Some Air France Crews Won't Fly to Ebola-Hit Nations

Some Air France crews won't fly to Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria -- the African nations hit hardest by the deadly Ebola virus.

According to AFP, while some of Air France's employees have refused to fly to these countries, all of the airline's flights have had their usual number of crew members onboard.

The Ebola outbreak is already the deadliest on record and has shown no signs of slowing. About 42.5 percent of Ebola deaths since the virus was discovered in 1976 have occurred since March 2014, according to the World Health Organization.

According to data released by the WHO, as of Saturday, in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, there have been 2,240 cases of Ebola and 1,229 Ebola-related deaths.

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ANA Group upgrades flight schedule for second half of FY2014

ANA is upgrading its flight schedule for the second half of FY2014, in order to capture the increasing demand for Asian air travel and capitalize on the expansion of Haneda Airport. ANA has significantly expanded its international network at Haneda Airport this spring and improved its connectivity as a hub airport, both for domestic and international flights. 

ANA has also expanded its network at Narita Airport, in order to respond to the increasing demand for connections between Asia and North America, and the flight schedule for Narita Airport is updated accordingly. ANA is also making changes to increase capacity on its cargo network.

ANA now provides a more convenient service for passengers, making it easier for customers to travel through Japan and connect with ANA’s extensive domestic and international network.

ANA is committed to improving its network in order to adjust to the demand/supply balance and best serve the needs of its customers.

Details of the schedule changes are outlined below*.

*These plans are subject to approval of the relevant authorities and schedules are subject to change.

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Nicer pillows, blankets on tap for JetBlue's Mint customers

JetBlue and London Luxury LLC are working to make transatlantic flights even more luxurious.

Westchester-based London Luxury, a provider of home goods, will now supply the New York City-based air career with premium pillows and blankets for JetBlue’s Mint offering.

Mint features lie-flat beds and semi-private seats with doors. Mint pillows and blankets are initially available on domestic transatlantic flights between John F. Kennedy International Airport and Los Angeles.

Though the companies are calling it a “strategic partnership,” it is more of an extension of their collaboration. London Luxury has actually already been providing items for Mint like the bedding, and the pillows and blankets to JetBlue’s Core customers, the companies said.

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Emirates suspends flights to Guinea over Ebola fears

Dubai's Emirates Airline is to suspend flights to Guinea, one of three African countries hit by an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus, a company spokesperson told Agence France-Presse on Friday, August 1.

"Emirates will be suspending its service to Conakry from August 2, 2014 (Saturday) until further notice, due to the outbreak of the Ebola virus in Guinea," a spokesperson said in emailed comments.

"We apologise for any inconvenience caused to our customers. However the safety of our passengers and crew is of the highest priority and will not be compromised," the source added.

Since March, there have been more than 1,300 cases of Ebola and 729 deaths in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to the World Health Organization.

The epidemic that has hit major cities and sparked alarm over its possible spread to other continents through air travel.

Emirates does not fly to Liberia or Sierra Leone.

"Our service to Dakar, Senegal, which is linked with Conakry, will not be affected," said the airline spokesperson.

"We will be guided by the updates from international health authorities."

Pan-African airlines Arik and ASKY have halted flights to and from Liberia and Sierra Leone following the death of a Liberian passenger in Lagos a week ago.

Ebola, which has no vaccine, causes severe muscular pains, fever, headaches and, in the worst cases, unstoppable bleeding.

It has killed around two-thirds of those it has infected since its emergence in 1976, although the death rate in the current outbreak is lower, at 55 percent.

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Jetpack Flight Made from Denver Hotel Roof

Harking back to the 1930s when downtown rooftops became runways as major newspapers flew autogyros from the tops of their buildings, Nick Macomber, in partnership with the Smithsonian Channel, made a 30-second jetpack flight from the roof of the Four Seasons Hotel in Denver, Colorado. Dubbed the “Go Fast Jet Pack,” Macomber’s Thursday sunrise flight was just long enough to circle the building and land back on the roof—endurance of most jetpacks is less than a minute due to high fuel consumption and lack of ability to carry much fuel. The Smithsonian Channel is filming a one-hour documentary that explores the past, present and future of jetpacks on land, in space and over water.

Jet Pack International makes two versions of its hydrogen peroxide rocket-powered aircraft, one with a 23-second endurance and one with a 33-second endurance. Pilot Nick Macomber flew the larger one to briefly carry the Olympic flame during the torch relay for the 2012 Olympics. While correctly referred to as rockets, as they carry their own oxidizer, the jetpack name has stuck since they first flew in the late 1950s. Research has been ongoing to find ways to reduce the heat of the exhaust, increase endurance and diminish the risk to the pilot. The Denver flight was a publicity event for the manufacturer and the Smithsonian Channel.

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easyJet adds live Flight Tracking to website

easyJet is adding two new features on easyJet.com. From June, the airline’s lowest fare finder tool will allow customers to see the lowest price fares quickly and easily within the month they wish to travel.

easyJet has also enhanced its Flight Tracker tool through a partnership with popular website Flightradar24. This will enable passengers, friends and relatives to see real time plane movements and progress on a map.

Peter Duffy, easyJet’s Group Commercial Director (Customer, Product & Marketing), commented:

“Our new lowest fare finder will help customers see our range of great value fares in an easy to use graphical format and is another example of how we’re making travel easier.

“Our passengers like to have as much information as possible at their fingertips and we are confident that being able to track your plane in real time, coupled with improvements to our Flight Tracker tool will prove popular with our passengers.”

As well as up to the minute flight times, we connect our Operations Control Centre at Luton directly with customers through blogs and updates appearing in real time on a customer’s device. Flight Tracker is quick, intuitive and accessible from easyJet.com, our mobile website and our iOS & Android apps. The airline has also recently launched push notifications so customers with iOS devices can now receive automated messages related to updates about their flights at key stages and in one swipe can access the relevant page of the app. Over 8.6m million people have downloaded the easyJet app since its launch in December 2011 and the airline continues to invest in mobile technology. easyJet.com is the 3rd most searched for airline website globally and has almost 400million visits per year.

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Flyer takes wrong flight without a boarding pass from Mumbai airport

In a bizarre sequence of events that amounts to a serious breach of security, a 37-year old man who did not have an airline boarding pass managed to clear three security checkpoints and fly from Mumbai to Rajkot on a Jet Airways flight last Friday. The man was supposed to take a flight to Nagpur, but boarded the one to Rajkot, that too after leaving behind his boarding pass at the airport. After he reached Rajkot he realized he had flown to the wrong destination and informed Jet officials. The airline remained clueless till then. The incident brings into question the security arrangements at Mumbai airport made by both by the airline and CISF.

"Jet officials flew him back to Mumbai and put him on another flight to Nagpur. It is a serious breach of security, the kind that one thinks could never happen," said a source.

This man had no business being on the Rajkot flight, but none of the security checks in place zeroed in on him," he added. "We are looking into the matter," said a CISF official. At the time of going to press, Jet was yet to respond.

The incident occurred on April 25 after Liju Verghese landed in Mumbai airport from an international flight. He was booked for an onward journey to Nagpur and was supposed to board the 4.11pm Jet Airways flight 9W 2165. Verghese, who was reportedly in an inebriated state, cleared the CISF security check at domestic terminal 1B of the Mumbai airport. With the security-stamped boarding pass and a handbag, he then proceeded to the security hold area to wait for the boarding announcement. Meanwhile, a boarding call was made for the JetKonnect Mumbai-Rajkot flight 9W 4079 scheduled for a 3.25pm departure from gate number A2 of domestic terminal 1C. The passengers were to board the Rajkot flight using an aerobridge.

That is when things spiralled into a different direction. "The man left behind his handbag, which also contained his boarding pass and for some reason proceeded to board the flight to Rajkot," said a source. First, he managed to walk past Jet's customer service staff entrusted with what's called "passenger reconciliation". It is a mandatory security procedure done to ascertain whether the number of passengers who check in for a given flight is equal to the number of passengers who have boarded the aircraft. The airline staffers manually check the seat numbers on each boarding pass and tally it with the data they gather from their check-in desks.

"That he crossed this security check is surprising. For, this was a passenger who was not supposed to be on that flight and those at this security checkpoint are supposed to spot such cases," said a source. Next, Verghese managed to get past the CISF security personnel who check whether the boarding pass and the tags on the hand baggages of passengers have the CISF's security-cleared stamp. Then, prior to entering the aircraft, Jet's security personnel man the doors to verify whether all passengers are carrying the boarding passes for the right destination, whether their boarding passes and baggage tags carry the CISF security stamp. Verghese crossed that barrier as well.

On entering the aircraft Verghese randomly chose a seat and sat down only to be questioned by a passenger who claimed that seat. "He got up and gave the seat to the said passenger. The flight attendant present in the vicinity did not bother to enquire about Verghese's boarding pass to find out his seat number. He was told to occupy any vacant seat available," said the source.

Lastly, a head count of passengers is supposed to be taken to tally it with the number of passengers entered in what's called a Load and Trim sheet. It is essentially a register of weights and their location inside an aircraft. It carries details like the total number of people onboard, total baggage weight, weight of fuel uploaded, etc. "While a final headcount is judiciously taken on international flights, on many domestic flights the practice is not diligently followed," said an official. Had a headcount been taken, they would have figured out that flight had one unaccounted passenger on board—a very serious situation from the security point of view.

It was after the flight landed and the passenger disembarked and found himself in Rajkot instead of Nagpur that the airline realized what had happened. Meanwhile, the Mumbai-Nagpur flight that he was supposed to board departed, but not before finding out that one passenger who had checked in had not reported for boarding. His check-in bags were removed from the aircraft and left at Mumbai airport for a security check. That was the only thing that went as per the laid-down security norms.

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Teenager survives flight over Pacific in jet wheel well

A 16-year-old boy survived a harrowing trip halfway across the Pacific Ocean Sunday after climbing into the wheel well of a Hawaiian Airlines jet flying from San Jose to Maui, emerging unharmed despite freezing temperatures and a lack of oxygen on a flight that reached an altitude of 38,000 feet, an FBI official said.

“How he survived I don’t know,” said Tom Simon, an FBI spokesman based in Honolulu. “It’s a miracle.”

Security footage from San Jose’s Mineta International Airport verified that the teen, from Santa Clara, Calif., hopped a fence and made his way to Hawaiian Airlines Flight 45, where he manged to climb up the wheel well and stow away without being detected.

“He was unconscious for pretty much the entire flight,” said Simon, noting that temperatures were estimated to have reached 80 degrees below zero during the roughly 5 1/2-hour journey. “I imagine he must have blacked out at about 10,000 feet. The air is pretty thin up there.”

The plane landed at Maui's Kahalui Airport at 10:30 a.m. local time on Sunday, but Simon said the teen did not regain consciousness for another hour. Once he woke up, he hopped down to the tarmac.

Hawaiian Airlines personnel noticed the teen on a ramp and notified security, airline spokeswoman Alison Croyle said in a statement released Sunday night.

“Our primary concern now is the well being of the boy, who is exceptionally lucky to have survived,” the statement said.

Simon said the teen had run away from home. There was no indication that he posed a threat to the airline and he has not been charged with a crime. He cleared a medical checkup and was handed over to officials from the Hawaiian department of child welfare. Officials did not release his name because he is a minor.

Rosemary Barnes, a spokeswoman at the San Jose airport, said the FBI and Transportation Security Administration were investigating how the teen breached security and made it onto the plane, but could provide no further comment.

The teen's case is extreme, but it's not the first time a stowaway has survived a flight in the wheel well of an aircraft. In August of 2013, a teenage boy from Nigeria endured a 35-minute trip in the wheel well of a domestic flight that landed in Lagos. Officials credited the trip's short flight time and relatively low altitude with helping him survive.

On another occassion, a stowaway managed to survive a flight from Havana to Madrid, Spain, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Heat from hydraulic lines in the wheel well along with retained heat in the tires can help keep stowaways warm, the FAA reported. In addition, a plane’s steady climb to high altitudes can allow passengers to drift into an unconscious state as oxygen becomes scarce. As the heat dissipates from the wheel well, a stowaway can develop hypothermia, a condition that preserves the central nervous system. Both hypoxia and hypothermia may resolve as the plane gradually descends for landing, the FAA says.

But things don't always go this smoothly for stowaways. In 2012, the body of a 26-year-old stowaway was found crumpled on a suburban London street. Officials believe he had climbed aboard a British Airways plane in Angola and was either dead or near death as he fell from the wheel well during the plane's descent into Heathrow Airport.

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