Ben Sandilands
Editor of Plane Talking @PlaneTalking
Ben Sandilands has reported and analysed the mechanical mobility of humanity since late 1960 - the end of the age of great scheduled ocean liners and coastal steamers and the start of the jet age. He’s worked in newspapers, radio and TV in a wide range of roles as a journalist at home and abroad for 56 years, the last 18 freelance.
It is telling that Minister for Transport and Infrastructure Anthony Albanese has chosen Melbourne to launch the umpteenth study into a high-speed rail corridor between Sydney and Newcastle.
A new deal sprung this morning between Singapore Airlines-controlled Tiger Airways and Thai International adds to the competitive pressures which are causing the rush by Qantas to use its Jetstar subsidiary to offshore jobs and jets to avoid Australian costs.
At Melbourne Airport today a far-reaching Australian invention, which could unclog crowded airports worldwide, is being reviewed in a closed session attended by airlines, airport owners and aviation authorities..
Qantas pilots are having a tussle with the company over what they claim is pressure on junior captains to load less "discretionary" fuel above what it sees as "normal" fuel for whatever route they are about to fly.
Dick Smith has made a politically sensitive attack on the Australian Transport Safety Bureau for avoiding its responsibilities in its inquiry into a close encounter between a Virgin Blue 737 and a Jetstar A320 over a fog-bound Launceston Airport two years ago.
It seems that we are going along with sensible and nonsensical security measures at airports, and, apart from a murder and the odd bullet, sword, or tube of toothpaste, behaving ourselves.
The rapidly vanishing glaciers of West Papua have made a rocky tower called Sumantri the second highest peak in Indonesia. Nearby Ngga Pulu has lost its glacial cap and its highest peak status.
An inquiry into a fatal helicopter crash says that the pilot may have been insufficiently skilled to hover close to a rock formation, shown in the last image on the camera of one of the victims.
What the two most successful airline CEOs in Australian history will do in concert with the body charged with growing inbound as well as domestic tourism is not known, but it won’t be lacking in spectacle or clout.
A Qantas 767 and Tiger A320 carrying a total of about 432 seats came within 3.8 nautical miles of each other while flying in opposite directions through controlled airspace over Tamworth last week. So why aren't authorities alarmed?
