इंडोनेशिया के बाली में ज्वालामुखी विस्फोट के बाद हवाईअड्डा बंद

इंडोनेशिया में माउंट आगुंग ज्वालामुखी में विस्फोट के कारण निकले राख के चलते रिसॉर्ट द्वीप बाली स्थित अंतरराष्ट्रीय हवाईअड्डा को शुक्रवार को बंद कर दिया गया।
पिछले साल के अंत से खामोश माउंट अागुंग ज्वालामुखी फिर से सक्रिय हो गया है।
आपदा राहत एजेंसी ने एक वक्तव्य में कहा कि हवाईअड्डा शुक्रवार को स्थानीय समयानुसार शाम सात बजे तक बंद रहेगा। इसके कारण 38 अंतरराष्ट्रीय उड़ानें और 10 घरेलू उड़ानों सहित कुल 48 उड़ानें रद्द कर दी गयी हैं जिससे 8,334 यात्री प्रभावित होंगे। एजेंसी के प्रवक्ता सुतोपो पुर्वाे नुग्रोहो ने कहा कि ज्वालामुखी में विस्फोट के कारण हवा में 2,500 मीटर (8,200 फीट) राख का गुब्बारा (कॉलम) उठा और माउंट अागुंग के मुहाने पर लाल लौ दिखाई दे रही थी।
बाली के उत्तर पूर्व में स्थित माउंट अागुंग में पिछले साल के अंत से विभिन्न तीव्रताओं के साथ विस्फोट हुआ है और दिसंबर में भी हवाईअड्डे को एक अवधि के लिए बंद कर दिया गया था और ज्वालामुखी के करीब रहने वाले हजारों लोगों को निकाल कर सुरक्षित स्थानों पर भेजा गया था।

Bali airport closed as Agung volcano gushes column of ash

The Indonesian tourist island of Bali closed its international airport Friday, stranding thousands of travelers, as the Mount Agung volcano gushed a 2,500-meter (8,200-feet) column of ash and smoke.

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency said nearly 450 flights were canceled, affecting some 75,000 people.

The regional Volcanic Ash Advisory Center in Darwin, Australia, said winds would carry the ash southwest toward Java, Indonesia’s most densely populated island. Volcanic ash is a potentially deadly threat to aircraft that can cause engines to “flame out.”

World's largest amphibious aircraft takes off in China

China's home-grown AG600, the world's largest amphibious aircraft in production, took to the skies on Sunday for its maiden flight.

The plane codenamed "Kunlong" according to state news agency Xinhua, took off from the southern city of Zhuhai and landed after roughly an hour long flight.

With a wingspan of 38.8 metres (127 feet) and powered by four turbo-prop engines, the aircraft is capable of carrying 50 people and can stay airborne for 12 hours.

Pilot radioed in 'Mayday' call before Australian plane crash

A pilot repeatedly yelled out "Mayday" but did not say what the emergency was before his light plane crashed into the roof of an Australian shopping mall, killing himself and four American tourists, an accident investigator said Wednesday.

Police blamed "catastrophic engine failure" when a twin-engine Beechcraft B200 Super King Air crashed into the Direct Factory Outlet mall in the Melbourne suburb of Essendon on Tuesday moments after takeoff from a nearby runway.

India's government approves new civil aviation policy

India's government on Wednesday approved a new civil aviation policy aimed at increasing regional connectivity, boosting cargo operations and making it easier — and possibly cheaper — for passengers to fly.

Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju said the policy will help India become the world's third-largest civil aviation market by 2022, behind the U.S. and China. Raju tweeted after the Cabinet's approval that it would be "a game-changer for the (aviation) sector."

Aerospace firm successfully tests solar-powered aircraft

A test pilot successfully flew a solar-powered prototype aircraft on Friday for a company that envisions manufacturing a fleet of drones to provide aerial internet service for an estimated 4 billion people worldwide.

The test flight by Luminati Aerospace LLC took place at a former Northrop Grumman defense plant on eastern Long Island that once made military aircraft. Speakers at a ceremony before the flight recalled that Charles Lindberg took off for his historic 1927 solo flight to Paris from an air strip in nearby Nassau County, and others noted that the spacecraft that landed men on the moon was built in the Long Island suburbs east of New York City.

Last 5 hostages on hijacked Egypt plane recall fear, photo

First the hijacker said the women could leave. All the children, too. Then the man in the suicide vest agreed that all Egyptians and others from Muslim backgrounds would be allowed to escape from the plane.

That left five Western men — at least one of whom thought they were about to die.

"We looked each other in the eyes and we said: Here we are. We're at the end of the line. It's over," recalled the Italian in the group, Andrea Banchetti, the day after an Egyptian man took control of a short EgyptAir flight to Cairo by donning a fake explosives belt and diverting it across the Mediterranean to Cyprus.

Hijack drama ends in Cyprus with arrest of 'unstable' man

A man described as "psychologically unstable" hijacked a flight Tuesday from Egypt to Cyprus and threatened to blow it up. His explosives turned out to be fake, and he surrendered with all passengers released unharmed after a bizarre six-hour standoff.

As more became known about the motive of the 59-year-old Egyptian who was taken into custody, authorities characterized the commandeering of the EgyptAir jetliner not as an act of terrorism but more like a "family feud" with his former wife.