(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Jose Lopez, Jr.)

The F/A-18 Super Hornet flies alongside a World War II-era F-4U Corsair Bearcat during the Legacy Flight at the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar Air Show. The annual show is the final event of Fleet Week San Diego.

Last September 27, the remaining 6 units of MH-53 Pave Low choppers were sent on its last combat missions in support of special operations forces in Southwest Asia.

Its final mission, a SOF logistical resupply and passenger movement throughout central and southern Iraq, marks their last combat mission before the airframe retires after nearly 40 years in the Air Force inventory.

A MH-53 pilot of 13 years and 20th Expeditionary Special Operations Squadron commander Gene Becker said, “We really feel like we are standing on the shoulders of giants. We owe it to the folks, who over the past 40 years, have built the capability of this aircraft and the mission. We were just the lucky ones to be here at the end.”

According to Air Force Special Operations Command officials, the MH-53 costs too much to maintain, fly and keep in the fight because of its age. Although its flying safety record is good, it has reached the end of its service life.

“It is a bittersweet ending,” said Tech Sgt. Corey Fossbender, a 20th ESOS MH-53 aerial gunner and a crewmember on the lead helicopter during the final mission. “These birds have been around for so long. Our maintenance (teams) have basically been magicians keeping them in the air.”

Sergeant Fossbender, who has spent 13 of his 16-year career in the MH-53 community, said he will miss the camaraderie the helicopter crews shared the most.

The six-man MH-53 crew consists of two pilots, two flight engineers and two aerial gunners.

“Most of the MH-53 crewmembers will head to AFSOC’s new weapons systems like the CV-22 (Osprey), AC-130 (Gunship) … and (MQ-1) Predators,” Colonel Becker said. “Some will head over to Air Combat Command and fly the HH-60G (Pave Hawk), and a few will retire.”

“As the Pave Low goes on to retire from combat today. She goes out, as she came in — the very best,” Colonel Becker said.

The U.S Airmen anticipates the newly released movie entitled “Eagle Eye”. Directed by D.J Caruso, “Eagle Eye” stars Shia LaBeouf, Michelle Monaghan, Rosario Dawson, Billy Bob Thornton, Michael Chiklis and Ethan Embry.

The picture above is an Unmanned Aircraft — MQ-9 Reaper featured in the movie. Aside from featuring the MQ-9 Reaper, the movie also features the C-17 Globemaster III, KC-135 Stratotanker, F-16 Fighting Falcon, UH-1N Huey and C-130 Hercules.

“This was a great opportunity for the Air Force to be involved in such an action-packed thriller that reflects our core values through a prominent character in the story,” said Lt. Col. Francisco Hamm, the Air Force Entertainment Liaison Office director.

“We worked very hard with the filmmakers to develop this character in this film,” Colonel Hamm said. “It allowed us to depict the Air Force as being on the front lines of the war on terrorism and gave us the chance to highlight this normally low key investigative organization.”

“The Air Force is involved with ‘Eagle Eye’ because of our overall increased profile in Hollywood in the last few years. The producers were familiar with the Air Force Entertainment Liaison Office from our work on ‘Transformers’ and ‘Iron Man’ and wanted the Air Force to be an integral part of the film,” Captain Christian Hodge said.

The story is about two strangers who become the pawns of a mysterious woman they have never met, but who seems to know their every move. Realizing they are being used to further her diabolical plot, they must work together to outwit the woman before she has them killed. It turned out that the mysterious caller is an Artificial Intelligence called the “Eagle Eye”. The A.I seem to have used the two strangers to fulfill a mission to kill the U.S President and its cabinet members.

“By officially supporting these projects, we are able to ensure the depictions of our capabilities and our Airmen are as credible as possible, and that helps us educate the public and builds Air Force morale,” Colonel Hamm said.

“Seven U.S soldiers were killed in southern Iraq Thursday morning when their chopper crashed as it was flying into the country from Kuwait”, the U.S. military said.

The military also stated that the CH-47 Chinook helicopter didn’t come under attack and that it believes it was just an accidental crash. The four-helicopter convoy was flying from Kuwait to the U.S. military base at Balad North of Baghdad when the tragic crash took place shortly after midnight in the desert about 60 miles west of Basra, the military added.

U.S Military Spokesman Major John Hall stated, “At this time we are uncertain of the cause, but hostile fire has been ruled out. The other three helicopters in the flight did not have incident or injury.”

The military said people killed were on board only. No one from the place where the accident occurred was killed. The accident occurred in an area of Iraq that is under British military control.

It was the deadliest helicopter accident for U.S. troops since August 22, 2007, when a UH-60 Black Hawk chopper crashed in northern Iraq, killing all 14 U.S. Soldiers aboard. The last accident that took this many lives was on September  10 2007, when seven American Soldier died in a vehicle accident in western Baghdad.

The military did not release the names of those killed during the C-47 crash because of pending notification of next of kin.

The CV-22 Osprey got its first encounter with a massive storm last September 11, Thursday when it joined several other Air Force planes in an attempt to save crewmen from a freighter ship in the path of the Hurricane Ike in the Gulf of Mexico.

“In the end, all the aircraft had to turn back and the ship’s crew rode out the storm”, said Lt. Col. Stephanie A. Holcombe, director of public affairs for Air Force Special Operations Command.

Two Ospreys, along with an MH-53 Pave Low, an MC-130W and an MC-130 P were prepared to the mission around 11 a.m. that day after getting the report earlier about the stranded oil freighter named Antalina. The mission was launched after the Coast Guard requested Air Force help with the rescue, Holcombe said.

The ship was reported to be floating without power about 12 miles southeast of Galveston, Texas. However, the ship in fact did have power, according to Holcombe. The Air Force planes carried four rescue crews made up of three pararescuemen and a combat controller.

But as the Ospreys encountered winds in excess of 100 miles an hour they had to turn back. Those same winds prevented the Coast Guard from extending its rescue hoists from their own HH-60 helicopters, according to reports, prompting them to ask the Air Force for help.

The Aeroflot-Nord Boeing 737-500 crashed on its way to Perm Airport on September 14, Sunday. The Russian airliner has 82 passengers—including 7 children and 6 crew members on board and reported that nobody survived the crash.

Investigators said that the possible cause of the plane crash was an engine failure for its right engine was on fire as it landed near the city of Perm in the Ural Mountains. The plane went down at about 3:15 a.m. on the outskirts of the city, hitting the ground just a few hundred yards from small wooden houses and apartment buildings. Officials said no one on the ground was killed.

Aeroflot officials said the plane had been circling at about 1,100 meters, or 3,600 feet, in “difficult weather conditions” when it lost contact with ground dispatchers. The weather at the time of accident was rainy and foggy.

Witnesses felt an explosion, thought a comet crashed down from their city, or a war begun. “It’s awful. There’s just no words to describe it. Perm is a small town, everybody knows everybody else here,” a Local resident of Perm said.

Among those killed were 21 foreigners – nine from Azerbaijan, five from Ukraine, and one each from France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and U.S. The U.S. Embassy said the man listed as an American is not a U.S. citizen and no Americans appeared to have been on the flight.

Early Friday, U.S Air Force airplane left New Zealand, Australia on a key mission that could pave the way for year-round flights to Antartica.

The pilot of the C-17 Globemaster will attempt to make the first-ever landing in Antartica using night-vision goggles. “If the mission will be succesful, lives of people could change especially to the ones who spend long, dark polar nights on the said continent.”, says the commander of the New Zealand-based Operation Deep Freeze, Lieutenant Col. Jim McGann, to The Press newspaper.

With the help of the C-17, scientist could travel to and from Antartica more frequently, it could boost the amount of research done, and would also mean winter medical evacuations could be carried out.

“At the moment we make that last trip in February and then don’t come back until August. If we can go in and out a couple of times a month, we can go and get people out or drop more people off,” McGann added.

For more than a year, U.S Air Force Pilots have trained in simulators for the night-vision landing on the 10-kilometre (six-mile) runway at the U.S Antarctic Research Centre at McMurdo Station.

Two Republican senator stated that the F-22 Raptor’s manufacturer Lockheed Martin will encounter disruptions that would result in layoffs in Texas if not for Congress quickly authorizes $536 million toward the buying of more F-22 Raptor.

Texas Senator John Cornyn and Oklahoma James Inhofe have provided a warning letter to the leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee as Congress approving a law of Defense during the 2009 financial years, which starts in October. stepped into a dispute between the Pentagon and the Air Force on whether to keep buying the new-generation warplane.

While the senators has advised committee Chairman Carl Levin of Michigan and John McCain of Arizona to adopt a House recommendation that would permit $523 million for the advance purchase of 20 additional F-22 Raptor’s parts by 2010 fiscal year. They are both leading F-22 supporters in Congress which stepped into a dispute between the Pentagon and the Air Force on whether to keep acquiring the new-generation warplane.

(more…)

Hong Kong International Airport won the award again as the World’s Best Airport for 2008. Resulted in a worldwide passenger survey released by Skytrax, the Hong Kong International Airport has been named as traveller’s favourite airport.

“Hong Kong to be named winner of World’s Best Airport title for the 7th time in ten years is a truly notable acheivement. To retain this title amidst such strong competition is testament to an airport that is clearly serving it’s customers well.”, said Edward Plaisted, Chief Executive Officer of SKYTRAX.

Singapore Changi Airport remains firmly positioned itself at the top end of the rankings, in 2nd position worldwide, ahead of Seoul Incheon International Airport in 3rd place. Asian airport dominance of the high survey rankings is topped off by Kuala Lumpur International Airport, which moves up into 4th place in the 2008 results.

Here’s the result (Top Ten):

1 Hong Kong
2 Singapore Changi
3 Seoul Incheon
4 Kuala Lumpur KLIA
5 Munich
6 Kansai
7 Copenhagen
8 Zurich
9 Helsinki
10 Cape Town

Read the whole article at http://www.worldairportawards.com

The unstoppable-rising-fuel cost left passengers with burden. Airlines are abruptly changing course by suspending flight, slapping new luggage fees on travelers, raising fuel surcharges on tickets, switching to smaller planes inefficient aircraft and raising fares.

American Airlines plans to cut domestic capacity by 12 percent in the fourth quarter of this year. They also said it will stop flying between Chicago and Honolulu and suspend some Los Angeles-Hong Kong flights.

United Airlines will cut domestic capacity 15 percent in the fourth quarter, remove 1,500 jobs and jettison its low-fare unit.

Continental Airlines plans to cut domestic capacity by 11 percent in the fourth quarter and shrink its airline staff by 3,000.

US Airways will reduce capacity to 6 to 8 percent in the fourth quarter, trim 1,700 jobs and join other airlines in charging $15 for the first checked bag.

The fuel crisis had not only affected the increase in airline fares but also puts at risk jobs and living of staff and employees.