness and the aircraft started flying out of control, officials said. Military officials do not believe the crash was terrorism-related but said the pilot may have had a health problem or have been suffering from a lack of oxygen." SNIPPET: "At Delta High School east of Muncie, a state trooper rushed in and told officials a plane could crash near the building within five minutes, said Principal Jim Koger. Officials raced to move the...

SNIPPET: "(CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are both traveling to Copenhagen this week to promote Chicago's bid to host to the 2016 Olympic Games--and they will be making the 3,979-mile trip on separate airplanes." SNIPPET: "As reported earlier by CNSNews.com, a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report cited two cost estimates for an hour of air travel by the president, vice president and first lady. One estimate comes from the White House Military Office, the other from the U.S. Air Force. Using the CRS cost estimates and the inflation adjuster from the Bureau of Labor Statisitcs,...

(CAMANO ISLAND)— SNIPPET: "Experts say if 18-year-old Harris-Moore really did fly two stolen airplanes, he probably had some informal training. San Juan County sheriff believes Harris-Moore took a Cessna 182 and flew to Yakima last year, and stole a plane this month from Friday Harbor and flew to Orcas Island. The proof to link Harris-Moore with the latest flight may be found in DNA evidence recovered from the stolen plane."

SNIPPET: "SPOKANE -- Authorities in North Idaho are reporting that sometime early Tuesday morning a small airplane was stolen from the Boundary County Airport. The Boundary County Sheriff confirms they received a report regarding the theft of a 2005 Cessna T182T aircraft around 7 AM Tuesday morning. The aircraft, with tail number N2183P, is a white and blue fixed wing single engine aircraft. It is believed the aircraft was taken from the airport around 5:45 Tuesday. They're not sure in what direction the plane was flown from the airport." SNIPPET: "Authorities are working to confirm if the theft is related...

loses its only AWACS as Ahmadinejad threatens the world DEBKAfile Exclusive Report 23 Sept. Up above a big military parade in Tehran on Tuesday, Sept. 22, as Iranian president declared Iran's armed forces would chop off the hands of any power daring to attack his country, two air force jets collided in mid-air - one Iran's only airborne warning and control system (AWACS) for coordinating long-distance aerial operations, DEBKAfile's military and Iranian sources disclose. As the soldiers marched past, followed by a line of Shehab-3 missiles and an air force fly-past, planned to give Ahmadinejad a dazzling send-off for New...

A boy with no official nationality who lives in Thailand captured third place in a Japanese paper aeroplane contest on Sunday after his tearful pleas to be allowed to attend prompted authorities to grant him a rare temporary passport for the event. Mong Thongdee prepares to let fly during the individual indoor flight competition Mong Thongdee, 12, won a national paper aeroplane championship in Thailand in August 2008 after he threw a plane that flew for 12 seconds, and was later chosen to attend the Japanese contest in Chiba, near Tokyo. But Mong, who lives in Chiang Mai in northern...

MEXICO CITY -- A 44-year-old Bolivian drug addict and alcoholic who describes himself as a church minister was the sole person responsible for the brief hijacking Wednesday of a commercial jetliner, a Mexican official said. The suspect -- Josmar Flores Pereira -- told authorities he hijacked the Boeing 737 jet because the date -- September 9, 2009, or 9/9/9, and 666 reversed -- held some significance for him, said Genaro Garcia Luna, the secretary for public safety. "He said that because of that divine reference he wanted to alert Mexico City of an earthquake," Garcia told reporters. Flanked by two...

Airliner hijacked in Mexico, lands safely 737 flown to Mexico City from Cancun; 104 passengers Sept. 9: An AeroMexico plane reportedly carrying 104 passengers was hijacked in Cancun and diverted to Mexico City. MEXICO CITY - An AeroMexico passenger plane was hijacked at the airport in the Mexican resort of Cancun on Wednesday and flown to Mexico City's international airport, where most of the passengers were reported to have been freed. A Telemundo producer said the hijackers apparently were three Bolivians who were asking to speak to President Felipe Calderon. Transport Minister Juan Molinar told Mexican radio the aircraft had...

September 7, 2009 Mass murder at 30,000 feet: Islamic extremists guilty of airline bomb plot Philippe Naughton Three British Muslims were found guilty today of conspiracy to murder thousands of passengers and crew in an unprecedented airline bomb plot that could have proved as deadly as the 9/11 attacks. After a retrial at Woolwich Crown Court, jurors found the ringleader, Abdulla Ahmed, and two other men, Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain, guilty of plotting to use liquid bombs to blow up airliners en route from Heathrow to the United States. Another defendant, Umar Islam, was found guilty of a more...

Ladies and Gentlemen, please remain in your seats until Captain Braveheart and his magnificent crew have brought the aircraft to a screeching halt against the gate. And, once the tire smoke has cleared and the warning bells are silenced, we will open the door and you can pick your way through the wreckage to the terminal. Allegedly the German air controllers at Frankfurt Airport are renowned as a short-tempered lot. They, it is alleged, not only expect one to know one's gate parking location, but how to get there without any assistance from them. So it was with some amusement...

I flew up to Mountain Airpark, Cleveland, GA to attend a "send off party" for Bill Allison, yesterday. Bill died doing something he loved when his Cessna 182 flew into Brass Town Ball Mountain last Friday. He left Mountain Airpark for a flight over to Andrews, NC in IFR weather for a flight over to Andrews, NC. They started looking for him on Friday and found him on Sunday. He lacked only 100 feet of clearing the mountain. He had not taken his GPS with him. He was basically a friend of a friend of mine. I had met him...

Hole in Jetliner Disrupts Flight By Martin Weil Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, July 14, 2009 A Southwest Airlines jetliner headed for Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport made an emergency landing in West Virginia yesterday evening after a hole opened in the body of the plane and the cabin lost pressure, an airline spokeswoman said.

According to several sources, including Folha Online: (English Translation: Since the beginning of the search for the black box of Airbus, the French Navy have detected several beeps, but after further analysis, these tracks were discarded for not registering the technical parameters of the signals... The BEA has the wrong blood to do it! Le BEA a du mauvais sang à se faire!... The BEA announced a «factual report» would be presented on July 2nd at 3pm. EuroCockpit could publish a synthesis on this accident the same day, just before the BEA conference. No doubt that journalists will then have...

DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del., June 29, 2009 – It was enough to make even the calmest airline passengers nervous: an irate man pacing the aisles of a commercial flight shouting, “I want to slit the captain’s throat!” Col. Thomas Kauth, Logistics Assessment Branch chief, presents Senior Airman Nicholas Barker, 436th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron crew chief, a certificate of appreciation for his excellence during Dover Air Force Base’s Logistics Standardization and Evaluation Program inspection. Two months later, Barker showed his excellence again by subduing an irate man on an international commercial flight. U.S. Air Force photo by Tom Randle  (Click photo...

I was introduced to Airplane investigations more than 30 years ago as a young Airman while serving in Europe in the US Air Force as part of a military aircraft crash recovery detail. The recovered items of an outstanding military pilot that I retrieved for the investigation that day will always remind me of the terrible plain and loss that the Air France Flt 447 families are currently going through. It is for this reason that I have always paid particular attention to NTSB investigator briefings. I cannot recall a single time when the NTSB was not professional, forthcoming, always...

There seem to be mounting evidence that Air France and the French Government are not being forthcoming in the root cause of this aviation disaster and in fact, Airbus and European aviation officials for some reason are not releasing most of the flight messages leading up the the event. I will be reviewing later today several stories in the European and Brazilian press once I’m able to complete my translations into English. First, here’s what we do know. The Aviation Safety Network (flightsafety.org) provides the following...

Edward J. Rupke, senior engineer at Lightning Technologies, Inc., (LTI) in Pittsfield, Mass., provides the following explanation: It is estimated that on average, each airplane in the U.S. commercial fleet is struck lightly by lightning more than once each year. In fact, aircraft often trigger lightning when flying through a heavily charged region of a cloud. In these instances, the lightning flash originates at the airplane and extends away in opposite directions. Although record keeping is poor, smaller business and private airplanes are thought to be struck less frequently because of their small size and because they often can avoid...

Looks like the US military has a new secret aircraft. Either that or the Nazis are taking over the world again, because according to other photos this looks like the Luftwaffe's Go229 Flying Wing:

Should stewardesses flying to Saudi Arabia be required to wear head-to-toe coverings and walk behind men? One airline thinks so.

BOSTON — A flight from Munich, Germany to Washington has been diverted to Boston because a passenger complained of "flu-like symptoms." Airport spokesman Phil Orlandella said United flight 903 was being diverted to Boston early Friday afternoon after a 53-year-old female passenger told flight attendants about her symptoms.

Watch Video: http://www.butasforme.com/2009/04/27/white-house-sorry-for-terror-scare-in-nyc-why-obama-wanted-to-do-a-photo-op-right-around-the-site-of-the-world-trade-center-defies-the-imagination/Why Obama wanted to do an airplane photo op right around the site of the World Trade Center defies the imagination…

Ever wonder what happens to airplanes after they are retired? The scrapyard is the most common place. If it is in good working order, perhaps sold over seas or to a private buyer. But a select few get transformed into personal residences, hotels, hostels, and cafes. For instance the boat-plane to the left. For some other interesting examples of transformed airplanes, click here. Links and photos on site http://nowthatsnifty.blogspot.com/2009/04/recycled-airplanes.html

WAUSAU, Wis. - A man suspected of stealing a plane from Canada, flying erratically over three states and attracting U.S. fighter escorts was in custody Tuesday after landing on a rural Missouri road and fleeing by foot. Adam Dylan Leon, 31, was arrested near a grocery store in Ellsinore, Mo., shortly after police said he landed the single-engine, four-seat Cessna to end a six-hour flight Monday night. The Missouri state trooper who arrested Leon said on ABC's "Good Morning America" that the pilot told him he had hoped to be shot down. "He made a statement that he was trying...

SNIPPET: "Fourteen years ago today Aum Shinrikyo released sarin gas on the Tokyo subway." SNIPPET: "A final note - Aum Shinrikyo operatives, on the order of the cult's leader, underwent flight training in Florida. There is no evidence that they made any attempts to use this training. It is just an odd, disturbing coincidence."

SNIPPET: "Nytta Norton of Bryant, Alabama, says her son, 48-year-old Bob Norton, has been serving as director of Adventist Medical Aviation - Venezuela. SNIPPET: "She says searches have failed to locate the plane he was piloting, which also carried his wife, two adults accompanying two sick children, and a missionary who taught at an Adventist school. Norton says her son "grew up with a missionary spirit and was carrying on for his dad," who was killed while piloting a missionary plane that crashed 29 years ago in Mexico."

Indonesia Update In a South Jakarta courtroom this week, a Singaporean terror suspect admitted that he was part of a plot to hijack an Aeroflot aircraft from Bangkok and crash it into Singapore’s Changi International Airport. Mohammad Hasan bin Sayanudin, alias Fajar Taslim, was testifying against two other terrorist suspects. All three are charged with killing a Christian high school teacher in South Sumatra province during 2007. They are also charged with plotting to kill two Catholic priests in 2005 and to carry out a bombing of a café in West Sumatra. According to Sayanudin, those who were part of...

Entire South African Airways crew arrested for drug smuggling - TWICE in one month By SAM GREENHILL 17th February 2009 The entire crew of a South African Airways flight has been arrested on suspicion of drug smuggling - for the second time in a month. Fifteen members of the flight crew, including the pilot, were detained yesterday at Heathrow airport after customs officers found five kilos of cocaine in a bag. They were being held by officers after the class A drug, with an estimated street value of £250,000, was discovered as the crew tried to clear customs following a...

The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration spent more than $123,000 to charter a private jet to fly to Bogota, Colombia, last fall instead of taking one of the agency's 106 planes. The DEA paid a contractor an additional $5,380 to arrange Acting Administrator Michele Leonhart's trip last Oct. 28-30 with an outside company. The DEA scheduled the trip as the nation was reeling from the worst economic crisis in decades and the national debt was climbing toward $10 trillion. Three weeks later, lawmakers slammed chief executive officers from three automakers for flying to Washington in private jets as Congress...

Sacramento airport seeks clear right to kill birds for safety tbizjak@sacbee.com Published Saturday, Jan. 31, 2009 Each winter, the fields of Natomas play host to a spectacular avian air show. Starlings loop and dive. Sparrows scoot low across the fields. Hawks swoop. Egrets and herons pose. It's a beautiful tableau. It may also be deadly. The birds share airspace with commercial jets arriving and departing from Sacramento International Airport – and too frequently, the two groups of fliers collide. That fact was highlighted two weeks ago in New York when a US Airways jet crash-landed on the Hudson River after...

Asher Roth wants to make it clear that he was not involved in the incident Wednesday that involved the detaining of a man on a Delta flight to Los Angeles. I spoke to Asher Thursday when he stopped by the Yahoo! Music office to preview his highly anticipated forthcoming debut which is due out in April.

Officials ordered nine Muslim passengers, including three young children, off an AirTran flight headed to Orlando from Reagan National Airport yesterday afternoon after two other passengers overheard what they thought was a suspicious remark. Members of the party, all but one of them U.S.-born citizens who were headed to a religious retreat in Florida, were subsequently cleared for travel by FBI agents who characterized the incident as a misunderstanding, an airport official said. But the passengers said AirTran refused to rebook them, and they had to pay for seats on another carrier secured with help from the FBI. Kashif Irfan,...

Wait for it.

A Britten-Norman Trislander, the kind of small aircraft that disappeared off the Dominican Republic Monday with 12 on board. A small Caribbean airplane that vanished into thin air Monday was allegedly stolen by a fired Dominican Navy cadet who may have been trying to carry illegal immigrants to America, the plane’s owner told FOXNews.com. Luis Perez, the Puerto Rico-based owner of the aircraft charter company, said his twin-engine plane was stolen by an unlicensed pilot named Adrian Jimenez. Authorities told him Jimenez was a student of the Dominican Republic Armed Forces and a former Navy cadet. “They took his pilot’s...

An airworthy example of the ultimate piston-powered airliner will survive, thanks to the efforts of our German friends. The most advanced version of the most beautiful passenger airliner ever built, the Lockheed Constellation L-1649, is being restored to airworthy condition in Maine by a coalition of organizations connected with Lufthansa German Airlines. As an aviation buff, I am grateful for this effort. L-049 (the first Constellation) public domain image (hat tip: Wikimedia) The original Constellation model, the L-049 was commissioned in the late 1930s by Trans World Airlines, then under the control of Howard Hughes, as a pressurized transcontinental airliner....

A United Airlines flight was temporarily held at Los Angeles International Airport after a passenger fell ill and had to be diagnosed for a possible infectious disease. City Fire Department spokesman Cecil Manresa said the Boeing 747 jet was held at the gate after arriving from Tokyo around 8 a.m. Sunday. Crew members and 334 passengers were ordered to stay on board while investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention evaluated the 28-year-old male passenger. Manresa said health officials determined that he suffered from food poisoning or some type of stomach illness. United Airlines spokesman Jeff Kovick said...

An air hostess helped land a jet carrying 146 passengers after the co-pilot had an apparent mental breakdown over the Atlantic Ocean, investigators revealed today. The UK-bound plane made an emergency diversion to Shannon Airport, in Ireland, last January after the Air Canada flight officer began a ‘rambling and disjointed’ conversation, said an official report. Another attendant suffered wrist injuries as the crew forcibly removed the co-pilot from the cockpit controls and restrained him in a seat in the cabin. The captain of the Boeing 767 from Toronto to Heathrow asked staff to seek out any trained pilots onboard. One...

Saudi Arabia foiled a 2003 terror plot by militants who planned to hijack a plane and blow it up over a densely populated American city, a Saudi official said Sunday. The official said the plan, first reported Sunday in government-guided Al-Watan newspaper, was for the attackers to transit through the U.S. to another destination so they could avoid applying for hard-to-get American visas required for Saudis. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the militants were preparing to execute the alleged plot when it was halted.

This gives a whole new meaning to landing on (a) wing and a whole lot of prayer...... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRCbkBfdBrQ

MIAMI - Another protest by air for - or more accurately against - Barack Obama.At the Democrat’s rally Tuesday evening in Miami, a single engine plane buzzed around pulling a banner asking Senator Obama and his wife, Michelle, to “repudiate” 60s radicals Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn.Republicans, including the GOP ticket, have attempted to draw attention to and amplify his relations with Ayers. Obama has consistently explained that he and Ayers simply sat on a Chicago education board together.(snip)

The Federal Aviation Administration has begun scrutinizing YouTube videos taken from the cockpits of Horizon Air planes. Although most of the videos have been taken down, the FAA and Horizon Air confirmed they are cooperating in an investigation into possible cockpit violations in which pilots allowed personal electronic devices to be used to record takeoffs and landings. With the exception of filming for training, it is against federal regulations for pilots or passengers to use such devices during takeoffs and landings, as they could interfere with instrument and landing system navigation radios. Cockpits also are supposed to be sterile environments,...

FBI Warns of Potential Terror Attacks The FBI and Department of Homeland Security today issued an analytical "note" to U.S. law-enforcement officials cautioning that al-Qaida terrorists have in the past expressed interest in attacking public buildings using a dozen suicide bombers each carrying 20 kilograms of explosives. Authors with the U.S. Office of Intelligence and Analysis added that they have "no credible or specific information that terrorists are planning operations against public buildings in the United States." The FBI and DHS analysts said they were releasing the note because "it is important for local authorities and building owners and...

The great heave forward...  Chinese passengers are forced to get out and push their broken passenger plane   By John Garth  Anyone who has ever used budget airlines know only too well how uncomfortable it can be: long queues, cramped seats and every tiny extra costs you.  But at least they are never told to get out and help push their plane.That is exactly what happened to a group of passengers in China who were asked to get out and push after their plane broke down shortly after landing.      The Chinese Shandong airlines flight CRJ7 arrived safely...

Swiss adventurer crosses English Channel using homemade jet wing DOVER, England — A Swiss adventurer using a homemade jet-propelled wing has flown across the English Channel from France in less than 10 minutes. Yves Rossy landed safely in a field near Dover on Friday. The National Geographic Channel showed Rossy leaping from a plane at an altitude of about 2,700 metres, then firing up his wing for the 35-kilometre flight from Calais, France, to Dover, England. Minutes later Rossy looped over onlookers on the British side.

How The West Was Won The rapid and unexpected decline of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq was officially recognized this week, when Maj. Gen. John Kelly, commanding the Marine Expeditionary Force, turned operational control of Anbar Province over to the Iraqi army and police. Anbar, a vast expanse of desert the size of North Carolina, had been the stronghold of the Sunni insurgency. For years, foreign fighters loyal to al-Qaida had sneaked across Iraq's northwestern border with Syria, into Anbar and down a "rat line" of safe houses in Haditha, Ramadi and Hit. From Fallujah, the arch terrorist Zarqawi...

Excerpt - ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - British Airways has suspended its flights to Pakistan because of security fears after a bloody suicide truck-bomb blast at a hotel in Islamabad on the weekend, an airline spokesman said on Monday. ~ snip ~