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A Turkish Airlines Boeing 737-800 has crashed into a field while attempting to land at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. There were conflicting reports about whether anyone was killed on the plane, which had 127 passengers and seven crew members. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said one person was killed, according to the semi-official Anatolia news agency, but an airline spokesman and Turkish Transportation Minister Binali Yildirim said no one had died. The aircraft, which originated in Istanbul, Turkey, was trying to land at Schiphol International Airport when it went down at about 10:40 a.m. local time, Dutch airport officials said.

About 30 people were injured Friday when a Northwest Airlines flight suffered turbulence before landing at Japan’s Narita International Airport, a spokesman said. Three people where seriously injured. There were 408 passengers and 14 crew members on the Boeing 747-400 flight from Manila, Philippines.

Low-cost carrier Southwest Airlines said it plans to begin flying out of Boston’s Logan International Airport by the fall. Chief executive Gary Kelly said the airline is planning “a conservative launch” with between eight and 12 daily departures from Logan. He said Southwest probably will just fly to a couple of destinations initially, but the airline does not plan to unveil its new routes until the spring. Southwest’s arrival in Boston, Kelly said, will result in 35 to 40 new jobs at the airport.

Singapore Airlines plans to cut its capacity by 11 percent in the year from April as travel and cargo demand wanes, and has begun talks with trade unions in an effort to avoid layoffs. The airline said on Monday it only filled 63 percent of the space available on its planes for passengers and cargo in January, down from 68 percent a year ago, as global airlines suffer from the financial crisis. Monday’s announcement came after the company posted a 43 percent drop in quarterly profit last week, hurt by hedging losses and slowing demand for travel and cargo. It said 17 aircraft will be decommissioned from the operating fleet, up from its previous plan of phasing out four planes before recession hit major markets.

Fifteen airline flight crew members have been arrested after cocaine was found in baggage — the second such incident in a month. The South African Airways employees were detained after 11 pounds of the drug — worth about $355,000 — was discovered in a bag on a flight from Johannesburg. Crew members were arrested after U.K. Border Agency officers made the discovery at Heathrow Airport in London. On Jan. 21, a 15-member flight crew from the same airline was detained after cocaine and cannabis worth $440,000 was found in three bags.

Colgan Air Dash 8Q-400 N200WQ has crashed while attempting to land at the Buffalo/Niagara International Airport (BUF). The aircraft, inbound from Newark as Continental Connection flight 3407, crashed into homes about 5 miles short of runway 23 while attempting to land. According to local media reports, all 45 passengers, 4 crew, and an individual on the ground died in the crash.

Photo: Colgan Air Q400 N200WQ was reportedly the aircraft involved in the accident (Photo Copyright FOKKER AIRCRAFT)

US Airways Flight 1549 Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, in an interview with CBS News, expressed unease about the dwindling ranks of experienced pilots flying for major airlines. Noting over 6,000 commercial pilots lost their jobs last year, interviewer Katie Couric asked Sullenberger for his opinion on what those losses represent to the industry:

“The airline employees have been hit by an economic tsunami. Pay cuts, loss of pensions, increased hours every day, days per week, days per month… I know some of our pilots, who have been laid off, have chosen not to return,” Sullenberger said. “I can speak personally, for me and my family, that my decision to remain in this profession that I love has come at a cost to me and my family.”

The demographic for US commercial airline pilots has changed radically over the past 17 years. In 1992, about 90 percent of commercial pilots flying for major airlines had military backgrounds; today, about 30 percent claim time in the military. Due to industry-wide cutbacks in pay, benefits and pensions, today’s pilots also work more hours, and earn less money… a combination Sullenberger believes is driving older pilots out of airline service.

“Are you concerned that that means if another situation like this one comes up in the future, you won’t have as qualified a pilot flying the plane?” Couric asked.

“That just follows, doesn’t it?” Sullenberger replied.

Alaska Airlines is questioning Virgin America’s ownership status, asking the government to determine whether the fledgling airline continues to meet the qualifications for being a U.S. air carrier. Virgin America, which launched in 2007, has said it is a U.S.-controlled and operated airline and is a separate company from Virgin Atlantic, which is controlled by British billionaire Richard Branson. But Alaska Airlines said in a statement Tuesday that recent media reports call into question Virgin America’s compliance with U.S. foreign ownership and control restrictions on domestic carriers. Alaska Airlines and Virgin America compete largely in Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Under U.S. law, foreign ownership in a U.S. air carrier is limited to 25 percent. Alaska Airlines asserts that the carrier must also be effectively controlled by U.S. citizens, citing reports of investors owning 75 percent of Virgin America’s voting stock with imminent rights to sell their shares back to the foreign-owned Virgin Group.

A collapse in trans-Pacific trade pushed cargo traffic for U.S. airlines down 17 percent in December, leading American carriers with their worst year for freight since 2001. The drop last year was punctuated by a crumbling trans-Pacific export market late in the year, capped by a 29.5 percent decline in December that appeared to be the single worst monthly drop the ATA has reported in any market. The cargo traffic of 431 million cargo revenue ton miles was the lightest in the Pacific trade in any month since January 2004. Despite a relatively strong start to the year, trans-Pacific cargo traffic ended up down 4 percent in 2008 compared to the year before, including a 21 percent drop in the fourth quarter. The ATA reported domestic cargo traffic fell 10.9 percent in December from the same month the year before, which actually was better than the 18.7 percent decline the carriers reported in domestic business in November. The domestic traffic even grew 9.1 percent from November to December.

Delta Air Lines will drop about 170 gates nationwide as the carrier merges its operations with Northwest Airlines across the carriers’ shared airport networks. Delta chief executive officer Richard Anderson told employees Friday in his weekly address all airports nationwide should be converted by year-end, and international destinations will be integrated by mid-2010.

The on time performance of the US’ largest airlines improved in 2008 compared to the previous year, according to the Air Travel Consumer Report released today by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). According to information filed with the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), a part of DOT’s Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), the 19 carriers reporting on-time performance recorded an overall on-time arrival rate of 76.0 percent for January through December 2008, up from 2007’s 73.4 percent rate. During December 2008, the carriers posted an on-time performance rate of 65.3 percent, up from December 2007’s 64.3 percent but down from November 2008’s 83.3 percent.

A Mideast aircraft leasing firm, LCAL, today canceled a $2.4 billion order of 16 787 Dreamliner aircraft. The canceled order was the second in two weeks for Boeing’s much-delayed, high-tech 787. Russia’s S7 Group last week ended its order for 15 Dreamliners. A combination of a weak economy, production delays and a declining price for oil conspired to make the order less viable for LCAL, which is based in Dubai. The two order cancellations leave Boeing with 882 orders for the Dreamliner, which is running almost two years behind schedule.

A second engine power loss on a Boeing 777 following one that caused a crash in London has resulted in a stronger recommendation from the manufacturer to avoid icing in fuel lines in extremely cold conditions. The fuel temperature in more than 200 777s with Rolls-Royce Trent 800-series engines should not be allowed to remain at 14 degrees Fahrenheit (-10 degrees Celsius) or colder in flight after two hours, one hour less than previously advised, Boeing Co. told customers in a notice issued Jan. 29. After two hours, pilots are told to reduce altitude, which can result in slower air speeds and increased fuel consumption. No decision has been made on a mechanical fix or design change pending further investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board and British authorities, Verdier said.

Photo: Fuel line icing is the suspected cause of a British Airways 777 crash-landing at London’s Heathrow Airport in January, 2008. (Photo Copyright Allan Huse)

The National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday that both engines of the US Airways flight that ditched last month into the Hudson River contained bird remains. The engines from US Airways Flight 1549 were sent to the manufacturer in Cincinnati, Ohio, where the NTSB directed the analysis, it said in a news release. The plane’s flight data recorder “revealed no anomalies or malfunctions in either engine up to the point where the captain reported a bird strike, after which there was an uncommanded loss of thrust in both engines,” the NTSB said.

(Photo Copyright Gerard Isaacson)

Passengers who suspected their pilot was intoxicated were astonished to be told by the airline that “it’s not such a big deal” to be drunk and in charge of a plane. The incident began as Captain Alexander Cheplevsky started his pre-flight welcome message while Aeroflot Flight 315 from Moscow to New York prepared for take-off. The passengers - who included a reporter for the Moscow Times and reality TV show host Ksenia Sobchak - were shocked that the pilot was barely intelligible in his native Russian and completely indecipherable when he switched to English.

Before long a stand-off ensued, with the alarmed passengers demanding the flight crew be replaced while the airline refused to accept that the pilot was drunk. “It’s not such a big deal if the pilot is drunk,” the Moscow Times reported one Aeroflot official as saying. “Really, all he has to do is press a button and the plane flies itself. The worst that could happen is he’ll trip over something in the cockpit.”

The dispute further escalated when, after half an hour, the pilot finally agreed to come out of the Boeing 767 cockpit and face his passengers. He reportedly had bloodshot eyes, a red face and was unsteady on his feet. “At first he was looking at us like we were crazy. Then when we wouldn’t back down, he said, ‘I’ll sit here quietly in a corner. We have three more pilots. I won’t even touch the controls, I promise.’” After three hours of pleading with the crew and several Aeroflot officials, over 100 passengers signed a statement saying they believed Captain Cheplevsky was drunk and the crew was replaced.

Three weeks after the December 28 incident, Aeroflot released a statement saying Captain Cheplevsky might have suffered a stroke immediately before the flight and that tests found no signs of intoxication.

Swedish airline SAS has announced it is to ax 3,000 jobs and sell off several of its stakes in other airlines after unveiling its fourth quarter results. The company reported a pretax loss of 403 million Swedish Krona ($48.4 million) for Q4, compared with a profit of SK 57 million ($6.8 million) for the same period last year, reported Reuters.com. In addition to the job cuts, the statement said, 5,600 employees will leave the SAS group through divestment or outsourcing — with 3,000 of these through its loss-making Spanish subsidiary Spanair.

The board overseeing Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, California voted Monday to seek federal approval for a ban on nighttime operations as a way to decrease noise in nearby communities. Airlines already operate under voluntary flight restrictions between 10 p.m. and 6:59 a.m. at Bob Hope, so the new rule would affect mainly private jets. The FAA will have 180 days to approve or deny the application, which would be the first time curfews have been applied to Stage 3 aircraft.

A Cyprus Airways Airbus A330 slid on to the grass at London Heathrow today as many of the UK’s biggest airports bore the brunt of the heavy snow. A BAA spokeswoman said the jet was taxiing shortly after 8.30am when its front wheel left the tarmac. No one was injured in the incident, but passengers were still on board and airport officials were working out a way to get them off, she said. Heathrow temporarily closed both its runways, leading to more than 700 cancellations and ’significant delays’ to other flights.

The director of the Dominican Civil Aviation Institute revealed today that the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) investigates Caribair Airlines president Rafael Rosado and “is going to take measures against him.” Jose Tomas Perez reiterated that the carrier was suspended for nine months for conducting flights that pose a threat to Dominican Republic’s Category One aviation status. The IDAC director said a Caribair airplane crashed in North Carolina on January 1, this year, prompting a visit by four FAA inspectors to the country to investigate.

jetBlue said Thursday it will begin flying to and from Los Angeles International Airport, after putting the plan on hold last summer as fuel prices climbed to record highs. The Forest Hills, N.Y.-based carrier said it will start daily nonstop service in June from Los Angeles to Boston and jetBlue’s home base at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Tickets will go on sale Feb. 4. jetBlue already serves smaller local airports at Long Beach and Burbank, Calif.