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Boeing and NASA have agreed to keep astronauts off the company's next Starliner flight and instead perform a trial run with cargo to prove its safety. Monday's announcement comes eight months after the first and only Starliner crew returned to Earth aboard SpaceX after a prolonged mission. Although NASA test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams managed to dock Starliner to the International Space Station in 2024, the capsule had so many problems that NASA ordered it to come back empty, leaving the astronauts stuck there for more than nine months. Engineers have since been poring over the thruster and other issues that plagued the Starliner capsule. Its next cargo run to the space station will occur no earlier than April, pending additional tests and certification. Boeing said in a statement that it remains committed to the Starliner program with safety the highest priority. NASA is also slashing the planned number of Starliner flights, from six to four. If the cargo mission goes
Akasa Air will soon start overseas flights from the national capital and also expects faster aircraft deliveries from Boeing, a senior airline official said on Monday. The airline, which started flying in August 2022, currently has a fleet of 30 planes and flies to 24 domestic and six international destinations. "We will soon have international departures from Delhi," Akasa Air Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer Praveen Iyer said. Currently, the airline has 24 daily departures from Delhi. At a briefing in the national capital, he also said the airline will look at operating flights to various overseas destinations, including Singapore, Uzbekistan, Indonesia, Vietnam and Tashkent. Akasa Air, currently, flies to six international cities -- Doha (Qatar), Jeddah, Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), Abu Dhabi (UAE), Kuwait City (Kuwait) and Phuket (Thailand). The airline has a firm order for a total of 226 Boeing 737 MAX planes and has been facing aircraft delivery delays. With Boeing increa
Akasa Air will consider operating flights to Kenya, Ethiopia, Egypt and some other countries, and the three-year-old airline now feels "very good" about the delivery schedule for its Boeing planes, according to its CEO Vinay Dube. Stressing that Akasa Air's international expansion will continue on the right path, Dube, also the founder, said the airline will shortly announce flights to Sharjah. The airline has a fleet of 30 Boeing 737 MAX planes and expects to add "more than one aircraft" this year. "Our aircraft are capable of hitting the shores of East Africa, absolutely it can go to Mauritius and on the southern side, it can go to Kenya, Ethiopia, Egypt... We can (also) go into Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan... Boeing 737 MAX is also capable of going deep into South Asia..., All will be considered," Dube told PTI in an interview. Currently, the carrier flies to six international cities -- Doha (Qatar), Jeddah, Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), Abu Dhabi (UAE), Kuwait City (Kuwait) and Phuket ...
China's ambition to challenge Boeing and Airbus with its own homegrown passenger jet is running into turbulence, with deliveries of finished aircraft likely to fall far short of its target announced for this year. The C919 jet -- a single-aisle passenger plane aiming to rival Boeing's 737 and Airbus' A320 is made by state-owned aircraft manufacturer COMAC. Beijing is showcasing it as evidence of China's technological advancement and progress in self-reliance, though it uses many Western sourced components. Trade friction with Washington threatens to prevent COMAC from securing core parts for the programme that has been supported by huge Chinese government subsidies. COMAC faces significant risk from the volatile policy environment, with its supply chains vulnerable to export restrictions and tit-for-tat measures between the US and China, said Max J. Zenglein, Asia-Pacific senior economist at The Conference Board think tank. The C919 has 48 major suppliers from the US -- including
Hong Kong authorities on Tuesday were preparing to reopen the runway where a cargo aircraft crashed a day ago, but said it would remain out of regular use until wreckage from the accident was fully cleared. The Boeing 747 flown by Turkey-based ACT Airlines flight from Dubai skidded off to the left after landing in the early hours of Monday and collided with a patrol car, causing both to fall into the sea. Two workers in the car were found dead, while four crew members on the plane had no apparent injuries. Repairs to the runway and damaged fencing have been completed, Steven Yiu, the airport authority's executive director for airport operations, told Radio Television Hong Kong. He added that that investigators had collected initial evidence at the scene. But Yiu said the plane's cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder have not yet been retrieved. Authorities were aiming to put the runway on standby status, which means that it can be used for landings but will not be ...
A cargo aircraft skidded off a Hong Kong runway into the sea when landing early Monday, killing two people. The flight, arriving from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, was landing at Hong Kong International Airport around 3.50 am, according to Hong Kong's airport authority. Four crew members on the plane were rescued and taken to hospital. Initial reports from police said two people in an airport ground vehicle were dead. The north runway of Hong Kong's airport, one of Asia's busiest, where the aircraft skidded off runway, has been closed, authorities said. Two other runways at the airport continue to operate. The Boeing 747 freighter is a Turkish air cargo carrier AirACT aircraft flying for Emirates SkyCargo, with the flight number EK9788. It was flying from Al Maktoum International Airport. Hong Kong's Civil Aviation Department said in a statement that it was following up with the airline and other parties involved in the crash.
An Air India Dreamliner aircraft faced a technical issue at the Hong Kong airport on Thursday morning and underwent checks before being cleared to fly to Delhi. The Boeing 787-8 plane VT-ANO, which faced the issue on Thursday, is the same aircraft in which the Ram Air Turbine (RAT) was deployed seconds before landing at the Birmingham airport on October 4. "AI315 operating from Hong Kong to Delhi on 16 October was delayed due to a minor issue necessitating a reset of a component. "The aircraft underwent checks, took off after being cleared for operation and landed in Delhi," an airline spokesperson said in a statement to PTI. As per information available on flight tracking website Flightradar24.com, AI315, operated by Boeing 787-8 aircraft VT-ANO, was scheduled to take off from the Hong Kong airport at around 8.50 am (local time) but was delayed and departed at about 11.30 am. The spokesperson also said that at Air India, the safety of passengers remains top priority. On October
Aviation watchdog DGCA will carry out a detailed probe into the incident of Ram Air Turbine (RAT) getting deployed in an Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft few minutes before landing at the Birmingham airport on Saturday, according to an official. In an aircraft, RAT gets deployed automatically in the eventuality of a dual engine failure or total electronic or hydraulic failure. RAT uses wind speed to generate emergency power. The senior DGCA official told PTI that RAT got deployed during landing of the plane at 400 feet but the pilot did not report any related abnormality. The maintenance actions for uncommanded RAT deployment recommended by Boeing have been carried out and no discrepancy were observed, the official said and added that the aircraft is being released for service. The official also said the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will carry out a detailed investigation into the incident. "The operating crew of flight AI117 from Amritsar to Birmingham o
Boeing is getting back the ability to perform final safety inspections on 737 Max jetliners and certify the planes for flight more than six years after crashes of the then-new model killed 346 people, the Federal Aviation Administration said Friday. The FAA said it decided to restore the aerospace company's authorisation to issue airworthiness certificates for Max and 787 Dreamliner passenger planes starting Monday following a thorough review of Boeing's ongoing production quality. Federal regulators took full control over 737 Max approvals in 2019, after the second of two crashes that were later blamed on a new software system Boeing developed for the aircraft. The FAA ended the company's right to self-certify Dreamliners in 2022, citing ongoing production quality issues. Going forward, Boeing and FAA inspectors will take weekly turns performing the safety checks that are required before aircraft are cleared for delivery and declared safe to fly. The FAA said the arrangement will
Turkish Airlines, Turkiye's national carrier, has announced plans to add 225 Boeing aircraft to its fleet. In a declaration to the Istanbul Stock Exchange on Friday, the airline said it has decided to purchase 75 Boeing B787-9 and B787-10 aircraft and has completed negotiations with Boeing to acquire 150 737-8/10MAX models. The announcement was made a day after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with US President Donald Trump in Washington. Turkish Airlines will place 50 confirmed and 25 optional orders for the B787-9 and B787-10 aircraft, scheduled for delivery between 2029 and 2034. The B787-9 and B787-10 are advanced, fuel-efficient long-haul aircraft designed for international travel, the airline said in a statement. The company is in negotiations with Rolls-Royce and GE Aerospace for the procurement of engines, spare parts and maintenance services for the aircraft, the statement said. Separately, Turkish Airlines said it has finalised negotiations with Boeing for 150