Airways are safest they’ve ever been

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Airways are safest they’ve ever been
By Alan Levin USA TODAY
USA Today
30 Jun 2006

The descent to Tucson was spectacular, the airline pilots recalled later, as the Boeing 737 glided between a canopy of stars and the sparkling lights of the city. The beautiful conditions masked a deadly hazard ahead in the darkness.

Despite charts showing a 4,687-foot mountain peak in their path, the pilots eased the jet to just below 4,000 feet. Only seconds away from a collision, the flight crew noticed the city’s lights slowly disappearing behind a vague dark shape rising above the cockpit.

In an earlier era, this flight in January 2002 would have crashed, killing themore than 100 people aboard. It would have been tallied as yet another case of a pilot accidentally flying a plane into the ground— the leading cause of aviation deaths around the world.

But a new safety device saved their lives, according to an account of the incident obtained by USA TODAY from documents and interviews. As the jet bore down on the mountain, a mechanical voice boomed in the cockpit: “Terrain, terrain! PULL UP! PULL UP!” It was a computer that keeps an eye on every hilltop and mountain in the world, and it warned the crewjust in time. The pilots
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Virgin Atlantic flying high as annual profits double (The Herald, 27 Jun 2006, Page 16)

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Virgin Atlantic flying high as annual profits double

The Herald
27 Jun 2006

RICHARD Branson’s Virgin Atlantic – which triggered a price-fixing inquiry into archrival British Airways – posted a doubling in yearly profits yesterday after attracting more business travellers.
Their annual results came amid a UK–US investigation into alleged cartel activity over airline fuel surcharges, launched following a tip-off by Virgin to British regulators.
A US law firm has already started a class-action lawsuit against airlines over pricefixing allegations, according to reports. But an industry source said yesterday the action was not being taken as a serious threat for the carriers.
Virgin, which competes with British Airways for premiumpaying passengers, said it carried 10% more business customers in the year after introducing new upper-class facilities.
The airline – 51%-owned by Branson and 49% by Singapore Airlines – also launched new routes to India and the Caribbean, which helped offset a 30% jump in fuel costs and tough transatlantic competition.
Profit before tax and exceptionals for the year ending February 28 rose to £41.6m from £20m a year ago, the airline said. Revenues increased 17% to £1.9bn and passenger numbers rose 11% to 4.9 million.
Virgin approached the Office of Fair Trading about alleged conversations between a BA executive and one of its staff last year to sound out plans to increase fuel surcharges on long-haul flights, a source said. The civil and criminal probe into an alleged cartel was announced last week after... read more...

Net widens in airlines price-fixing inquiry (The Business, 25 Jun 2006, Page 1)

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Net widens in airlines price-fixing inquiry
by Rupert Steiner CITY EDITOR
The Business
25 Jun 2006

THE joint Office of Fair Trading and American Justice Department investigation into airline price fixing will target all four long-haul operators that fly from Heathrow.



It was previously thought the inquiry would focus on only one airline after the competition authorities raided British Airways’ Heathrow headquarters this month.



The investigation is concerned with a series of fuel surcharges introduced by BA, Virgin Atlantic, American and United Airlines.



Both American and United have been served with US federal grand jury subpoenas which American sources say request them to hand over information relating to the strategy, timing and calculations of the charges.



Virgin is widely reported to have blown the whistle on what it claims to be allegations of price fixing on transatlantic routes, in the hope it might get immunity from prosecution.



It has been a long-time rival of British Airways and the two have a history of bitter battles harking back to the “dirty tricks” campaign more ... read more...