Operated by the Space Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office, the 29-foot-long X-37B with a 15-foot wingspan is designed to test advanced technologies.

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Fake Boeing Disaster at Harare Airport

Although the head of Zimbabwe’s Civil Aviation Authority David Chawota confirmed with the BBC: “I can confirm that a 767 plane coming from London has had an accident at Harare airport,” the whole thing was a drill with paid actors.

BBC’s Brian Hungwa reported seeing a large plume of smoke and helicopters over the runway.

Apparently no one but a chosen few were informed it was a drill. Apparently seeing what the media would do was part of the Zimbabwe’s Civil Aviation Authority’s “exercise.”

George’s Point of View

Maybe I’m out of line here, but it seems to me a drill is supposed to test responses in-house.

The fire drill at a school, for example, involves firemen arriving and evaluating the response time of those endangered.

But if someone at the school sets off an alarm to see what would happen, or calls 911…they’re criminally liable. Okay, well maybe they were testing emergency services which for the CAA might be considered in house.

But testing the media? Allowing the news to go out to the media that there was a disaster? As someone who deals with people suffering horrible loss from disasters that are real, this sounds more like a cruel joke than a drill. I wonder what the IATA and ICAO will have to say about this. At the very least, it is unethical.

Chawota said “This was a usual drill for the period. We do this once every three years. This was for the benefit of our police personnel, security, aviation, medics, hospital — everyone was involved. This exercise helps the general preparedness of our facilities here.”

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Volcanic Ash Disrupts Aviation Traffic

Volcanic ash ingested in an engine can cause an engine to shut down; plus the visibility problems are obvious.

Eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjoll sent an ash plume into the sky threatening aviation safety.

Curtailed: Amsterdam, Brussels; various locations in Norway, Sweden and Finland; German airports north of Frankfurt/Main.

Airports are shutting down due to the threat: Belfast, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Birmingham, Manchester,Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, Stansted;


View Volcanic Ash Map in a larger map

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Aviation Leaders Gather in Berlin

Berlin – The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that Berlin will be world’s aviation capital as the city prepares to host 600 industry leaders for the 66th IATA Annual General Meeting and World Air Transport Summit from 6-8 June 2010.

The official program starts at 0900 CET on 7 June with the State of the Industry address by Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s Director General and CEO. “We are meeting as the industry continues its recovery from the global financial meltdown and turbulent decade of cycles and shocks that resulted in accumulated losses of nearly $50 billion. A strong traffic growth trend prior to the setback of the Icelandic volcano is improving the industry’s bottom line prospects. It is finally time for some cautious optimism,” said Bisignani.

Among the highlights of the AGM will be the release of a new industry outlook as part of the Director General’s State of the Industry address. The discussions of top industry leaders will also focus on:

The industry’s strategy on climate change in the aftermath of the Copenhagen talks and in preparation for COP-16 in Mexico
Structuring the industry for profitability with consolidation and commercial freedoms
Finding an effective and harmonized approach to security.
Finding a better way for governments and industry to work together with a common vision
Confirmed speakers include:

CEO Forum: Nader Dahabi, Senator and former Prime Minister of Jordan; Praful Patel, Minister of State for Civil Aviation, India; Felipe Morandé Lavín, Minister of Transport and Telecommunications, Chile; David Bonderman, Founding Partner of TPG Capital; Calin Rovinescu, President and CEO of Air Canada; Peter Hartman, President and CEO of KLM; and Tengku Dato’ Azmil Zahruddin, Managing Director and CEO of Malaysia Airlines.

Climate Change Leadership: Hussein Dabbas, President and CEO of Royal Jordanian; Christoph Franz, Member of the Executive Board Lufthansa AG, CEO of Lufthansa German Airlines; Alan Joyce, CEO and Managing Director of Qantas; Guy Hachey, President and CEO of Bombardier Aerospace; David Hess, President of Pratt and Whitney; and John Plaza, President and CEO of Imperium Renewables, will discuss the road to COP-16 in Mexico and beyond.

Government and Industry Partnership: Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, CEO of Air France-KLM and CEO, Air France; Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports; Joachim Hunold, CEO of Air Berlin and Emirsyah Satar, President and CEO of Garuda Indonesia will discuss a new relationship between government and industry. They will be joined by Harold Demuren and Gen. Jose Huepe Perez, Directors General of Civil Aviation of Nigeria and Chile, respectively.

The event is being hosted by Lufthansa. Wolfgang Mayrhuber, Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO Deutsche Lufthansa’s AG, is a member of the IATA Board of Governors. Germany has hosted two previous AGMs—Hamburg in 1985 and Munich in 1968. “We are pleased to be meeting in Berlin, a city that is a great symbol of change and resilience,” said Bisignani.

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