Istanbul Airport under attack - 10 dead

UPDATED NEWS   
Now 44 people dead and 240 injured                     

                             BREAKING NEWS

At least 10 people have been killed and 60 others injured in the attack at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport, Turkey's Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag told CNN.

The two suicide bombers were also killed. Bozdag said one attacker "first opened fire with a Kalashnikov then detonated himself" at the airport entrance.

In total two bombs exploded. One of them was located just outside the terminal on the pavement, the other was at the security gate at the entrance to the airport.

Authorities said no bombs exploded within the airport building itself, according to the minister

A Turkish official told CNN that police fired shots at suspects near the international terminal in an effort to neutralize them.

Videos posted on social media show travelers sitting on the airport floor. A man shouts, "Get down! Get down!" Someone cries as a gunshot rings out.

The U.S. embassy in Ankara, the Turkish capital, is sending consular officers to the airport to account for any potential U.S. victims. But there are no indications of any American casualties at this point, a senior State Department official told CNN's Elise Labott.

The attacks happened on a warm summer night at the airport, east of Istanbul, that is the 11th busiest in the world in terms of passenger traffic. CNN's Ali Veshi says it is a modern, sophisticated airport.

"There are all of the major European and American boutiques there," said Velshi, who has traveled through Turkey many times. "... You see people of all shapes and colors, in all sorts of dress. If you want to target the cosmopolitan nature of Istanbul, this is possibly the most cosmopolitan, heavily populated part.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the immediate families and friends involved; and I sincerely hope the injured recover quickly.

Story sourced from here http://edition.cnn.com/2016/06/28/europe/turkey-istanbul-airport-attacks/index.html

Jin Air commences Seoul to Cairns flights

Cairns Airport is pleased to announce new direct flights from Seoul to Cairns have been secured for the first time with Jin Air.
The seasonal direct flights will commence from December and will provide access for up to 5,000 extra visitors and a year-round service will grow to allow access for up to 41,000 visitors each year.
Cairns Airport General Manager-Aeronautical Janice Antonson welcomed the announcement that Cairns would be the first Australian city on the Jin Air route network.
Cairns is only the third Australian airport to receive direct flights from Korea
“We are so excited that Jin Air have chosen to bring visitors to Queensland via Cairns,” Ms Antonson said.
The new route was secured through Tourism and Events Queensland, Tourism Australia and Cairns Airport. TEQ will work with Jin Air, Tourism Australia, Cairns Airport, Tourism Tropical North Queensland and the tourism industry on marketing activities to support the new route.
The twice weekly, seasonal service will start in December 2016 and go through to February 2017
Cairns will be the second Queensland city with direct connections to South Korea, with Korean Air servicing Brisbane all year-round.”

IATA ICAO Callsign LJ JNA JIN AIR

Jin Air, a low cost carrier of Korean Air, has grown rapidly since its inaugural flight in July 2008. The airline is young and exciting, traits reflected in its uniform of jeans and shirt. Jin Air currently operates flights to 3 domestic cities and 27 international destinations. The carrier launched the first long haul route between Incheon and Honolulu in December 2015 and now serves its customers with a fleet of 17 B737-800 and 3 B777-200ER. All maintenance and trainings are carried out by Korean Air and to better utilize the belly capacity, it has commenced cargo services since November 2013.

The Chinese letter Jin (眞) means truth, contains the will of Jin Air to provide true and sincere service. This Chinese letter is used for the actual company name of Jin Air. The Korean pronunciation of Chinese letter (眞) is similar to that of English ‘jean’ and the uniform of Jin Air is a pair of jeans. Jin Air has been using a pair of jeans as the uniform of cabin crew, cockpit crew and ground personnel from the time the company was established, and is described as the symbol of Jin Air. It has something in common with Jin (眞) in that the intent is to approach customers more intimately by wearing a pair of blue jeans and to offer more active and positive service with the eventual purpose of providing sincere service.

Looks like I will be off to Cairns in December to see this arrive.

Singapore flight catches fire on landing

SINGAPORE B777-312 9V-SWY (CN 42238)                   (File Photo)

Singapore Airlines flight 368, a Boeing 777-300ER Registration 9V-SWB (CN 33377) enroute from Singapore's Changi Airport bound for Milan was forced to turn back after an engine oil warning message, the pilots then declared an emergency. "The pilot informed his passengers that he was going to turn back because the engine is leaking oil on the right side. The captain said that they cannot turn on that side of the engine or else the plane will be vibrating. And they can't fly like this to Milan...That's why they turned back," she said.
The aircraft departed Changi Airport from runway 02C at 2.05am local time on Monday morning and returned 4 hours later touching down at 6.50am local time.
The plane's right engine (number 2 engine) caught fire just after the aircraft touched down at the airport. Firefighters were on the scene immediately and put out the fire.
All 241 people on board were evacuated safely.             

Few more from Brisbane

Finished work a little earlier than normal today so I thought I would spend a few hours at the airport.

RAAF  CHALLENGER CL-604 A37-001 (CN 5521)

SINGAPORE A330-343 9V-STM (CN 1107)

JETSTAR B787-8 VH-VKD (CN 38229)

ROYAL FLYING DOCTOR PILATUS PC 12 VH-NQH (CN 426)

ALLIANCE FOKKER 100 MK 70 VH-QQX (CN 11571)

TOLL B737-476 ZK-TJQ (CN 24442)

QANTAS LINK B717-200 VH-NXK (CN 55092)

QANTAS (RETRO) B737-838 VH-XZP (CN 44577)

QANTAS B737-838 VH-XZJ (CN 39365)

MENDOOWOORRJI LIVERY

EURO ATLANTIC  B767-36N CS-TKR (CN 30854)

BEING USED BY AIR NIUGINI

CORPORATE AIR SAAB 340B VH-VEM (CN 340B-364)

JETSTAR A 320-232 VH-VFU (CN 5814)

QANTAS B737-838 VH-VXA (CN 29551)

ETIHAD B787-9 A6-BLC (CN 39648)

BRISBANE CITY

AIR NEW ZEALAND A320-232 ZK-OJI (CN 2297)

JETSTAR B787-8 VH-VKD (CN 38229)

JETSTAR 787 DEPARTING

AIR VANUATU B737-8SH YJ-AV8 (CN 42052)

Then on the way home I thought I would stop off at a place called Kangaroo Point and get a photo of the city lights.

You call the Antonov a plane?... This is a plane

The Stratolaunch, backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, will be the largest plane ever built: and it is getting closer to reality.

Bigger than the Antonov An-225 — which captivated Perth during its visit last month — the Stratolaunch has a huge wingspan of 117m, has six engines and weighs 544 tonne. Currently being constructed in a hanger in California, the plane is set to take off early next year and eventually help launch satellites and spacecraft into orbit from an altitude of 30,000 feet. International journalists were given a sneak peak at the construction of the plane which is part of a wider business plan from Mr Allen to sell internet access, imagery and climate data from the network of low-orbit satellites. Like the Antonov, which was originally built to transport the Buran space shuttle, the Stratolaunch will be mainly focused on launching equipment and not on passenger space travel currently being explored by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic and Tesla founder Elon Musk's SpaceX. It is hoped the plane, which has a maximum speed of 850km/h — slower than a Airbus A380 which has a maximum speed of 1020km/h — will being commercial operation in 2020.
In 2011 the cost of the project was predicted to be $400 million, though the end price tag is believed the be well above that mark.

Kiwi Regional Airlines calls it quits less than a year of operations

IATA ICAO Callsign KRL REGIONAL

One of New Zealand’s most established airlines has announced that it has purchased Kiwi Regional Airlines’ only SAAB 340A aircraft and will absorb the aircraft and offer employment to the majority of Kiwi Regional Airlines full time staff; and absorb them into its operations from the start of August 2016.
Air Chathams (IATA - CV:  ICAO - CVA:  Callsign - Chatham) has been in existence for over 30 years, and runs a 5-aircraft operation with scheduled services between the Chathams Islands and Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch as well as a regular scheduled service between Whakatane and Auckland.
It has previously announced it would fill the gap left by Air New Zealand’s withdrawal of services between Whanganui and Auckland, starting on August 1, 2016. It had planned to use an 18-seat Metroliner, but will now use Kiwi Regional’s 34-seat SAAB 340A on this route.

Kiwi Regional Airlines is an airline based in Hamilton, New Zealand. It was founded in 2014 by local businessman Ewan Wilson and commenced operations on 27 October 2015. The airline operated a single Saab 340A aircraft. The initial destinations served were Hamilton, Nelson, Dunedin and Queenstown

Kiwi Regional will continue to run its scheduled services until July 30, 2016, and will then run the Whanganui to Auckland service for Air Chathams using Kiwi Regional’s Air Operating Certificate until Air Chathams can move the aircraft onto its own AOC.
Kiwi Regional Airlines passengers booked on flights after midday on July 30 will receive full refunds, or be offered alternative travel on flights before that date. All of Kiwi Regional Airlines’ charters flights with school groups in August and September will still operate.

X-MEN on the Gold Coast

There are a number of aircraft I have in my alerts so I am aware of when they come to Brisbane or Coolangatta; last night I got an alert for the Air Asia X A330 9M-XXU sporting the X-MEN livery.
So this morning I headed off for the 86klm (53 miles) 55 minute trek down to Coolangatta (OOL- YBCG). I also got a bonus in the way of a Jetstar A320 sporting another special livery and that was "Tokyo to the Gold Coast"

AIR NEW ZEALAND A320-232 ZK-OJC (CN 2112)

VIRGIN AUSTRALIA B737-8FE VH-VUJ (CN 34443)

JETSTAR A320-232 VH-VQK (CN 2651)

                                 SCOOT 787-9 9V-OJC (CN 37114)

STOCK AIR HELIWORKS ROBINSON R44 II  VH-VVW (CN 11856)

ALPHA BRAVO SUPER CESSNA 172N VH-KZG (CN 17273678)

TIGERAIR A320-232 VH-VND (CN 3296)

JETSTAR A320-232 VH-VFU (CN 5814)

AIR ASIA X A330-343 9M-XXU (CN 1581)

AIR GOLD COAST BEECH 76 VH-ZUA (CN M-351)

EgyptAir black boxes found but badly damaged

The voice and data recorders from the EgyptAir plane that crashed into the Mediterranean nearly a month ago are "extensively damaged" and will need repairs before they can be analysed.
Dampening hopes for quick answers as to what caused the disaster, an Egyptian official didn't elaborate on how long the repairs would take but said if this cannot be done in Egypt, the boxes would be sent abroad.
With the flight's wreckage 3,000 metres under water, the cockpit voice and flight data recorders are vital for piecing together the last moments of the flight, which plunged into the sea between the Greek island of Crete and the Egyptian port city of Alexandria on May 19, killing all 66 on board.
Earlier in the day, Egypt's investigation commission said the flight data recorder had been pulled out of the sea, a day after the cockpit voice recorder was also recovered.

The memory units inside the recorders can provide key data, including the last conversations inside the cockpit, information about auto-pilot mode or even smoke alarms.

They might also give answers to why the pilot made no distress call before the crash.

Experts say the data, combined with previously obtained satellite and radar images, debris analysis, the plane history and the pilots' records, can shed light on the most possible scenarios.

The cause of the crash of the Airbus A320 has not been determined and no militant group has claimed bringing down the aircraft.

Both France and the United States are sending investigators to Cairo to help with the probe.

EgyptAir Flight 804 en route to Cairo from Paris disappeared May 19 from radar at about 2:45 a.m local time, just as it had entered Egyptian airspace.

Radar data showed the aircraft had made violent moves after cruising normally in clear skies, plummeting from 11,582 metres to 4,572 metres and disappearing when it was at an altitude of about 3,048 metres.

Egypt's civil aviation minister, Sherif Fathi, has said terrorism is a more probable cause than equipment failure or some other catastrophic event.

Story sourced from here
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/world/egyptair-black-boxes-badly-damaged

Qantas set to be world's "longest range" airline.

QANTAS B737-838 VH-VXQ (CN 33723)                   (File Photo)

Qantas will enter the growing field of the ultra-long range operators when it takes delivery of its first Boeing 787-9 late next year. At the IATA AGM in Dublin the airline’s CEO Alan Joyce told AirlineRatings.com that airline is looking at “London-Perth, Sydney-Chicago and Melbourne-Dallas” as the initial routes for the 787. The airline will shortly enter into discussions with the relevant state governments and airport on support packages for its planned ultra-long-range flights.

Both Sydney and Melbourne airports and their respective state governments have proved aggressive competitors in seeking new airlines and new routes to bolster tourism and business. Qantas is also looking to make Perth a hub for non-stop operations to London drawing traffic from Adelaide and possibly Melbourne with a tight turnaround in Perth. The Qantas 787-9 will have three cabins – business, premium economy and economy.

It is likely that the business class will be modelled on the airline's very successful business class suites on its A330s. Mr Gareth Evans chief executive of Qantas International said that the 787 would be “very much a premium aircraft” for the long routes. 

Qantas' order is for 8  Boeing 787-9s, with 45 options and purchase rights with the first four to be delivered in FY18 and the balance in the following year. Mr Joyce also said that the airline was looking at the 777X series as well as long range variants of the A350-900.

- See more at: http://www.airlineratings.com/news/698/qantas-to-launch-the-worlds-longest-air-routes#sthash.mKOeXjPy.dpuf