Transportinfo.org.uk - today's transport news in the uk, hand picked for you each morning

Saturday, 28 March 2015

BBC News

• Germanwings 'be surprised' ad removedAdverts for Germanwings with slogan
• Airport security staff to strikeSecurity staff working at Scotland's regional airports vote in favour of taking industrial action over their terms and conditions.
• Germanwings crash: Counting the costWhat compensation is the airline legally obliged to pay?
• VIDEO: New airport to help Nigerian economyThe global fall in the price of oil has prompted Nigeria to build an airport and diversify its exports.

Financial Times

• Germanwings co-pilot concealed illnessUN warned three years ago that medical checks were not sufficiently focused on mental health
• Insurers face €300m payout for air crashGermanwings compensation claims unlikely to be challenged, say lawyers

The Guardian

• ‘I feel no anger towards Andreas Lubitz,’ says crash victim’s father - videoThe father of an American victim of the French Alps plane crash says he does not feel anger towards Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot of the Germanwings plane. Robert Tansill Oliver, who lost his 37-year-old son Robert Oliver Calvo, says his thoughts go out to Lubitz's family. Oliver says he hopes all airlines take action to prevent such a tragedy recurring Continue reading...
• Former JetBlue pilot who had midair meltdown sues airline for letting him flyClayton Osbon files $14.9m suit saying JetBlue made no effort ‘to ensure that he was fit’ for work despite warning signs exactly three years agoA former JetBlue Airways Corp pilot whose midair meltdown forced an emergency landing of a 2012 flight on Friday sued the carrier for $14.9m, saying it should have grounded him because it knew he was incapable of flying. Clayton Osbon, 52, filed his lawsuit in Manhattan federal court three days after the crash of a Germanwings plane in the French Alps, which killed 150 passengers and crew. Authorities believe that plane’s co-pilot deliberately caused t...
• Facebook successfully tests laser drones in UK skiesSocial network prepares to use solar-powered drones with wingspan of a commercial airliner to beam internet access to rural areasFacebook has been testing large, solar-powered drones in the skies over the UK, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has announced.The drones use lasers to beam internet access down to the ground, designed to provide connections to rural and internet-free zones. Continue reading...
• The Germanwings tragedy: inside the mind of a pilotAs a qualified pilot and psychiatrist, I am certain that no prior psychological test to Andreas Lubitz would have predicted his actionsFrench prosecutors have reported that first officer Andreas Lubitz appeared to want to destroy the aircraft carrying 149 innocent people aboard Germanwings flight 4U9525. As a qualified pilot and a psychiatrist, I have since repeatedly imagined nightmare scenarios in that cockpit. Although we will never know what was truly going through Lubitz’s mind as the aircraft plunged, one of the many alarming aspects of this tragedy is that his depression is being quickl...
• Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz ‘wanted to make everyone remember him’Lubitz told his former girlfriend that he wanted to do something to ‘change the system’, Bild reports, as investigators find torn-up sick note covering the day of the crashThe co-pilot on the Germanwings flight that crashed in the French Alps wanted to do “do somethingâ€� history would remember him by, according to reports. Andreas Lubitz, 27, had hidden a sick note declaring him unfit to work on the day of the disaster before boarding the Dusseldorf-bound Airbus A320 and piloting it into a mountain in the southern French Alps, killing all 150 people on board. Related: The last minutes of Germa...

The Independent

• Facebook test flies solar-powered drones over the UK in attempt to increase internet access A pilotless plane with a wingspan bigger than a Boeing 737 but weighing less than a car has been tested over the UK by Facebook.

The Telegraph

• Airlines 'not doing enough' to monitor mental conditions of crew, say family of woman murdered by BA pilotFamily of Joanna Brown say airlines are still not monitoring the mental well-being of their pilots robustly enough

Daily Express

• Germanwings A320 crash: Captain tried to break in with axeTHE frantic captain of the doomed Germanwings flight used an axe to try to smash down the cockpit door locked by his crazed co-pilot, it emerged yesterday.
• Killer pilot 'wanted to be remembered' and once woke up screaming: 'WE'RE GOING DOWN'KILLER pilot Andreas Lubitz had long plotted an event so horrific that he would be remembered, his ex-girlfriend has claimed.

Mail Online

• 'I'm planning a heinous act that will be remembered forever': Killer pilot's ex-girlfriend says he shared chilling prophecy before Alps crash and woke up from nightmares shouting 'we're going down' Andreas Lubitz was a tormented, erratic man who was a master of hiding his darkest thoughts and would wake up from nightmares screaming ‘we’re going down’, his former partner said.

The Mirror

• Germanwings plane crash: Andreas Lubitz scared ex-girlfriend reveals he had long planned 'spectacular and unforgettable event'The unnamed ex-girlfriend claimed he had plotted for a long time to commit an act so terrible that his name would never be forgotten

London Evening Standard

• French Alps crash: Germanwings airline removes 'Get ready to be surprised' adverts from London Tube stations The airline Germanwings has pulled dozens of adverts bearing the slogan "Get ready to be surprised" from London's Tube network following the Alps plane crash.

East Anglian Daily Times

• Flights around Stansted Airport targeted by lasers 45 times last yearAircraft pilots were targeted with lasers around Stansted Airport 45 times last year.

Aviation Industry

• Airlines worldwide move to adopt new cockpit policyIn response to the Germanwings Airbus A320 crash, airlines around the world continued to move to implement a policy of requiring two crew members to be in the cockpit at all times during flights. read more
• Boris moves to reject London City expansion plansLondon mayor refuses application on noise grounds

Other News Sources

• Gatwick Airport campaigners fear second runway will have 'devastating impact'Six campaign groups - including Plane Wrong - are opposing the expansion, fearing it will