Aircraft with Michelle Obama breaks landing

The aircraft with the first lady, a military version of Boeing 737, three miles behind the C-17 was but should be five miles behind, because of the possibility of encountering turbulence of the transport aircraft be wake. The aircraft were too close to an error by a civilian air traffic controllers at a low altitude control center in Virginia, according to an official involved in the incident. But the event described the official as "Routine".

The controller in Virginia, distorted passing the approaching level from the control of the controller in the Tower in Andrews, at first separation of the two aircraft, saying that they four miles were away from each other, when in fact had closed the gap, three miles away, the official said.

To try the aircraft come to how controller ordered would do the aircraft to maneuver width with Mrs. Obama, the letter S, a skier to prevent spread to another too fast from behind.

But that was not enough and the controller in the tower at Andrews ordered to "bypass the Boeing" because they were concerned that the Jet cargo to slow down, not touch and stop the start and runway on a taxiway before that would have exceeded passenger aircraft which start and runway threshold. This problem is dozens of times per day with airliners on civil airports of the country, according to aviation experts.

The incident occurred just after 5 P.m. on Monday, the F.A.A. said in a statement, adding that "The aircraft were never in any danger." The Agency said in its statement that the problem was controller error.

The incident was reported for the first time on the website of the Washington Post.

Airliners do sometimes "go arounds", as a pilot in the cockpit judges that the aircraft forward is unclear, the start and runway will soon enough; in this case it was controller in the tower at Andrews, the aircraft to go with Mrs. Obama to order. Although Andrews is a military area, employees involved in this incident were all controller F.A.A..

Niedergelegte "Go Arounds" follow-up procedures, which give to turn the direction and the altitude that should climb the aircraft.

Too narrow for a large aircraft such as a C-17 is at low altitude, considered particularly risky if one upset would be rather a crash cause. In this case, the amount of the 737 was not immediately clear, but it was more than three miles from the start and runway threshold, because it was more than three miles behind the cargo Jet, and the transport aircraft still not reached the starting and runway, officially according to the Government.

In the aerial choreography in this case is not unusual, is it traffic system after several weeks of high-profile issues in the air, which in the Washington area began.

March 2005 the only controller used in the Tower of Ronald Reagan National Airport, Virginia across the Potomac River from Andrews, sleeping on his post, and two incoming aircraft were establish no connection with him. Both ended up anyway. The controller on duty at the Reno-Tahoe airport in Nevada not to queries from one incoming aircraft last week to respond. And on Thursday, the official air traffic control, Henry p. Krakowski, Chief Operating Officer of the Agency of air traffic organization, resigned.

At the time of the administrator of F.A.A., j. Randolph Babbitt, said in a statement: "in recent weeks we have seen examples of unprofessional conduct of some individuals, which rightly our ability to ensure their security have caused the travellers public on the issue." "This behavior must stop immediately."

View the original article here

Plane carrying Michelle Obama aborts landing

The American authorities federal aviation said a plane carrying Michelle Obama abandoned landing Monday after his arrival too close to a military cargo jet.

The Federal Aviation Administration said that a Boeing 737, the fleet of presidential aircraft, came to within five kilometres of a C-17 massive as aircraft approached Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland to the Earth.

The FAA requires a minimum separation of eight kilometres between plans to avoid the dangerous wake turbulence.

Andrews Air ordered traffic controllers plane of Ms. Obama to abort its landing and the circle of the airport to give time to larger aircraft to clear the runway.

The FAA reviewed the incident as a possible error by the controllers in a regional radar facility in Warrenton, Virginia.

Accessibility links

View the original article here

Southwest cancels flights after emergency landing

79 Is Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 aircraft check after a hole in one blew their aircraft on Friday. The inspections focus on signs of wear on the aircraft of exteriors.

Southwest Airlines canceled hundreds of flights Saturday review, 79 of the Boeing 737 aircraft a day after a hole in a fuselage, a forced emergency landing.

Flight 812 from Phoenix to Sacramento was Friday to Yuma, Arizona, redirected, in the midst of which referred to the airline as a sudden "Depressurization event" a safe end brings to a harrowing journey for 118 passengers and five crew members.

"Southwest expected about 300 flights today cancel, to the controls to be fair," said in a statement, specify 79 aircraft were grounded, not the already-announced 81 the airline.

"These aircraft are controlled several days at five locations in the course of the next."

Southwest said, that are the controls with Boeing, with focus on "aircraft skin fatigue."

That examine national transportation safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration, causing the hull to 36,000 feet open ribs.

"The security of our customers and employees is our primary concern, and we're grateful there were no serious injuries," Southwest Chief Operating Officer Mike van de Ven said in a statement.

A flight attendant and a passenger at least were treated for minor injuries, according to the airline.

Told US media that they have a are passengers pop like a gunshot, then felt wind rush through the cabin belongs.

"My husband and I saw you could see blue sky, you understand that the wiring, cabling," passenger Debbie Downey told CNN.

"We looked at each other and dachte-- oh my gosh, this is not a good sign."

The aircraft went into a steep nosedive and oxygen masks were deployed. FAA spokesman Ian Gregor described it as a "fast, controlled descent" before the plane landed in Yuma.

Shawna Redden said her "Heart was pounding my chest" in the confusing first minutes of the incident, and they began to believe that "This is it," but then managed to stay calm and try to help passengers other fear.

Reddy Fox said she used their mobile phones news to text possible farewell message to her husband, then found himself under the hand of strangers next to you "and just pray that we were going, make okay."

View the original article here

Fleeing North Africa and Landing in an Italian Limbo

Perhaps they could have just walked.

“Oh, let them go,” a plainclothes officer standing near the camp’s gate said loudly, his metal badge visible on his breast pocket.

The Italian government hastily built this camp in the Puglia region, the heel of Italy’s boot, last weekend to help hold immigrants evacuated from Lampedusa, a tiny Italian island south of Sicily that is jammed with thousands of immigrants from North Africa who have crossed the Mediterranean in fishing boats and are now sleeping in the open air.

The Puglia center, which holds about 1,300 people, is an example of the logistical challenges that Italy — and Europe — face as they prepare for thousands of immigrants fleeing the unrest in North Africa. So far, most of them have been Tunisians seeking work, but last weekend the first boats arrived from Libya carrying Somalis and Eritreans who had been working there.

To some Italians, the tent camp is as much a political statement as a humanitarian reality, the product of a center-right government intent on demonstrating that the immigration situation has become an emergency that requires a coordinated European response. If the authorities wanted to dramatize the problem, some say, what better way than with photographs of immigrants escaping from crowded holding areas?

Others see the camp as a bargaining chip in a diplomatic standoff between Italy and France, the former colonial power in Tunisia and the place where most of the Tunisians say they want to go.

Under European Union law, the country where immigrants arrive is responsible for determining their status. Italy has argued that it should not bear the brunt of the new arrivals just because it is so close to North Africa. In a television interview on Wednesday, the Italian foreign minister, Franco Frattini, criticized France for its “lack of solidarity” after it returned more than 500 immigrants to Italy after they were caught trying to cross the border into France.

“It’s a political statement to France: ‘You want to start the war in Libya? We’ll give you immigrants,’?” said Tonio Tondo, a journalist following the immigration situation for the daily La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno. Italy, which colonized Libya in the early 20th century, stands to lose billions in investments there because of the allied intervention. Italy is taking part in the mission, but it was championed by France.

Here in Manduria, officials seem nonchalant about the escapes. Asked why the Italian authorities appeared to do so little to stop the immigrants’ jumping the fence, Giuseppe Caruso, the police chief of Palermo and the special commissioner for the immigration emergency, asked rhetorically: “What should we do? Should we shoot them?”

But the camp is rapidly emerging as a problem. The town’s residents protested on Wednesday, calling for it to be closed because so many immigrants had escaped. Then both the mayor and Italy’s deputy interior minister, Alfredo Mantovano, tendered their resignations after Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said in a visit to Lampedusa on Wednesday that an additional 1,400 immigrants would be brought to Manduria. On Monday, Mr. Mantovano had pledged that the camp would not hold more than 1,500 people.

With its neat rows of blue tents on freshly laid gravel, and dozens of uniformed officials, the camp shows the power of the Italian state. But it also reveals its fissures. The camp is a legal no-man’s land. The new arrivals’ status — are they illegal immigrants, refugees or asylum seekers? — is uncertain, making it nearly impossible for the Italian authorities to process, repatriate or detain them.

Before the influx began in January, bringing about 18,000 people through Lampedusa, the immigrants who arrived there were held on the island for a few days before being sent to formal immigration or asylum centers on the mainland. The Interior Ministry says those centers are now almost full as Italy struggles with a bureaucratic backlog.

Under Italian law, immigrants can be held for up to 180 days to determine their status, and much longer if they are seeking asylum. If their arrival is deemed to be illegal, and they would not be subject to persecution in their home countries, they can be sent home. But Italy’s repatriation accords with Tunisia and Libya have broken down.

“We’re waiting for a directive,” said Antonio Calcagni, the chief of the immigration office at the Police Department in the nearby port city of Taranto, as he stood outside the Manduria camp. “Different countries are working on it,” he added.

The immigrants have grown frustrated, too. “We’ve been here for three days,” said Omar Naim, 24, a Tunisian, as he peered through the fence. “They haven’t done anything for us.”

Italian officials traveled last week to Tunisia, which still lacks a functioning government, to persuade the authorities there to honor the repatriation accords.

“What’s the legal status of the camp? That’s a good question,” said Nichi Vendola, the president of the Puglia region and a leading member of the center-left opposition. “Is it a place for determining who is an illegal immigrant? A place to receive asylum seekers? A hybrid place?” He added, “The confusion is the fruit of the ideological prejudices of the Northern League, which dominates the Berlusconi government.”

That party, the most powerful in the governing center-right coalition, has long drawn on fears of illegal immigration. Asked on Tuesday what should be done about the immigrants, the Northern League’s colorful leader, Umberto Bossi, used a phrase that politely translates as “get them out of our faces.”

The interior minister, Roberto Maroni, a member of the Northern League, has been more diplomatic, but has repeatedly said the European Union has abandoned Italy. The Italian government is not alone in seeking a more coordinated European response. Laura Boldrini, spokeswoman for the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Italy, said it was important to distinguish between the “economic migrants” from Tunisia who were seeking work in Europe and those fleeing the fighting in Libya.

“In the event of a mass influx of asylum seekers from Libya, the U.N.H.C.R. recommends that member states receive them and give them temporary protection,” Ms. Boldrini said. “It would be good to have a positive sign from Europe,” she added. “That could also help reduce tensions and calm down tones in Italy.”

Back in Manduria, as bulldozers worked the ground and trucks carted in generators, the camp seemed increasingly less temporary. Mr. Calcagni, the immigration chief for the Taranto police, looking resigned, cited an often-used Italian saying: “There’s nothing more definitive than something provisional.”