Libyan Plane Crash Kills 103, Dutch Boy Survives

One Dutch child reportedly survived a fiery plane crash at Tripoli airport in Libya early Wednesday morning. Initial reports put the death toll at 103 people, while one lone survivor, a 10-year old boy walking away with only fractures. The Libyan Afriqiyah Airways Airbus 330-200 enroute from Johannesburg, was full of Dutch tourists before crashing near the airport on final approach.

inFLIGHTout is Tweeting more news today:

• United Airlines Frequent Flyers: Get a 20% Discount on award travel - systemwide - August 18-November 18, 2009. For example SFO-New York for 20,000 miles (instead of the usual 25,000)

• 168 Killed Wednesday morning when Caspian Airliner crashes shortly after takeoff in Iran.

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Breaking News: Yemeni Airliner Carrying 150 Crashes Into Indian Ocean

A Yemeni airliner with 150 people on board has crashed in the Comoros archipelago in the Indian Ocean, a government official said Tuesday. "We don't know if there are any survivors among the 150 people on the plane," the official told Reuters. Read the lastest from Reuters.

How to Overcome Your Child's Fear of Flying

By Lydie Thomas
from: travel is more fun with kids

Taking the airplane is safe but as we saw this week on the news, with the Air France plane crashing at sea, accidents happen and when they do, they are unlikely to end up with a happy ending.

Children fear of flying can be triggered by watching the news or a movie, reading a book, or people talking about then. I carefully never exposed my daughters to airplanes crashing news. The oldest got confronted to it one September 11th when her elementary school made an announcement for a minute of silence for the people who died in the airplanes that crashed in the twin towers that day. She came home, crying and telling me that she never wanted to go to France again because she did not want to die crashing in towers. I calmed her down and by the next June, she was flying back to France without worries. Still, I would have preferred to talk about this awful event using my own words and not having her hear about it over a speakerphone.

The accident of the Air France plane brought back all these insecurities for all of us and since families will be flying this summer (our family is flying on June 12th), I believe it is the right time to educate ourselves as parents on how to handle our children fear of flying if they experience any.

Tamar Chansky is a child psychologist, parent expert and is the author of the book: Freeing Your Child from Anxiety: Powerful, Practical Solutions to Overcoming Your Child's Fears, Worries and Phobias. She shares with us some solutions on children’s fear of flying.

Her solutions:
Start with empathy: if parents just try to talk their kids out of their fears, kids will still be afraid but may also be frustrated because parents aren't listening. Tell your child that it is Ok to be a little afraid, but you want to help him feel better.

Next: the facts: Ask your child what he is afraid of about flying and what he thinks/knows about plane crashes. Make it clear that plane crashes are rare. Recent statistics state that one in every eleven million planes crash. Help make it concrete-- for kids. Eleven million-- imagine how many pennies that would be? That is the population of Ohio!

Sometimes children have been on a flight with a lot of turbulence or get afraid by the normal sounds of the plane-- help them get familiar by "simulating" a flight in your living room. Have the child make the sounds of the wings, the wheels, etc. Car washes are great approximaters of some of the sounds and sensations of a flight.

Next: Coping: ask your child what his worry is telling him about flying, then ask him to "take out his imaginary red pen" and mark the statements as right or wrong. Have the child fill in the "right" answers, e.g., Plane crashes are rare, millions of flights happen every year perfectly. Worrying about this doesn't help, so I'm not going to.

Finally: Ask your child to focus on positive aspects of the trip-- where they are going, what they want to do, etc Gather together activities for the plane to help the time pass faster.

Patricia Vaccarino from Seattle had to deal with her daughter anxiety the hard way when classmates of her then 6 year old daughter died when the Alaska Airlines airplane they were one crashed on its way to Seattle. She shared with me how she dealt with it. Here is her testimony:

‘My intent was to get Sarah on to a plane ASAP to show her that not all planes crash. So the month after the crash, I took Sarah to Disney land. I let Alaska airlines know in advance that Sarah had been in the class that lost four children.

When we arrived at the airport, Sarah was called to board the plane before anyone else. Once she was on the plane, the captain greeted her. He brought her into the cockpit and explained how the plane worked and described safety protocol in a way that she could understand. Then later, mid-flight, the captain sent a note to Sarah that was delivered by a flight attendant to let her know that she was safe. When the flight landed, the captain personally escorted Sarah from the plane.

I think this response by Alaska Airlines made a real difference in Sarah's perceptions about flying and safety. Sarah is now 15 and has no qualms about flying.

A simple call to the air carrier in advance can potentially make all the difference in the world.’

Still feeling anxious?
Carole Lieberman is Beverly Hills psychiatrist for children and adults and she has created the first in-flight entertainment programs used on airlines to help people with fear of flying Shrink on Board. You can order her CDs and DVDs online and have your family experience a very calming and relaxing flight. Click here to watch the trailer.

There is a solution for every fear and the right words and methods will help your children overcome their anxiety about flying.
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Lydie's original article can be found here.

Hopes Fade for 228 Aboard Missing French Jet

All 228 people onboard an Air France plane are feared dead after encountering stormy weather late Sunday night over the Atlantic Ocean. AF Flight 447 was enroute to Paris from Rio de Janeiro when it encountered severe turbulence four hours into the flight. Shortly thereafter, a series of automatic messages were sent from the plane reporting electrical faults in the aircraft. No mayday or official communication came from the pilot, but a crew member from a nearby flight reported "bright spots" in the ocean approximately 800 miles from Fernando de Noronha archipelago, in South America.  Authorities are currently scouring the sea looking for the possible wreckage site. 

Turkish Airliner Crashes in Amsterdam, 9 dead

The Associated Press is reporting a Turkish Airliner with 135 people on board has crashed at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. The crash occurred on Wednesday as the plane was attempting to land. Early reports show nine death and 50 injuries. Officials on the ground say it was a miracle there were not more deaths. Read More from the AP.

Why Chesley Sullenberger III May be the Last of His Kind

Guest Contribution
New York Magazine

By landing his Airbus A-320 in the Hudson River without a single loss of life, Captain Chesley Sullenberger might have officially brought the golden age of the heroic pilot to a close, as automation takes much of the actual flying out of the job and the piloting ranks are filled with fewer Air Force veterans. As one longtime pilot says, “Twenty-five years ago, we were a step below astronauts. Now we’re a step above bus drivers. And the bus drivers have a better pension.”

Sully has been in the business long enough to witness firsthand the domestication of the airline pilot. In the early days, pilots were largely uneducated farm boys or blue-collar kids who left home to become barnstormers. Some might never have spent a minute in flight school or read a flying manual. But as commercial air travel began rapidly expanding, the airlines embraced the image of the heroic captain, the distinguished man in uniform you can trust with your life. The industry paid top dollar for a new generation of service-academy-educated aviators, many of whom had been through Vietnam. This was Sully’s generation. By the seventies, as many as 80 percent of commercial-airline pilots had served in the military. “When Sully first got hired,” says Keith Hagy, the director of engineering and air safety for the Air Line Pilots Association, the pilots’ union, “he probably made a pile of money.”

The airlines liked military pilots, in part, because “the government had done all that work for them,” says Don Skiados, who has worked closely with pilots for 40 years as a past chairman of the Aviation Accreditation Board International. The military had already tested the pilots’ psychological abilities, emotional traits, knowledge base, reaction time, and ability to make judgments. The only downside of the military background was that the pilots were, by necessity, trained to be risk-takers. “The approach to the mission is that this is war,” says Bob Ober, who worked as a pilot for Pan Am for 25 years and Delta for 10. “We gotta go. It doesn’t matter if certain things are inoperative, we’re gonna take some risks.”

Since that time, pilot culture has done almost a 180. The maverick pilot has given way to the professional—the captain who knows how to put aside his ego and not take unnecessary risks. The change began when the military started downsizing after Vietnam and its talent pool dried up. The pilots of the military made room for a generation of pilots largely educated in flight schools offering four-year degree programs. Candidates racked up flight hours on small commuter planes over Albuquerque and Toledo, not in fighter jets.

The planes also began to change. Where a Vietnam-era pilot could fly more or less by stick and rudder, today’s pilots fly primarily by computer. Sully, for instance, was flying the Airbus 320. On older aircraft, a pilot pulls back on a wheel attached to cables that literally pull the plane up. On an Airbus 320, he pulls back a joystick that sends a signal to the computer’s auto-throttle. If he’s doing it wrong, the computer often corrects him, thrusting if he doesn’t do it soon enough, never stalling if he pulls back too hard. Takeoff has preprogrammed speeds; the pilot just moves a lever into a notch. Practically everything about the Airbus assumes the human factor to be the most dangerous thing about the flight. Incredibly, you can go on autopilot from as low as 100 feet in the air. Although some pilots worry about overreliance on technology and the distractions it can cause, most like a tricked-out plane. Still, there’s no getting around the fact that automation has taken control away from pilots. It’s the same with regard to air-traffic controllers and airline operations. Pilots used to have to navigate themselves; now it’s all done with GPS systems. Pilots used to have more discretion over takeoff times and maintenance decisions; now they’re frequently overruled.

Read on at http://nymag.com/news/features/53788/

N.Y. Jet Crash Called 'Miracle on the Hudson'

Officials say all of the 155 passengers and crew members are safe
(From MSNBC)
NEW YORK - With both engines out, a cool-headed pilot maneuvered his crowded jetliner over New York City and ditched it in the frigid Hudson River on Thursday, and all 155 on board were pulled to safety as the plane slowly sank. It was, the governor said, "a miracle on the Hudson." One victim suffered two broken legs, a paramedic said, but there were no other reports of serious injuries. Read the full story.

Russian Airliner Crashes, Killing 88

An Aeroflot plane crashed in the Russian city of Perm early Sunday, reportedly killing all 88 passengers and crew on board. Witnesses reported seeing the plane hit the ground sharply, perhaps at a 30 or 40 degree angle.

Investigators suspect technical failure was the cause of the crash, and reports from the ground indicate the plane's engines were on fire before the crash. One witness said it look like a burning comet racing toward the earth, followed by a massive explosion. Those killed include 21 foreigners, including one resident of the United States.

Death Toll Rises in Madrid Plane Crash

Two dozen survivors pulled from wreckage

An airliner departing Madrid's Barajas International airport caught fire Wednesday and reportedly crashed after a take-off attempt.

The Spanair flight carrying 172 passengers and crew was en route to Las Palmas, in the Canary Islands - a popular vacation destination.

Latest government numbers report 90 fatalities, but CNN+ is reporting nearly 150 deaths. "It is certain catastrophe," one emergency official said.

Madrid newspaper El Mundo stated the aircraft broke into two as it crashed off the runway. Another report stated the accident occurred after a second attempt at take-off.

Spanair is Spain's second largest commercial airliner.

(Photo from Sky News)

120 Feared Dead In Sudanese Plane Crash

(Guardian)
KHARTOUM, Sudan
At least 120 people were feared dead last night after a Sudan Airways plane carrying more than 200 passengers burst into flames shortly after landing at Khartoum airport. The flight, which had stopped at Amman en route from Damascus apparently veered off the runway after touching down in bad weather. Read more

British Airways Crash at London's Heathrow Airport, 13 injured

Hundreds of flights into London cancelled as the investigation of the crash continues.
(CNN) A British Airways Boeing 777 flight en route from China crashed Thursday, just short of a runway at London Heathrow Airport. Passenger Paul Venter told the UK Press Association: "The wheels came out and went for touchdown, and the next moment we just dropped. I couldn't tell you how far."
More from CNN

Plane crash in resort island of Phuket kills 88 people

BREAKING NEWS
A One-Two-GO airliner has crashed in the resort island of Phuket Thailand Sunday, killing 88 people on board. The airline, one of a handful of budget air carriers in Asia, was making a 2nd attempt of landing in strong winds and heavy rain. Despite the many fatalities, Health Ministry officials report several survivors managed to escape before the plane burst into flames.

Read more here

China Airlines plane bursts into flames, 2 injured

A possible leaky fuel line is the blame for a China Airlines flight which burst into a wall of flames shortly after landing in Okinawa airport Sunday. Amazingly all 165 passengers and flight crew escaped before the plane was engulfed in fire. Details from USA Today.

Here is a Video of firefighters working to extinguish the inferno.