The crash of an aging Russian jet last week that killed 44 people, including an entire professional hockey team, was among a string of recent deadly crashes in Russia that have scared the public and prompted the president to suggest replacing all Soviet-era aircraft with Western-made planes.
But industry experts say that the air disasters plaguing Russia are rooted not simply in the planes’ age, but in a myriad of other problems, including poor crew training, crumbling airports, lax government controls and widespread neglect of safety in the pursuit of profits.
“It’s like an ax hanging over the head of each of us,” said Oleg Smirnov, a highly decorated pilot who served as deputy civil aviation minister during Soviet times.
He and other experts warn there is no quick remedy for the industry’s woes _ exacerbated by government inefficiency and corruption. They blame state regulators for turning a blind eye to aviation problems and failing to establish proper control over flight safety.
Veteran pilots insist aircraft like the Yak-42 that crashed last week, the Tu-134 that went down in June _ killing 47 people _ and the An-24 that crash-landed on the Ob River in July and killed seven, are solid designs that are safe to fly despite their age if they are operated properly.
An official panel conducting the probe into the Yak-42 crash hasn’t yet named the cause, but has said it has found no evidence of equipment failure. However, two other such jets belonging to the owner of the crashed plane were grounded after a safety watchdog found that some engine components had exceeded their service time.
While most pilots and industry experts describe the Soviet-era planes as outdated but rugged and reliable, some say that the airlines have struggled to keep them airworthy.
“The collapse of aircraft components production has created a major problem,” Alexander Akimenkov, a veteran test pilot who has flown 80 types of Russian and Western planes, told The Associated Press.
Akimenkov said the owners of Soviet-made planes have had to rummage around the country for spare parts to keep them flying. The shortage of spare parts has spawned the use of plane components from old depots, which sometimes lack proper service certificates, as well as recycled components.
The government has done little to strengthen air safety. Russia has four government agencies overseeing aviation, but their functions are vaguely defined and often duplicate one another.
“There is an immediate need for a single government agency in charge of aviation,” said veteran pilot Vladimir Gerasimov, who blamed authorities for failing to make safety the top priority. He argued that loose regulations contributed to some of the recent crashes by permitting pilots to perform risky landing maneuvers.
Gerasimov said that greed prevails over safety at some Russian carriers, whose management encourages crews to save fuel no matter what. That often prompts pilots to make risky decisions like landing in bad weather instead of flying to another airport out of fear of losing their pay.
“Pilots act under pressure of possible sanctions for making the right decisions,” Gerasimov told The Associated Press.
Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev responded to the latest crash by ordering officials to shut most of the nation’s 130 carriers, saying small airlines tend to cut corners on safety. He also said the government may end attempts to bail out struggling national aircraft makers and buy more foreign planes. “The value of human life must prevail over all other considerations, such as support for local producers,” Medvedev said.
Many industry insiders warn, however, that replacing the old planes won’t solve the industry’s problems because Western aircraft require the modern infrastructure that Russia lacks.
“The president suggests using Western planes, but in that case we would also need to have Western infrastructure,” said Akimenkov, the veteran test pilot.
Akimenkov, who tested the performance of several Soviet-designed planes in extreme conditions, said that Western planes generally require more careful maintenance and aren’t always fit for use at primitive airports and in the rugged conditions of Russia’s Far North.
The nation’s airports have remained in state hands, and most of them continue to rely on outdated navigation and communications equipment and are in dire need of repairs.
While June’s Tu-134 crash in the northwestern city of Petrozavodsk has been blamed on the pilot, who might have mistaken a nearby highway for the runway while trying to land in deep fog, experts said the antiquated condition of the local airport contributed to the disaster.
Only three airports in the country are equipped with state-of-the art automatic landing systems, while all others continue to rely on old navigation equipment, which puts more pressure on the crews when they land at night or in bad weather, raising the likelihood of pilot error.
Poland said that insufficient lighting at an airport in Smolensk in western Russia was among the factors that contributed to the April 2010 crash of a Soviet-made Tu-154 that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski and 95 other people.
The largest airlines, including the national flag carrier Aeroflot, already have withdrawn Soviet-era planes from service and rely almost entirely on Boeings and Airbuses, which burn less fuel and meet European requirements for noise and emissions. Imported planes accounted for 83 percent of passengers carried by Russian airlines last year, and the figure will likely reach 90 percent this year, Smirnov said.
But Boeings and Airbuses are used only on the busiest foreign and domestic flights, while hundreds of other routes across Russia’s nine time zones are served by small regional carriers, most of which have only a handful of aging Soviet-era aircraft and simply can’t afford Western planes.
Alexei Sinitsky, the editor of Air Transport Review monthly magazine, said that bigger carriers have shown no interest in serving smaller airports, which would require a big investment and wouldn’t bring sizable returns. He argued that many smaller carriers have a good safety record and warned that Medvedev’s orders would have “monstrous consequences for both Russia’s aviation and for the population of remote regions.”
Other experts also said that an attempt to quickly discard old aircraft and radically cut the number of carriers would paralyze air traffic across most of Russia.
“Aviation is what keeps our country together,” said Smirnov, warning that air transport provides the only link to many areas of Siberia and the Far East. “Closing an airport means closing a city.”
British police say a sixth man has been charged with murder in the deaths of three men in a hit-and-run attack during riots in the English city of Birmingham.
West Midlands Police said Wednesday the 29-year-old man will appear at Birmingham Magistrates court on Thursday in connection with the murders of 20-year-old Haroon Jahan and brothers Shazad Ali, 30, and Abdul Musavir, 31.
The trio were killed after a car, allegedly containing several looters, struck them at high speed as they stood guard in front of a row of Pakistani-owned shops paydayloans.
Five other men ranging in age from 17 to 30 have already been charged with murder. All remain in custody.
WASHINGTON
The top Democrat in the House reacted positively to a new bipartisan budget plan emerging in the Senate, even as a top House GOP military hawk said it would cut defense way too much.
Asked about the budget unveiled Tuesday by the Senate’s “Gang of Six” at a brief appearance with reporters Wednesday morning, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said, “It has some good principles in it.”
The group’s budget, which would slash the deficit by almost $4 trillion over a decade through a mix of spending cuts and new tax revenues, has also earned praise from President Barack Obama and many senators.
But House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif., blasted the Gang of Six plan in a missive to his panel members, saying it would cut the Pentagon way too deeply and would unfairly curb military health and retirement benefits.
“This proposal raises serious implications for defense and would not allow us to perform our constitutional responsibility to provide for the safety and security of our country,” McKeon wrote in a memo to panel Republicans.
The mixed reviews came as an impasse in Washington over how to raise the nation’s borrowing cap to avoid a default on U.S. obligations dragged on with less than two weeks to an Aug. 2 deadline.
On Tuesday, the House doubled down on a symbolic vote to condition any increase in the government’s borrowing authority on congressional passage of a balanced budget constitutional amendment and a fresh wave of spending cuts. In the Senate, however, many Republicans warmed to a new bipartisan budget plan revealed a thawing in GOP attitudes on new tax revenues.
The plan by the Gang of Six is far too complicated and contentious to advance before an Aug. 2 deadline to avoid a default that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and other experts warn would shake the markets, drive up interest rates and threaten to take the country back into a recession. But the plan’s authors clearly hope it could serve as a template for a “grand bargain” later in the year that could erase perhaps $4 trillion from the deficit over the coming decade.
Speaking on the Senate floor Wednesday morning, Democratic leader Harry Reid said he was confident Obama and congressional negotiators could avoid a government default, but the Senate still needed to hear from the House.
“We have a plan to go forward over here so I await word from the Speaker,” said the Nevada lawmaker, who also mentioned that he spoke to Obama Tuesday night. Reid was referring to a plan he’s working on with GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky to give Obama new powers to obtain an increase in the borrowing cap unless overridden by Congress.
In the House, the 234-190 vote Tuesday to pass the House GOP “cut, cap and balance” plan reflected the strength of tea party forces elected in last year’s midterm election. GOP conservatives reveled in their victory, however temporary it may be, since the plan faces a White House veto threat and is a dead letter in the Senate anyway.
“Let me be clear. This is the compromise. This is the best plan out there,” said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, head of a conservative House group known as the Republican Study Committee.
The GOP measure would impose an estimated $111 billion in immediate spending cuts next year and would cap overall spending at levels called for in the House’s April budget plan, backed up by the threat of automatic spending cuts. But what conservatives like most about it is its requirement that Congress approve a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution _ a step that requires a two-thirds vote in both House and Senate _ before any increase in the current $14.3 trillion debt limit can be shipped to Obama.
The balanced budget amendment requires limiting the size of government to 18 percent of the size of the economy, sparking a furious assault from Democrats who say it would force Medicare cuts much deeper than the controversial House GOP budget plan that passed in April _ which cut spending to 20 percent of the gross domestic product.
“The most elementary budget arithmetic dictates that you cannot limit the federal budget to 18 percent of GDP and continue to sustain Medicare,” said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa.
Now that the House has blown off steam, Obama said Tuesday that he wants to “start talking turkey” with top congressional leaders like House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. A White House meeting had yet to be scheduled, though Obama seemed to hint one could take place Wednesday.
Reid has lined up behind a controversial McConnell plan to allow Obama to order up as much as $2.5 trillion in new debt without approval by Congress, which could only block the administration from issuing new debt if Congress disapproves by a veto-proof two-thirds margin in both House and Senate.
In exchange, Reid wants to attach to the McConnell plan a requirement for a bipartisan panel of 12 lawmakers to negotiate on a compromise that could come up for a vote later this year.
The Gang of Six plan promises almost $4 trillion in deficit cuts, including an immediate 10-year, $500 billion down payment that would come as Congress sets caps on the agency budgets it passes each year. It also requires an additional $500 billion in cost curbs on federal health care programs, cuts to federal employee pensions, curbs in the growth of military health care and retirement costs, and modest cuts to farm subsidies.
It also requires a major influx of new tax revenues as Congress overhauls the loophole-choked U.S. tax code. It calls for getting rid of myriad tax loopholes, preferences and deductions and using the savings to sharply lower income tax rates. But $1 trillion to $2 trillion would be skimmed off the top and used to reduce the deficit, depending on who does the calculations.
House GOP leaders were muted in their criticism and pointed to promised reductions in income tax rates rather than the net increase in overall tax collections.
“On the positive side, the tax rates identified in the Gang’s plan _ with a top rate of no more than 29 percent _ and the president’s endorsement of them are a positive development and an improvement over previous discussions,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said. “That said, I am concerned with the Gang of Six’s revenue target.”
The tax reform outline would set up three income tax rates _ a bottom rate of 8-12 percent, a middle rate of 14-22 percent and top rate of 23-29 percent _ to replace the current system, which has a bottom rate of 10 percent with five additional rates, topping out at 35 percent. It would reduce but not eliminate tax breaks on mortgage interest, higher-cost health plans, charitable deductions, retirement savings and families with children.
Rebekah Brooks, Rupert Murdoch’s former British CEO, says she is “assisting the police with their inquiries” after being arrested in the British phone hacking and police bribery scandal.
Brooks, 43, was arrested at a London police station at noon Sunday by appointment. She is being questioned on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications _ phone hacking _ and on suspicion of corruption, which relates to bribing police for information free instant credit score.
The first time Illinois tried to sell Asian carp to China, officials couldn’t give it away. But some marketing magic
About 50 Yemeni soldiers are missing after battling Islamic militants in the south of the country, a military official said Saturday.
The soldiers have been missing since Thursday, following fierce clashes with the al-Qaida-linked group Ansar al-Sharia in the southern city of Zinjibar, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. On Thursday, 15 soldiers and eight Islamic militants were killed in fighting in Zinjibar, the official said.
He said he had no further information on the fate of the missing soldiers.
Elsewhere in Yemen, gunmen blew up an unused oil pipeline in the central province of Marib, the latest in a series of attacks on the same target in recent weeks, officials said Saturday. The attack occurred Thursday, they said.
Yemeni authorities stopped producing oil in May because of repeated attacks and labor unrest.
Yemen’s growing turmoil, including the government’s battle against al-Qaida’s most dangerous wing in the south of the country, come at a time when the weakened regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh faces an array of opponents. Government forces do not appear to have the will to fight the Islamists, raising fears that al-Qaida is making significant gains.
Recent advances made by the militants in the increasingly lawless south are a clear attempt to exploit the power vacuum and turmoil caused by a popular uprising against Saleh that began in February. The revolt gained momentum when a coterie of the president’s close aides, military commanders and Cabinet ministers joined the protesters.
Government troops and warplanes have so far targeted only two southern cities, Zinjibar and Jaar, in Abyan province.
Yemen’s president, meanwhile, remains in Saudi Arabia, where he is being treated for injuries sustained in a June 3 attack on his palace in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa. Saleh suffered serious burns and other wounds.
Yemeni officials said Saturday that after undergoing two surgeries, Saleh remains bedridden and has trouble breathing and talking. Only relatives and his top adviser are allowed to visit him, one official said.
Earlier this week, a Yemeni TV network sent a crew to the Saudi capital to record an audio message from Saleh to the Yemeni people, but authorities prevented them from entering the hospital, a Yemeni official in Riyadh said.
“They were only allowed to film the hospital from outside,” the official said, citing an example of the Saudi restrictions on Saleh’s visitors.
Over the past week, Yemeni ruling party officials in Sanaa have suggested Saleh may deliver an audio message on state TV to assure his people. However, a week passed without word from Saleh.
“If he (Saleh) delivered a speech through an audio message, people would not believe it is him because they will not recognize his voice,” said another official, adding that Saleh’s voice box was harmed.
All three officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the issue.
The president has not been seen in public since the attack. On June 5, hours before he flew to Saudi Arabia, he aired a brief audio message, blaming an “armed gang of outlaws” for the attack on his palace.
Saudi Arabia has been pressing Saleh to step down within 30 days and hand power to his vice president, in exchange for immunity from prosecution. A national unity government would run the country until elections are held, according to the deal brokered by the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council.
The United States, in favor of peaceful power transfer, fears that al-Qaida’s branch in Yemen could further exploit Yemen’s turmoil to strengthen its presence there. Al-Qaida-linked groups have already used Yemen as a base for plotting two attempted anti-U.S. attacks.
Greece’s prime minister was gambling his government’s survival and the danger of a devastating debt default on a Tuesday night confidence vote aimed at helping him passing deeply disliked austerity measures that have provoked strikes, protests and a slump in his popularity.
Greek deputies began voting after midnight in a crucial confidence motion called by Prime Minister George Papandreou after he reshuffled his cabinet to face down an internal party revolt and help him pass deeply unpopular austerity measures.
The vote was being conducted by roll call after a heated debate that saw sections of the opposition briefly walk out. Papandreou needs 151 votes in the 300-member parliament to win, which he is expected to do.
A loss would likely lead to early elections and throw into question whether Greece can pass a new austerity bill by the end of June as demanded by the country’s international creditors. Unless the new measures pass, Greece will not receive the next batch of funds from its bailout loans, and will face a disastrous default.
Greece is being kept financially afloat by euro110 billion ($157 billion) EU-IMF bailout fund.
A default by Greece could spark a financial maelstrom around the world, dragging down Greek and European banks as well as stoking renewed fears over the finances of other eurozone countries, such as Portugal, Ireland and Spain.
Expectations that Papandreou would win lifted world markets. His Socialist party holds a five-seat majority in the 300-member legislature, and a simple majority is needed to pass.
“Indications over the last 24 hours or so have certainly been that the government will survive, if only because the alternative would be so dire,” said Beat Siegenthaler, an analyst at UBS.
Papandreou reshuffled his Cabinet last week and replaced his finance minister to ease growing dissent within the governing party.
On Tuesday the new finance minister, Evangelos Venizelos, promised that parliament will pass the unpopular austerity package by the end of June in order to comply with European Union demands to receive the next payment in its bailout loan.
Venizelos said Parliament is set to vote on euro28 billion ($40.2 billion) worth of budget cuts and other savings next week.
Greece has said it will face a default unless it receives the euro12 billion ($17.3 billion) rescue loan installment from European countries and the International Monetary Fund.
“We must follow this course to save the country,” Venizelos said.
“Our European partners … face is with distrust,” he said. “This is an atmosphere that we have to change.”
Papandreou’s popularity has been hammered by the latest austerity measures, with an opinion poll published Tuesday giving the Socialists a 20 loans for people with bad credit.1 percent approval rating. Rival conservatives faired marginally better, at 21 percent, in the GPO survey for private Mega television of 1,000 adults. No margin of error was given.
Some 7,000 protesters, chanting “thieves! thieves!” were gathered outside parliament, while a strike by the country’s powerful electricity workers’ union continued to cause rolling blackouts for a second day.
Socialist skeptics, however, appeared to shy away from another fight.
Prominent dissenter Nikolas Salagiannis, said he would vote in favor of the government following the cabinet reshuffle.
“This has generated a slim hope that the issues can be addressed … We back the new government,” Salagiannis said. But he added: “Make no mistake, our connection with people in the street and in the squares is dwindling by the day. We have gone from austerity to more austerity, from denial to denial to get where we are … and the public’s tolerance has been used up.”
Though considered unlikely, if Papandreou loses Tuesday’s vote he would have little choice but to call early elections or try to form a coalition government. However, all opposition parties have said they want elections.
But even after winning, he faces an even more difficult task: Getting parliament to back the new austerity measures as well as an unpopular euro50 billion ($71 billion) privatization program by the end of the month.
If the new austerity measures pass, the finance ministers of the 17-nation eurozone will meet July 3 to give Greece its next bailout installment.
A key requirement from the eurozone and the IMF is that Greece steps up its privatization drive.
European officials are also discussing a second, similar-sized bailout for Greece since it’s obvious the country won’t be able to return to the bond markets and raise money to pay creditors any time soon.
“I trust that the new Greek government will receive the confidence of parliament,” European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said after meeting with Papandreou Monday, but added the crucial vote was the one on the new austerity package.
“I therefore trust that Greece’s elected representatives will back these measures next week in a spirit of national and indeed European responsibility,” Barroso said. “These choices are not easy, but nor are the problems that need to be addressed. Now is not the time to falter.”
Air India pilots demanding more pay are on strike for a fifth day in defiance of a court order to return to work and spare the airline from further losses.
The strike has forced India’s national carrier to stop taking new bookings and to cancel all but 40 of its scheduled 165 flights Sunday. It has forced after similar cancelations each day since the strike started Wednesday.
The airline is also coping by hiring chartered flights for some routes. It says the action is now costing around 12 million rupees ($2.67 million) a day.
The Delhi High Court had ordered the 800 striking pilots last week to call off their “brazen” strike. It launched contempt of court proceedings Saturday when the pilots refused to go back to work.
Airfares are going up yet again.
Late Tuesday, Southwest Airlines raised all of its round-trip fares by $10. Delta (DAL, Fortune 500) initiated this latest round of price increases on Monday, and as of midday Wednesday American Airlines (AMR, Fortune 500), JetBlue (JBLU) and United Airlines (UAL) had matched it.
Industry experts say the $10 increase is likely to be adopted industrywide.
If so, this would mark the seventh time this year that domestic airlines have jacked up fares.
In the past five years, no industrywide attempt to raise fares failed when Southwest was on-board.
Southwest (LUV, Fortune 500) blames the price of fuel.
"This higher fare is to offset higher fuel costs that we continue to face in the industry," said company spokeswoman Laurel Moffat.
This year is similar to 2008, when oil prices were surging and oil hit a record high of $145 a barrel. In 2008, there were 17 successful hikes.
Oil was trading at about $111 a barrel on Wednesday.
Rick Seaney, CEO of FareCompare.com, said the industry is "on pace to break that record this year," though he believes prices won’t go too high.
"In 2007, it was not unusual to have one-third of a plane empty," Seaney said. "Today to keep revenues up, planes have to be full. And to fill up those planes, you have to be price conscious. So prices can’t get too out of whack."
When airlines announce these price increases, they are doing two things: gauging consumer appetite and the willingness of competitors to follow. Airlines are only able to charge higher prices if customers are willing to pay. And, these hikes aren’t successful unless most or all competitors match the hike.
If only one airline announces a hike, it will end up on the last few pages on airline ticket comparison sites — effectively out of view for many online shoppers.
Industry experts believe that fliers will see more airfare hikes throughout the year. Seaney said it wouldn’t surprise him if we saw one a week for the next month.
And with the summer travel season right around the corner, consumers can expect even higher airline prices.
Between June 9 and Aug. 21, airlines are charging additional summer premiums. Last year was the first year that airlines started charging summer premiums.
Demand is typically higher at this time or year, so airlines are able to charge more.
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