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(UPI Top Stories Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) The U.S. aviation security agency reportedly wants the airline ban on lighters lifted because screeners are spending too much time looking for them.

Kip Hawley, head of the Transportation Security Administration, was quoted as telling USA Today the ban on passengers carrying lighters aboard airplanes does not add to security any more.

Hawley told the newspaper requiring screeners to confiscate lighters at checkpoints is a distraction from the serious nature of finding (bomb) components. (more…)

Air Canada Jazz has suspended four mechanics a day after they publicly raised concerns about safety at the airline.

Dave Avella, Gianni Ballestrin, Grant Anastas and Ron Anstey, all mechanics at Jazz’s Toronto facility, were suspended with pay pending an investigation by the airline into comments they made to the Star, including allegations they are pressured to release planes with defects that could compromise public safety.

Meanwhile, Transport Canada yesterday said it was launching an audit into Jazz’s mechanical operations in the next three months. (more…)

Air Canada is imposing stricter new weight limits on passengers’ carry-on luggage.

Like every carrier, Air Canada is battling to pare costs as the price of jet fuel has skyrocketed in recent months. In an effort to lighten each plane’s load, the airline has tried measures ranging from dumping empty wine bottles in the middle of a round trip and, in one high profile experiment, even stripped paint off the fuselage of one plane.

With the busy summer flying season now at hand, the ACE Aviation Ltd. unit has shifted its gaze to the check-in counter.
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A worried Ulsterwoman last night told how she was able to carry a razor-sharp knife onto a packed Aer Lingus holiday jet.

Shocked Sally McManus, who uses the knife for work, only discovered the deadly blade in her hand-luggage once she had arrived at her hotel in Croatia.

Sally (42), who was travelling with her partner Johnny for a week’s holiday, hit out at Dublin Airport’s security scanners for not spotting the knife. (more…)

(UPI Top Stories Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)The U.S. Internal Revenue Service has confirmed an employee’s laptop computer containing personnel information was lost on a commercial flight.

Agency spokesman Terry Lemons said an unidentified employee was flying to a job fair last month and checked the laptop as luggage on an unidentified airline. (more…)

Swiss authorities say they have arrested seven people of North African origin suspected of plotting to attack an Israeli El Al airliner.The Swiss attorney-general’s office said the attack was to have been carried out in Switzerland but it did not specify how, when, or precisely where. It said no explosives had been found.”We do not have an exact date. We just know about the plans.

“We got wind of them towards the end of last year,” Jeanne Balmer, a spokeswoman for the attorney-general’s office, said. (more…)

SITKA, Alaska - A windshield cracked by an errant goose prompted a Las Vegas-bound America West plane to make an unscheduled landing Friday evening at an airport here, officials said.

America West Flight 142 from Anchorage was an Airbus 319 carrying 112 passengers and five crew members, said Mark Hein, a US Airways spokesman in Phoenix. (more…)

South Bend, IN - A United Express flight from Chicago to South Bend turned around, when the airline discovered it was carrying the wrong child.

The 14-year-old Goshen boy, who was supposed to be on the flight, was left behind asleep at O’Hare.

Instead, the flight took off with a 10-year-old boy who was supposed to be flying to Taiwan, and who didn’t speak English.

The airline called the mistake rare and is investigating how it happened.

Original Article

The widow of the pilot of United Flight 93 says she’s very troubled by the state of airline security. Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania after it was hijacked on Sept. 11, 2001.

Pilot Jason Dahl died in the crash. His wife Sandy Dahl is scheduled to watch the film “Flight 93″ Tuesday evening at the White House with President and Mrs. Bush along with other families of those killed on Flight 93.

“I’m very excited and honored President Bush thinks enough of the families of United Flight 93 to invite us,” Dahl said.

The 40 people on board, including her husband, fought back furiously against hijackers on that flight. Dahl said the film accurately portrays “all the chaos, how we were so unprepared.” She says security is still not prepared the way it should be for another airline attack.

She said Tuesday she plans to bring up her concerns about airline security with the president.

“I can just tell you from being a flight attendant that things aren’t the way they need them to be after 9-11,” Dahl said.

Dahl questions the decision to allow small knives and scissors back on airplanes. She believes that the take-charge attitude captured in the movie “Flight 93″ has not been matched by those in charged of airline security in Washington.

“There are incompetent screeners at the airport,” she said. “These are my friends that work on these airplanes. Yes, it concerns me very much.”

Original Article

New Delhi: The man with the golden gun, ace-shooter Lieutenant Colonel Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore returned home late on Wednesday night after a glittering performance in the Beijing Olympics qualifiers held in Egypt.

But it was not a happy homecoming for Rathore, who shot a gold at the ISSF shotgun world cup championship in Cairo.

The airline authorities misplaced his gun, and after a wait of nearly two hours, told him that it was not traceable.

“We flew Lufthansa Airlines and hope it’s a responsible airline. Unfortunately it’s not proving so. I just lost my gun today,” Rathore said.

The Athens Olympic Silver medallist pulled-off an amazing comeback in his double trap event at Cairo. He bagged a gold in the double trap of the same event on Sunday to pick a quota place for himself for the Beijing Games.

The army marksman topped the field with a score of 182 after making it to the finals through sudden death following a tied finish with Qiang Pan of China at the end of qualifying rounds.

“It was a typical movie situation. A guy is out of the final and he has to make a comeback. From a position of sixth, where my rival was four points ahead of me, I had to fight my way through in extremely windy conditions. I did it and the crowds loved it” Rathore said.

Rathore has had a great run this season. He began with shooting gold in the Melbourne Commonwealth Games and then followed it up with an eighth and sixth place finish in the first two shooting world cups.

All this against the very best in the world

“I need to push my level of performance higher up. My worst performance should be better than others’ best,” Rathore added.

Rathore shot a score of 137 (47+46+44) in the preliminaries but bounced back with an excellent 45 in the final in which he hit the bird in the last 10 rounds.

Original Article