Thousands Of Passengers Affected By Discovery

The Japanese air travel industry took a hit Monday after Japan Air System cancelled 120 domestic flights affecting 7,000 passengers after discovering cracks in engine parts from at least seven McDonnell Douglas aircraft. This discovery came after Asia's top carrier -- Japan Airlines System (JAS)-- reported engine troubles on January 6 and 7 with two of their MD-80 and MD-87 jets (MD-80 file photo above). When Pratt and Whitney was asked to check the engine parts for deficiencies, engineers discovered several cracks in engine compressors from the two aircraft. JAS followed with its own investigation on engine parts used in six other McDonnell Douglas jets and found the same type of cracks in those aircraft. The disco

Carrier Claims Incidents Were Unrelated

A British Airways (BA) flight from Miami to London was the scene of two unrelated deaths, which caused the diversion of the aircraft on its way to London's Heathrow airport. BA flight 208 was heavily delayed after a female passenger suffered what appeared to be a fatal heart attack, prompting an unscheduled stop in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Unfortunately, paramedics were unable to save her. After the flight had resumed, crew members were forced to deal with another death, this time in the rear of the aircraft, as a male traveler passed away of suspected meningitis. Witnesses said the rear portion of the plane was curtained off before other passengers learned of the male passenger's death.  

Galley Smell Spoils Pax Appetite

Fumes overtook some passengers and crew onboard a brand-new Qantas jet on Sunday night. The seven crew members and two passengers were in a stable condition after suffering nausea-like symptoms from fumes on a scheduled Melbourne to Perth flight. While airline food -- a rare commodity these days -- can be a sickening sight at times, this particular incident is attributed to fumes coming from the jet's galley. The pilot of the Airbus A330-300, which only began operating for Qantas early last month, opted to make an emergency landing in Adelaide about 1005 CDT. Ambulance and fire crews awaited the emergency landing at the airport with medical staff rushing nine people to the Royal Adelaide Hospital. A hospital spokesman said the nine pass

Travelers, Airports Hit Hard

Monday was a bad day to fly in or out of Italy, as the country's national airline -- Alitalia  -- cancelled 364 flights in response to a devastating worker strike. The airline expected about 18,000 passengers to face travel disruptions as a result of the one-day walk-out protesting job losses.The debate stems from Alitalia's management proposal to cut 2,700 jobs to help reduce the state-run airline's financial woes. Company officials also claim the move will help prepare for its transformation to a private operation.Obviously, the unions don't agree with this cost-cutting plan. As a result of the disagreements and subsequent one-day strike, which called an 8-hour stoppage between 0900 and 1700 GMT on Monday, check-in counters at R

Air France has selected Evans & Sutherland's EP-1000CT visual system to upgrade one of its A320 simulators. The upgrade also includes new E&S ESCP-2000 projectors and a new 180-degree by 40-degree field of view display system. This represents the first EP-1000CT system for Air France; the airline has purchased five E&S ESIG image generators over the past five years. The EP-1000CT was selected following a rigorous and competitive evaluation process. "When you find a supplier that can demonstrate its technological capabilities, it makes the decision process much easier," said Serge Gourlaouen of Air France. "The competition was very tough this time because we were evaluating new technology from visual system suppliers. We concluded that E&S offered the best com