Planes collide at Melbourne airport

Two commercial planes collided on the tarmac at Australia's Melbourne airport on Saturday, officials said, damaging the aircraft but causing no injury to passengers.

The crash, between a reversing Virgin Australia 737 and an A320 Jetstar craft, saw one jet lose part of its tail cone and the other suffer wing damage, according to engineers who witnessed the damage.

"There were no injuries from (an) accident involving two aircraft which made contact while taxiing this morning, (which is) now under investigation," Melbourne Airport said on its Twitter feed.

"Airport operations as normal. Two gates temporarily out of use pending investigation."

The Virgin aircraft, bound for Maroochydore and carrying 175 passengers, hit an empty Jetstar plane as it was leaving the gate for take-off at about 9:30am, Virgin said.

Its wing-tip was damaged but the Jetstar aircraft lost the end of its tail cone, said engineer Paul Cousins, who described it as a lucky escape and put the damage bill at at least A$3 million for each airline.

"They were very lucky that the winglet did not go into the (tail cone's) auxiliary power unit, which is a small jet engine that runs in the back of the aircraft," Cousins, who is president of the national aircraft engineers' union, told The Age newspaper.

"It could have caused that engine to rupture... bits and pieces could have come out it and gone flying everywhere."

Disembarking Virgin passenger Luke Grima said there was a serious thud and exclamations of "Oh my God we've just hit another plane" as the jets collided.

"It was as if we ran over something," Grima told the Herald Sun newspaper.

"When we looked out the wing, we could just see the end of the wing had come off and the other Jetstar plane has got some pretty serious damage to its rear."

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said there were "very well-practised procedures in place" for aircraft gate manoeuvres and it had launched a probe.

"The ATSB is investigating the ground collision in Melbourne today," the authority said.

"Investigators will arrive in Melbourne this afternoon."

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Four killed in Ethiopian military plane crash in Mogadishu

An Ethiopian military cargo plane crash landed and burst into flames on Friday at Mogadishu airport, killing four crew members, officials with Somali security and AU forces said.

"It was a military cargo plane and there were six crew on board," said one security official who asked not to be named.

"Four of them died and two were rescued," the official said.

He said the aircraft, which crashed shortly before 0500 GMT belonged to the Ethiopian military.

A thick tower of smoke was seen billowing up from the crash scene and the airport was temporarily closed.

Sources at the airport said a series of explosions was heard as the fire spread along the plane, suggesting it was carrying ammunition or other inflammable products.

The African Union force in Somalia (Amisom) confirmed on its Twitter feed that the wrecked aircraft belonged to the Ethiopian airforce, expressing "heartfelt condolences to the government and people of Ethiopia following the loss of crew members".

Nick Kay, the UN special representative to Somalia, tweeted that he offered his "condolences" for the "tragic crash".

According to the Somalian government spokesman, Ridwan Haji Abdiweli, the plane suffered difficulties on landing.

However, he added that there "was nothing to indicate any external interference", referring to the possibility of an attack.

Flights at the airport resumed on Friday evening.

Ethiopia sent troops into southwest Somalia in 2011 to fight Shebab Islamist insurgents, alongside the Amisom force.

The Ethiopian troops have been crucial in dislodging the Shebab from a series of key towns.

The Ethiopian government confirmed the accident but said the exact cause of the accident was subject to an investigation.

A spokesman for the minister of foreign affairs, Dina Mufti, said they were unable to confirm the number of dead or injured.

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Plane stuck in mud closes Thai airport

An airplane that became wedged in mud after skidding off the runway during take-off in southern Thailand has forced the closure of the airport, authorities said on Wednesday.

The Boeing 737, operated by low cost Thai carrier Nok Air, veered onto soft ground on the edge of the runway at Trang airport as it set off for the Thai capital Bangkok with 142 passengers and 7 crew onboard late Tuesday.

No one was hurt in the incident, but a wheel of the plane remained lodged in the mud, prompting authorities to close the airport, Trat provincial governor Teerayut Eimtrakul told AFP.

"The aircraft's front wheel is about 15 metres (50 feet) from the runway's edge and has sunk half a foot (15 centimetres) into the mud," he said, adding that equipment was on its way from Bangkok to help extract the plane.

Staff at Nok Air said it was raining during the accident.

Passengers scheduled to fly with Nok Air and another low cost carrier AirAsia, which also flies from Trang, have been taken by bus to nearby airports.

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Indonesian plane skids off runway after hitting cow

An Indonesian passenger jet crashed into a cow and skidded off the runway as it came into land at an airport in the centre of the archipelago, officials said Wednesday.

No one was killed or seriously injured when the Lion Air plane carrying 110 passengers collided with one of three cows wandering on the runway as it arrived late Tuesday in Gorontalo, on Sulawesi island.

The cow, however, was crushed to death under one of the Boeing 737-900's middle wheels, head of Jalaluddin airport Agus Pramuka told AFP.

The pilot, Iwan Permadi, told state-run Antara news agency he could smell "burning meat" as the jet ran over the animal.

He said he thought there were dogs in front of the plane as it came into land, "but it turned out there were three cows wandering in the middle of the runway".

Pictures showed the dead cow under the aircraft's wheel in a field. The plane, which suffered minor damage, had skidded into the field next to the runway, with its tail still on the runway.

All the passengers managed to disembark safely, transport ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan told AFP.

The plane had started its journey in Jakarta and also had a stopover in Makassar, on Sulawesi, according to local media.

The airport was closed following the incident, disrupting travel plans for people heading home for the Eid al-Fitr holiday in Muslim-majority Indonesia.

One small jet managed to take off Wednesday, but the Lion Air plane was still at the edge of the runway, Pramuka said.

Indonesia, which relies heavily on air transport to connect its more than 17,000 islands, has one of Asia's worst aviation safety records.

In April, a Lion Air passenger jet carrying 108 people crashed into the sea after missing the runway as it came into land on the resort island of Bali. No one died but dozens were injured.

Lion Air could not be immediately reached for comment.

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Huge fire closes Nairobi international airport

A "massive" fire shut down Nairobi's international airport Wednesday with flights diverted to regional cities, officials said, as firefighters struggled to put out the blaze in east Africa's most important transport hub.

"There is a serious fire at JKIA (Jomo Kenyatta International Airport), but we are doing everything possible to avert a crisis," said Mutea Iringo, a senior official at the interior and national coordination ministry.

Firefighters were tackling the blaze but were "running dangerously low on water", the interior ministry said in an appeal to traffic to give way to trucks ferrying water to the airport.

"Apart from emergency landings, all flights into and out of JKIA have been cancelled ... (the) airport has been shut down," added Iringo.

The fire broke out shortly before dawn.

There were no initial reports of casualties, but Iringo said the fire was "massive", adding that the arrivals and immigration sections were "totally damaged".

Flights were being diverted to other airports, including the port city of Mombasa, the interior ministry added.

Images on Kenyan media showed flames rising high in the sky and billowing clouds of black smoke out of the main arrivals and departures terminal, with dozens of police and fire trucks at the scene.

The airport serves as a regional hub for east Africa, with many long-distance international flights landing there to connect to countries across the region.

Kenya National Disaster Operation Centre, in an update given at 0500GMT, said that while the blaze had been brought under control in the international departures areas, fire was still burning at the arrivals terminal.

All roads around the airport had been closed except to emergency traffic, it added.

"This is a major crisis," said senior transport ministry official Michael Kamau.

The blaze comes two days after aircraft were delayed for several hours after the failure of a fuel hydrant needed for refuelling the planes.

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Virgin Australia expects loss of US$98m for year

Virgin Australia said Monday it was expecting a full-year loss of A$95 million to A$110 million (US$84 million to US$98 million) due to a range of factors, including the tough economic environment and restructuring costs.

In updated guidance for the financial year ended June 30, 2013, Virgin said its performance had been hit by the "difficult economic and competitive environment", costs associated with its transformation, and Australia's carbon tax.

"As a result of these factors, Virgin Australia expects a statutory loss after tax in the range of $95 million to $110 million," it said in a statement.

Virgin Australia said costs included the transition to the new Sabre booking and check-in system, transaction costs related to the acquisition of Skywest Airlines and the acquisition of 60 per cent of Tiger Airways Australia.

It also confirmed that the pre-tax costs of the carbon tax, a levy on Australia's biggest polluters, for the 2013 financial year would be $45-$50 million.

It said the carbon tax cost was "unable to be recovered due to weak economic conditions and the competitive environment".

Virgin Australia, the country's second largest carrier after Qantas Airways, last year posted a full-year net profit of A$22.8 million.

"Although today's update is disappointing and notwithstanding a challenging environment, we have made significant progress on the execution of our game change programme," Virgin Australia chief executive John Borghetti said.

"We now have the right platform in the Australian market to generate sustainable earnings benefits."

The airline said forward domestic bookings as at 30 June, 2013 were about six per cent higher than the same time last year and it expected domestic capacity growth in the first half of the 2014 financial year to be within three to four per cent.

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Boeing exec avoids Dreamliner questions, touts new jets

A Boeing executive on Friday declined to answer questions about Dreamliner's growing list of problems less than two weeks after another grounding, as he touted the troubled aircraft's new models.

A Qatar Airways 787 Dreamliner resumed flights on Wednesday after being grounded due to what the US plane manufacturer said was the replacement of "technical components".

The plane was out of action from July 22, an industry source told AFP.

The fuel-efficient plane has suffered a string of woes largely tied to its lithium-ion batteries, including a four-month worldwide grounding at the start of the year and a fire onboard an empty Ethiopian Airlines plane at London's Heathrow airport last month.

On Friday, Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of airplane development at Boeing, told a Tokyo press briefing that the firm was preparing to introduce new versions of its 787 Dreamliner as well as the long-range 777 and smaller 737.

The company was planning a test flight of its larger and more energy-efficient 787-9, due to come into service next year, he said, adding that its successor would likely be in the air by 2018.

But Fancher declined to discuss the current Dreamliner's problems or the battery system on its revamped model. Japanese battery maker GS Yuasa has been the global supplier for power packs in Boeing's Dreamliner.

"It is a detailed design question, not the sort of thing we are talking about," Fancher said in a response to a reporter's question about the Dreamliner battery.

"I'm not going into a lot of detail on design details," he added.

Despite a lengthy investigation, Boeing has not identified the root cause of the Dreamliner's battery problems, but said it put safeguards in place to prevent future incidents.

Japan's two biggest airlines, All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines, were sideswiped by the grounding of Boeing's new aircraft that began in January, forcing them to cancel hundreds of flights until the plane was allowed to resume flying in June.

The pair, which have been the Dreamliner's biggest customers, have so far stuck with the plane, saying it was key to their expansion drive.

But the carriers are in talks over compensation for what they said was more than $200 million in combined lost revenue from the grounding.

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