[*Adora*]

Seriously, what's going on with planes crashing all around the world. Bad month to fly?

Air Algerie flight AH5017: France and UN search for wreckage of 'crashed' passenger jet carrying 116 people - Africa - World - The Independent French fighter jets and UN helicopters were scouring the north of Mali, West Africa, on Thursday night in an attempt to locate the wreckage of an Air Algerie flight which is believed to have crashed with 116 people onboard. Conflicting reports surrounding the location of the wreckage made it unclear whether the aircraft had been found on Thursday evening. Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said that flight AH5017 had been spotted in the desert between the northern towns of of Aguelhoc and Kidal. But General Gilbert Diendere, a member of the crisis unit in Burkina Faso, said his team had found remains in southern Mali, 50 km (30 miles) from the Burkinabe border. Local authorities in the nearby town of Gossi also told Reuters the wreckage had been located there. In Paris, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the flight, carrying 51 French nationals, had "probably crashed" but he said two French Mirage warplanes searching the vast desert area around the northern Malian city of Gao had spotted no wreckage. He added authorities believed flight AH5017 may have encountered bad weather after the pilot requested to change direction shortly after takeoff due to a storm. However, he said no hypothesis had been excluded. An arrival information screen shows the delayed Air Algerie flight 5017 (top) at the Houari Boumediene airport near Algiers (AP) An arrival information screen shows the delayed Air Algerie flight 5017 (top) at the Houari Boumediene airport near Algiers (AP) AH5017 lost contact with aviation officials about 50 minutes after take-off from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso in west Africa. It was bound for Algiers in Algeria. The last contact Algerian authorities had with the aircraft was at 01.55am GMT when it was flying over Gao in Mali, an Algerian official said. The pilot had contacted Niger's control tower and asked to change route at 01.38am because of a storm in the area. A diplomat in the Malian capital of Bamako said that the north of the country was struck by a powerful sandstorm overnight. Earlier, an Algerian aviation official confirmed that flight AH5017 had gone missing and crashed while carrying a total of 116 people on board. In response to the incident, French President Francois Hollande cancelled a planned visit to overseas territories, and said all military means on the ground would be used to locate the aircraft. He added he had sent his minister Fleur Pellerin to the region, and confirmed he will hold an emergency cabinet meeting this afternoon. "The search will take as long as needed," Hollande told reporters. "Everything must be done to find this plane. We cannot identify the causes of what happened," he said. The French civil aviation body has confirmed investigations into the missing plane are being led from Paris and Marseille. It has set up crisis centres at airports in both cities. Niger security sources said the country had also sent planes over the border region with Mali to search for the flight. The Ouagadougou Airport posted this map showing where it believes the Air Algerie flight went missing The Ouagadougou Airport posted this map showing where it believes the Air Algerie flight went missing The official Algerian news agency APS has published a list of passengers on board the plane, including 51 French, 27 Burkina Faso nationals, eight Lebanese, six Algerians, five Canadians, four Germans, two Luxemburg nationals, one Swiss, one Belgian, one Egyptian, one Ukrainian, one Nigerian, one Cameroonian and one Malian. The six crew members are believed to be Spanish, according to reports. The Lebanese Foreign Ministry said its embassy in Abidjan estimated the number of Lebanese citizens on the flight was at least 20, some of whom may have dual nationality. "We don't know anything yet. We have just heard from the news that the plane went missing," said Amina Daher, whose sister-in-line Randa was travelling on the plane with her three children, returning to Beirut to celebrate the Muslim religious festival of Eid El-Fitr with her family. Due to the unknown location of the plane, officials have not yet stated how many casualties there are. The plane is operated by Air Algerie and chartered from Spanish airline Swiftair, who said 110 passengers and six members of crew are on board the MD83 aircraft. It can carry up to 167 people. Flight AH 5017 flies the Ouagadougou-Algiers route four times per week. Swiftair has a relatively clean safety record, having had five accidents since 1977, two of which caused a total of eight deaths, according to the Washington-based Flight Safety Foundation. Swiftair said in a statement that the passenger jet took off from Burkina Faso at 01.17am and was supposed to land in Algiers at 05.10am, but never reached its destination. A satellite image showing bad weather conditions in the area overnight It said the six crew members include two pilots and four flight attendants. Mali has been the site of unrest in recent years after it fell under control of ethnic Tuareg separatists and then al Qaida-linked Islamic extremists following a military coup in 2012. In light of the tragic downing of flight MH17, thought to be shot by pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine, a senior French official said it is unlikely that fighters in Mali had the kind of weaponry that could shoot down a plane. The mission to find the plane is complicated by the vast scale and daunting terrain of Mali. The area where the flight is suspected to have crashed is a sparsely inhabited region of scrubland and desert dunes stretching to the foothills of the Adrar des Ifoghas mountains. As the Malian government has only a weak presence in the region, the bulk of the operation is in the hands of France and UN peacekeepers. AH5017 is the third passenger air crash this week, after the downing of a Malaysia Airlines plane in Ukraine and, the crash of a TransAsia Airways off Taiwan during a thunderstorm on Wednesday. Air Algerie's last major accident was in 2003 when one of its planes crashed shortly after take-off from the southern city of Tamanrasset, killing 102 people. In February this year, 77 people died when an Algerian military transport plane crashed into a mountain in eastern Algeria.

[sunnykerr]

Apparently, there have already been twice as many crash casualties this year as in 2013.

But, apparently, the last couple of years had been especially good years for plane travel.

So it doesn't really tell us much to know that.

No doubt, the fact that all of these crashes have happened on top of each other makes them seem even worse.

And it's probably good to remember that the causes of the crashes are not the same.

MH17 was shot down. Whatever happened to the Air Algerie flight, it was something else.

[sunnykerr]

Clashes again prevent experts from reaching MH17 wreckage zone DONETSK, Ukraine -- Almost two weeks after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was blown out of the sky, the remains of some passengers are feared rotting in the 90-degree (32-degree Celsius) midsummer heat, deepening the frustration of relatives desperate to recover the bodies of their loved ones. Fighting between Ukrainian forces and separatist rebels has kept away international police charged with securing the site, a sprawling area of farmland and villages. And until it's secured, there is no way for forensic experts to recover the bodies or gather debris for analysis. Even the rebels -- who initially oversaw the collection of more than 200 of the 298 bodies in a disorganized, widely criticized effort -- have stopped their work, saying attacks from the Ukrainian military have forced them to focus on defending themselves. It remains unclear exactly how many bodies remain and what condition they are in after being exposed for so long to the elements. Dutch officials are adamant there are still bodies to be recovered, and Prime Minister Mark Rutte has said repeatedly that bringing them back is his government's top priority. But Dutch officials were gloomy Wednesday about the prospects of reaching the site any time soon. "We don't expect the security situation to improve enough over the next few days to make this possible," said Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg, head of the Dutch-led recovery mission. Two crucial pieces of evidence -- the flight recorders -- have already been retrieved and analyzed, however. The U.S. and Ukrainian governments say the Boeing 777 was brought down July 17 by a Russian-made missile fired by eastern Ukraine's pro-Moscow separatists. The separatists deny it; Russia denies providing the Buk missile launcher and says the Ukrainian military may have shot the plane down. After the investigative team's failure to reach the site on Wednesday, the United Nations called on both sides in Ukraine's grinding civil conflict to cease hostilities in the area. "The families of the victims of this horrific tragedy deserve closure and the world demands answers. International teams must be allowed to conduct their work," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. In their latest attempt to get to the wreckage zone, observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe left in two vehicles from the rebel-held city of Donetsk but got only as far as the city's outskirts. The observers talked with rebels and turned back after being "warned of gunfire on the route and in the surrounding areas," the Dutch said in a statement. Recent offensives by the Ukrainian army have enabled it to take back swaths of territory from the rebels. But the fighting has edged ever closer to the crash zone. "We are still waiting and it is a miserable process," said Jasmine Calehr, the grandmother of two Dutch brothers who died in the crash International observers say wreckage has been cut, moved or otherwise tampered with. Of the 298 who died, 194 were Dutch citizens, and Ukraine has asked for their government's help in investigating the crash. Thirty-seven were from Australia. A total of 227 coffins have been flown to the Netherlands for identification and investigation. Despite her mounting frustration, Calehr said she did not want investigators to go unless it was safe. "Other people are not supposed to risk their lives," she said. "But that there is nobody strong enough to put pressure on a bunch of rebels is very painful." Ukrainian government security spokesman Andriy Lysenko added to security concerns Wednesday by accusing the separatists of mining the approaches to the area. Even if rebels leave, he said, it will take time to remove the mines and make the area safe for investigators. Meanwhile, the head of Ukraine's security services revealed what he said was fresh satellite imagery proving Russia had created a major cross-border corridor for the delivery of military equipment to the rebels. Valentyn Nalyvaichenko said other photographs showed burn marks from rockets fired at Ukrainian troops from a position two kilometres inside Russian territory.

I don't think we'll ever know what happened there.

But it is clear who's preventing investigators from doing their job.

So we may never know what actually happened, but the fact that the Russian rebels are blocking access tells me they're feeling responsible for this.

[canflam]

May be, but do you expect anything to happen to them?

[sunnykerr]

I really, really don't expect anything to happen to them, no.

Not with the Russian government's involvement.

[sunnykerr]

Bangladesh ferry carrying hundreds of passengers capsizes LOUHAJONG, Bangladesh -- A passenger ferry carrying hundreds of people capsized Monday in central Bangladesh, killing at least two people and probably many more as horrified villagers watched from the shore, authorities said. It was unclear exactly how many people were on board the M.V. Pinak because ferry operators in Bangladesh rarely maintain passenger lists. Local media said there were about 250 passengers, but the figure could not be immediately confirmed. Azizul Haque, who was among at least 44 people who survived by swimming to shore, said he jumped overboard when it became clear the ferry was going down. "The ferry went out of control due to wind and current, tilting from one side to the other," Haque, 30, said. "Then the captain jumped out because he probably understood it was sinking. The river was rough, and there were many passengers on board." The ferry capsized in the Padma River in Munshiganj district, about 44 kilometres (28 miles) south of the capital, Dhaka. More than four hours after the ferry capsized, authorities said they were still waiting for a larger vessel needed to launch a proper rescue operation. Local police officer Khalid Hossain said two bodies had been recovered so far. "We are waiting for a big rescue vessel which is on its way," said Nurul Alam Dulal, a local fire official. "It's very difficult to go there at the scene and stay afloat." Jasim Uddin, 35, was among a crowd of people who watched the vessel go down from the shore, recording it on his cellphone as it disappeared. When the survivors began to come to shore, he said they were exhausted and panicked. "One woman swam nearly to shore and was picked up by a speedboat," he said. "She was crying, saying she has two daughters. It was panic. Everyone was praying to God." As news spread of the accident, about 500 people including relatives of the missing gathered by the water, many of them weeping and holding photos of their loved ones. Scores of people die in ferry accidents every year in Bangladesh, where boats are a common form of transportation. The Padma is one of the largest rivers in Bangladesh, a delta nation crisscrossed by more than 130 rivers. Poor safety standards and overcrowding are often blamed for the accidents. In May, about 50 people died in a ferry accident in the same district. On Monday, the Ministry of Shipping ordered an investigation into the latest tragedy, giving a 10-day deadline.

It's really terrible when ferry deaths are almost hardly worth the news, you know?

That's at least 200 people dead, but it seems to happen so often in that part of the world that, I don't know... the number stops losing meaning or something.

[sunnykerr]

A marginally lighter travel story:

Bagpipers concern over potential travel ban BAGPIPERS have expressed their fear over a new law which led to two US teenagers having their pipes seized by border control staff at the weekend. Campbell Webster, 17 and Eryk Bean, 17, both from New Hampshire had their pipes seized while travelling between Canada and the US, just two days before they were due to fly to Scotland for the World Pipe Band Championships. Mr Webster’s pipes, which were previously used by his father in his role as an official piper to the Queen, were confiscated by officials because they are made out of ivory. New laws brought in earlier this year mean that owners of pipes containing ivory must get a Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) certificate from the US Fish and Wildlife Service in order to transport their pipes across borders. And pipers hoping to travel to Scotland for the competition will have to make an appointment with officials at a “designated” port and make a declaration on their customs form. But pipers say the confusing rules, brought in at the end of June, are causing “significant concern” - with many unsure how the new laws work. Mr Webster, from Concord, New Hampshire, had his £6,000 bagpipes taken off him by US Border Patrol in Vermont just two days before he was due to fly to Scotland. The teenager said he had a CITES permit but was told he needed it amended to allow him to travel through smaller border crossings. After beginning a campaign online, Mr Webster had his pipes returned on Tuesday. He said: “My friend and I both had our pipes seized by the US government Sunday night. “We were told we were never going to see them again.” “There is no way to describe the feeling watching border patrol agents seizing your bagpipes right in front of you.” Campbell’s vintage 1936 silver and ivory Robertson pipes previously belonged to his dad Gordon Webster - pipe-major with the 1st and 2nd Battalion Scots Guards and once an official piper to Queen Elizabeth II. An online petition to reunite the youngsters with their bagpipes attracted almost 3,000 signatures - with many supporters expressing their outrage at the seizure. Glasgow-based piper Craig Munro, the owner of Wallace Bagpipes in Anniesland and a member of pipe band the Red Hot Chilli Pipers, offered to lend Campbell a set of pipes when he heard what had happened. He said: “It’s been a real scare for the bagpipe community. “But it shows the strength of the community that everyone came together to help Campbell.” He added: “There seems to be a crackdown. “This is the first time I have heard of anyone actually having their pipes confiscated from them. “It’s really going to damage the antique market - because let’s be honest, what’s the point in owning an old set of pipes if you can’t take them anywhere.” US piper Ron Bowen, who runs website The Bagpipe Place, said: “We are all very nervous over here. “This has caused significant concern within the Canadian and US bagpipe communities. The law and its requirements are complicated and confusing.” Scots pipers have also slammed the “bureaucratic” rules. Stuart Milne, 24, from Aberdeenshire, will be competing in the World Championships with Stamperland Pipe Band. He said: “This has been a bureaucratic nightmare, and the legislation seems to be quite new and not widely publicised. “The cost and transport for these antique instruments seems excessive. “The piping world is waiting to see what happens with this particular instance, everyone is freaked out about what will happen to these instruments when pipers are travelling from North America.” But Ian Embleton, chief executive of the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association, said the rules would not affect the upcoming Championships. He said: “This seems to more of a problem in America than here. “It’s a problem for the individuals, but I don’t see it having an impact on the World Championships.” A spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service said: “To take bagpipes with elephant ivory out of the United States and back, musicians need to obtain a CITES document from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and leave and return to the country via one of our 38 designated ports. “Musicians should contact the port 48 hours in advance to arrange to declare their instrument and obtain Service clearance on departure or arrival. “They should also check with the country they’re visiting to see if that nation has any requirements of its own. “If musicians want to travel internationally from other U.S. airports or across land borders, they must also apply for a designated port exception permit and pay inspection fees.”

Basically, the problem is that the new rules have not been made very clear and, on top, not well publicized at all.

It's really disgraceful, the way this was implemented.