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December 17, 1973: Five terrorists pulled weapons from their luggage in the terminal lounge at the Rome airport, killing two persons. They then attacked a Pan American 707 bound for Beirut and Tehran, destroying it with incendiary grenades and killing 29 persons, including 4 senior Moroccan officials and 14 American employees of ARAMCO. They then herded 5 Italian hostages into a Lufthansa airliner and killed an Italian customs agent as he tried to escape, after which they forced the pilot to fly to Beirut. After Lebanese authorities refused to let the plane land, it landed in Athens, where the terrorists...

Britons fighting for militant groups in Syria are being targeted to smuggle explosives on to Western airliners and become suicide bombers as Al Qaeda plan a spectacular attack over a major city, intelligence officials warn. The Pakistan-based, Iranian-backed Khorasan group linked to Al Qaeda is said to have sent members to 'embed' with affiliated terror groups to identify British, European and United States passport holders who could slip through security and carry a bomb on to a plane.

In recent years, Hezbollah has stepped up its activities beyond Lebanon’s borders. This uptick has been clearest in the Middle East—in Iraq, Yemen, and especially Syria—but plots have also been thwarted in South America, Asia, Europe, and now, possibly, the United States. Reports of Hezbollah activity in North America are not new, though such reporting tends to focus on the group’s fundraising, money laundering, procurement, or other logistical activities from Vancouver to Miami. But last month, the criminal prosecution and conviction in New York of the Hezbollah operative Ali Kourani revealed disturbing new information about the extent of Hezbollah’s operations...

The Federal Aviation Administration would be required to set new minimum requirements for seats on airplanes under legislation to be considered in the House this week, possibly giving passengers a break from ever-shrinking legroom and cramped quarters. The regulation of seat width and legroom is part of a five-year extension of federal aviation programs announced early Saturday by Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate committees that oversee the nation’s air travel. Congress faces a Sept. 30 deadline to keep FAA programs running. The Senate will also need to take up the bill this week or both chambers...

The Middle Seat The Trouble With Keeping Commercial Flights Clean With the Ebola Crisis in the Background, Standards for Disinfecting Planes Vary Based on Time, Class Just how clean are airplanes? Do they really get scrubbed down after each flight? WSJ's Scott McCartney joins Tanya Rivero on Lunch Break with the answers. By Scott McCartney Updated Sept. 17, 2014 The Ebola crisis and heightened concerns about the risk of spreading disease during air travel have focused concern on what airlines do to keep planes clean. It's a murky area without clear regulatory standards. The Federal Aviation Administration says it doesn't...

On Wednesday at about 2 p.m., according to sources, a U-2 spy plane, the same type of aircraft that flew high-altitude spy missions over Russia 50 years ago, passed through the airspace monitored by the L.A. Air Route Traffic Control Center in Palmdale, Calif. The L.A. Center handles landings and departures at the region’s major airports, including Los Angeles International (LAX), San Diego and Las Vegas. The computers at the L.A. Center are programmed to keep commercial airliners and other aircraft from colliding with each other. The U-2 was flying at 60,000 feet, but the computers were attempting to keep...

Israel is speeding up on-board missile defense systems for commercial planes in light of fears that Gaza terrorists have obtained anti-aircraft missiles during the recent war in Libya, defense officials told the Associated Press. It is only a matter of months before the laser-based ”C-Music” system will be installed on approximately 100 Israeli passenger planes, officials added. Video .....

Aircraft DATE:18/02/11 SOURCE:Flight International Vibrating cockpit seat proposed for pilot alerts By David Kaminski-Morrow Boeing has floated the possibility of using vibrating cockpit seats as an alternative mechanism to visual and aural indicators on the flightdeck. Its suggestion is contained in a newly published patent document that details a proposal for a module mounted beneath the pilot's seat which, once triggered, would provide a tactile signal to the crew. While the document mentions various types of alerts requiring immediate pilot action - such as terrain-avoidance or stall-warning alarms - it says there are several other instances during flight where the...

The Web site run by al-Qaida in Iraq was strangely quiet during the referendum. There were no threats against voters, no boasts of disrupting the vote. And now we know one reason why. Dijana was responsible for much of what has appeared on the Web site called "al-Qaida in Iraq," including provocative videos of suicide bombings and crucial communications to al-Qaida fighters. Here is how the al-Qaida site works: On any given day in any of a dozen cities, a suicide bomb explodes. The target is an American convoy, local Iraqi police or perhaps civilians exiting a mosque. Within minutes,...

RAF jets have been scrambled twice this month in response to terrorist alerts on passenger airliners flying over Britain, defence sources have revealed. Eurofighter Typhoons took off from the quick reaction alert base at Coningsby in Lincolnshire – one of two such bases in the UK – minutes after warnings of suspected attempts to hijack American airliners. Procedures were triggered that could ultimately lead to a decision to destroy the aircraft, to avoid mass casualties. That decision would be taken "at the highest levels of government", officials say. Though a decision would be taken by the prime minister, if he...

COPS fear that 25 British-born Muslims are plotting to bomb Western airliners. The fanatics, in five groups, are now training at secret terror camps in Yemen. It was there London-educated Umar Abdulmutallab, 23, prepared for his Christmas Day bid to blow up a US jet. The British extremists in Yemen are in their early 20s and from Bradford, Luton and Leytonstone, East London. They are due to return to the UK early in 2010 and will then await internet instructions from al-Qaeda on when to strike. A Scotland Yard source said: "The great fear is Abdulmutallab is the first of...

Attacks on nuclear power stations, oil and gas terminals, Canary Wharf and Heathrow’s control tower were being considered by leaders of the plot to blow up seven transatlantic airliners in mid-flight, a court was told yesterday. Documents found on computer memory sticks at the home of an alleged terrorist ringleader contained a list of targets across Britain – including the gas pipeline between Britain and Belgium. The man, Assad Sarwar, was said to be in contact with terrorist leaders overseas and visited Pakistan a month before his arrest as preparations for the airline attacks were being finalised. Peter Wright, QC,...

SACRAMENTO -- Attorney General Jerry Brown -- declaring instant victory on a tobacco suit Tuesday -- plans to file a complaint today demanding that U.S. regulators force airliners and other aircraft to spew lesser amounts of greenhouse gases. The attorney general's aides said Brown's main focus of fighting global warming, which has focused mostly on carbon dioxide emissions from cars and industry, would move skyward today when he files a complaint jointly with other states and environmental groups against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Washington. Brown is scheduled to announce the petition he's filing with the EPA at Los...

LONDON - British anti-terrorist police charged three more people late Tuesday with conspiring to commit murder in the alleged plot to blow up U.S.-bound airliners. The three — Mohammed Yasar Gulzar, Mohammed Shamin Uddin and Nabeel Hussain — were also charged with preparing to commit terrorism by helping in an alleged plan to smuggle explosives aboard the planes, police said. Eleven people have now been charged on those two counts. Four others were charged with lesser offenses, including having knowledge of a terrorist activity but not disclosing information about it. A Scotland Yard statement said Gulzar, Uddin and Hussain conspired...

What do Islamist terrorists want? The answer should be obvious, but it is not.A generation ago, terrorists did make clear their wishes. Upon hijacking three airliners in September 1970, for example, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine demanded, with success, the release of Arab terrorists imprisoned in Britain, Switzerland, and West Germany. Upon attacking the B'nai B'rith headquarters and two other Washington, D.C. buildings in 1977, a Hanafi Muslim group demanded the canceling of a feature movie, Mohammad, Messenger of God," $750 (as reimbursement for a fine), the turning over of the five men who had massacred the...

Technology developed in Tucson could soon protect airliners from being attacked by missile-wielding terrorists. Raytheon Co. on Tuesday unveiled a new, ground-based airport protection system that uses high-power microwave beams to disable shoulder-fired missiles. The Vigilant Eagle system - developed by Tucson-based Raytheon Missile Systems - is an affordable alternative to aircraft-based missile protection systems, a senior company official said at the Paris Air Show. The Vigilant Eagle technology "defeats the most important classes of man-portable missiles in seconds without any alteration to or involvement by the aircraft using the airport," Mike --

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Plane manufacturer Boeing said Wednesday that potential customers had shown interest in new versions of its 747 jumbo jet and mid-sized 787 Dreamliner. The interest comes from among a group of 12 carriers Boeing spoke to about the plane late last year, he added, without giving names.

U.S. to ban flame sources aboard airliners Administration will prohibit lighters, matches on all flights By Pete Williams Justice correspondent NBC News Feb. 15, 2005 WASHINGTON - In a move intended to further improve airline security, the Bush administration is preparing to ban matches, as well as lighters, for all air passengers, beginning in April.

India seems to be emerging as a hot spot for global aircraft manufacturers, not just as a market but also as a destination to outsource manufacturing and software development. While the European aircraft maker, Airbus, has started talks with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to develop components for its latest offering, the A380, in India, Boeing has awarded a new deal to the Shiv Nadar-promoted HCL Technologies to develop software for its latest aircraft, the 787 Dreamliner.

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