Discovery Air takes delivery of another aircraft

One of the impending entrants into the airline sub-sector in Nigeria, Discovery Air says it has taken delivery of its second aircraft, which will eventually pave the way for its commencement of flight operations in the sector.
The aircraft, a Boeing B737- 300 arrived the country from England during the week. The Managing Director of the airline, Capt. Abdusalami Muhammed said that the acquisition of the aircraft was in line with its vision to commence operations soon in the Nigeria aviation market.
He emphasized that the management was excited that its dream of providing quality service to its prospective guest is becoming a reality, stressing that with the minimum requirement of two aircraft by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, the airline would go soon commence flight operations in the country.
He said, “We hope by the end of the month everything will be completed and we will start operations immediately. We are more than ready. We are on track. As soon as all the necessary requirements are met, the Airline Operators’ Certificate, AOC, issued, we will begin operations’’

Malaysia Airlines search halted again over technical problems

The search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 hit a fresh snag on Thursday after it was found the underwater drone at the heart of the operation had been damaged, forcing what could be another lengthy delay.

The Australian agency coordinating the search effort, now in its third month, said communications equipment on the sophisticated Bluefin-21 drone was damaged on its first day back after almost two weeks away for maintenance and resupply.
The issue was discovered on Wednesday, the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) said, just two hours into the drone's first mission since returning to the search area in the Indian Ocean about 1,600 km (1,000 miles) northwest of the west Australian city of Perth.
"Examination of the communications problem has established that a hardware defect exists in the transponder mounted on the Ocean Shield and that a defect may also exist in the transponder mounted on the Bluefin-21," a JACC statement said, referring to the Australian naval vessel towing the drone.
"This inhibits the ability of the two devices to communicate with each other," it said,
The Boeing 777 disappeared on March 8 along with its 239 passengers and crew during a scheduled service between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing, sparking the most expensive search in aviation history.
Aerial searches failed to turn up any sign of the plane and officials are now relying on unmanned submersibles like the Bluefin-21, which scour the ocean floor using sophisticated sonar equipment.
Officials have said that it could take a year to search the 60,000 sq km (23,000 sq mile) area where the plane is believed to have crashed, and questions about how to proceed and how to split the bill are growing.
Parts to repair the Bluefin drone, on loan from the U.S. Navy for less than three more weeks, will not arrive in Australia until Sunday and it will take several days to reach the search area once repairs are completed.

Source: Reuters

IRS' HOPE OF FLIGHT RESUMPTION DASHED

IRS Airlines' widely reported hope of an imminent resumption of scheduled flight operations has been dashed following the crash landing of of of its airplanes on its way back from a routine check.

The aircraft a Fokker 100 with registration No 5N-SIK was said to have lost navigational aid while over head Niger republic and flew blindly around the region before crashing into a sandy area with both the pilot and the co-pilot surviving.

Some staff of the Airline were recently seen at NCAA doing renewing their documents in readiness for the arrival of this Aircraft; it is not however certain what is next for the Airline which is already to said to have been owing the staff over four months salary even before it stopped flying