No Survivors Found in China Eastern Wreckage
No survivors have been found amongst the 132 people on-board China Eastern Flight 5735 which crashed outside of Wuzhou, China on Monday. The crash site is a treacherous and mountainous region that is difficult to access by foot and impossible by car, making the unlikely search for survivors and other remnants of the crash exceedingly difficult.
The black boxes have not been recovered either, with search teams looking via drones and on foot as much as is reasonably practicable. Wallets, ATM cards, ID cards, and other personal belongings have been found strewn around the mountain side, but those personal items and small pieces of the plane are all that have been found so far.
The flight was about one hour into its journey at an altitude of 29,000 feet when it took an unplanned, steep drive down to 7,200 feet. The plane then gained about 1,200 feet of altitude back before ultimately plunging to its demise. The aircraft stopped transmitting data about 96 seconds after the initial dive.
Southwest Flight Attendants Request End of Mask Mandate
Southwest Airlines Flight Attendants union – TWU Local 556 – sent a letter to President Biden requesting the mask mandate not be extended beyond its current April 18 expiration. The union said “enforcing mask compliance is one of the most difficult jobs we have ever faced as flight attendants.”
Their letter comes as American Airlines’ outgoing CEO Doug Parker said AA plans to end its own internal mask mandate once the federal government rescinds its mandate. American was one of the carriers to introduce its own mask requirements long before it was required by the government.
The federal mask requirement has been extended several times after being put in place after President Biden took office last year. Its most recent extension – from March 18 to April 18 – is expected by many to be the final one. When asked for comment, variant BA2 said “oh yeah? We’ll see about that.”
Air Canada Adds a Bunch of Airplanes
Air Canada announced today it will acquire 26 A321neo aircraft between 2024 and 2027. The planes are the XLR version of the A321 and will come AC’s way through a mix of leases and outright purchases.
Air Canada will lease 15 of the planes from Air Lease corporation, lease five from AerCap, and purchase six outright from Airbus. The airline also reserved rights to purchase an additional 14 planes between 2027 and 2030 and was able to lock in a guarantee to be the official airline sponsor of a second Major League Baseball team in Canada as long as it’s not the Rays. These planes are expected to come with a 17% cost savings on fuel burn, and be quieter than its predecessors.
The A321s will be configured with 182 seats – 14 lie-flat business class seats in the front and 168 economy seats for the regular people in the back. The planes will come modified with extra room to store hockey equipment and winter coats, while each seat will come with a cupholder specifically designed to hold Tim Horton’s coffee cups through all potential turbulence.
- Air New Zealand will reopen its lounge in Sydney on March 30, its lounge in Perth on April 5, and its lounges in Melbourne and Brisbane on April 6.
- airBaltic will operate 92 routes this summer according to airBaltic.
- Alaska will end service between Portland and Seattle/Paine Field on April 30.
- Conviasa added its first A340-600 last week.
- Corendon Airlines signed a wet-lease agreement with Lithuanian charter carrier GetJet Airlines.
- Etihad plans to begin A350-1000 ops later this month.
- LATAM received permission to put its reorginization to a creditor vote.
- Loganair took delivery of a new, leased ATR 72-600 this week.
- Malaysia is upping its service to London/Heathrow to 11x-weekly on March 27, and then double-daily beginning July 1.
- Volotea is adding six new A320 this year.
If two vegetarians get in an argument, is it still called having a beef?