The pilot of the Pel-Air Westwind that crashed off Norfolk Island on Wednesday apparently took off with inadequate fuel supplies. He, and his airline, must be prosecuted.
Aviation industry 
Attention all media: an Australian jet crashed last night
Jet crashes are rare in Australia, but one happened last night at Norfolk Island and no-one in the media noticed. All six people on board the CareFlight medical evacuation jet have survived
Did a cosmic ray zap the Airbus?
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is now considering the remote possibility that a rogue cosmic ray or solar particle caused a Qantas plane to twice dive out of control over Western Australia in October last year, says Ben Sandilands.
Violent plunges of QF72 remain a mystery
Heads hit the roof when a Qantas A300 dipped and dived off Western Australia last year. But a second interim report released today holds no certain answers.
Credibility of Qantas on line over “unusual vibrations” aka a flaming engine
The scorched engine at the centre of the latest allegations about safety standards at Qantas is now being examined by the independent air safety investigator, and the credibility of two unions, the airline’s management and the air safety regulation enforce are all on the line.
Qantas dodges BA-Iberia tie-up
The proposed 4.4 billion pound merger between British Airways and Iberia of Spain is so full of holes that it could very well sink without a trace at the slightest bit of opposition.
Virgin’s Velocity Gold blue
Personalising a free upgrade in writing and then rescinding it entirely is just a “douche-bag move”, writes a Crikey reader angered at Friday’s Virgin Blue stuff up.
The Tiger vs. Qantas battle is turning nasty
The battle of the low-cost trans-border franchises of Singapore Airlines-controlled Tiger and Qantas-directed Jetstar Asia is heating up, with Jetstar’s plans to fly twice daily between Singapore and Tokyo being shot out of the sky this morning.
Qantas unveils its “Airport of the Future”
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has unveiled the company’s vision for the “Airport of the Future”, a strategy he claims will halve check-in times and allow passengers to check themselves and their baggage in electronically, avoiding the long airport queues.
Jetstar creates a jet stir in Vietnam
The $A53.9 million Qantas investment in Jetstar Pacific has flown into an ideological chasm in the ranks of the Communist Party and government in Vietnam, and it isn’t clear how it can escape.
Tiger bites Roo with Melbourne-Brisbane flights
Another Qantas Cityflyer route is being munched on by Tiger, reports Ben Sandilands: this time, it’s the Melbourne to Brisbane route, with the low-fare airline offering flights up to three times daily from 28 March.
Sydney/Melbourne by plane or bust: Airbus vision kills the fast train
The notion of a Very Fast Train for the Melbourne-Sydney corridor has been shot down by new plans from Airbus to fly Very Large Planes between the two cities, because the entire cost, and risk, is funded by the privately owned airlines and airports.
Qantas 767 aborts 700 feet above tarmac and wheels up
Last week, just 700 feet from landing, Qantas pilots were forced to abort a landing when it was realised that the wheels had not been lowered. It was a close call for a Qantas and the Boeing 767 is to be investigated,.
Safety screwed over wrong washer
The aircraft engineers union is pursuing claims that Qantas avoided a detailed safety investigation of a 747 last year, which could have caused some of its engines to fall off in flight.
Has British Airways lost its number 1 UK spot?
The classic British aviation brand British Airways may soon lose its title as the UK’s most popular airline as budget airline Ryanair grows its flights and passengers. But will Ryanair be able to continue its double digit growth?
Qantas flies underwater for the first quarter
Qantas group operational statistics for September confirm that the airline has been flying at a loss for the first quarter of this financial year — just how deep the total group loss will be depends largely on the success of its sales of “loyalty” frequent flyer points.
Tiger bares its teeth at Cityflyer
Low fare airline Tiger Airways continues its assault on Qantas’ Cityflyer operation with the announcement of even more Sydney flights, says Ben Sandilands. Yep: not low fare Jetstar, nor middle market Virgin Blue, but high fare Qantas. Grr.
Memo CASA chief: an uncritical media is not your friend
The underlying managerial culture of modern enterprises is to push productivity to within a millimetre of breaking the people or the equipment, and to lift output year in year out. Unfortunately in the airline game, that can kill hundreds of people at once.
Crikey Clarifier: The JSF project … the J is for ‘joke’
The JSF or Joint Strike Fighter is a massively hyped, much-delayed defence project by which a single type of jet will supposedly defend the US and its allies from baddies. Think of a super duper X-box with wings. It has got everything. Or has it? asks Ben Sandilands.
Time for Tiger Airways to stop pussy-footing around compensation
There is no justification for Tiger Airways taking up to two months to compensate hundreds of passengers for the expenses they had to meet after being stranded in Hobart for three days last week, says Ben Sandilands
Singapore Airlines tries to get a grip
Singapore Airlines is claiming to be acting for everyone, not just itself, by encouraging travellers to buy cheap fares to European cities.
AF447 crash: Air France traps itself with leaked memo
The latest response by Air France management to the June crash of flight AF447 is a joke, says Ben Sandilands: a “strongly worded” memo telling pilots to be “more vigilant” about safety procedures.
Qantas report stands like a beacon of poor corporate governance
The Qantas 2009 Remuneration Report stands out like a beacon of poor corporate governance. That a majority of institutional shareholders could actually vote in favour of the resolution makes you wonder: exactly who is watching the watchers?
Virgin’s wheel of fire at the hub of wider problems
Virgin Blue lawyers are crawling over the words of aircraft engineers union federal secretary Steve Purvinas like ants over road kill this morning, but what is really going on?
US lawyer sues Airbus (and everyone else) over Air France disaster
A US lawyer is suing everyone who made anything that was part of the Air France Airbus flight that crashed into the mid Atlantic in June, reports Ben Sandilands.
