In 2007 there was this Airbus A310 that failed to pass inspection in France and was therefore banned from French Airspace. The plane was still in use though. Yemenia Airlines quit flying the plane over French Airspace, limiting its routes to non-euro airspace like the hop from Sanaa to the Comoros.
Listen, I’ve heard some bad things about some planes but the descriptions I saw of this plane are so vivid I remember them, even though its been nearly five years. Frankly, the description sounded straight out of Romancing the Stone like the bus that takes Kathleen Turner (romance novelist Joan Wilder) to Cartagena, Colombia—crowded to the gills, livestock inside, seats rolling around, standing room only, everything that was portrayed in the movie, except (one hopes) people hanging off the outside of the plane. This rickety plane, which failed to meet safety standards continued to be in use until it crashed one stormy night in 2009.
Now, five years later, France is charging Yemenia Airlines with manslaughter.
I wonder at the timing. Apparently Yemenia Airlines is no longer on the EU banned list.
I wonder if they waited for Yemenia Airlines to become more solvent before they charged them.
I wonder if International Lease Finance Corporation is going to be held accountable. They leased the plane to Yemenia; and, like a father who hands his fifteen year old the keys to his car, they could have taken away the keys, or withheld them till the plane was brought up to code.
I wonder if the delay was five years worth of research, and maybe evidence found.
I wonder if another accident or enlightening incident happened that pointed the finger at Yemenia.
I wonder if it was pressure from the families of the 153 passengers and crew (and little Bahia Bakari the twelve year old miracle survivor) aboard that international flight from Sana’a, Yemen to Moroni, Comoros that crashed on 30 June 2009.
Pressure from the families brings change. I have a lot of confidence in family groups. Plane crash victims are united by a common cause, a cause which is ethical and pragmatic and yet impossible, because they are seeking justice when there can really be none. Because all these people want, if they could have their way, would be to have their loved ones back. They have the power of right on their side; and to make a galvanizing cause even more magnetic, they are fighting for the safety of every future airline passenger. I wish my friend Hans Ephraimson-Abt, who died last October, could be here to witness the charges being brought. He lost a daughter when her plane was shot down in 1983, and ever after made it his business to advocate for families. I think of him now because up until October, whenever I’d post an editorial concerning crashes, or family groups, he would always write back with encouragement, or some pithy bit of advice.
Maybe I should be objective. After all, helping families in crashes is my business. But when you’re on the front lines of aviation safety trying to get better treatment for victims and the families of victims, it doesn’t take long to feel very personal. There are a lot of people who saw those headlines that France is charging the carrier with manslaughter who think that after four and a half years, it is about time. I just hope that somehow the 152 victims—and Hans—could know that the responsible parties may yet be held accountable.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
Sean Combs’ attorneys have proposed a $50 million bail package, that includes his passports, Miami home, his private plane and assurances from family
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
A small Jordanian military aeroplane crash-landed in Belgium, where it was due to take part in an air show, Belgian authorities said on Tuesday.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
Back in 2016, Samsung’s recall caused major concerns for airports around the US.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
In interviews on Monday, family and friends of Danny and Keith Presley described them as family men who would take a bullet to save a stranger or give the shirts off of their backs to help pretty much anyone.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
A mid-air collision between two planes outside the Minden-Tahoe Airport in Nevada, which is near the state’s border with California, has left one person dead.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
Wilmer Valderrama’s new book details an incident on a flight with Ashton Kutcher and more stars
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
The brothers, who are also husbands, fathers, uncles and friends to many, who died in a plane crash last week on the Kenai Peninsula, are described by fmaily members as warriors who would take a bullet to save a stranger, who would give the shirts off of their backs to help pretty much anyone and are described as men who had an impressoin on countless people during their lives as hunters, family men and adventurers.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
The lawsuit blames the flight instructor for the “totally unnecessary and avoidable crash”
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
Seven people have died in three small plane crashes — with no survivors — across Alaska since Friday, and investigators explain why that may be.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
US airplane maker Boeing’s 2024 Commercial Market Outlook predicts Africa’s commercial airplane fleet is projected to more than double by 2043. Deliveries of more than 800 new single-aisle jets will account for most of this growth, as predicted by the company’s long-term demand forecast for commercial airplanes and services. According to the CMO, passenger air traffic in Africa will increase 6.4% annually, more than tripling the region’s air traffic by 2043. This growth rate ranks Africa as the
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
An experimental plane that resembles a Piper PA 12 crashed near a Wasilla neighborhood Saturday morning, killing the lone pilot on board.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
Authorities say the weekend crash of a plane roughly a half-mile from a runway near the southwest Alaska community of St. Mary’s has killed all four people on board
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
Two planes collided in mid-air at the Minden-Tahoe Airport Monday morning, leaving one dead.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
The pilot, 58-year-old Cary Foster, was very familiar with the area where the crash occurred, investigators say.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
The Yute Commuter Service Cessna 207 left Bethel on Sunday night before the pilot requested a special clearance to get into St. Mary’s, investigators say.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
A travel journalist has revealed why the ‘worst seat on a plane’ is not so bad after all.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
How does AirPods 4 with ANC fare with plane engine noise?
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
