Malaysian Ailines 777 missing and reported crash into the sea.

Vietnam Navy says Malaysian plane crashed into the sea

#PrayForMH370

6.21 pm: Vietnam Navy says Malaysian Airlines crashed off southern coast The Vietnam navy says that the Malaysian Airlines plane with 5 India passengers on board crashed into the South China Sea. However, the Malaysian officials have said are still not aware of the location of the crash.

6.12 pm: Oil slicks suspected to be from Malaysian Airlines found Reports suggest that Vietnam air force planes have found two oil slicks suspected to be from the missing Malaysian jetliner.

5.18 pm: Malaysian Airlines releases identities of Indian passengers Five Indians, including three from one family, and an Indian-origin Canadian were among the 239 people on board the Beijing-bound Malaysian Airlines plane that went missing and is presumed to have crashed today. The five have been identified as Chetna Kolekar, Swanand Kolekar, Suresh Kolekar, Chandrika Sharma and Prahlad Shirsatha, Indian Embassy in Beijing said. One Indian-origin Canadian Muktesh Mukherjee was also on board the flight. Other details of the Indians on board were not immediately available.



4:00 pm: Malaysia Airline say there's still no luck in locating the aircraft In a brief statement on Twitter, Malaysia Airlines said that they still have no information about the missing aircraft: We understand everyone's concern on MH370 pax & crew. We're accelerating every effort with all relevant authorities to locate the aircraft.

2:15 pm: Airline says still no clue about missing aircraft Malaysia Airlines has issued a new statement in which it has said that it has still been unable to locate the missing flight MH370. "We are still trying to locate the current location of the flight based on the last known position of the aircraft.

We are working with the International search and rescue teams in trying to locate the aircraft. So far, we have not received any emergency signals or distress messages from MH370. We are working with authorities and assure that all sources are deployed to assist with the search and rescue mission," the airline said. Malaysia Airlines also clarified that the error in the nationalities of the passengers had resulted in the airline initially not mentioning that five Indians were missing. "Please take note that the earlier statement did not include the number of Indian nationals. This was due to confusion between the country code of Indonesia and India," the airline said. The airline said it wouldn't release the names of the passengers until they had made contact with the relatives of all the missing passengers. 1:20 pm: Malaysia says it is confirming with Vietnam navy about crash The Star Online reports that the Malaysian Navy is presently talking with the Vietnamese Navy to verify the report of its flight to Beijing having crashed. The report quoted the Malaysian defence minister as saying that they have no verification of the wreckage presently.

12:25 pm: Five Indians on board missing Malaysia Airlines flight Malaysia Airlines says 5 Indians on board missing flight to Beijing. While it was initially stated that there were no Indians on board, Malaysia Airlines has amended the list to state that there were five Indians among the crew and passengers of the airline. AFP quotes Faridah Shuib, a spokeswoman for the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency as saying that Malaysian authorities have dispatched a plane, two helicopters and four vessels to search seas off its east coast in the South China Sea. The Philippines says it is sending three navy patrol boats and a surveillance plane to help efforts. 12:15 pm: Malaysia Airlines says they have no information on flight yet In a brief statement that the airline has issued, it said that it has not received any confirmation on the fact that the flight has crashed. "We are currently working with international authorities on the search and rescue mission and as at 1400 hours (1130 IST), 08 March 2014, we have no information on the location of the airline," Malaysia Airlines said in its statement.

11:35 am: Details about crash very unclear presently Reuters quoted Admiral Ngo Van Phat telling the website of official news site Tuoi Tre said, "At the moment there are no Vietnamese navy boats in that area so we have to ask boats from Phu Quoc island to be prepared for rescue." Tho Chu and Phu Quoc lie to the southwest of southern Vietnam. Reuters reports it was not immediately clear how the Admiral knew where the plane had crashed or whether wreckage had been spotted. The plane last had contact with air traffic controllers 120 nautical miles off the east coast of the Malaysian town of Kota Bharu, Malaysia Airlines had said.

Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/world/live-vietnam-navy-says-malaysian-plane-crashed-into-the-sea-1424627.html?utm_source=ref_article
Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/world/live-vietnam-navy-says-malaysian-plane-crashed-into-the-sea-1424627.html?utm_source=ref_article

British Airways puts Austin in the Transatlantic Flight Map.

AUSTIN, Texas, March 3, 2014 . British Airways launched its inaugural flight between Austin, Texas and London, England.  This marks the first regular transatlantic nonstop service for the city of Austin.  The inaugural flight into Austin Bergstrom International Airport will be met by Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell and British Airways EVP Americas Sean Doyle.

For this much anticipated route, British Airways will operate one of the newest aircraft in its fleet, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner.  The service will be available five days a week, increasing to daily flights in May.  The first flight is perfectly timed to help accommodate travelers from Europe heading to the international South by Southwest Conferences and Festivals.

The new aircraft features three cabins: Club World (business class), World Traveller Plus (premium economy) and World Traveller (economy).  The cabins feature stylish new interiors with state-of-the-art entertainment systems.  British Airways provides meals, snacks and beverages, including full-service bar for free.  Customers can also benefit from a generous baggage allowance.

"British Airways sees a great opportunity to make a connection between the vibrant cities of London and Austin," said Sean Doyle, EVP Americas, British Airways.  "Both cities have rich histories, brilliant arts and music scenes, and bright futures.  Equally important, today's flight connects Austin, primed for innovation and entrepreneurship, to London, Europe and beyond."



"As the Mayor of Austin and a former pilot, I am excited to have British Airways, one of the world's foremost carriers, create this trans-Atlantic link.  This first time, nonstop service between ABIA and Heathrow Airport is sure to take our cities to new levels for both business and vacation travelers," said Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell.  "We look forward to a great and growing relationship between Austin, British Airways, and London."

"Boeing is proud of its partnership with British Airways," said Boeing Sales Director David Longridge.  "The airline continues to use the 787 Dreamliner to link passengers to new destinations and also makes sure they travel in comfort.  This new route offers travelers from Heathrow a new non-stop adventure that begins when they step on board the Dreamliner, and a chance to explore new horizons."

The new route marks British Airways' third destination in Texas, with the airline also serving Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth.  Business and leisure travelers will fly into the modern Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport with fast connections to the city or easy transfer to onward destinations in Europe, Asia and Africa.  American Airlines customers will be able to 'earn and burn' frequent flier miles on the new service as part of the joint business agreement between the two airlines.

About British Airways
British Airways, part of International Airlines Group, is one of the world's leading global premium airlines and the largest international carrier in the UK.  The carrier has its home base at London Heathrow, the world's busiest international airport and flies to more than 70 different countries.  In 2012 the airline carried more than 37 million customers.  The airline currently has a fleet of more than 270 aircraft.  For more information visit www.ba.com

About Austin-Bergstrom International Airport 

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport served a record 9.4 million passengers in 2012 and traffic has increased 6% year-to-date.  Austin's airport has nonstop service to 41 destinations and is home to 13 airline carriers.  Austin-Bergstrom generates a $2.4 billion economic impact to the Austin area annually and is entirely self-sustaining, generating its own revenue to cover its operating costs.  For more information, visit http://www.austintexas.gov/airport.

From : AviationPros.com

Garuda Indonesia to order Boeing 787, Airbus A350 or Boeing 777X

Garuda Indonesia has a tough decition on the next generation of its international fleet by 2014, players are  the Boeing 787, Airbus A350 and Boeing 777X.

“We are looking at the Dreamliner compared to the (Airbus) A350, and we are looking at the A350-1000 compared to the Boeing 777X” Garuda Indonesia CEO Emirsyah Satar told journalists at a press briefing in Bali, ahead of the airline’s entry into the SkyTeam alliance tomorrow.

Garuda’s fleet is about to reach 194 aircraft by 2015, and Satar says total aircraft orders of  200 in the next 10 years if the airline meets its growth targets.

“We want to maintain a five year average (age)” Satar explained. “If there is no growth, just for 194 aircraft in the next ten years I need to order 100 (new aircraft) to replace  and maintain that average.”

“But if we are talking growth it’s at least double that, at least 200 in the next ten years.”



Garuda’s biggest bird to date is the Boeing 777-300ER, with four currently in the fleet “and three more coming later this year, starting June” Satar said.

Boeing, ‘Avgeeks’ invade the Planet largest building

EVERETT, Washington (CNN) — As part of a convention of aviation fans called Aviation Geek Fest, we’re gaining ultra-exclusive access to the factory FLOOR at Boeing. The public tour is limited to the balcony. We’re about to walk knee-deep where Boeing gives birth to some of the world’s biggest and most advanced airliners, including the 747-8 Intercontinental, the 777 Worldliner and the 787 Dreamliner.

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But not so fast — before we go inside, Boeing has laid down some rules: no photos, no video, for our eyes only.

Here’s a painful development: Our smartphones have been confiscated. Gulp. I’m already suffering from phantom phone pangs.

We enter through a small, inconspicuous door marked S-1. Suddenly, we’re surrounded by partly assembled airliners in a room so big it takes on the feeling of an entire world. In some spots, we gaze across an unobstructed view measuring a quarter-mile.

This building is so flippin’ big that — years ago — it created its own inside weather patterns, including vapor clouds. They eliminated that by installing a special ventilation system. Today’s factory forecast: avgeeking, with continued avgeeking and a favorable chance of avgeeking later in the day.

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Here are a few cool tidbits:

Jaw-dropping perspective

The thrill of being so close to the planes literally stops you in your tracks. Seemingly everywhere you look there’s another five- or six-story-tall airplane towering over you. Some are covered with a green, protective temporary coating. One Dreamliner tail is painted with the familiar British Airways red, white and blue. Another sports New Zealand Air’s cool black-and-white.

Boeing paints the tails before they’re attached to the planes. Then they carefully adjust the tails for balance. Paint adds hundreds of pounds of weight, which would ruin the plane’s balance if the tails were painted after being attached.

Soon these behemoths will jet across vast oceans as they carry travelers to far-flung destinations.



‘You’ve gotta have secret clearance’

The planes’ huge fuselages are joined together with the help of a giant piece of equipment called a “saddle.” This U-shaped metal cage straddles the top of the planes during the body-joining process.

The “Wing Build” area — where workers attach wings to the planes — is the loudest part of the entire facility. The staccato of rivet guns pierces the heavy air. Whooshing vacuums suck up any dust that may be created when workers drill into the planes’ lightweight carbon composite material.

Security concerns in the plant are real. “Conversation-restricted area,” says one sign.

As we walk past a fenced-off zone, our guide quips, “You’ve gotta have secret clearance. I can’t even go in there!”



The rock star engine

Then, like a holy relic brought back from the Crusades — Boeing lets us touch “it.”

By “it” we mean the GE90-115B. Guinness calls it the most powerful commercially produced jet engine in the world.

We gather around this rock star engine like thirsty travelers at a desert oasis, each taking turns running our hands across its silver exterior. The lip of the engine’s mouth feels rough, like it has countless scratches etched into it. That design, engineers discovered, helps reduce noise.

This 19,000-pound monster hangs from the wing of a giant 777, but the engine still looks humongous — measuring more than 11 feet in diameter. In fact, Boeing says it’s so big you could fit the body of a 737 airliner inside it.

“There’s no way to sense the sheer size of an airplane without being right there underneath it,” says NYCAviation.com contributor Ben Granucci, enjoying his first Aviation Geek Fest. Engines like this make it possible for wide-body planes to fly long-distance routes nonstop with only two engines instead of three or four. In fact, the 777 flies many of the world’s longest nonstop routes. In 2005 it set the world distance record for a nonstop commercial airline flight, jetting 13,423 miles from Hong Kong eastbound to London in 22 hours, 22 minutes.

The world’s top flying hauler

Just a few hours earlier, a handful of aviation geeks were hanging out at a hotel next to Paine Field, the airport Boeing uses to test and deliver the factory’s planes.

Then, Granucci tweeted out that the plane that hauls the most cargo by volume in the world just happened to be passing through.

Count me in.

Soon, a dozen camera-wielding geeks are lined up outside the hotel to welcome the Dreamlifter — a modified 747 — as it lumbers in for a landing. “We’re gonna be late for breakfast,” says avgeek Steve Dillo as he snaps photo after photo. “But this is worth it.”

The thing roars like a lion, but it looks like a whale as it slows for touchdown. In the entire world, there are only four of these giant planes. Boeing uses them to ferry big sections of the 787 for final assembly here in Everett. Last year, when a Dreamlifter landed at the wrong airport in Kansas, it wasn’t exactly a stellar moment.

The Avgeek News Network

This is the fifth avgeek fest, co-sponsored by AirlineReporter.com and Everett’s Future of Flight Museum. The February convention drew a record 300-plus participants from 18 different states and three countries. Former GM and Toyota engineer Philip McKenzie, flew 8,000 miles from Melbourne, Australia, to see how “things are laid out” in the factory. Vancouver Airport official Trevor Batstone traveled 100 miles from Canada. Who are these people — these avgeeks? What defines them?

“It’s someone who always looks up in the sky when they hear a jet roar,” says Ryan Ewing, 14, who runs airlinegeeks.com out of his Bethesda, Maryland, home. Ewing was right there in the thick of the geeks with his camera when the Dreamlifter came calling.

The event was born from an aviation-obsessed online community that uses social media to organize and share information. Aviation news sites like Airchive, AirlineReporter, NYCAviation and AirlineGuys all share common friends, connections and interests. When news breaks, their informal social network sometimes challenges traditional news media. This month AirlineReporter and a few other aviation sites broke news about the hijacking of an Ethiopian Airlines 767 in Rome about 30 minutes before many “legacy” news organizations, says AirlineReporter founder and editor-in-chief David Parker Brown.

Boeing’s desire to connect with fans and fliers combined with the emerging power of the avgeek nation opened the doors to the exclusive Boeing tours, Brown says. “Boeing has increasingly realized how smart and educated about aviation avgeeks are.”

Baby Boeings

The following day southeast of Seattle, Boeing opens up yet another factory for us to tour. This one is the birthplace of what Guinness calls the “most produced large commercial jet in aviation history” — the 737.

No public tours here. This is a tour for avgeeks and VIPs. “Avgeeks love getting access to places that are off limits,” says Brown. “It’s all about exclusivity.”

Here’s some 737 tour trivia:

—This place creates 38 of the planes every month on a moving assembly line. And they’re pushing to increase that rate. “Even though we joke that the 737 is the ‘Baby Boeing,’ it’s still a large and complex machine,” says Granucci. “It requires precision to put it together. The fact that you can perform such precise work on a moving target — I find that to be incredible.”

— The facility receives pre-assembled fuselages by train from a factory in Wichita, Kansas.

— Workers attach wings to the fuselages. It takes about nine hours to put wings on a 737.

—The planes also get “winglets” — the tiny, upward pointing wings you see on the wingtips of 737s and other airliners. These doodads reduce drag on the plane and make it more fuel efficient — by about 4%.

—Workers install seats on the planes by using a loading machine they call a “hay baler.”

— In an operation called “high blow,” Boeing tests each plane’s passenger cabin for possible leaks during pressurization. The procedure includes putting people inside the planes to listen for leaks.

— Each 737 is made up of 42 miles of wire and 394,000 separate parts

— If there’s a problem on the assembly line, workers activate a purple flashing light — alerting others that they need help. “Blinking purple is bad for us here,” says Christian Ofsthus, a Boeing senior manager. “If there’s something wrong, something doesn’t fit, we need to do something about that.”

As the tour ends, we wind through an employee diner named for the World War II symbol Rosie the Riveter, and file back onto our bus. Driving off the property, we spot a train loaded with brand new wingless 737 fuselages headed to the factory behind us.

That triggers spontaneous applause and scattered whoops throughout the bus. Well, you just can’t get any geekier than that.

“That is so cool,” I hear someone say.

By Thom Patterson, CNN

http://fox2now.com/2014/02/26/boeing-avgeeks-invade-worlds-largest-building/

United Airlines 787 on Melbourne route

United Airlines has confirmed new non-stop flights from Melbourne to Los Angeles as the first route for its Boeing 787-9s, the new stretch version of the Dreamliner, in a move that should please passengers on both sides of the Pacific.

It represents a major upgrade in service from the US carrier, which had already announced plans to phase out its ageing 747s which lack seat-back in-flight entertainment in economy class from April. They will be replaced by newer 777s on the Melbourne-Sydney-Los Angeles and Sydney-San Francisco routes.



United will launch the new six-day-a-week flights on October 28, subject to government approvals.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/united-airlines-to-fly-new-boeing-7879-dreamliners-on-melbourne-route-20140220-333u1.html#ixzz2u9NeObpu

Boeing 777x Folding Wings

"The new Foldable Wings, resembling the World War II Corsair permits the new Boeing 777x fit in existing Airport Gates"

One of the 777X's most noticeable design elements will be its folding wings. Boeing credits much of the 777X's improved fuel efficiency to the wing design, which at 223 feet, is a bit longer than the 777. To make sure that the 777X will fit in existing airport gates, the plane's wingtips will each be able to fold upward, drawing in just over 10 feet on each side.

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Boeing 777 $2.7 million fine

Boeing 777: The FAA says Boeing was installing low-quality fasteners on the 777 aircraft. Now, two airlines say they have found faulty wiring on their Boeing 787 emergency transmitters.

Federal air safety regulators are seeking a more than $2.7 million fine against Boeing over quality control lapses related to parts used in the 777.

The 777 is a long-range passenger airliner. The Federal Aviation Administration says in a statement Friday that Boeing discovered in September 2008 it had been installing fasteners on the airplanes that didn't meet FAA safety standards.

The FAA opened an investigation one month later. The agency says Boeing repeatedly submitted plans that set deadlines to fix the problem, only to miss those deadlines.

The statement says the company finally implemented a plan to address the fastener issue in November 2010, more than two years after Boeing first learned of the problem.