Travel Safety Update - Africa / Middle East.

May 3, 2009

Algeria

Fourteen airports in Algeria are under threat of closure due to losses incurred from the global economic crisis. Many airports in the North African country are on the verge of bankruptcy in the wake of the economic downturn, which has hit air transportation around the world. There are also accusations of mismanagement and squandering of resources within the Algerian Airport Services Organization, a major airport operator. Apr 28, 2009

CentrAfrique Air Express, Boeing

News services are reporting that a Boeing 737 aircraft crashed and burned at 0600h local time this morning near Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Reports indicate the twin-jet, possibly belonging to CentrAfrique Air Express and operating as a freight flight, took off from Brazzaville in the Congo and was headed for an interim stop in Nairobi along the way to Harare, Zimbabwe. The flight originated in the Central African Republic city of Bangui. CentrAfrique owns one Pratt & Whitney JT8-D-powered Boeing 737-200 (TL-ADR) and two Boeing 727-200s. Apr 27, 2009

Emirates Airlines, Airbus

Emirates Airlines is in damage control after a flight with 275 passengers and crew came within seconds of a disastrous crash at Melbourne Airport because a pilot punched the wrong numbers into a computer. The airline has stepped up its safety procedures and sent a team of top executives to Australia to reassure transport officials as the error was revealed yesterday by Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigators. The Airbus passenger jet was struggling to get off the ground and perilously close to crashing with a full load of fuel when its captain used an emergency system to override the automated power settings. By that time the plane was blasting towards the end of the runway and travelling at close to 300km/h. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau's director of Aviation Safety Investigations, Julian Walsh, said yesterday somebody in the cockpit fed into the computer a weight for the aircraft that was 100 tonnes lighter than its actual weight of 362 tonnes. That meant that the aircraft computer applied vastly less power than was needed for the plane to climb safely off the runway. Apr 30, 2009

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