The United Arab Emirates accused neighbouring Qatar of “intercepting” two Emirati passenger planes en route to Bahrain on Monday in the latest incident between the Gulf rivals.Qatar denied the allegations as “totally baseless” and hit back that they came “one day after a C-130 UAE military aircraft breached Qatari airspace”.Tensions have escalated in the Gulf since Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut all ties with Qatar in June, accusing it of supporting Islamist extremists and being too close to Saudi Arabia’s arch-rival, Iran.They have banned all flights to and from Doha and cut off most trade links.Qatar denies the allegations, arguing the bloc aims to incite regime change in Doha.The UAE Civil Aviation Authority said it “received a message from a national carrier on Monday morning that an aircraft on a routine flight to Manama was intercepted by Qatari fighter jets”.The authority said it was “a flagrant and serious threat to the safety of civil aviation and a clear violation of international law”.”This is a routine flight that has all the required paperwork,” it said in a statement to the state news agency.The UAE authority later said a second Emirati passenger plane bound for Bahrain was also intercepted by Qatari fighter jets.It said the second plane was intercepted “during its descent towards Bahrain International Airport”, adding that it was also on a routine pre-scheduled flight.The foreign ministry in Bahrain denounced the “unacceptable aggressive attitude” of Qatar.Four UAE-based airlines — Emirates, Etihad, flydubai and Air Arabia –… [Read full story]
China's first big passenger plane rolled offthe assembly line on Monday as the Asian giant seeks the prestige ofhaving its own aviation sector, and to challenge foreign giants Airbusand Boeing for market share. Workers spent over a year putting together theC919, a narrow-body jet which can seat 168 passengers, at the CommercialAircraft Corp. of China (COMAC) facility in Shanghai. For China,the plane represents at least seven years of efforts in a state-mandateddrive to reduce dependence on European consortium Airbus and Boeing ofthe United States, and even compete against them. "China's airtransport industry cannot completely rely on imports. A great nationmust…... [read more]
An Afghan passenger plane carrying 44 people, including six foreigners, crashed Monday in a mountainous northern region where poor weather was hampering efforts to locate it, officials said. There was no immediate word on casualties. Rescuers were on their way to the crash site near the 12,700-foot (3,800-meter) -high Salang Pass, a major route through the Hindu Kush mountains that connects the capital to the north. The plane, on a flight from the northern city of Kunduz, went down about 60 miles (100 kilometers) from Kabul, said Kabul International Airport Police Chief Mohammad Asif Jabar Khil. Zemeri Bashary, an Interior…... [read more]
A passenger plane crashed near Kazakhstan's commercial capital of Almaty on Tuesday, killing 20 people, news agencies quoted SCAT airline as saying. The plane had been en route from the city of Kokshetau in northern Kazakhstan to Almaty in the southeast of the country when it crashed near the village of Kyzyl Tu, Interfax news agency said. Almaty and the surrounding area were veiled in thick fog on Tuesday. SCAT is based in Kazakhstan and operates extensive domestic services and some international flights. It was the second plane crash in the Central Asian country and former Soviet republic in just…... [read more]
A commercial plane carrying 162 people crashed early Saturday while landing in Guyana, causing several injuries but no deaths, the Guyanese government said. The latest reports from Guyana quoted a government spokesperson as saying that the Boeing 737-800 aircraft apparently overshot the 2,200-meter runway in rainy weather at Cheddi Jagan International Airport near the capital of Georgetown. The plane, which had 154 passengers and eight crew members aboard,broke into two pieces upon landing and slid down a slope before barely missing a 60-meter ravine,said the spokesperson, who added that only a few people were injured in the crash. "We are…... [read more]
Illustrative image (Source: nomadicnotes) Jakarta (VNA) – A commercial plane of Indonesianairline Sriwijaya carrying 146 passengers overshot the runway while landing in anairport in Manokwari city, eastern Indonesia, on May 31. The Ministry of Transport said no one was hurt after theBoeing skipped off the wet runway. Images published by local media showed passengers beingevacuated from the plane.The airport had to close for hours so that the plane can beremoved. It is the latest incident for Indonesian air transportsector. In February, a Sriwijaya plane carrying 192 people from China to Bali wasforced to turn back after the crew realised one of…... [read more]
