Peanut Butter News

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New York (CNN) — “Unauthorized and unprofessional” is how an internal memo describes the conduct of an air traffic controller, who allegedly allowed his two young children to speak with pilots on an air traffic control frequency, and his supervisor, who allegedly allowed it to happen.

The memo, dated February 25, was written after the facilities manager for the air traffic control tower at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport learned about the incident, a source familiar with the investigation told CNN.

Full Story at msnbc.com

WALL TOWNSHIP, N.J. – A small plane trying to land broke apart and tore through a snowy field next to a runway Monday afternoon, killing all five people aboard, including a teenager and a child, and scattering debris over 200 feet.

The crash was reported at 3:45 p.m. at Monmouth Executive Airport, about 35 miles east of Trenton, said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jim Peters. The weather was overcast, but no precipitation was falling.

Full Story at CNN.com

Washington (CNN) — With the first of its flights touching down in earthquake-devastated Haiti late Wednesday afternoon, the U.S. began deploying military planes, ships and ground troops to the Caribbean nation.

One of two planes carrying a 30-person assessment team arrived at Port-au-Prince airport about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. The team will assess what Haiti needs to cope with the immediate aftermath of the disaster.

One of the team’s first jobs is to get the airport working to a point where it can handle all the flights coming in from around the world filled with people and supplies to help the victims of the quake.

Full Story at Wired.com

Two bloggers received home visits from Transportation Security Administration agents Tuesday after they published a new TSA directive that revises screening procedures and puts new restrictions on passengers in the wake of a recent bombing attempt by the so-called underwear bomber.

Special agents from the TSA’s Office of Inspection interrogated two U.S. bloggers, one of them an established travel columnist, and served them each with a civil subpoena demanding information on the anonymous source that provided the TSA document.

The document, which the two bloggers published within minutes of each other Dec. 27, was sent by TSA to airlines and airports around the world and described temporary new requirements for screening passengers through Dec. 30,

Full Story at CBS News.com

(CBS/AP) U.S. counterterrorism officials are scrambling to assess a potential new threat from an explosive mixture that evaded detection aboard a Detroit-bound airliner but failed to bring down the plane.

The suspect, identified by multiple law enforcement officials as a Nigerian man named Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, claimed to have ties to al Qaeda. But while investigators try to determine the veracity of his claims, they also want to figure out exactly how the explosive device was made – and how much of a broader threat it may pose to air security.

A high-ranking law enforcement official told CBS News that the suspect apparently used a syringe to inject a chemical into powder – later identified as PETN – located near his groin, a technique not seen in previous attempted attacks. It’s possible, the source said, that this incident was a test of whether the materials could pass screening and how effective they might be at causing damage.

Full Story at CNN.com

(CNN) — Syed Jafry was preparing for his plane to land in Detroit, Michigan, after a long flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands, when he heard a noise that startled him.

“There was a little bit of light, a little bit of — kind of flamish light and there was fire,” Jafry told CNN. “And people began to panic.”

For a couple of seconds on Northwest Flight 253, nobody knew what was going on, he said.

That pop, officials say, came from a Nigerian man who ignited a small explosive device as the flight descended into the Detroit, Michigan, area. The White House described the incident as an attempted terrorist attack. The suspect was eventually subdued by passengers and crew.

Full Story at CNN.com

Luis Armando Pena Soltren, 66, surrendered to federal authorities at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport after exiting a flight from Havana, Cuba, officials said. It’s the same airport from which Pan Am Flight 281 took off more than 40 years ago.

He flew to New York under the custody of State Department diplomatic security personnel, said a law enforcement source and a senior State Department official.

Authorities did not offer additional details about Soltren’s arrest.

Soltren “will finally face the American justice system that he has been evading for more than four decades,” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said.

Full Story at CNN.com

With more than $6 billion in losses through June, the global airline industry is on track to outpace the initial yearlong prediction that it would lose $9 billion, said Brian Pearce, chief economist for the International Air Transport Association, which represents about 230 airlines.

“Airlines are in survival mode,” as they approach the end of the third quarter, Pearce said from his office in Geneva, Switzerland. “They’re trying to raise cash to carry them through, are starting to see some benefit, but they’ve got a very long way to go.”

Among the number of recent U.S. airline announcements meant to offset losses: A paring down of Southwest Airlines flights; the layoff of 921 flight attendants at American Airlines; a creeping up of baggage check-in fees at US Airways, among others; and the exclusive use of smaller, cheaper to operate regional jets for United flights out of St. Louis, Missouri.

Full Story at CNN.com

In a report, the National Transportation Safety Board said that the controller at New Jersey’s Teterboro airport did not advise a pilot of potential traffic when he handed off radar monitoring of the plane to the tower at Newark airport at 11:52:20 a.m. Saturday.

But, union leaders said, the helicopter was not visible on radar scopes until 11:52:27, seven seconds after the transfer.

Union leaders said the NTSB’s statement that the controller could see the helicopter on his radar screen, and its implication that he could have provided a warning, is wrong.

The open disagreement, which violates the normal protocol of NTSB investigations, capped a bruising week for air traffic controllers.

Full Story at msnbc.com

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – A space station air purifier was working again Sunday after it shut down at the worst possible time, when company was still visiting and had swollen the on-board crowd to a record 13.

The repair by flight controllers, albeit temporary, came as a great relief to NASA.

Even if the carbon dioxide-removal system had remained broken, shuttle Endeavour would not have had to undock early from the international space station, said flight director Brian Smith. But the system needs to work to support six station residents over the long term, he said.

Full Story At Tech.yahoo.com

CHICAGO -

Get lost in the woods and a cell phone in your pocket can help camping buddies find you. Drive into a ditch and GPS in your car lets emergency crews pinpoint the crash site. But when a transcontinental flight is above the middle of the ocean, no one on the ground can see exactly where it is — in the air, or worse, in the water.

The disappearance of Air France Flight 477 and its 228 passengers over the Atlantic Ocean this week has critics of radar-based air traffic control calling on the U.S. and other countries to hasten the move to GPS-based networks that promise to precisely track all planes. Current radars are obsolete more than 200 miles from land.

Full Story At  msnbc.com

HOUSTON – As NASA prepares for its final service call to the Hubble Space Telescope, it’s also preparing for something never attempted in the history of the shuttle program: a rescue operation so dramatic that Hollywood would be hard-pressed to come up with a more outlandish plot.

If the Hubble repair crew due for liftoff on Monday got into the deepest sort of orbital trouble, yet another shuttle would have to be launched into orbit as little as a week later. NASA hasn’t launched two piloted spacecraft so close together in more than 40 years. But that’s just the first act of the drama.