First Bodies From Air France Crash Recovered From Atlantic

By Tom Rivers London 06 June 2009

Brazilian navy ship takes part in search operations of missing Air France jet, near to port of Fernando de Noronha, 06 Jun 2009

After days of painstaking search, Brazilian crews have recovered the first bodies from the Air France plane that disappeared hundreds of kilometers off the coast.

Search crews on Saturday found debris and the bodies of two males from the Airbus 330 200-series jet.

Brazilian Air Force spokesman Jorge Amaral broke the news.

Amaral said that this morning at 8:14 local time, Brazilian authorities received confirmation of the recovery from the water of objects from the plane and bodies that belonged to the Air France flight.

Among the items found, a seat with a serial number that matched the plane and a bag with an Air France ticket for the flight inside it.

Brazil’s air force has been scouring the remote area some 640 kilometers off the northeast coast since Monday.

Amaral says that the intense search will continue. He says 14 planes are currently being used in the operation along with three naval vessels and he predicts more bodies and debris from the plane will be found.

Meanwhile in Paris, Paul-Louis Arslanian, the head of France’s Accident Investigation Agency showed reporters an example of a beacon or pinger attached to the so-called black box flight and data recorders that now may be deep below the surface. “This is what we are looking for, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. So what we have are basically microphones, or call it hydrophones, which are built and usually we call them fishers,” he said.

Normally, those beacons emit signals for around 30 days before they fade. If located, they could hold vital clues relating to why the plane came down.

228 passengers and crew were on flight 447. The loss is the worst in Air France’s 75-year history.

MAS mula kempen saji makanan halal dalam penerbangan

MAS mula kempen saji makanan halal dalam penerbangan Berita Harian, 11 April 2001 PENERBANGAN Malaysia (MAS), akan berusaha mempromosikan kesedaran mengenai pentingnya syarikat penerbangan antarabangsa menyajikan makanan halal kepada penumpang yang menggunakan perkhidmatan mereka. Usaha itu akan dibuat dengan menanamkan kesedaran bahawa langkah menyediakan makanan halal dalam penerbangan dapat menjadi faktor sampingan yang menggalak lebih banyak penumpang menggunakan khidmat sesebuah syarikat. Sebagai permulaan, MAS akan menggunakan Persidangan Persatuan Penyajian Pesawat Antarabangsa (Ifca) dan Persatuan Perkhidmatan Makanan Dalam Pesawat Antarabangsa (Ifsa) sebagai medan mempromosikan inisiatif itu. Malaysia akan menjadi tuan rumah bagi Ifca dan Ifsa kelima tahun ini bertemakan “Rangkaian Untuk Kejayaan di Asia Pasifik” yang dijadual berlangsung pada 17 hingga 19 Oktober ini di Petaling Jaya. MAS yang juga ahli persatuan itu akan menjadi syarikat penerbangan rasmi Ifca dan Ifsa yang dijangka mempertemukan kira-kira 400 perwakilan daripada pelbagai negara dan sektor termasuk syarikat penerbangan dan dalam persidangan itu. Naib Presiden Pembangunan Sumber dan Latihan Mas Catering Sdn Bhd (MAS Catering), Raja Kamariah Raja Hussein, berkata pihaknya akan membentangkan kertas kerja yang menyentuh aspek penyediaan makanan halal dalam pesawat. “Seorang pegawai teknikal dari Institut Penyelidikan Pertanian Malaysia (Mardi) dan Mas Catering sendiri akan menyampaikan kertas kerja untuk membincangkan isu itu bersama perwakilan. “MAS Catering akan berusaha mempromosi dan menggalakkan syarikat penerbangan asing menggunakan garis panduan berkaitan penyediaan makanan halal kepada penumpang,” katanya. Beliau berkata demikian dalam satu sidang akhbar khas bagi mengumumkan mengenai Ifsa dan Ifca di ibu pejabat MAS di Kuala Lumpur, semalam. Jika usaha itu berjaya, besar kemungkinan MAS akan dapat memperluaskan operasi MAS Catering untuk menyediakan makanan halal kepada syarikat penerbangan asing yang beroperasi ke negara ini. Sementara itu, Ahli Jawatankuasa Perancang Ifca/Ifsa, Mary Gostelow, berkata pada persidangan tahun lalu yang diadakan di Bangkok, Thailand seramai 300 perwakilan hadir mewakili 45 negara. Beliau yang juga Presiden Gostelow Travel bagaimanapun berkata, persidangan kali ini dijangka mencatat jumlah perwakilan yang lebih besar dengan kehadiran perwakilan dari Jepun, Amerika Syarikat, Eropah, Russia dan China. “Kuala Lumpur adalah satu pusat lawatan dan pertemuan yang penting dan ia terbukti menerusi kejayaan menganjurkan Persidangan Pelancongan Asia Pasifik (Pata),” katanya. Gostelow berkata, persidangan tahun lalu berjaya menarik ramai perwakilan kerana mereka berpeluang bertukar fikiran dan mengadakan kerjasama dalam pelbagai isu berkaitan industri. Beberapa kertas kerja akan dibentangkan dalam persidangan itu termasuk oleh Presiden Ifca dan Ifsa, Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional Bhd (Proton) dan chef selebriti terkenal, Chef Wan.

Malaysia Airports

Kuala Lumpur, 20 January 2009 Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB) has noted that additional comments have been made whereby we are duty bound to provide clarification. CHARGES Aeronautical charges, or commonly known as ‘Airport Charges’, which are approved by the government can be divided into two categories: Passenger Service Charge (PSC) (formerly known as ‘Airport Tax’) which is paid by departing passengers. Charges to the airlines which includes parking, landing, aerobridge and check in counters. The level of aeronautical charges are determined and approved by the Government authorities and are applied on a standard basis across all airports in Malaysia. Any increases or decreases in these charges are within the purview of the Government authorities and MAHB fully respects this, as can be seen in the case of the current LCCT, where the Government reduced the PSCs. It has been contended that the higher the cost of building a terminal, or for that matter, an airport, will result in higher charges to airlines operating into that particular airport. This is not the case. For example, when KLIA was built and the airlines moved from Subang, aeronautical charges at KLIA were not increased; similarly, the case for Langkawi, Kota Bharu, Alor Setar, Bintulu, Tawau and Limbang Airports. This will therefore also not be the case for newly upgraded airports in Kuala Terengganu, Melaka, Labuan, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu. Any increase is applied uniformly across all airports. Charges paid by airlines at Malaysia’s airports are already low and discounted against those charged by neighbouring competing airports. These charges are intentionally kept low to provide low cost operations for airlines operating in and to Malaysia. Therefore, the issue of high aeronautical charges applicable to airlines does not arise. In fact, it needs to be emphasised that the landing and parking charges in Malaysia have not been increased for the past 27 years. Airport charges applicable to airlines constitute only a small proportion of their total costs. For example, in the case of AirAsia, it is believed that this constitutes approximately only 2.5 percent of their total annual costs. When incentives are given, this percentage is further reduced. CONNECTIVITY When the current LCCT was being designed, AirAsia stated that their business model was strictly on a point-to-point basis. This meant that it did not involve, nor catered for transfer of passengers even between its own flights at the LCCT. This low cost model meant that passengers who wished to transfer flights were expected to take out their own bags by themselves and re-check in all over again. During the design stages of the current LCCT, MAHB had advised for the LCCT to have transfer facilities. However, AirAsia made it very clear that this was not required under their business model. In order to provide connectivity between LCCT and the main terminal, MAHB had offered to provide airside bussing services for passengers, if AirAsia as the ground-handling agent could provide baggage transfers. Transfers via KLIA’s airside would then take less than ten minutes. AirAsia was unable to accommodate this proposal. As such, passengers have to use public transportation to go to the main terminal from LCCT and vice versa, should they wish to transfer flights between the two terminals. However, AirAsia only recently changed their business model to allow for transfer of passengers, including interlining of baggage between AirAsia and AirAsia X flights. In the expansion works currently being carried out at the current LCCT, facilities are being incorporated to facilitate such transfer of baggage.

http://www.malaysiaairports.com.my/?ch=52&pg=225&ac=1305