AVIATION NEWS BRIEFS

*BRITISH AIRWAYS and the Unite union have agreed to talks over planned strike action by cabin crew. They are due to take place following the announcement of strike action on Monday. Unite said it was glad that the dispute had moved from "confrontation to negotiation". But BA said it would continue to pursue legal action in order to try to halt the 12-day strike, which is due to begin on December 22. Unite refused to call off the strikes while talks were being held. A hearing is also scheduled in London's high court to determine the legality of the planned strike.

*AMERICAN AIRLINES has offered to make JAPAN AIRLINES, aka JAL, its exclusive partner in NE Asia in a bid to persuade the struggling carrier to stay on in the Oneworld alliance. DELTA AIRLINES and members of the SkyTeam alliance have offered a $1 billion financing package to struggling JAL to persuade it to switch alliances. American and its partner TPG have countered with a $1.1 billion offer to convince JAL to stay on. American said it will object stridently against non-competitive behaviour if JAL partners Delta and applies for anti-trust immunity.

*The NTSB will open the public docket today, on its investigation into the overflight event involving NORTHWEST AIRLINES Flight 188 in October. On October 21, 2009, Flight 188, an Airbus A320, went NORDO (no radio communications) for 77 minutes while flying from San Diego to Minneapolis.  The flight overflew Minneapolis by more than 100 miles before re-establishing radio contact with ATC and landing at MSP.  There were no injuries to the passengers and crew aboard. The approximately 400 pages of the public docket will be available on the Safety Board's website today. Included in the docket will be factual reports from the Operations Group, Air Traffic Control Group, Survival Factors Group, Cockpit Voice Recorder Group and Flight Data Recorder Group. NTSB says this is a factual release only, and no probable cause has been determined for the incident. Despite the investigative/yet-to-be-fully-resolved nature of the case and the number of issues that still remain to be explained, the FAA took aggressive and severe actions against the flight crew, who are now in the process of appealing those actions.

*An INTERJET A320 had to make an emergency return yesterday, December 15, due to a bomb threat. Flight 217 was on Domestic Service from Guadalajara to Toluca, Mexico, with 87 passengers and crew onboard. According to media reports, shortly after departure, the Airline received the bomb threat via telephone. ATC ordered the aircraft to return, and it landed back to Guadalajara without incident. Emergency Services found no trace of explosives onboard. After a delay of about 3 hours, the A320 was allowed to depart, and arrived in Toluca without incident. Mexican authorities are investigating.

*A HIFLY A310 had to make an emergency return to Lisbon, Portugal, yesterday, December 15. Flight 221 was on Charter Service from Lisbon to Berlin, Germany, and was about 20 minutes into its flight when the crew requested return due to unspecified technical fault. The A310 landed back at Lisbon about 45 minutes after its initial departure. The Charter Flight was carrying the Sporting Lisbon Football team onboard.

*A TRANSAERO Boeing 737 had to go-around twice, while attempting to land at Tel Aviv, Israel, yesterday, December 15. Flight 301 was on International Service from Moscow, Russia, to Tel Aviv, with 102 passengers and 7 crew members onboard. According to media reports, the 737 was re-directed to another runway while on finals, prompting the aircraft to go-around twice. The aircraft landed without incident. Israeli media report that the aircraft was approaching the wrong runway in both instances, which prompted ATC to direct them to another runway. The Civil Aviation Authority of Israel rated the incident as serious and has opened an investigation

*An AMERICAN AIRLINES Boeing 777 had to return to Dallas/Ft Worth, Texas, due to a suspected fuel leak, on Monday, December 14. Flight 61 was on International Service from DFW to Tokyo, Japan, with 224 passengers and 12 crew members onboard, when the incident took place. The 777 was overhead Utah, when the crew requested return due to a suspected fuel leak. The aircraft landed back at DFW without incident, about 3 hours after its initial departure

*An AIR FRANCE A380 was unable to depart Paris, France, on Monday, December 14, due to a technical fault. According to media reports, the fault was discovered after the 511 passengers and crew were onboard. The flight was then canceled, and the aircraft removed from service. The A380 remains out of service undergoing inspection.

*A GULF & CARIBBEAN AIR Boeing 727 experienced engine problems while inflight, on December 13. Flight 281 was on International Service from Memphis, Tennessee, to Hamilton, ON, Canada, with 3 crew members onboard, when the incident took place. While overhead Ohio, the crew reported a loss of oil pressure from engine No.3, thus they shut the engine down. The 727 descended down to 25000 feet, and continued on to Hamilton, where they landed without incident about 1 hour later. The Canadian TSB reported that the oil reservoir was completely empty in a post flight inspection. The aircraft remains out of service and engine No.3 may need to be replaced.

*An AIR CANADA ERJ170 experienced problems with its engines on December 6. The incident was reported yesterday by the Canadian TSB. Flight 1106 was on Domestic Service from Winnipeg to Montreal, Canada, with 50 passengers and crew onboard, when the incident took place. According to the CTSB, the crew reported vibrations from the right hand engine while climbing out of Winnipeg. The crew reduced thrust by 85% and continued on to Montreal. The CTSB said that the engine problem was due to freezing rain which caused fan imbalance with the engine. The aircraft was checked out and returned to service.