Nepal police find plane wreckage, no survivors

Nepalese police Monday found the wreckage of a missing Nepal Airlines plane carrying 18 people in the country's mountainous west but there were no survivors, an aviation official said.

"The plane crashed into a hill, police have found its wreckage in a village, but no survivors," Bimlesh Lal Karna, chief air traffic controller at the country's largest airport in Kathmandu, told AFP.

The plane carrying 15 passengers including an infant and three crew lost contact with air traffic controllers shortly after taking off from the popular tourist town of Pokhara Sunday afternoon, airline officials and police said.

The aircraft from the state-run carrier was travelling to the town of Jumla, 353 kilometres (220 miles) west of Kathmandu, when air traffic controllers lost contact.

Heavy rain hampered Sunday's efforts to locate the plane with two helicopters forced to turn back because of bad weather.

Police finally spotted scattered pieces of the wreckage while conducting an aerial search of Arghakhanchi district, 226 kilometres west of the capital, aviation official Karna said.

One of the passengers is from Denmark, according to airline spokesman Ram Hari Sharma.

The rest of those on board -- including Manab Sejuwal, a local politician from the ruling Nepali Congress party -- are from Nepal.

The crash again raises concerns about the Himalayan nation's aviation sector, which has come under fire from international authorities after a series of fatal accidents.

The European Union in December banned all the country's airlines from flying to the EU.

Nepal, which counts tourism as a major contributor to its economy, has suffered a number of air crashes in recent years, which have usually been attributed to inexperienced pilots, poor management and inadequate maintenance.

SOURCE

Air traffic controllers' strike cancels flights in Portugal

A strike by air traffic controllers against cost-cutting reforms forced about 20 flights to be cancelled at Lisbon airport on Wednesday, officials said.

The cancelled flights included services between Lisbon and airports in Portugal, Spain, Italy, France and northern Europe, the airport operator ANA said.

Controllers called the strike as part of a protest in several European countries against planned EU air traffic reforms which they fear threaten their jobs.

The strike would cause "long delays throughout the day," warned Carlos Vladrez, a spokesman for air traffic controllers of the national airspace operator NAV.

National airline TAP Portugal said it had rescheduled about 50 flights to try and avoid cancellations but delays were still expected.

SOURCE

Nepal fears for tourism after EU airline ban

Nepal expressed fears on Friday for its tourism industry after the European Union blacklisted its airlines due to safety concerns.

EU Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas announced on Thursday that the bloc had placed all of Nepal's airlines on its safety blacklist, banning them from flying to the EU, saying their safety record "does not leave us any other choice".

"This is very unfortunate. This will damage our tourism industry," said Mohan Krishna Sapkota, spokesman for the tourism and civil aviation ministry.

"In our meetings with the European Union officials, we had assured that we were working on maintaining safety standards. In the past several months, we have prepared safety manuals and monitored our airlines regularly," he said.

Sapkota said the government was yet to receive official notification from the EU and would comment further after a meeting of officials later in the day.

No airlines from Nepal fly to the EU but tourists, pilgrims and professional climbers -- most of them Europeans and Americans -- rely on the country's 16 accident-prone domestic airlines to reach remote areas.

The state-run Nepal Airlines, which flies to half a dozen foreign destinations including Hong Kong and Dubai, is the only local carrier operating international flights.

The Himalayan nation has suffered a number of air crashes in recent years, usually attributed to inexperienced pilots, poor management and maintenance.

A Chinese tourist and a local pilot were killed when an ultra-light aircraft crashed into a hill in the tourist town of Pokhara in early October.

In May, 21 people, including eight Japanese tourists, were hurt when a small plane skidded off an airport runway in northern Nepal.

In May last year, 15 people were killed at the same airport, while in September 2012, 19 people, including seven Britons and four Chinese, were killed after a plane crashed minutes after taking off from Kathmandu.

The Kathmandu Post newspaper on Friday reported that Nepalese aviation officials had met the EU representatives in Brussels last month in which they had asked for a six-month period to improve safety standards.

More than 800,000 foreign tourists visited the Himalayan nation last year.

SOURCE

European Union lifts safety ban on Philippine Airlines

The European Union has lifted a three-year ban on Philippine Airlines flying into its airspace after the national carrier addressed safety concerns, the EU's ambassador to Manila said on Wednesday.

PAL will be allowed to fly into the 28-member bloc from Friday, which will spur tourism and business links, ambassador Guy Ledoux said.

"This is a tremendous achievement in such a short period of time," Ledoux said.

He added that the EU would conduct further reviews so other Philippine carriers would also be able to fly to Europe as well.

"This decision is very encouraging and is the first success of CAAP (Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines) and Philippine Airlines," he told reporters.

"EU-Philippines trade and investment relations will benefit from the lifting of the air ban," Ledoux added.

He remarked that even without direct flights, European tourist arrivals to the Philippines rose by about 10 percent last year to 349,000 and expressed hope that the lifting of the ban would boost this even further.

CAAP director-general William Hotchkiss said raising safety standards had required "superhuman effort" including recruiting veteran talent.

He also expressed confidence that by the end of the year, the US Federal Aviation Administration would lift a similar ban that restricts Philippine carriers from expanding operations to the United States.

PAL president Ramong Ang told reporters at a joint press conference with Ledoux that the carrier planned to begin flights to London, Paris, Rome and Amsterdam by September or October.

He said PAL could compete with lower-cost Mideast airlines in serving those routes because it would offer non-stop flights.

PAL is already entitled to seven flights a week to London and at least six flights a week to Paris, Ang said.

He said the airline would enter into negotiations for the other destinations.

Ledoux said the safety ban on other Philippine carriers may also be lifted amid a general improvement in the country's aviation standards and positive work by the CAAP.

However he said that the EU ban on Cebu Pacific, a second major Philippine carrier, had been maintained because of an incident last month where a Cebu Pacific plane skidded off a runway while landing in the southern Philippine city of Davao.

He said this "unfortunate recent accident in June... shows some weaknesses need to be addressed."

None of the 165 people aboard the plane were hurt but CAAP later suspended the two pilots involved and harshly criticised Cebu Pacific for safety lapses.

Ledoux said the European Commission was encouraged by the actions being taken by CAAP and Philippines air carriers to address outstanding safety issues and would continue to monitor the situation closely.

Cebu Pacific said in a statement that it hoped to take part in the next EU air safety commission meeting later this year and continues to look at opening services to "parts of Europe and the US".

The EU announced in March 2010 that it had banned all Philippine airlines from flying into Europe for "serious and persistent non-compliance" with the bloc's air safety rules.

The US issued its ban on the Philippines expanding its operations in 2008.

SOURCE

This is good news for PAL. They're now able to extend their network into EU airspace. However, the ban continues for Cebu Pacific after they failed to react adequately to a crash weeks ago.