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

Sunday, 29 March 2015

BBC News

• Alps crash family thanks club's fansThe family of a British man killed in the Alps aeroplane crash has thank fans of the football club he followed for their support.
• Briton's father in plea to airlinesThe father of a British man killed in the Alps air crash urges airlines to look after pilots

The Guardian

• After tragedies, how can an anxious flyer find the courage to set foot on a plane?As one traveler opts for the drug lorazepam and a shot of whiskey, some experts in the phobia-fighting business suggest other ways to deal with the fear The dull roar of the airplane was rapidly becoming the only noise I could hear as we bumped up and down and rocked side to side, 32,000 feet in the air above the Caribbean Sea. I could feel tears in my eyes, but I was concerned that if I took my lorazepam then – my first time ever using the anti-anxiety medication – I would have an allergic reaction and nowhere to go because I was hurtling at 550mph in a metal death trap.Virginia, the stranger...

The Herald

• Chilling prediction of Germanwings crash pilot Andreas Lubitz: 'everyone will know my name'THE co-pilot believed to have deliberately crashed a Germanwings plane into the French Alps chillingly told an ex-girlfriend that

The Independent

• Airport expansion: Choose Heathrow or Gatwick soon, MPs urge Government Nearly 60 MPs, including the chairman of the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee, have demanded a quickfire decision from the next government on expanding Heathrow or Gatwick airports.

The Observer

• The mystery of flight 9525: a locked door, a silent pilot and a secret history of illnessWhen the Germanwings Airbus disappeared, Europe was united in grief. Then, as the troubling facts behind the crash emerged, the shock and incredulity grewJamie DowardKim WillsherLuke Harding

Times Online

• Killer pilot’s vision problemsTHE German co-pilot who flew 149 people to their deaths in the Alps was suffering from a “severe psychosomatic” mental illness and was seeking treatment for career-threatening problems with his vision.

City AM

• How drones could stop crashes like Germanwings happening againDrones could provide the solution to preventing future disasters similar to the Germanwings Airbus crash that took place in the Alps earlier this week. Aviation experts told Sky that having a drone system on planes would allow staff on the ground to seize control of aircraft in an emergency, so the pilots would no longer have total power. Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot on flight 4U9525 from Barcelona to Dusseldorf, is thought to have deliberately caused the plane to crash by putting it into descent. Systems already exist which allow unmanned planes to be operated from the ground, ...

Daily Express

• EXCLUSIVE: Twisted obsessions of killer in cockpit: Lubitz trawled 'dark side' of the webKILLER co-pilot Andreas Lubitz was trawling suicide and gay websites as he spiralled into mental illness.

Mail Online

• Skybrawl: British crew of new Bond film go on drunken riot on private plane... and trigger international air safety alert The film crew removed a safety pin from one of the aircraft's doors, vomited and urinated in the aisles and verbally abused cabin crew during the private flight from Stansted Airport to Mexico City.
• 'Open the goddamn door!': Desperate final pleas of Germanwings captain emerge as black box transcript reveals Lubitz's repeated attempts to coax pilot into toilet According to transcripts in German newspaper Bild, captain Patrick Sondheimer screamed ‘Open the goddamn door!’ as his co-pilot (pictured) deliberately flew the aircraft into the Alps.

Blackpool Gazette

• Council moves in to allay fears over Airport auctionBlackpool Council has said the auction of Airport equipment by its owners will not affect it future or prevent further commercial flights from returning to Squires Gate.