Iran admits to "Unintentionally" shooting down a Ukrainian jet

Iran has now admitted "unintentionally" shooting down a Ukrainian passenger jet, killing all 176 people on board a few days ago. An investigation found "missiles were fired due to human error", President Hassan Rouhani said. He described the crash as an "unforgivable mistake".

The military said the jet turned towards a sensitive site belonging to Iran's Revolutionary Guards and was then mistaken for a cruise missile. Iran had previously rejected suggestions that it was to blame. The downing of Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 on Wednesday came just hours after Iran carried out missile strikes on two airbases housing US forces in Iraq. The strikes were a response to the killing of senior Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani in a US drone strike in Baghdad on the 3rd January. Iran initially denied reports that one of its missiles had brought down the Ukrainian plane near the capital, Tehran. But pressure quickly mounted after Western intelligence officials said evidence pointed to Iranian involvement.

The Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) flight crashed shortly after taking off from the Iranian capital Tehran on Wednesday, killing all 176 passengers and crew members on board. It came in the midst of escalating tensions between the US and Iran. After days of denial - and mounting evidence -  Iran admitted it had shot the Boeing plane down "unintentionally".

Here is what is know.
On the 8th January, at 06:12 local time (02:42 GMT), UIA flight PS752 took off from Imam Khomeini International Airport. The plane was a Boeing 737-800. Before it had left the airport's air space, the plane appeared to turn around and try to return to the runway. Shortly afterwards, it crashed.  The aircraft's "black boxes", which record flight data and sound within the cockpit, were recovered from the wreckage.  But there have also been reports that bulldozers were sent to the crash site before international investigators had arrived, prompting speculation that evidence was being destroyed.  The government in Tehran initially said the UIA plane suffered a technical problem shortly after take-off. It cited witnesses including the crew of another passenger plane who said it was on fire prior to impact. Authorities said they lost radar contact when the plane was at an altitude of about 8,000ft (2,400m), minutes after taking off. It has also been reported that  no radio distress call was made by the pilots.
All 176 passengers and crew were killed, including 57 Canadian citizens. The plane was bound for the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and many on board had a connecting flight to Toronto, Canada's largest city and a transit hub. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that, 138 people on that flight were en route to Canada. Canada is home to a large Iranian diaspora, with some 210,000 citizens of Iranian descent, according to the latest federal census. The country is also a popular destination for Iranian graduate and postdoctoral students to study and conduct research abroad, which is why many students were on the flight, returning to university following the winter break.


Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends and to the staff of Ukraine International

Airlines avoid airspace over Iraq, Iran

Several major airlines are re-routing flights to avoid airspace over Iraq and Iran after the Federal Aviation Administration banned US carriers from the area following an Iranian missile attack on US-led forces in Iraq. Iran fired more than a dozen ballistic missiles from its territory at at least two Iraqi military bases hosting US-led coalition personnel early on Wednesday, the US military said.The FAA said it issued the airspace ban, which also includes the Gulf of Oman and the waters between Iran and Saudi Arabia, "due to heightened military activities and increased political tensions in the Middle East, which present an inadvertent risk to US civil aviation operations." Several non-US airlines had flights over parts of Iraq and Iran at the time, according to FlightRadar24 data. They are not directly affected by the FAA ban, but foreign carriers and their national regulators typically consider US advice carefully when deciding where to fly. Before the latest guidance, the FAA had already prohibited US carriers from flying below 26,000 feet over Iraq and from flying over an area of Iranian airspace above the Gulf and Gulf of Oman since Iran shot down a high-altitude US drone last June. Carriers are increasingly taking steps to limit threats to their planes after Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down in 2014 by a missile over Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board. Re-routing around conflict airspace adds to flight times and burns extra fuel. Transport Canada said it was in close contact with the FAA about the situation in the Middle East and that Air Canada was altering its routes. India's aviation regulator has not issued formal instructions to airlines yet but has held meetings with those concerned and advised them to remain vigilant and take precautions, an official said. Singapore Airlines Ltd said after the attacks that all of its flights would be diverted from Iranian airspace. Malaysia Airlines said it did not fly over Iraqi airspace and would re-route to avoid Iran as a result of the attack. Taiwan's China Airlines said it would not fly over Iran or Iraq because of the tension. Australia's Qantas Airways Ltd said it was adjusting flight paths to avoid airspace over Iraq and Iran until further notice, adding up to 50 minutes to Perth-London flights and requiring it to reduce passenger numbers to carry the necessary fuel. Dubai-based Emirates Airline and flyduabi each cancelled a return flight to Baghdad on Wednesday after Iran's missile attack and said it would make further operational changes if required. Qatar Airways said its flights to Iraq were operating normally. Korean Air Lines Co Ltd and Thai Airways said they had been avoiding Iranian and Iraqi airspace before the attack on US troops. Airlines and the UN aviation agency have started to monitor strategic airspace over Iran and Iraq. With some commercial carriers still serving those countries and others flying over their airspace, the International Air Transport Association also issued a statement reminding countries of their obligation to communicate potential risks to civil aviation.

Full story sourced from here
7news.com.au
Credit to David Shepardson and Allison Lampert • AAP

Passenger plane crashes in Iran killing all aboard

A Ukrainian airline travelling from Tehran-Imam Khomeini International Airport (IKA/OIIE) to Kiev-Borispol Airport (KBP/UKBB) with 176 people has crashed minutes after take-off from Tehran killing all on board. Iranian state television said the crash was still unknown but they think it is due to technical problems. The plane was operated by Ukraine International Airline and was leaving Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport. In a phone interview with the heads of the Civil Aviation and Emergency Management in Iran, state TV reported that the crash site was in Shahriar, near Tehran. Emergency services said the fire at the crash site was so intense that they had to halt rescue efforts. The cause of the crash was not immediately known but Fars reported that the jet crashed due to technical problems after taking off from the Imam Khomeini international airport in Tehran, but it didn’t provide any additional detail. The Federal Aviation Administration did not immediately confirm the crash. The airline did not immediately respond to a request for comment and more information. Ukraine International says it has 42 planes in its fleet and operates 1,110 flights a week. “We are aware of the media reports of out Iran and we are gathering more information,” Boeing said in a statement.
The flight took off from runway 29R at 02:41 UTC (06:11 LT), with a delay of about one hour. The aircraft's ADS-B data as recorded by flight tracking websites Flightradar24 and Flightaware stop at 02:44 UTC at an altitude of about 7900 feet at a position about 20 km west-northwest of the airport. The aircraft is said to have crashed minutes later near Shahriar, 15 km north of the airport.
Ukraine took delivery of this aircraft on the 19th July 2016


Below is a Press Release of Ukraine International Airlines

CAO Iran released a.o. the following preliminary information:
- After takeoff the flight was cleared to climb to FL260 and instructed to contact Mehrabad ATC
- Radar contact was lost at 8000 feet
- Crash occurred at 06:18
- Impact occurred in a park and the aircraft disintegrated along a forward trajectory
- An eyewitness on the ground and another flight crew reported a fire on the airctaft
- The direction of ground impact indicates that the plane was on its way back to the airport
- CVR and FDR have been found; outer casing has impact and fire damage
- CAO Iran sent formal notification per ICAO Annex 13 to Ukraine (country of registration), USA (country of manufacture), Sweden and Canada (passengers of those countries were on board)
- CAO Iran invited per ICAO Annex 13 the authorities of these countries as party in the investigation
- A special working group on the investigation team will focus on explosives




Aircraft Information:
Airline: Ukraine International
Code: PS/AUI
Flight Number PS752
Aircraft: Boeing 737-8KV (WL)
Registration: UR-PSR
Serial Number: 38124 / 5977
Engines: 2 CFMI CFM56-7B24E
First Flew: 21/06/2016


Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends and to the staff of Ukraine International

UK woman jailed after drunken mile-high tantrum

A British passenger who launched a wild drunken rant, headbutting a medic and repeatedly inviting men to join the mile-high club, has been jailed for six months. Demi Burton, 20, attacked passengers and cabin crew on a flight from Abu Dhabi to Manchester when she was refused alcohol, and had to be restrained by six people. She had been making her way back to the UK after a three-month holiday in Australia. The medic who was headbutted told a court Burton's mid-air meltdown on the Etihad flight, Abu Dhabi's national carrier, was "worse than anything he'd seen in an A&E".
Burton boarded the jet intoxicated and turned feral when cabin crew refused to serve her more red wine. A court heard how she propositioned men to join the mile-high club, and kicked and bit cabin crew who tried to hold her down while the plane cruising around 9000 metres.(29,500 feet)
Burton was arrested when the plane landed. She claimed she had been drinking on the May 9 flight because she had a deep fear of flying. The judge jailed Burton for six months after she admitted being drunk on an aircraft and five charges of assault. A prosecuting lawyer told the court Burton appeared drunk before the flight and she started making a number of inappropriate sexual comments to a number of male passengers on the flight. "Two in particular remember hearing comments and at first they laughed it off but it then became more and more increasingly inappropriate and she asked them to join the mile high club. "Both tried to end conversation with her but she carried on. "One said he felt quite shocked by her comments and people around her started to ask her to be quiet as others could hear." Stewardess Fouzia Naim said it was a "stressful" situation. "It's not acceptable for crew members to be treated this way and not fair on the other passengers to witness things like this," Ms Naim said. "As a result of her being verbally abusive towards me and assaulting, I couldn't eat or drink anything whilst the flight was ongoing." Sentencing her, judge John Edwards called Burton's behaviour "unpleasant, violent and persistent" over a lengthy period. "Good order on any flight - in particular a long distance one - is essential and those who undermine that put that at risk by behaving in such crass way."

Full story sourced from here
https://www.9news.com.au/world/british-passenger-mile-high-club-drunk-attack-on-etihad-flight-jailed/791a06d2-280e-49d3-af93-40a07d999b7b

Australia is Burning

I am 57 Yrs old, I grew up in Hobart Tasmania and moved to Queensland when I was 31 and I have lived in Australia all my life. Every summer (December to February) Australia have fires but we have never experienced anything like this.

Australia is facing an unprecedented national crisis, bushfires are tearing through rural communities across the nation. Since September the fires have burnt an estimated 6,300,000 hectares (16,000,000 acres; 63,000 km2; 24,000 sq mi), destroyed over 2,500 buildings (including over 1,300 houses) and killed 25 people as of the 5th January 2020, with a further six missing in the state of Victoria. To put that into perspective, the 2019 Amazon rainforest fires burned more than 900,000 hectares (about 2.22 million acres). In California, which is known for its deadly wildfires, just over 100,000 hectares (247,000 acres) burned in 2019, and about 1,800,000 hectares (4.47 million acres) in 2018.

 The bushfires here are regarded as one of the worst bushfire seasons in memory. The scale of the threat is immense, and fires continue to burn, with authorities calling for people to evacuate their homes as the country braces for another weekend of catastrophic danger. Australians caught up in the crisis are taking to social media and pleading for help. Entire towns have been flattened as fires snake through bushland, across highways, jump over rivers and climb up mountains. In New South Wales and Victoria, the most populous states in the country, people tried to outrun the blaze and highways were clogged with cars. In major cities, such as Sydney and Melbourne, a dense smoke has descended over the metropolitan areas like a blanket. Some regions of the country recorded air quality measurements 20 times above the hazardous level. Canberra, the nations capital, recorded an air quality reading of 913.

Looking out my window just now the sky is full of smoke and the sun is orange, but although we are ok here in Brisbane, the situation is extremely grim down south. Australians are exhausted, frustrated and frightened. Many have had to flee their homes not knowing if they will be there when they return.. With fire conditions predicted to get worse in the coming days, help is desperately required. Yesterday the Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced 3,000 Australian Defence Force reservists would be deployed to fire recovery efforts across the nation.

A fire tracker map maintained by researchers in Western Australia shows fires burning across the country, with fires raging on the southeast coast of Victoria.

Wildfires burning across Australia on Jan. 3, 2020.

Landgate's MyFireWatch

Ecologists at the University of Sydney believe that an estimated 480 million mammals, birds, and reptiles have died in the bushfires, which have been burning across Australia since September. Eight thousand of the animals deaths are believed to be koalas, that's around 30% of the Koala population.


Why are the fires so bad?
Fire season in Australia is always dangerous but conditions have been unusually severe this year, fanning the flames and making firefighting conditions particularly difficult. Australia is experiencing one of its worst droughts in decades -- the country's Bureau of Meteorology said in December that last spring was the driest on record. Meanwhile, a heatwave in December broke the record for highest nationwide average temperature, with some places sweltering under temperatures well above 40 degrees Celsius (about 113-120 degrees Fahrenheit). Strong winds have also made the fires and smoke spread more rapidly, and have led to fatalities -- a 28-year-old volunteer firefighter died in NSW in December after his truck rolled over in high winds. On New Year's Day 2020 a blanket of smoke from the Australian fires covered the whole South Island of New Zealand, giving the sky an orange-yellow haze. People in Dunedin also reported smelling smoke in the air. I have seen images of ash settling on the snow peaks in and around Queenstown New Zealand. There are over 2,300 firefighters working on the ground in New South Wales alone, and more support is on the way -- the US, Canada, and New Zealand have sent additional firefighters to help. As I was researching just now I read the USA and Canada are sending more firefighters, more equipment and a disaster team and will arrive in the next day or so.

My thoughts and thanks go out to everyone who are putting their lives on the line to save this country of ours. How can you possibly thank someone who is so selfless, someone who has given up their own time, left their homes, their jobs and most importantly their families to fight on the front line to keep us safe. They fight night and day and have never given up. Words cannot explain the pride and gratitude we have for you all. Please stay safe and lets hope you can all go home to your families very soon. Then there are the volunteers who are feeding them and keeping them hydrated and safe, the volunteers who are rescuing injured and frightened animals. To you all we say "THANK YOU"

Brisbane Spotting

Its been so long since I have been spotting at Brisbane Airport, so this morning I headed out for a few hours.

QANTAS B737-838 VH-VZT (CN 34186) OCT 2011
QF134 ARRIVING FROM CHRISTCHURCH

QANTAS B787-9 VH-ZNE (CN 63391) JUN 2018
QF16 ARRIVING FROM LOS ANGELES

QANTASLINK B717-2BL VH-YQV (CN 55193) FEB 2006
QF1562 ARRIVING FROM CANBERRA

VIRGIN AUSTRALIA B737-7FE VH-VBZ (CN 34322) AUG 2005
VA909 ARRIVING FROM SYDNEY

JETSTAR A320-232 VH-VGN (4434) AUG 2010
JQ810 ARRIVING FROM SYDNEY

TIGERAIR A320-232 VH-VNR (CN 5900) NOV 2013
TT352 ARRIVING FROM SYDNEY

QANTASLINK B717-23S VH-NXE (CN 55063) AUG 2000
QF1797 ARRIVING FROM TOWNSVILLE



QANTASLINK DASH 8 Q400 VH-LQH (CN 4431) NOV 2011
QF2420 ARRIVING FROM NEWCASTLE

TIGERAIR B737-8FE VH-YVA (CN 40995) JUN 2011
TT514 ARRIVING FROM MELBOURNE

CHINA EASTERN A330-243 B-5941 (CN 1484) DEC 2013
MU715 ARRIVING FROM SHANGHAI

JETSTAR A321-231 VH-VWW (CN 3916) MAY 2009
JQ560 ARRIVING FROM MELBOURNE

CHINA SOUTHERN A350-941 B-309W (CN 334) JUL 2019
CZ381 ARRIVING FROM GUANGZHOU

CATHAY PACIFIC A330-343 B-LAK (CN 1196) JAN 2011
CX155 ARRIVING FROM HONG KONG

AIR CANADA B787-8 C-GHPX (CN 35261) OCT 2014
AC35 ARRIVING FROM VANCOUVER

MALAYSIA A330-323 9M-MTM (CN 1431) MAY 2013
MH135 ARRIVING FROM KUALA LUMPUR

MALINDO B737-8GP 9M-LNV (CN 39867) OCT 2015
FJ921 ARRIVING FROM NADI
MALINDO FLYING FOR FIJI AIRWAYS

AIR NIUGINI B767-383 P2-PXW (CN 25365) SEP 1991
PX3 ARRIVING FROM PORT MORESBY

AIR NEW ZEALAND B787-9 ZK-NZQ (CN 39296) SEP 2018
NZ135 ARRIVING FROM AUCKLAND

PHILIPPINE A321-271 RP-C9935 (CN 8568) NOV 2018
PR221 ARRIVING FROM MANILA

E V A AIR B787-10 B-17803 (CN 63511) AUG 2019
BR315 ARRIVING FROM TAIPEI

AUSTRALIAN CORPORATE JET BOMBARDIER CHALLENGER 604
VH-SCR (CN 5557) FEB 2018

SINGAPORE A380-841 9V-SKK (CN 051)
SQ286 AUCKLAND - SINGAPORE

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Not only has another year come to an end but so has another decade.
As we welcome in a New Year I would like to wish you all a safe happy New Year. I wish you all good health, good luck and happiness. Life’s not about expecting, hoping and wishing, it’s about doing, being and becoming.


“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re doing something.” —Neil Gaiman