Four Dead as Two Small Planes Crash Into Each Other Near San Diego's Brown Field (VIDEO)

According to reports, it appeared to be a "very violent crash."

At the San Diego Union-Tribune, "4 dead after planes collide near Brown Field."

And watch, at ABC News 10 San Diego, "Four people killed in mid-air collision," and "Aviation safety consultant talks recent plane crashes."

Fresno SkyLife Helicopter Almost Crashes Into Drone

Boy, what is with all the drones!

Here's the latest from ABC News 30 Fresno, "UPDATE: Drone almost hits Fresno SkyLife helicopter."

And this made it all the way to the national media, at CBS News This Morning, "Sharp rise in close calls between drones and planes."

Rogue Drones

Following-up from last month, "Drones Disrupt Aerial Firefight Drops Over Cajon Pass North Fire (VIDEO)."

And now at the Washington Post, "Rogue drones a growing nuisance across the U.S.":

Rogue drone operators are rapidly becoming a national nuisance, invading sensitive airspace and private property — with the regulators of the nation’s skies largely powerless to stop them.

In recent days, drones have smuggled drugs into an Ohio prison, smashed against a Cincinnati skyscraper, impeded efforts to fight wildfires in California and nearly collided with three airliners over New York City.

Earlier this summer, a runaway two-pound drone struck a woman at a gay pride parade in Seattle, knocking her unconscious. In Albuquerque, a drone buzzed into a crowd at an outdoor festival, injuring a bystander. In Tampa, a drone reportedly stalked a woman outside a downtown bar before crashing into her car.

The altercations are the byproduct of the latest consumer craze: cheap, easy-to-fly, remotely piloted aircraft. Even basic models can soar thousands of feet high and come equipped with powerful video cameras — capabilities that would have been hard to foresee just a few years ago.

Reports began surfacing last year of runaway drones interfering with air traffic and crashing into buildings. But the problem has grown worse as drone sales have surged.

“I’m definitely getting much more concerned about it,” Michael P. Huerta, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration, said in a phone interview Monday. He said the FAA was particularly worried about a surge in reports of drones flying dangerously close to airports. The latest incident came Sunday, when four airline crews reported a brush with a drone on a flight path into Newark International Airport.

Huerta added that the recent interference by drones with California firefighters was “really a wake-up call for a lot of people. This kind of thing has got to stop.”

More.

Drones are an especially beneficial technology when used appropriately --- like in Seal Beach, where lifeguards use drones to prevent shark attacks --- but it's infuriating in cases like the Cajon Pass North Fire, where drone users forced firefighters to shut down operations.

Actually, though, the drone knocking out the homosexual rights activist at the Seattle gay parade is pretty beneficial too, heh.

New Russian Fifth-Generation Stealth Fighter PAK T-50 at Aviadarts-2015 Air Show (VIDEO)

Here's the Russian Air Force's "Prospective Airborne Complex of Frontline Aviation" (PAK FA) at Aviadarts-2015, via Ruptly:



Nice jets.

Worrisome too.

See related, at London's Daily Mail, "The moment RAF intercept TEN Russian jets in a single mission over Baltic airspace as Putin’s sabre rattling increases."

Plane Debris Confirmed as MH370

I can only hope this brings the beginning of some semblance of closure to the families of those lost.

It's been too long. Much too long waiting for word. Waiting for answers.

At Foreign Policy, "Malaysia Confirms Debris Comes from Missing Airliner."

At the Wall Street Journal, "MH370 Search: Plane Debris on Réunion Island Is From Vanished Malaysia Flight":

The plane debris that washed ashore on an island in the Indian Ocean last week was confirmed to be part of the Malaysia Airlines jet that went missing over a year ago, Malaysia’s prime minister said, making it the first concrete evidence of the plane that disappeared 17 months ago but leaving unanswered why it crashed.

“An international team of experts have conclusively confirmed that the aircraft debris found on Réunion Island is indeed from MH370,” Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said in Kuala Lumpur.

French authorities, who took possession of the part because Réunion is a French territory, were more cautious about its origin. Experts examining it at a French military lab near Toulouse in southwest France have determined there is a “very strong presumption” that the part comes from the missing plane, Deputy Paris Prosecutor Serge Mackowiak said Wednesday.

Mr. Mackowiak also said that the analysis of a tattered bag found near the wing part on the beach of Réunion was also underway, but didn’t announce findings.

The Malaysian announcement offered few details about the Flight 370 probe. Without taking questions, the Prime Minister vowed to “do everything within our means to determine what happened” to the Boeing 777.

French, Malaysian, Australian, Chinese and U.S. officials were present for the analysis that began Wednesday at a high-tech military lab near Toulouse in the southwest of France.

Examination of the debris now moves into a new stage, according to safety experts, as the French military technical team tries to extract clues from the part about how the plane may have crashed...

Read more.

Super Scooper

This is really cool, at CBS News Sacramento, "Super Scooper Helps U.S. Forest Service Get Handle on California Wildfires."

SpaceX Rocket Failure Raises Questions About Business of Commercial Space Flight

At the Los Angeles Times, "Rocket explosion is a blow to billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX":

An unmanned SpaceX rocket carrying cargo to the International Space Station disintegrated over the Florida coast just two minutes after liftoff Sunday — the third major failure for America's commercial space industry in eight months.

The explosion was a blow to billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX aerospace venture, which has shaken the global launch business in recent years by showing it can successfully fly rockets at a fraction of the price of other providers.

It was too early to determine what went wrong Sunday, but executives at the Hawthorne firm vowed to quickly pinpoint the problem. "We will identify the issue we experienced, fix it and get back to flight," Gwynne Shotwell, president of SpaceX, said at Sunday news conference.

The failure creates a challenge for NASA. It was the third cargo ship loaded with food, water and other supplies lost in less than a year.

"We expected … we would lose some vehicles," William Gerstenmaier, a NASA associate administrator, said at the news conference. "I didn't think we'd lose them all in a one-year time frame, but we have."

Among the Falcon 9's cargo were parts needed for a water filtration system, said Michael Suffredini, manager of NASA's space station program.

He said the astronauts on the space station have enough food and water for about four months and that another Russian resupply ship was scheduled to launch Friday.

NASA would start planning to bring the astronauts back to Earth, he said, only if vital supplies dwindled to enough for 45 days.

Musk tweeted soon after the failure that there had been "an overpressure event in the upper stage liquid oxygen tank."

"That's all we can say with confidence right now," Musk wrote.

The loss of another commercial rocket operated under a NASA contract comes at a time when the agency's critics in Congress are threatening to reduce funding. Among the targets has been a program under which NASA gave contracts to SpaceX and Boeing Co. to develop spacecraft to fly astronauts to the space station.

SpaceX, short for Space Exploration Technologies Corp., has also been lobbying for the opportunity to launch the Pentagon's spy satellites and other crucial spacecraft. The company's congressional critics have argued that the upstart is not as reliable as a Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture that has long had a lock on the military work.

"SpaceX will now have to work on their technical problems and political problems simultaneously," said Greg Autry, an assistant professor at USC who follows the space industry.

The Falcon 9 rocket had flown successfully 18 times. Sunday's cargo mission was the seventh under the NASA contract.

It was the company's first failure since August 2008, when a different rocket — the Falcon 1 — did not reach orbit.

The explosion happened despite good weather. The countdown went smoothly.

After just over two minutes of flight, NASA lost contact with the rocket. Video showed it shattering apart, leaving a cloud of debris.

The success of the SpaceX mission had become more crucial after a Russian resupply ship spun out of control in late April and was destroyed as it fell back to Earth.

Before that, on Oct. 28, a rocket operated by NASA's other commercial cargo hauler, Orbital Sciences, exploded just seconds after liftoff from a Virginia launch pad.

Orbital executives blamed that failure on a fuel pump in one of the rocket's 40-year-old Russian engines. Orbital has since redesigned the rocket, aiming to begin flying it again next year.

"Orbital Sciences isn't anywhere close to being ready to fly again," said Marco Caceres, an aerospace industry analyst with Teal Group. "It will be months and months before they fly, and we're not sure then if they'll be successful."

NASA officials said that SpaceX would do its own investigation of the failure under the supervision of the Federal Aviation Administration...

More.

Boeing Dreamliner Near Vertical Take-Off

This is phenomenal.

Video here: "New Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner performs near vertical take-off."

At Telegraph UK:

Pass the sick-bag: Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner lifts off in near-vertical ascent http://t.co/mzH9BI96uB pic.twitter.com/IqorsfMM5Q

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) June 12, 2015

Air Canada Flight 624 Crashes in Halifax

It's almost like I don't wanna fly anymore, all these accidents lately. Sheesh.

At Toronto's National Post, "Air Canada flight 624 crash lands during blizzard in Halifax, sending at least 23 to hospital":

Dominic Stettler, 31, of Wolfville, N.S., said people on board the plane responded with level heads.

“I think we hit a power cable, there was a lot of sparks,” he said. “We hit the ground, we came up and then we slid on the runway for quite a long time. We just kicked the doors out and jumped onto the wing and then ran because we just wanted to get away from the airplane in case of explosions or anything.”

Stettler said people were helping each other after they got off the plane.

“A woman offered me her jacket because I was shivering and pulled me into a tight warm hug and we just sat there for a while. It was kind of special actually,” he said.

Plus, at RT, "Air Canada flight 624 crash lands at Halifax Airport, loses wing, passengers safe," and Ruptly, "We ran because fuel was pouring out of plane - Air Canada passenger."

Secrets of 'Tormented' Germanwings Pilot Coming Into Focus

This guy was all f-ked up. He'd even planned for something "spectacular' to happen, to make him famous. We'll, he's famous now. Infamous, in fact.

Very sad.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Germanwings copilot had health, psychological problems, reports say":

Additional evidence emerged Saturday to suggest copilot Andreas Lubitz had health issues that should have prevented him from being allowed anywhere near the controls of the Germanwings A320 Airbus that he apparently deliberately flew into a mountain in the southern Alps on Tuesday, killing all 150 people aboard.

As well as medical findings, one of the copilot’s former girlfriends came forward to tell a German newspaper that Lubitz, 27, told her, while they were dating last year, that he planned a spectacular gesture to make sure everyone would “remember” him. She described Lubitz as a “tormented” person who knew how to hide secrets.

The German newspaper Bild spoke to the young woman, identified only as Maria W, 26, and said she dated Lubitz for five months in 2014 during which time he said: “One day I will do something that will change the whole system and then everyone will know my name and remember it.

“I never knew what he meant, but now it makes sense,” the woman was quoted as saying.

She revealed that the pilot had suffered nightmares and that their relationship ended because his behavior scared her.

“At night, he would wake up and scream: 'We’re going down!'”

She said if Lubitz did indeed deliberately bring down the plane, “it is because he understood that because of his health problems, his big dream of a job at Lufthansa as captain and as a long-haul pilot was practically impossible.”

More.

And at the Other McCain, "German Co-Pilot Commits Mass Murder":

You might think that this incident seven years ago — when Lubitz was 21 and “depression” interrupted his training — would have caused someone to question his fitness to be a commercial pilot. Oh, but that would be discrimination against the mentally ill, which is unacceptable. Misguided ideas about “human rights” thereby result in putting a murderous psychopath in the cockpit so he can kill 149 innocent people by flying into a mountain at 400 miles an hour.

“You only hear the screams in the final seconds.”

 Yeah, well, wouldn't want to hurt the feelings of the regressive enablers of death, or anything.

Speaking of which, don't miss the broad-brush smears over at No More Mister, "ISLAMOPHOBES FIND A GERMANWINGS STORY THEY LIKE":

No reputable media outlet has reported on any possible motivation for the downing of Germanwings Flight 9525 apart from the claim that copilot Andreas Lubitz was suffering from a significant level of depression -- so elements of the Islam-hating right are now just turning him into a Islamist terrorist, based on evidence that appears to be nothing more than wishful thinking on their part.

And who would be the "Islam-hating right" to which No More Mister smears?

Well, Jim Hoft, a.k.a., "Gateway Pundit." That's it. Oh, actually, there's also Debbie Schlussel, of whom no one --- and I mean literally no one on the right --- considers one of their own partisans. She's simply a nutbag.

But hey, the idiot Steve M.'s got his "Islamophobe" meme and he's going with it!

American Airlines Dad and Pilot Daughter Fly Together for the First Time

Feels good.

At ABC News, "American Airlines Dad and Pilot Daughter Duo Take Flight."

And London's Daily Mail, "Father and daughter co-pilot American Airlines flight together for first time - and mom came along for the ride."

Long Range Strike-Bomber

At Defense News, "Shrouded in Mystery, New Bomber Makes Waves.

And CNN, "New US stealth bomber shrouded in mystery."



BONUS: "Is U.S. Air Force superiority under threat?"

Spectacular Video Shows Moment TransAsia Airways Plane Crashes: At Least 12 Killed

Unreal.

At ABC 7 Los Angeles, "TAIWAN PLANE WITH 58 ABOARD CRASHES IN TAIPEI; 12 KILLED."

Also at Sky News, "Taiwan Plane Crash: Passenger Jet Hits Bridge."

UPDATE: At USA Today, "Death toll rises to 31 in Taiwan plane; 12 missing."

Deborah Hersman on Missing AirAsia Flight 8501

Via CBS This Morning:



FLASHBACK: "Hey, Check Out NTSB's Smokin' Hottie Deborah Hersman."

Search Resumes for AirAsia Flight 8501

At the Wall Street Journal, "Search for Missing AirAsia Flight 8501 Resumes: Disappearance of Plane Rekindles Fears After Flight From Indonesia to Singapore Goes Missing":

JAKARTA, Indonesia—Search teams scoured waters off Indonesia’s coast Monday after an AirAsia jetliner with 162 people on board vanished in a thicket of storm clouds the day before, kindling much of the same fear and anguish as the disappearance of Malaysia Flight 370 months earlier.

The plane, which had been bound for Singapore, lost contact with air-traffic control less than an hour after takeoff from Surabaya, Indonesia, early Sunday shortly after requesting to climb to a higher altitude to avoid bad weather, officials said.

Ships and aircraft were deployed from across Southeast Asia to hunt for the plane. But as night fell more than 10 hours later, Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla said that no trace had been found. The search resumed at dawn Monday after Indonesian officials suspended it overnight.

As distraught family members of passengers gathered at airports in Surabaya and Singapore to await any information about loved ones, the scenes of grief were reminiscent of those just over nine months ago, when a Malaysia Airlines plane vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board. The fate of that plane remains a mystery...

Continue reading.

And at the New York Times, "Two Flights Missing, but Their Stories Are Not the Same."

Small Biplane Overturns at Oceanside Airport: Pilot, Passenger Walk Away

My wife saw the biplane flipped upside down as we were driving out to Harrah's Resort yesterday.

And here's a report, at KGTV-ABC10 News San Diego, "Biplane overturns at Oceanside Airport, injuries minor."

Also at LAT, "Pilot, passenger walk from wreckage after Oceanside plane crash."

VIDEO: Marine Capt. William Mahoney Lands AV-8B Harrier on Tiny Bench After Landing Gear Malfunction

Simply amazing.

At the Navy Times, "Marine Harrier pilot sticks incredible landing on tiny bench at sea."

Investigators Say Malaysia Flight 370 Crashed in 'Suicide Mission'

At Telegraph UK, "Malaysia Airlines crash: Suicide mission theory of MH370 investigators":

Sources close to investigation tell Telegraph that team working on MH370 mystery believe it was crashed deliberately.

Flight MH370 crashed into the Indian Ocean in an apparent suicide mission, well-placed sources revealed have revealed, as Malaysia’s prime minister announced that everyone on the missing aircraft had died.

The team investigating the Boeing 777’s disappearance believe no malfunction or fire was capable of causing the aircraft’s unusual flight or the disabling of its communications system before it veered wildly off course on a seven-hour silent flight into the sea. An analysis of the flight’s routing, signalling and communications shows that it was flown “in a rational way”.

An official source told The Telegraph that investigators believe “this has been a deliberate act by someone on board who had to have had the detailed knowledge to do what was done ... Nothing is emerging that points to motive.”

Asked about the possibility of a plane malfunction or an on-board fire, the source said: “It just does not hinge together... [The investigators] have gone through processes you do to get the plane where it flew to for eight hours. They point to it being flown in a rational way.”

Yesterday the worst fears of the families of the 239 people on board were realised when Najib Razak, Malaysia’s prime minister, announced that no one could have survived.

The UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch and the British satellite firm Inmarsat provided information that led to his conclusions, but Britain was also caught in the middle of an international blame game over delays in the right search area being pinpointed.

Relatives of the missing passengers are angry that Inmarsat worked out within 24 hours that MH370 was likely to have crashed where the search is now concentrated, but it took a further 10 days for rescue teams to act on the information.

Despite no confirmed sightings of wreckage, Mr Razak revealed that new analysis by the AAIB and Inmarsat showed the plane ended its eight-hour flight on March 8 in the deep, remote waters of the Indian Ocean, about 1,500 miles west of Perth, with no survivors.

“This is a remote location, far from any possible landing sites,” he said.
“It is therefore with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that, according to this new data, flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean.”

How Satellite Analysts Found Route of Missing Jetliner

At LAT, "British company analyzes satellite data for Malaysia Flight 370":

The British company whose satellite data helped direct search efforts for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 toward the south Indian Ocean said about two weeks ago that it had received “routine” and “automated” signals from the missing Boeing 777.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who announced Monday that the plane carrying 239 people "ended in the southern Indian Ocean" with no hope of survivors, said the company, Inmarsat, has been performing additional calculations on satellite data. Flight 370 disappeared March 8.

"Using a type of analysis never before used in an investigation of this sort, they have been able to shed more light on MH370’s flight path."

While the Boeing 777's transponders and communications systems were disabled, the airplane's satellite terminal was still on, "pinging" to try to maintain a connection with a satellite.

Tim Farrar, president of the consulting and research firm Telecom, Media & Finance Associates Inc. in Menlo Park, Calif., who is familiar with Inmarsat satellites, said the company looked at the Doppler effect to understand the speed of the plane relative to the satellite. This gave them two probable arcs of possible flight paths: One to the north and one to the south.

"The arcs were based on time shift --how long the ping took to reach the satellite -- which gave a distance and thus an arc," Farrar said. "By looking at speed -- and comparing to other planes at the same distance from the satellite -- it was possible to determine the plane was not in the Northern Hemisphere and pin down the track with a high probability."

More.

No Hope for Flight 370, Says Malaysia Prime Minister

At the Los Angeles Times, "Malaysia prime minister: Flight 'ended in the southern Indian Ocean'."

And a live blog at Telegraph UK, "Malaysia Airlines MH370: live."



BONUS: At the Other McCain, "Malaysian Prime Minister Gives Press Conference in Perfect English."