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Two Emirates Boeing 777-300ERs got in each other's way at Dubai Airport - the airline's second serious incident in just a few weeks.

Dubai, January 9, 2022: Emirates Flight 524 is ready for takeoff. The Boeing 777-300ER's destination on this day is Hyderabad. On Runway 30R, the crew takes the takeoff run.

A little further down, a 777-300ER, Emirates Flight 568 to Bangalore, crosses 30R at the same moment.

Meanwhile, EK524 continues to pick up speed. According to Aviation Herald sources, the pilots abort the takeoff procedure "from high speed", there is talk of more than 100 knots, on the instruction of the tower - and taxi out on the runway.

An investigation is now underway to determine how this could have happened. The Aviation Herald, citing two independent sources, reports that the EK524 crew took off without clearance from the tower. According to the report, EK568 had an OK to cross the runway and taxied safely to takeoff after the incident.

Low-level flight over residential area

The incident is the second delicate situation within a few weeks on 30R for Emirates, which was just named the world's safest airline again by JACDEC, the Hamburg-based aviation accident bureau.

On Dec. 20, one of the airline's 777-300ERs had taken off presumably under faulty parameters - the aircraft took off only beyond the final marker of 30R, initially achieved an extremely low rate of climb - and flew over rooftops of houses near the airport with only a few meters of altitude separation.

Ahead of a decision on a Tornado successor for the Air Force, Boeing is offering German companies industrial partnerships to operate a fleet of F-18s. A request for information to that effect has been sent to more than 10 German companies, Boeing said Wednesday in Berlin.

"German industrial partners will play an important role in providing support equipment, logistics and overall maintenance, components, local maintenance programs, training and other relevant repair and overhaul solutions for Germany's Super Hornet and Growler fleet," the statement said.

"German industry will also have the opportunity to participate in the development of the Next Generation Jammer/NGJ for the EA-18G Growler."

The SPD, Greens and FDP have agreed to procure "a successor system for the Tornado fighter aircraft at the beginning of the 20th legislative period." According to dpa information, Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht has already spoken with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (both SPD) about the multi-billion dollar project.

After that, review orders were issued - including why the F-35 model, which is sometimes described as more modern, is out of the running.

Lambrecht's predecessor, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU), had set the course for F-18 fighter jets to be purchased in the U.S. as a successor to the Tornado fleet. The U.S. model is to be procured for Germany's so-called nuclear sharing of U.S. nuclear weapons.

The previous deterrence concept envisages that Tornados specialized in electronic warfare would protectively accompany the bombers. According to previous plans, some 30 F-18s of the "Super Hornet" version were to be procured for nuclear sharing. In addition, 15 F-18s in the "Growler" version were to be purchased for electronic air combat - the jamming, holding down and fighting of enemy air defense positions.

Pakistan's aviation regulator has passed an ICAO audit. Pakistan International Airlines wants to start flying to Europe again in March. Latest.

Pakistan International Airlines Flight PK8303 ended in disaster in May 2020 - 97 of 99 occupants died in the A320 crash.

The air accident in Karachi had wide repercussions: Investigators uncovered hundreds of cases of fraud and corruption in the issuance and renewal of pilot licenses in Pakistan.

The EU imposed an immediate flight ban on Pakistan International Airlines in the summer of 2020. Now the signs are that the situation is easing.

"We hope to resume operations to Europe in February or March," said Pakistan's Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan. Pakistan had faced an audit of its Civil Aviation Authority by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in late 2021 and passed the audit in early January.

CAA helps with the restart

According to Khan, Pakistan has permanently banned 50 pilots in the wake of the licensing scandal, eight of them directly with PIA. Five officials involved in the scandal have been fired - they are under criminal investigation in Pakistan. Pakistan is currently completely overhauling its aviation licensing system, with support from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

Demand is particularly high over the holidays. Now, of all times, more long-haul pilots are ill than usual. That's why Lufthansa is considering temporarily suspending certain connections.

In the U.S., airlines are struggling with a problem that many industries are currently experiencing: acute staff shortages. Because demand plummeted during the Corona crisis and full recovery will take years, many airlines have laid off pilots, taken temporary leave or taken early retirement. This allowed them to cut costs in the struggle for survival. Many have turned to other professions and are not interested in returning to their old jobs. These include pilots, flight attendants and ground staff. 

According to CAE, the number of active cockpit personnel is not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels until 2022. That would lead to a near-term need for about 27,000 new pilots starting in late 2021, he said, something the industry in the U.S. is already feeling dramatically. United Airlines recently said it would have to ground 100 planes because it lacked the personnel to do so.

Particularly acute over the Christmas holidays !

Lufthansa is also struggling with a staff shortage. But the reason is not primarily the one causing the problems in the United States. Apparently, the sickness rate among Frankfurt-based cockpit personnel is unusually high for Airbus A330/A340s.

Hamburg-Finkenwerder - Emirates has taken delivery of the last remaining Airbus A380 in Hamburg. The airline made the announcement this afternoon. In total, Airbus has manufactured and delivered 251 aircraft of this type to 14 airlines since the A380 program was launched 21 years ago.

Emirates is by far the most important A380 customer, having purchased 123 aircraft.

Unlike the commercial launch of the giant aircraft, the delivery took place without much of a spectacle: Due to the ongoing Corona pandemic, guests were excluded from the handover at the factory site in the Finkenwerder district.

But sadly, the first Airbus A380s have already been taken out of service. 

In view of the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has called for additional sanctions against Belarus and airlines. In addition to Belarus and Russia, Turkey is increasingly coming into focus in the border crisis.

Cham Wings has foreign offices in Iran, Iraq, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey. For some weeks now, the private Syrian airline has also been providing two contact addresses in Minsk on its website - after all, Cham Wings now flies regularly to Belarus.

The airline is often booked by Russia for sensitive missions. In the past, Cham Wings flew Russian special forces to Syria, disregarded Ukrainian entry bans in Crimea - and is strongly suspected of opening a route to the EU for several hundred people via Belarus alone.

Most recently, the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border had dramatically escalated. On Monday, according to Polish authorities, larger groups of migrants tried to break through the border from the Belarusian side. In response, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for additional sanctions against Belarus this evening.

Belarus must stop its "cynical instrumentalization of migrants," von der Leyen said Monday evening. "I call on member states to approve the expanded sanctions regime against the Belarusian authorities responsible for this hybrid attack," von der Leyen said.

In particular, the EU is working to sanction third-country airlines involved in transporting migrants to Belarus, von der Leyen said. EU Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas said he would travel to the migrants' countries of origin and transit in the coming days.

The EU accuses Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko of flying people in from crisis regions and then smuggling them into the EU via Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.

Ankara under suspicion

Aviation sanctions, for example in the form of flight restrictions, could also be directed against Turkey - because Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is, according to senior EU politicians, playing a major role in the current crisis.

"If Turkish President Erdogan is now making new attempts at blackmail against the EU by means of numerous migrant flights from Turkey to Belarus, there needs to be an unequivocal response," warned CSU European politician Manfred Weber, making a clear statement to Ankara. "Enough is enough."

Embraer plans to launch four aircraft with disruptive engines between 2030 and 2040. With ranges between 200 and 500 miles, the concepts are aimed at regional transport - and are not the Brazilian's only initiatives on the road to a more climate-friendly future.

Since the manufacturer believes there is no universal solution to reducing the environmental impact of aviation, Embraer has spent the past 12 months developing different designs using different propulsion technologies - electric, hydrogen fuel cell, dual-fuel gas turbine and hybrid electric:

Energia Hybrid (E9-HE) with nine seats, hybrid-electric propulsion and 200 miles of range. The engines are mounted in the rear. Technology maturity is expected in 2030.

Energia Electric (E9-FE) also with nine seats but an all-electric powertrain for locally zero CO2 emissions and 200-mile range - technology readiness by 2035.

Energia H2 Fuel Cell (E19-H2FC) for 19 passengers. Hydrogen-electric powertrain with rear-mounted electric motors and 200-mile range - technological readiness by 2035.

Energia H2 gas turbine (E50-H2GT) for 35 to 50 seats and 350 to 500 miles of range. Turbines are powered by hydrogen or SAF/JetA - technology readiness by 2040.

Each aircraft is now being evaluated for technical and commercial feasibility. "Small aircraft are ideal for testing and proving new propulsion technologies so they can be transferred to larger aircraft," said Embraer Chief Technology Officer Luis Carlos Affonso. That's why our Energia family is such an important platform.

SAF propulsion for E2 and new turboprop

Separate from the Energia aircraft concept research, the company has been testing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), a blend of fuel derived from sugarcane and gold of pleasure and fossil fuel, in its E-Jet family. Embraer aims for all Embraer aircraft to be 100 percent SAF compatible by 2030, up from 50 percent today.

In August, Embraer flew its electric demonstrator, a single-engine EMB-203 Ipanema that runs on 100 percent electricity. A hydrogen fuel cell demonstrator is planned for 2025, and the company's eVTOL, an all-electric, zero-emission vertical takeoff and landing vehicle, is under development and scheduled to enter service in 2026.

At the same time, Embraer is working on an advanced turboprop with an E2 fuselage and up to 90 seats. The manufacturer plans to launch the program in 2022.

MPS was a tiny link in the global Boeing industrial chain. Nevertheless, the metal specialist from Brindisi is currently receiving the full attention of the regulatory authorities. The company is alleged to have supplied substandard titanium components for the 787. How could this happen?

Manufacturing Process Specification, or "MPS" for short, is causing Boeing the next 787 problem. The Italian industrial group Leonardo is said to have supplied titanium components processed by MPS that do not meet the specifications - and will now have to be painstakingly replaced.

What began as a quality problem is now spreading further and further. According to information from the Reuters news agency and Italian media, investigations against MPS are underway in Italy. The authorities want to determine whether the defective titanium components pose a safety risk.

Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun narrowed the investigation in late October to a "specific inquiry" by regulators related to a "material substitution" at a subcontractor. "We don't anticipate that this will have any safety impact," Calhoun said. "On the other hand, we need to make sure we're meeting all the material specifications that our design calls for."

MPS disputes any hazard situation. "These are not safety-sensitive parts that have been extensively inspected by MPS customers," a company lawyer rebuffed to Reuters.

Doubts are warranted. In mid-October, Leonardo issued a terse statement saying that it had not supplied MPS parts to Airbus programs. As aero.de learned from a reliable source, Airbus had insisted on this public clarification - an indication that the case is at least more complex than presented by MPS and Leonardo to date.

For Leonardo, the matter is delicate anyway. How could allegedly defective parts from a company that is said to employ just over 30 people pass through the random tests and quality controls of a major corporation? MPS has not been a supplier to Leonardo for "quite some time," Leonardo said in October.

In the meantime, the corporation's language on the MPS issue has sharpened considerably. "Boeing and Leonardo have become victims of possible misconduct by a second-tier supplier," Leonardo CEO Valerio Cioffi complained Friday. The group faces millions in recourse claims from Boeing.

Boeing has spent the past few months working through a bug list in the 787 program that has proliferated like a hydra. The titanium problem is now once again preventing the resumption of halted deliveries - and is apparently causing Boeing more headaches than previous bugs. "It's the long pole in the tent pitching," Calhoun said in late October.

After more than a year and a half of Corona closure, tourists are to be allowed to re-enter Israel from November 1, subject to conditions.

This was decided by Head of Government Naftali Bennett, Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz and Tourism Minister Joel Razvosov on Thursday. However, the decision still needs final approval from the government.

According to the decision, foreigners who have received two doses of the Pfizer/Biontech vaccine will be allowed to enter the country if at least seven days have passed since the second dose.

At least two weeks must have passed after two doses of vaccine from Moderna, Astrazeneca, Sinovac or Sinopharm. A 14-day interval is also required after a single vaccine dose of Johnson & Johnson's Corona vaccine. These time windows also apply after a booster vaccination.

In addition, convalescents may enter if they have received at least one dose of a Corona vaccine that is approved by the World Health Organization (WHO). Convalescents may also enter if at least eleven days have passed since a positive test.

A merger between El Al and Arkia is in the offing in Israel. El Al wants to take over its smaller competitor in a share deal. El Al has now outlined this plan, at least in a mandatory announcement. El Al had aborted a run at Israir in 2018 after objections from the Israeli antitrust authority.

Avigal Soreq is busy these days. The El Al CEO wants to navigate the airline out of the crisis with a restructuring concept, and he's causing a stir among employees and politicians alike - 1,500 of 4,000 jobs are on the line, and a dispute has flared up with the government over financial aid.

Now, in the midst of the negotiations, news of a takeover project has burst. This week, El Al confirmed to the stock exchange that it was in "initial talks with Arkia" about a possible takeover of its competitor. According to the report, El Al wants to swallow Arkia in a share deal, but emphasizes the early stage of negotiations - and points to possible objections from the antitrust authority.

Arkia is the second-largest air carrier in Israel after El Al; El Al was one of the airline's founding shareholders in 1949. Arkia is now part of the Jordache Enterprises holding company of New York. The airline has two Airbus A321LRs and three Embraer E195s and had ordered four A330-900s from Airbus in 2016.

El Al is financed by the Rozenberg family. The New York-based investors took a 43 percent stake in El Al at the end of 2020. The turnaround plan calls for a significant reduction of the fleet from 45 to 29 aircraft.