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. …

Saturday, January 31, 2015

Aircraft set for minute-by-minute tracking

Yahoo – AFP, Marc Brabant, 31 Jan 2015

All commercial flights worldwide could soon send out an automated signal every
 minute in times of distress to help rescuers find downed aircraft more easily
(AFP Photo/Fabrice Coffrini)

Montreal (AFP) - All commercial flights worldwide could soon send out an automated signal every minute in times of distress to help rescuers find downed aircraft more easily.

The new measures are in response to last year's disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in what remains one of history's great aviation mysteries.

The aircraft, with 239 people on board, has never been found, nearly a year on.

The new tracking rules, prepared by an industry working group, would be phased in by the end of this year, said the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a United Nations agency.

The initiative will now be presented to delegates from all 191 ICAO member states at a meeting in Montreal from Monday to Thursday, and "a final proposal" will be submitted to the ICAO Council within six months for ratification.

The measure has unanimous support among ICAO member states, a source said Friday, meaning it is virtually assured to be brought in.

Currently, radar can track a plane, however coverage fades when aircraft are out at sea or the plane is flying below a certain altitude.

Under the new rules, airlines will be required to track their aircraft using a system that gives their location at 15-minute intervals.

If an "abnormal event" is detected, including a change in direction or deviation from a flight path, the signal rate hastens to every minute.

Airlines would be responsible for sharing the data with authorities in cases of emergencies.

"It's the start of tracking (flights) every minute in emergency situations that is the most effective in the short term," the source said.

Following a distress signal, search and rescue teams would be able to zero in on an aircraft within six nautical miles (11 kilometers) of its last known position.

The ICAO will also ask airlines to equip their aircraft with ejectable black boxes. These would float and be more easily retrievable in case of a crash over water.

They will be mandatory on new aircraft built after 2021, the source told AFP.

The ejectable black boxes would be in addition to existing commercial flight data recorders and cockpit voice recorders that continually record flight information.

Singapore looks to Taipei as unlikely model for cleanliness

Want China Times, CNA 2015-01-31

A worker cleans Taipei Main Station, July 24, 2009. (Photo/Chen Chih-yuan)

Singapore is well known for its strict rules intended to keep its streets clean, so it may come as a surprise that activists in the city-state are looking to Taipei as an example of how to maintain a trash-free city.

But Liak Teng Lit, chairman of Singapore's non-governmental Public Hygiene Council, told the Straits Times that his country has "let things deteriorate until we now have a crisis of cleanliness," a reference to the massive amount of trash left strewn about last weekend after a music festival.

In contrast, Liak said that on a recent trip to Taiwan, he and other council members learned that "cleaning is a part of education," adding that it "teaches the value of labor and that it is not shameful to sweat."

He praised Taipei for keeping its streets clean with only 5,000 professional cleaners looking after a city of almost 3 million people, whereas Singapore has a small army of 70,000 cleaners for its population of 5 million.

The praise echoes remarks made by William Wan, co-founder of the Singapore Kindness Movement that works with Liak's organization, who said earlier in the month that trash left after New Year's celebrations showed that Singapore needs to transform from a "cleaned city" to a "clean city."

Revelers who left a "meadow of trash" at the Gardens by the Bay this past weekend told the Straits Times they littered because they saw other people doing it and assumed somebody would come by to collect it.

On Wednesday, Singapore's prime minister Lee Hsien Loong took to Facebook to draw attention to the sad scene left after the Laneway music festival.

"All of us can play a part in picking up our own litter, educating our children and grandchildren, and reminding others to do the right thing," the prime minister wrote.

Uber racks up fines of over NT$23 million in Taiwan

Want China Times, CNA 2015-01-30

An illustration of Uber's trade logo on a smartphone held up to a
taxi lamp. (Illustrationo/CFP)

The ridesharing service company Uber and its participating drivers have been fined a total of NT$23.2 million (US$730,000) so far for violating Taiwan's laws, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said Thursday.

As of Jan. 27, the Directorate General of Highways (DGH) had imposed 133 fines on Uber, totaling NT$16.6 million (US$527,000), for violation of the Highways Act, the ministry said.

The DGH has also issued 132 tickets, totaling NT$6.6 million (US$210,000), to drivers transporting passengers with the service, the ministry said.

Uber, however, has paid only NT$500,000 (US$15,900) worth of fines, while its drivers have paid 13 tickets valued at NT$650,000 (US$20,600), the ministry said.

DGH official Lin Fu-shan said the agency will continue to impose fines on the company over the Lunar New Year holiday in an effort to halt the illegal taxi service.

"The priority is to cut its supply chain," Lin said.

He called on local drivers who do not have the required commercial driver's licenses to stop working for the company.

The ministry said it is trying to revoke Uber's company registration because it registered as an information service but is operating a transportation business.

San Francisco-based Uber, which entered the Taiwan market in mid-2013, has been unyielding in the controversy despite the penalties. As in many other countries where it operates, it has faced obstacles in Taiwan due to domestic regulations and concerns about its effects on the livelihood of local taxi drivers.

The transportation ministry said it has asked Uber several times to abide by the law and apply for a transportation business license, but the company has ignored the requests.

Uber is operating illegally and has not made any effort to comply with the law, the ministry said, adding that this not only leaves passengers unprotected but is also unfair to legitimate transportation operators.

Friday, January 30, 2015

Pilots Disabled Critical Computers Moments Before AirAsia Crash: Report

Jakarta Globe, Herdaru Purnomo, Kyunghee Park & Alan Levin, Jan 30, 2015

Indonesian police remove tarpaulin from part of the tail of the AirAsia QZ8501
 passenger plane in Kumai Port, near Pangkalan Bun, central Kalimantan Jan. 12,
2015. (Reuters Photo/Darren Whiteside)

The pilots of AirAsia Flight QZ8501 cut power to a critical computer system that normally prevents planes from going out of control shortly before it plunged into the Java Sea, two people with knowledge of the investigation said.

The action appears to have helped trigger the events of Dec. 28, when the Airbus A320 climbed so abruptly that it lost lift and it began falling with warnings blaring in the cockpit, the people said. All 162 aboard were killed.

The pilots had been attempting to deal with alerts about the flight augmentation computers, which control the A320’s rudder and also automatically prevent it from going too slow. After initial attempts to address the alerts, the flight crew cut power to the entire system, which is comprised of two separate computers that back up each other, the people said.

While the information helps show how a normally functioning A320’s flight-protection system could have been bypassed, it doesn’t explain why the pilots pulled the plane into a steep climb, the people said. Even with the computers shut off, the pilots should have been able to fly the plane manually, they said.

Airbus discourages pilots from cutting power to systems because electronics in the highly computerized aircraft are interconnected and turning off one component can affect others, John Cox, a former A320 pilot who is now a safety consultant, said in an interview.

“Particularly with an Airbus you don’t do that,” said Cox, chief executive of Washington-based industry consultant Safety Operating Systems.

Flight 8501 climbed more than 5,000 feet (1,524 meters) in less than 30 seconds, rising above the altitude where it was authorized to fly, Ertata Lananggalih, an investigator with Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee, said in Jakarta on Thursday.

The co-pilot, with 2,247 hours of flying experience, was at the controls and talking to controllers while the captain, who had 20,537 hours, was monitoring, said Mardjono Siswosuwarno, the lead investigator of the crash. The account was the first description of the last moments of the flight.

The investigators didn’t address whether pilots had cut power to the flight augmentation computer system and said they wouldn’t release more information on the case.

Airbus is barred from commenting on the accident under international investigation treaties, the company’s North American spokesman, Clay McConnell, said in an e-mail.

From a cruising altitude of 32,000 feet, the single-aisle A320 climbed to 37,400 feet as pilots probably tried to avoid bad weather, Ertata said. The aircraft then descended slowly for three minutes before it disappeared, he said.

“The pilots were conscious when the maneuver happened,” he said. “They were trying to control the airplane.”

Such an abrupt climb would almost certainly cause a rapid loss of speed and a “very pronounced stall,” Cox said.

The aircraft, operated by the Indonesian affiliate of Malaysia-based AirAsia, disappeared from radar en route to Singapore from Surabaya.

Indonesia won’t release a preliminary report on its investigation into Flight 8501 because fact-findings could change rapidly, Tatang Kurniadi, head of the commission, said Thursday. Indonesia sent the preliminary findings to all countries in the investigation on Jan. 28, Tatang said.

The pilots had sought permission from air traffic control to turn left and then climb to 38,000 feet because of storm clouds. Four minutes after the request, a controller cleared the pilots to climb to 34,000 feet, he said.

Satellite imagines showed storm clouds that reached as high as 44,000 feet, according to investigators.

The aircraft was in “good condition,” Mardjono said.

All Airbus models produced since the 1980s are designed to prevent pilot errors from causing crashes. The planes are controlled by multiple flight computers, which limit pilots from overly steep turns or getting too slow.

In the event of a malfunction or loss of power, the flight protections will shut down and leave the pilots to fly the plane manually. That appears to be what happened before Flight 8501 entered the steep climb and stalled, the two people said.

Investigators are still trying to determine why the pilots would cut power to the flight augmentation computers by pulling a circuit breaker in the cockpit.

Indonesian authorities have so far recovered at least 70 bodies. Investigators still haven’t managed to lift the jet’s fuselage. The tail section of the plane has been retrieved. Indonesia’s military pulled out of the search this week.

The cockpit-voice recorder captured the pilots’ voices and no explosion was heard, Nurcahyo Utomo, an investigator with the committee, said last week. The flight-data recorder captured 1,200 parameters and the voice-recorder captured the last two hours and four minutes of the flight, the investigators said. The two devices are called the black boxes. After studying data from the black boxes, authorities ruled out terrorism as a factor that brought down the plane.

Flight 8501 appeared to have stalled after climbing steeply, Minister of Transportation Ignasius Jonan said earlier this month. A stall occurs when airflow over the wings is disrupted or becomes too slow to provide lift and keep a plane aloft.

Indonesia has said it intends to shut the agency responsible for coordinating aircraft flight slots in three months. That’s after the AirAsia flight took off on a Sunday, without a Ministry of Transportation permit to fly that day.

The government has suspended the license of AirAsia for that route, found other airlines in breach of permits and removed officials involved from the ministry, AirNav Indonesia and state airport company Angkasa Pura 1.

AirAsia made an administrative error in flying QZ8501 on Sunday, Indonesia AirAsia chief executive Sunu Widyatmoko said Jan. 13. The carrier didn’t inform the Directorate of Air Aviation on the schedule revision, he told parliament in a hearing.

Bloomberg

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Uber’s Cheaper Service Called UberX to Start on Friday in Jakarta

Jakarta Globe, Vanesha Manuturi , Jan 29, 2015

The Uber smartphone app, used to book taxis using its service, is pictured over a
parking lot in the Indian capital New Delhi on Dec. 7, 2014. (AFP Photo/Tengku Bahar)

Jakarta. Uber Technologies, the San Francisco-based taxi booking app developer, is set to launch its low-cost service in Jakarta on Friday in its continued quest to conquer taxi services in Southeast Asia’s most populous nation.

“All over the world what we’ve seen is that people are looking to save money on things and transport is a very important people’s budgets. We’re proud to say that UberX will be the least expensive way to travel around Jakarta other than walking or buses,” said Michael Brown, the general manager for Southeast Asia, during a media briefing in Jakarta on Thursday.

The company claims the service called UberX to be 35 percent cheaper than its premium counterpart, Uber Black, which was the first service the firm offered in Indonesia last year. At its current rate, UberX charges riders at a base fare of Rp 3,000 (24 cents) per ride and an additional Rp 2,000 for every kilometer or Rp 300 per minute of waiting time.

Brown noted that the current rate excludes the typical 20 percent commission Uber generally charges, as the firm hopes to attract new customers. However, he didn’t disclose how long the commission-free promotional rate will last.

In comparison, Uber Black, which offer riders premium cars and a private driver, starts at Rp 7,000 and charges an additional Rp 2,850 per kilometer or Rp 500 per minute. Aside from Jakarta, the firm expanded its Uber Black service in Indonesia to Bali earlier this month, mostly covering the Seminyak area.

When asked about the threats of Uber service being banned from the DKI Jakarta government last year, Brown said that the company has been in touch with the government, as well local transportation organizations, to explain its business model to the Jakarta authorities.

The dialogue “has been very productive. The most important thing is that we’ve been able to explain our model — that we’re a tech company. We don’t own or operate any vehicles,” Brown said. “As the government understands that better, we’re making good headway.”

Still, it remains unclear whether the Google-backed company has obtained a particular operational license in Jakarta.

Uber — currently available in 277 cities across 53 countries — has faced resistance from many cab companies around the world. Its operations have even been banned in certain countries, such as in France and Spain.

Uber competes head to head in Indonesia with other technology companies including GrabTaxi, a taxi booking smartphone app from Malaysia, and Easy Taxi from Brazil. Local taxi operators, such as Blue Bird and Express Transindo Utama, the operator of Express taxi, have been improving their own booking app to compete.

Globe Asia

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Paris mayor wants to ban polluting trucks, buses

Yahoo - AFP, 28 Jan 2015

Traffic clogs the rue de Rivoli in Paris on August 5, 2014. The mayor of Paris
 wants to ban polluting buses and trucks in the French capital from July (AFP Photo/
Fred Dufour)

Paris (AFP) - The mayor of Paris said she wants to ban polluting buses and trucks in the French capital from July to fight pollution in one of the world's most visited cities.

Paris has a relatively high population density and tourists are often surprised by the traffic levels in and around its historic sights.

The city also experiences periodic pollution spikes, forcing authorities to impose temporary speed limits on motorists, make public transport free and even ban vehicles from running on certain days.

Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, seen here at
 the city hall of Paris on November 17, 2014,
 will formally submit her anti-pollution plan
next month (AFP Photo/Stephane de
Sakutin)
"I want to ban the most polluting buses and heavy goods vehicles from July 1, 2015," Anne Hidalgo told Le Monde daily in an interview published Wednesday.

"And on July 1, 2016... this ban will extend to all of the most polluting vehicles," she said, adding that the area where the ban would be enacted was still under negotiation.

"I would like this ban to first apply to the whole of Paris, apart from the peripherique (ring road around the city) and the woods of Paris," she said.

Hidalgo is due next month to formally submit her anti-pollution plan for the city of more than two million people.

She has already announced she wants to ban all diesel vehicles by 2020, limit cars in the city centre, and extend zones where the speed limit is fixed at 30 kilometres (18 miles) an hour.

She also wants to double the amount of cycle lanes as part of a 100-million-euro ($113 million) bike development plan, and roll out a system of electric-powered bikes along the same lines as the city's popular velib temporary bike hire network.

Hidalgo said if her plan to ban polluting trucks and buses came to fruition, she planned to incentivise businesses to buy cleaner vehicles through financial aid and prime rate loans in a bid to avoid affecting deliveries in the city.



Related Articles:


Dubai now home to world's busiest international airport

Dubai International handled a record number of passengers last year, putting it ahead of London's Heathrow for the first time as the planet's busiest international airport. Heathrow looks unlikely to win back the crown.

Deutsche Welle, 27 Jan 2015

FlyDubai plane landing at Dubai International

Dubai's airport operators said Tuesday that 70.5 million passengers streamed through the city's international airport in 2014, marking a 6-percent increase on last year.

The rapid growth put Dubai International squarely ahead of London Heathrow for the first time as the world's busiest international transport hub.

Dubai International pulled off the big gains despite having to redirect many flights to the Gulf city's second airport, Al Maktoum while it overhauled the hub's two side-by-side runways over the summer.

Rise of domestic carriers

Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths predicted Dubai International would top its own record and handle 79 million passengers this year, saying it offered "more flights connecting more people to more destinations."

Dubai airport has been expanding fast thanks in part to the growth of hometown airline Emirates, and smaller budget carrier FlyDubai.

Both airlines and the city's airports are owned by the emirate's government, which has championed aviation as a central driver of the local economy.

While Dubai is now home to the busiest international aviation hub, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta, in the US, remains the world's busiest passenger airport overall.

hg/bk (Reuters, AFP, AP)

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Dutch and Chinese governments sign aviation agreement

DutchNews.nl, January 27, 2015

The Dutch and Chinese governments on Tuesday signed an agreement to work together ‘more intensively’ in the aviation sector.

This is good news for the Dutch aviation industry, according to economic affairs minister Henk Kamp, who is on the second day of a trade mission to China.

‘Normally Dutch companies are in competition with Chinese companies in trying to do business in China,’ he told broadcaster Nos. ‘This will become easier with an agreement between the two governments.’

China has the fastest growing aviation sector in the world and its ambitions are big. Not only are Chinese airlines aiming to increase their fleet by 2,000 aircraft in the next 20 years, they are also developing their own aircraft, the Comac C919. They are also developing their know-how in space travel at a fast pace, Nos says.

The agreement creates opportunities for Dutch companies such as Fokker Elmo which makes electrical systems for aircraft. 

Military Pulls Out of AirAsia 8501 Recovery Effort

Jakarta Globe, Jan 27, 2015

The Indonesian Military (TNI) said on Tuesday that it plans to end its participation
 in AirAsia Flight QZ8501 recovery operations, a day after its attempt to raise the
 downed plane’s fuselage from the bottom of the Java Sea failed. The civilian search
 and rescue agency (Basarnas) said it may continue its efforts, which will be limited
without the Navy’s help. (AFP Photo/Adek Berry)

Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan. Indonesia’s military on Tuesday halted search and recovery efforts for an AirAsia passenger jet that crashed last month killing all 162 people on board, navy officials said.

“The operation has been ongoing for 30 days so the joint team has been pulled out,” Rear Adm. Widodo, head of the navy’s western fleet, told reporters. “We apologize to the families of the victims. We tried our best to look for the missing victims.”

The Airbus A320-200 vanished from radar screens on Dec. 28, less than half way into a two-hour flight from Surabaya to Singapore. There were no survivors. Seventy bodies have been recovered.

The flight recorders have also been retrieved and are being analyzed. Days of rough weather and poor visibility have hampered navy divers’ efforts to find more bodies and recover the fuselage of the plane. Widodo said no more victims had been found by divers involved in the search for the past two days.

Since Saturday, salvage teams have been using giant inflatable bags to try to raise the fuselage of the Airbus A320-200, which is lying in the sea at a depth of around 30 meters. At one point, they managed to lift the main body to the surface for two minutes before a sling holding it snapped.

Video showing images of the fuselage dragging against the military recovery boat’s deck, then ripping and tumbling back to the bottom of the sea, raised concern among observers that vital clues about what caused the crash may have been destroyed in the failed attempt to raise the fuselage.

The civilian National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) said on Tuesday it may press on with the search for bodies. But its efforts will be hampered by the loss of the military’s large vessels and heavy recovery equipment.

“Perhaps we will do regular operations with help from fishermen and communities near the coast to find other victims,” said Tatang Zaenuddin, Basarnas’s deputy of operations. The agency will hold a news conference on Wednesday.

Imam Sampurno, who lost four family members on Flight QZ8501, none of whom has been found, said he was resigned to their fate. “We can only hope they will continue to search, but if it’s stopped there is nothing I can do about it. I am resigned to it,” he said.

Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) will submit its initial findings on the crash this week to the International Civil Aviation Organization. The preliminary report, which the ICAO requires within 30 days of an accident, will include “information on the plane, the number of passengers and other information like that,” NTSC investigator Suryanto said.

But it  will not include analysis from the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, both of which were recovered by divers from the bottom of the Java Sea.

Data from radar and the aircraft’s two “black box” flight recorders will provide investigators with a clearer picture of what occurred during the final minutes of the flight. But investigators say they have yet to start their analysis, as they have been compiling other data for the inquiry.

Transport Minister Ignasius Jonan told a parliamentary hearing last week that, based on radar data, the plane had climbed faster than normal in its final minutes, and then stalled. Investigators have found no evidence of foul play.

The NTSC will hold an annual media conference this week on its work over the past year but it is not expected to discuss details of its investigation of the AirAsia crash, NTSC head Tatang Kurniadi said.  The final report on the crash, which will be made public, must be filed within a year.

Former Garuda Indonesia captain Shadrach M. Nababan, said that based on the crashed plane’s logbook data, the Airbus A320-200 serving AirAsia flight QZ8501 had experienced problems with its auto rudder trim limiter as many as nine times in 2014, as reported by Tempo.co. Three days before crashing on December 25, 2014, flight QZ8501 was forced to “return to apron” twice, according to Shadrach, although it is not clear if the reason for the plane’s forced return was related to rudder trim trouble.

Reuters & AFP

Monday, January 26, 2015

Private jet market hit by China's anti-graft campaign

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-01-26

A private jet in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, July 5, 2014. (File photo/CNS)

China's anti-corruption campaign has hurt the previously booming market for private jets, but the temporary setback may also lead to the more measured development of the sector, China Entrepreneur magazine reports.

China's private jet market has seen rapid growth since the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, and the Greater China region posted an annualized growth rate of 34% at the end of 2013 compared with the global rate of 5%, the magazine noted.

This rapid growth attracted different players to the business, including airline companies, leasing companies and other private enterprises. However, the government's crackdown on corruption has hit the private jet business, and it has become a game of endurance for companies that invested in the sector in terms of surviving in a race that initially offered profits similar to a gold rush, the report said.

"We all believe the market will rebound in the future but at the moment we need to wrap up to stay warm through the cold winter," said Jin Yao, president of Dream Jets, a company established in 2012 to operate chartered private jet services.

Xu Shaoyi, a venture capital fund investor who invested in Dream Jets, said the company had decided to focus on chartered services and consultation services for the purchase of private jets because of the heavy costs involved in buying and operating the aircraft independently. "The sector may be flourishing but it has not yet yielded returns. It is most important to avoid investing too much but rather to maintain a presence and accumulate experience," Xu said.

The government's introduction of stricter rules to curb the lavish spending of officials has led to the cancellation of existing orders of private jets by both state-owned and private companies. State-owned companies cancelled their orders in adherence to the government's rules, while private companies made the same decision since the private jets were meant to carry company executives and government officials, the magazine said.

Since the manifest of all private jet passengers must be submitted to the aviation authorities, no government official dares to take flights offered by private companies for fear of falling foul of the anti-graft drive, the magazine added.

However, Jin remains positive about the sector's future, saying that the current downturn may help eliminate the business' image of being a luxury service. "In the past, everyone bought irrationally. Many people only chose to buy the most expensive premium models," Jin said, noting that American companies generally start by buying secondhand planes rather than new.

While the government is also attempting to resolve the issues restricting the development of the business, which include a lagging infrastructure and the applications required before each flight, Dream Jets is exploring other opportunities.

"We want to become the Uber of private jets," Jin said, noting that a seat on a chartered private jet can be cheaper than a first-class ticket on international long-haul flight on some routes.

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Dutch to experiment with self-driving cars that cooperate with each other

DutchNews.nl, January 24, 2015

Ministers have approved the large-scale testing of self-driving cars and trucks on public roads in the Netherlands arguing the technology could cut jams, improve road safety and reduce pollution. 

The cabinet wants the Netherlands to take a ‘leading role’ in the development of self-driving cars and systems to allow vehicles to communicate with each other, the infrastructure ministry said in a statement.

Large scale testing is planned to start in the summer, if parliament approves changes to current legislation, a ministry spokeswoman told news agency AFP. 

Last November, infrastructure minister Melanie Schultz kicked off the first Dutch test on a public road. Testing is currently largely confined to private roads because of legal restrictions.

The Dutch system does not involve doing away with drivers altogether, but with getting cars to work together instead. 

‘Vehicles which communicate with each other and accelerate or break in unison will contribute to smoother traffic flow,’ the ministry statement said. ‘The vehicles can travel more closely together and use the available road space more efficiently.’ 

A number of companies and institutes have already expressed an interest in taking part in the trials, the ministry said. For example, the TNO research institute is working with DAF, Rotterdam’s port authority and the transport industry lobby group TLN to develop self-driving lorries. 

A number of other trials of self-driving cars are underway worldwide. Google, for example, is working on its own robot car project, unveiling a prototype at the end of last year.



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Saturday, January 24, 2015

Dutch fine Uber €10,000 for breaking taxi rules

DutchNews.nl, January 23, 2015

Photo: Uber.com
Taxi service Uber has been fined €10,000 by the Dutch transport ministry for continuing to operate its budget Uberpop service in the Netherlands, according to broadcaster RTLZ 

Uberpop helps private citizens to operate as taxi drivers, using their own cars and charging customers around half the rate of a normal taxi journey.

The Dutch company court said at the beginning of December Uber must stop the Uberpop service because it is illegal and threatened it with fines if it failed to comply.

So far five Uberpop drivers have also been fined for breaking taxi laws. Uber said earlier it would pick up their fines. The transport ministry fine is the first time the company itself has been hit. 

Uber, founded in 2009, is reported to have raised an additional $1.6 billion in convertible debt last week. The company operates in 277 cities in 54 countries and has said it is opening in a new town every other day.

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Thursday, January 22, 2015

Divers Recover Six More Bodies From AirAsia Wreckage

Jakarta Globe, Suara Pembaruan & Agencies, 22, 2015

Indonesian rescuers recovered six more bodies from the wreckage of AirAsia
 Flight QZ8501 on Thursday. A total of 59 bodies have so far been recovered.
(Reuters Photo/Beawiharta)

Jakarta. Indonesian searchers on Thursday recovered six more bodies from the wreckage of the Indonesia AirAsia plane that crashed into the Java Sea last month, killing all 162 people onboard.

Divers found the six victims, some of whom were still strapped into their seats, trapped under plane debris not far from the jet’s fuselage, authorities said.

“We have found six bodies, four of whom were females and two males, all adults,” said S.B. Supriyadi, an official from Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas).

Identity cards, driving licenses and bank cards were found inside some of the victims’ pockets, Supriyadi said.

The victims were evacuated from the search site in the Karimata Strait to nearby Pangkalan Bun on Kalimantan for identification.

Flight QZ8501 lost contact with air traffic control midway through its flight from Surabaya to Singapore on Dec. 28. There were no survivors.

A total of 59 bodies have so far been recovered, as well as the plane’s two black boxes.

Indonesian military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Fuad Basya said searchers were aided by fine weather on Thursday, but accessing the plane’s fuselage — where more victims are believe to be trapped — is proving difficult.

One of eight mooring buoys installed to locate the main part of the Airbus A320 has been lost, Fuad said.

“Today the divers had been swimming around the location but could not find the plane’s body,” he said.

The cause of AirAsia‘s first fatal crash is not yet known, though investigators have ruled out foul play.

Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan on Tuesday told a parliamentary hearing that radar data showed the plane had climbed faster than normal in its final minutes, and then stalled.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

AirAsia Jet’s Alarms ‘Screaming’ Before Crash: Investigator

Jakarta Globe – AFP, Jan 21, 2015

AirAsia Flight QZ8501 crashed in shallow waters with 162 people on board,
but so far just 53 bodies have been recovered. (AFP Photo/Juni Kriswanto)

Jakarta. Warning alarms in AirAsia Flight QZ8501 were “screaming” as the pilots desperately tried to stabilize the plane just before it plunged into the Java Sea last month, a crash investigator said on Wednesday.

The noise of several alarms — including one that indicated the plane was stalling — can be heard going off in recordings from the black box in the Airbus A320-200′s cockpit, the investigator told AFP, requesting anonymity.

“The warning alarms, we can say, were screaming, while in the background they [the pilot and co-pilot] were busy trying to recover,” the investigator said, adding the warnings were going off “for some time.”

The investigator, from Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC), added that the pilots’ voices were drowned out by the sound of the alarms.

The revelation came a day after Indonesian Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan said that the plane had climbed abnormally fast before stalling and plunging into the sea, during a flight on Dec. 28 in stormy weather from Surabaya to Singapore.

“In the final minutes, the plane climbed at a speed which was beyond normal,” the minister told reporters.

The plane crashed in shallow waters with 162 people on board, but so far just 53 bodies have been recovered.

Divers have been struggling for a week against rough seas and strong currents to reach the plane’s main body, which was spotted on the seabed and is thought to contain the bulk of the remaining passengers and crew.

The two black boxes — the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder — were recovered last week after a lengthy search, and investigators are expected to complete a preliminary report next week.

As well as the cockpit voice recorder, the NTSC is examining a wealth of information in the flight data recorder, which monitors every major part of the plane.

They are focusing on the possibility of human or aircraft error, after ruling out terrorism following an analysis of the cockpit voice recorder.

Committee head Tatang Kurniadi said that the preliminary report into the crash would be completed on Tuesday, a month after the accident. He said the full report would not be released publicly but the media would be told some of its contents.

There was a huge international hunt for the crashed plane, involving ships from several countries including the US and China.

All but seven of those on board the flight were Indonesian. The foreign nationals were from South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Britain and France.

Agence France-Presse

AirAsia flight QZ8501: Plane climbed at speed 'beyond normal' then stalled, minister says

The Strait Times - AFP, Jan 20, 2015

A rescue team member walks near part of the fuselage of crashed AirAsia Flight
 QZ8501 inside a storage facility at Kumai port in Pangkalan Bun on Jan 19, 2015.
 An AirAsia plane that crashed into the Java Sea last month with 162 people on board
 climbed at a speed that was "beyond normal" and then stalled, the Indonesian
transport minister said on Tuesday. -- Photo Reuters

JAKARTA (AFP) - An AirAsia plane that crashed into the Java Sea last month with 162 people on board climbed faster than normal and then stalled, the Indonesian transport minister said Tuesday.

Flight QZ8501 went down on Dec 28 in stormy weather, during what was supposed to be a short trip from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore.

Indonesia’s meteorological agency has said bad weather may have caused the crash, and investigators are analysing the data from the jet’s black boxes before releasing a preliminary report.

Just moments before the plane disappeared off the radar, the pilot had asked to climb to avoid the storm. He was not immediately granted permission due to heavy air traffic.

“In the final minutes, the plane climbed at a speed which was beyond normal,” Transport Minister Ignasius Jonan told reporters, citing radar data.

“The plane suddenly went up at a speed above the normal limit that it was able to climb to. Then it stalled.”

Earlier at a parliamentary hearing, he said radar data showed the Airbus A320-200 appeared at one point to be climbing at a rate of 1,800m (6,000ft) a minute before the crash.

There were several other planes in the area at the time.

“I think it is rare even for a fighter jet to be able to climb 6,000 feet per minute,” he said.

“For a commercial flight, climbing around 1,000 to 2,000 (feet) is maybe already considered extraordinary, because it is not meant to climb that fast.”

However, defence aviation experts said the minister’s statement was incorrect, adding that a fighter jet flying at an altitude of 10,000m is capable of climbing 10,000 feet per minute.

TERRORISM RULED OUT

The minister’s comments came after Indonesian investigators said they were focusing on the possibility of human error or problems with the plane having caused the crash, following an initial analysis of the cockpit voice recorder.

“We didn’t hear any other person, no explosion,” investigator Nurcahyo Utomo told reporters, explaining why terrorism had been ruled out.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Committee were now looking at the “possibility of plane damage and human factors", he said, without giving further details.

As well as the cockpit voice recorder, the committee is also examining a wealth of information in the flight data recorder, which monitors every major part of the plane.

A preliminary report will be released on Jan 28.

There was a huge international hunt for the crashed plane, involving ships from several countries including the US and China.

Indonesian search and rescue teams have so far recovered just 53 bodies from the sea.

But last week a Singapore navy ship located the jet’s main body, with the AirAsia motto “Now Everyone Can Fly” painted on the side.

Rescue teams hope they will be able to find many of the passengers and crew inside.

However, divers have not succeeded in reaching the fuselage despite several attempts due to bad weather, high waves and strong underwater currents.

All but seven of those on board the flight were Indonesian. The foreign nationals were from South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Britain and France.