A Heathrow bound airliner carrying 232 passengers narrowly avoided a mid-air collision just 4,000ft over London as a business jet was forced to take urgent avoiding action, a report by accident investigators revealed today. The near miss happened when a German-owned Citation 525 business jet passed 100ft to 200ft below the Turkish Airlines' Boeing 777 passenger plane in the skies over the capital, said the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB). The passenger plane had failed to follow commands from three collision-avoidance warnings which alert pilots in the cockpit automatically to danger when aircraft get too close. Investigators  said that if the weather had been bad the Citation would not have been able to see the Boeing and would therefore not have been able to take effective avoiding action. The drama in the skies happened after the business plane was cleared by the air traffic control tower at London City Airport to climb to 3,000ft. But the crew mistook the instruction and stated that the aircraft would be climbing to 4,000ft - a 'readback' error which was not picked up by the London City tower controller. At the same time, the Heathrow-bound passenger jet had been cleared to descend to 4,000ft. It was at this height that it passed the Citation, which had two crew and one passenger aboard. The small German-owned plane was just half a mile away from the jet and only 100ft to 200ft below it. Source : Daily Mail

 Defence giant BAE Systems is to axe more than 900 jobs from its military divisions.

The 946 jobs will go at Military Air Solutions and Insyte (Integrated System Technologies), the group said.

Union officials are warning that the cuts could be the "tip of the iceberg" for the defence industry. They expect the forthcoming strategic defence and security review and the cuts being demanded by the Treasury to spell bad news for the sector. Kevin Taylor, managing director of Military Air Solutions, said job losses were likely in manufacturing, engineering and associated support functions. "These potential job losses result from the impact of the changes in the defence programme announced in December 2009, together with other workload changes," he said. The company said there could be 212 job losses at Brough, in East Yorkshire, 26 at Chadderton, Manchester and 55 within the Harrier team at Farnborough, Hampshire. A further 149 posts would go at Samlesbury, Lancashire with 298 job losses at Warton, Lancashire. The remaining 206 jobs will go at Insyte. Mr Taylor added: "We appreciate this is difficult news and we are committed to working with employees and their representatives to explore ways of mitigating the potential job losses." Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Union general secretary Hugh Scullion said unions were shocked at the scale of the cuts. "Talks will begin locally in the first instance to attempt to mitigate the planned losses and if necessary national negotiations will follow. "The unions will oppose any compulsory redundancies. "With the forthcoming defence review these cuts may be the tip of the iceberg but knee-jerk reactions from employers could make things even worse." View Aviation Job Search latest Military Jobs. Source : Sky News

Airline passengers travelling with bmibaby were wrongly forced to pay £60 fines for their hand luggage because the apparatus used to measure the bags was too small, it has been claimed. Cages used to judge whether cases were small enough to carry on board bmibaby flights were smaller than the acceptable dimensions specified by the airline. The measuring devices at the departure gate were also reportedly smaller than those at the check-in desk, meaning passengers were led to believe their bags were the correct size before being hit with a fine as they boarded their flight.
» Read more: Airline passengers ‘wrongly’ charged for hand luggage

China is checking the qualifications of all its commercial airline pilots, after it emerged that more than 200 of them lied about their experience. The revelation follows an investigation last year by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). Half the airline pilots worked for the parent company of an airline involved in a recent fatal plane crash. Shenzhen Airlines is the parent company of Henan Airlines, whose aircraft crashed last month killing 42 people.
» Read more: Chinese pilots lied about flying records

Irish operator Aer Lingus has reported pre-tax losses of €20.8 million for the first half of the year.

The figures show a significant narrowing in losses for the company from the figure of €81.7 million recorded last year and in fact represents a 74 per cent improvement.

In the second quarter of the year,  the popular Irish airline recorded a pre tax profit of €15.4 million, something which may help raise the prospect of the company breaking even by the turn of the year.

The airline has revealed several factors have helped to benefit its current financial position, including a drop in fuel costs, staff costs and overall operating costs.

Aer Lingus Chief Executive Christoph Mueller is approaching the results with cautious optimism:

"Looking to 2011, it remains too early to provide firm guidance on the group's expected performance.

"Yields and passenger volumes will be dependent on the economic outlook in our main markets which remains uncertain. However, we expect ongoing improvement in our cost base in 2011 as we continue to implement the Greenfield cost reduction programme."

International air authorities have approved expansion work at Manchester Airport which will see the world’s biggest airliner become a regular feature over North West England airspace and the creation of new aviation jobs. A £10M upgrade of facilities and airside infrastructure has made Manchester airport “A380 ready”, in reference to the imminent arrival of the Airbus A380 super-jumbo which will touch down for the first time next month. The approval makes Manchester one of only 17 airports around the world with the capability to accommodate both the A380 and other Code F aircraft such as freight transports. Widened taxi-ways, reinforced pavements and a revamped terminal were all given the green light by the Civil Aviation Authority’s Aerodrome Standards Division, putting Manchester on a par with other international hubs such as Heathrow, Sydney Airport and California’s LAX. Manchester Airport managing director Andrew Cornish said hard work and planning had gone into making Manchester a “Category 10” airport. “A lot of hard work and planning has gone into the arrival from many people across the business and we’re pleased that as an aerodrome we can accept the newest type of aircraft flying today and that Emirates has recognised Manchester as a world class airport,” he said.

Hundreds of pilots could be balloted on strike action as early as this week unless the long-running dispute is resolved, union sources said. The British Airline Pilots’ Association (Balpa) issued a public call for “last ditch” talks to resolve the dispute. It comes on top of months of uncertainty for air travellers amid a long-running dispute between BA and cabin crew over staff benefits which is still ongoing despite a series of rolling strikes earlier this year. The action, coupled with disruption from the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud earlier this year, cost the company £250 million, pushing into the red with a £164 million quarterly loss reported last month. A separate dispute involving staff at the airports operator BAA, which threatened to cripple some of Britain’s busiest airports, was resolved last week. Virgin pilots have been angered by changes to a system which guarantees them 120 days off a year, on top of holiday, in return for routinely working weekends and bank holidays. The union accuses the airline of reneging on an earlier deal and sources said members were “up for” what would be the first strike in the history of the airline which has about 750 pilots. “If it happens it is big news, Virgin will be shut for the first time,” said one source.

A pilot with the RANS Air Brigade has saved his own life in miraculous fashion after his plane fell out of the sky during a flying display in Santa Fe, Argentina.

The accident happened at El Trebol aviation club, where Dino Moline was performing aerobatics, when a wing suddenly broke off and the plane plunged towards the ground.

The 3,000 spectators who had been enjoying the show thought that it was part of the display when Moline managed to activate the ballistic parachute system which is fitted to protect the whole aircraft. The plane fell about 500 metres to the west of the public area and caught fire, three fire crews were on the scene but the pilot got out of the cockpit unaided and unharmed. The announcer at the "Show Aereo 2010" reassured the crowd that the pilot was fine. Three of the aircraft had been prepared to display at the event. On a website, Moline described his shock at the moment the wing fell off like "an explosion". "I don't know what happened to me, I believe that it was metal fatigue and I felt an explosion. I saw a shadow passing to the side of me and it was the wing. So I listened to Cesar (Faristocco) who yelled at me over the radio to deploy the parachute, which I did. "I didn't think of anything, I saw fire inside the plane and I despaired a little. My foot got burned but I'm fine," said Moline on the website. Source : ITN

Start up airline has opted for three Airbus A319s as they begin its launch initial operations.

The company has a business plan to expand its fleet to 20 over a five year period.

Based in Lhasa, the airline has announced it has 'signed a commitment' with Airbus to acquire the three aircraft.

The start up received approval from the CAA in March and will start to run flights from the middle of next year.

Airbus has been working in close conjunction with the company at the new Ali Kunsha Airport in Tibet as they edge closer to a full blown launch.

After a week of cabin crew making headlines for all the wrong reasons, this Lufthansa employee showed that some attendants still take pleasure in their work. In footage captured on a passenger’s mobile phone, she is seen hurling pillows around the cabin after being bombarded by playful French tourists. After one particularly heavy onslaught, the grinning stewardess flees to the safety of the galley, to the cheers and the applause of economy class. Far from condemning the on-board horseplay, the airline paid tribute to the attendant for making the flight from Tel Aviv to Frankfurt more enjoyable for passengers. A Lufthansa spokeswoman told AOL Travel News: "It's an example of passengers enjoying themselves in economy class. And it shows we still offer pillows to our passengers in economy class." Earlier this week a flight attendant for US airline JetBlue appeared in court after deploying the emergency chute following a row with an abusive passenger. Steven Slater, 39, launched a foul-mouthed tirade on the plane's PA system before deploying chute, grabbing a beer and jumping out on to the JFK Airport runway, shouting "That's it, I've had it." He was later arrested and charged with reckless endangerment, criminal mischief and trespassing.