More carmakers caught in headlights of VW engine-rigging scandal

More carmakers caught in headlights of VW engine-rigging scandal
Volkswagen has admitted it installed illegal software into 11 million 2.0 liter and 3.0 liter diesel engines worldwide (AFP Photo/Josh Edelson)

Volkswagen emissions scandal

Iran's 'catastrophic mistake': Speculation, pressure, then admission

Iran's 'catastrophic mistake': Speculation, pressure, then admission
Analsyts say it is irresponsible to link the crash of a Ukraine International Airline Boeing 737-800 to the 737 MAX accidents (AFP Photo/INA FASSBENDER)

Missing MH370 likely to have disintegrated mid-flight: experts

Missing MH370 likely to have disintegrated mid-flight: experts
A Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 commercial jet.

QZ8501 (AirAsia)

Leaders see horror of French Alps crash as probe gathers pace

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …

Monday, February 14, 2011

Mercedez-Benz set to sell 6,100 vehicles this year in Indonesia


Rangga D. Fadillah, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 02/14/2011

PT Mercedes-Benz Indonesia (MBI), the subsidiary of Germany-based automaker Mercedes-Benz, says that it was upbeat about reaching its target of selling 6,100 passenger and commercial vehicles in 2011, growing 29 percent from 4,730 in 2010.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, MBI President Director Rudi Borgenheimer reported that the country's steady economic growth had opened ample opportunity for premium automakers to expand their market targets due to people's stronger purchasing power.

“Our remarkable achievement in 2010 had paved the way for us to broadened our business lines in 2011,” he said in Jakarta.

The company's data shows that in 2010, total sales topped 4,730 units, up 37.2 percent from 3,446 a year earlier. The company also sustained its domination in the passenger car segment by recording a total sales of 3,590 units, representing 67.4 percent of the country's premium passenger car market.

“For many years, Mercedes-Benz has continued to lead the premium car segment, showing that our brand is still the most preferred premium car brand for the discerning users in Indonesia,” said Borgenheimer.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Merpati aircraft force-lands due to engine failure in C. Kalimantan


The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sat, 02/12/2011

Merpati Nusantara Airlines's aircraft MZ 539 has force-landed at the Haji Asan Sampit airport in East Kotawaringin, Central Kalimantan due to engine failure.

"Our Fokker 100 departed from the Haji Asan Sampit airport to Surabaya at 1:07 p.m. but after seven minutes flying it found problem on its left engine," said Harianto, head of safety flight of the airport as quoted by Antara on Saturday.

The plane carried 101 passengers and cargo weighing 520 kilograms.

Harianto said that the plane managed to land safely at the airport despite the problem.

All passengers along with their luggage were unloaded from the troubled aircraft. The plane is now parked at the airport waiting from technicians from Jakarta to repair it.

"We don't know whether or not Merpati will replace the plane or repair it," he said.

Meanwhile, an officer with Merpati Nusantara's Sampit branch, Masykur, confirmed the flight cancellation.

"We won't replace the plane, but we will repair it. Now, we are still waiting for the technicians," he said.

Five Killed in Indonesia Plane Crash


Jakarta Globe, February 12, 2011

Related articles


All five people on a test flight were killed in Indonesia on Saturday when their small plane crashed having changed one of its engines, a Transportation Ministry spokesman said.

The Cassa aircraft of Sabang Merauke Raya Air Charter left Batam island and crashed on Bintan island, both in Riau Islands province.

"The pilot, co-pilot and three technicians died in the accident. They were on a flight test after they changed one of the engines for the aircraft," ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan said.

Five police on a mission to help flood victims in eastern Indonesia were killed in October when their plane crashed into a tree during an emergency landing.

Agence France-Presse

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Air Ticket Scalpers Bypass Security in Indonesia

Jakarta Globe, Straits Times Indonesia | February 06, 2011     

Ticket touts are making use of security loopholes at Indonesia's airports to sell tickets on domestic flights at inflated prices, as they prey on travellers desperate for a ticket during busy periods.

Lax security at Indonesian airports allow domestic travelers
to fly using tickets under other people's names purchased
 from scalpers. (SP Photo)  
While the Indonesian government is boosting security in airline travel with new biometric passports and electronic identity cards, one major gap remains.

Travelers — whether local or foreign — who fly within Indonesia are required to produce formal identification before they board their flights, but this rule is often not closely enforced.

This has allowed ticket cartels to spring up at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta airport — where 44 million domestic passengers passed through last year — hawking domestic air tickets registered under random names.

Analysts say the security loophole could allow all sorts of criminals, including terror suspects on the run, to move around the country.

The Sunday Times spoke to four ticket touts at the airport's domestic terminal who explained the process, though they did not want to be named.

It starts with travel agents making advance block bookings of seats on various airlines in busy travel periods, such as long weekends or festive holidays. The reservations are made under fake names — something that cannot be done with international flights, as this requires passport numbers to be given.

Armed with the tickets, touts then linger near the ticket counters on the day of the flight, looking out for passengers who are turned away because flights are full or the tickets cost too much to buy on the spot.

"Agents know that domestic flights during holidays can go for as much as Rp 5 million ($555) one way," said a licensed tour agent based in central Jakarta. "So they'll block seats early, buy them for as little as Rp 200,000, and sell them off for Rp 1 million."

Sometimes, he said, the touts even work in cahoots with airline ticketing staff, who sell off the tickets of passengers who do not arrive early enough to check in. Check-in counters on domestic flights usually close 20 minutes before take-off.

All this is possible because security checks on domestic flights are lax, he added, and security staff rarely hassle the touts — or are allegedly bribed to turn a blind eye.

It was common, said the travel agent, for licensed travel agents to check in their clients without having to produce any form of identification. "The airlines don't care who flies as the ticket is already paid for," he claimed.

Travelers' identities are checked more thoroughly on international flights, but even so, rogue tax official Gayus Tambunan recently managed to visit a few Asian countries on a fake passport while supposedly in police custody.

Transport Ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan admitted that the lax identification checks were an "administrative problem," but maintained that the authorities took safety seriously and passengers were screened thoroughly before they boarded their flights.

Indonesia has in recent years tightened security as part of efforts to clamp down on terrorism. Last month, the government launched its first biometric passports, which it hopes will help prevent the use of forged ones.

It has also started a registration process to give Indonesians a single identity number — making for better tracking — starting with Jakarta residents, though this will take a while to cover the whole country.

This article is brought to you by Straits Times Indonesia and the Jakarta Globe.  For a daily subscription to the Straits Times Indonesia print edition, call 021 2553 5055.

Friday, February 4, 2011

Five Separate Airlines Pilots Confirm UFO Sighting Over India On 26 January, 2011

Airlines Pilots Confirm UFO Sighting Over India On 26 January, 2011

According to media reports A glowing round object making a speedy descent near the West Bengal-Bihar border early on January 26 left pilots of five aircraft baffled, triggering widespread speculation about UFO.

Above image is just a artistic reconstruction
The first person to sight the object was a senior Air India pilot who was navigating the aircraft at a height of 34,000 ft during its flight from Kolkata to New Delhi.

“The plane was just entering the airspace of Gaya, close to Bengal-Bihar border, when I first noticed the glowing object, below the aircraft, hurtling down at a very high speed,” Captain Rishi was quoted as saying by the Air Traffic Control (ATC) Tower here at Dum Dum International Airport.

The Air India pilot initially didn’t pay much attention as it is customary for the pilots to notice several such things midair. But when the aircraft was close to Varanasi, the object was still brightly visible.

Without wasting time, he informed the Varanasi Air Traffic Control from where ATC, Kolkata, was alerted.

The officials at ATC pondered over whether pilots of other international flights that might have crossed the Kolkata-Bihar-Varanasi route, had also observed the glowing object reported by Capt Rishi.

Accordingly, the ATC, Kolkata, beamed asking signals for other international flights that flew the same airspace during the period concerned.

To their utter surprise, the air traffic control officials were told by as many as four foreign airlines flight pilots that they had seen the same object and all of them reiterated that it was falling down at a great speed!

FinAir of Finland and Novou Air of Sweden were flying from the West to East while a couple of flights of Cathay Pacific and Dynasty Airways of China were moving in the opposite direction at an altitude between 34,000 and 37,000 ft over the airspace supposed to be in the trajectory of the object.

Once the foreign airlines pilots radioed back the ATC tower here, confirming their sighting of the object, ATC engineers immediately got in touch with the Indian Air Force. However, the IAF engineers pointed out that their powerful radar had failed to track or notice any unusual object.

source

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Russia loses military satellite: reports

Antara News, Wed, February 02 2011

Moscow (ANTARA News/AFP) - Russia`s top military and space official launched a search Tuesday for a missing military satellite that apparently was put into the wrong orbit shortly after its launch.

The Russian defence ministry confirmed that it had lost sight of the craft -- a dual-use vessel that can draw a three-dimensional map of the Earth and locate the precise positions of various targets.

The incident came just a month after President Dmitry Medvedev sacked two top space officials for a similar setback and delivered another humiliating blow to Russia`s much-maligned space industry.

The seriousness of the situation was underscored late Tuesday by reports that the defence ministry had set up an urgent joint task force with the Russia`s space agency to look for the missing craft.

The Geo-IK-2 satellite was created in Russia to help the military survey land and create a detailed three-dimensional map of the Earth. It was designed to spin in a circular orbit 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) above ground.

But news reports said that the satellite had been put in an an elliptical orbit whose lowest point brought it to within 330 kilometres of Earth.

"We have still not been able to establish contact with the craft, and it looks like most likely, it will be declared lost," a Russian space source told the Interfax-AVN news service.

"The spacecraft will not be able to perform its intended functions at these orbit characteristics," another space official told the news agency.

Reports pointed the initial blame for the failure on the satellite`s Briz-KM upper stage rocket.

The satellite`s launch had already been delayed from December because of technical malfunctions that were detected at its northern Russian launch site in Plesetsk.

Tuesday`s malfunction came less than five weeks after Medvedev fired two top space officials and reprimanded the space agency chief for a launch failure caused Russia to delay the deployment of its own navigation system.

Russia`s Proton-M rocket had on that occasion proven too heavy to reach its initial orbit and had been forced to dump its three high-tech Glonass-M satellites near the Hawaii Islands.

Investigators said that accident was caused by a basic fuel miscalculation that made the craft too heavy to reach its required height.

The three Glonass satellites would have completed a system whose research had been started by the Soviet Union in 1976.

Dumai airport built for Boeings

Antara News, Wed, February 02 2011

Related News

Dumai, Riau (ANTARA News) - The Pinang Kampai airport of Dumai, Riau, normally used by Fokker planes, will be built for use by bigger planes like Boeings.

Head of the Dumai transportation agency H Marwan said here Tuesday that the promotion is first of all carried out by increasing the length of the runway from 1,800 x 40 meters to 2,250 x 40 meters.

"We are doing this because the runway of a Boeing is basically 2,000 meters long. We therefore have to renovate the airport by making its runway longer," he said.

The renovation of the airport Marwan said is also necessary because of the loan (for use) cooperation in running Pinang Kampai or a grant of state oil company PT Pertamina to Dumai city administration for 2011 will be continued.

"This is an agreement of the city administration which had reviewed the MoU reached in 2008," Marwan said.

Marwan said not only to lengthen the runway, the other facilities of the airport which are thought to be not enough need to be renewed by the procurement of supporting heavy equipment.

"The improvements and building of Pinang Kampai will have its funding and budget from the State Budget of the Transportation Ministry estimated at Rp 34 billion," Marwan said.

The company has five Fokker-50 planes, and is trying to procure several Boeings.

Editor: B Kunto Wibisono