Samantha Fox has been charged with a public order offence and being drunk on a plane.

The 57-year-old star – who enjoyed chart success in the 1980s with songs including Touch Me (I Want Your Body) and Nothing’s Gonna Stop Me Now – was on a flight to Germany in January when the incident took place. Earlier reports revealed that the star was arrested at Heathrow Airport after she had used threatening, abusive or insulting words to cause harassment, alarm or distress on board a British Airways flight.

All passengers were forced to abandon the flight at the time as take-off was delayed meaning the flight wouldn’t be able to land in time for strict air travel laws in Germany. All the other passengers were put up in a hotel and moved to flights the following day – while Sam reportedly spent the night in a cell instead.

Now the Metropolitan Police have confirmed she has been charged with a public order offence following her arrest two months ago. The singer is now scheduled to appear at Uxbridge magistrates’ court, West London, later this month.

When asked for details over the charge, a Metropolitan Police spokesperson confirmed to The Mirror: “A woman has been charged in relation to an incident on a plane on Sunday, 3 December 2023. Samantha Fox (15.04.66) of Waltham Forest, was charged via postal requisition with a public order offence (S4a) and being drunk on an aircraft. She will appear at Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court on Friday, 22 March.”

When news reports emerged of Sam’s arrest on 21 January, the star issued a grovelling apology. She said at the time, via The Sun, that she was: “deeply sorry for any disruption caused”. Reports said she was helping the police with their investigation.

Sam, who rose to fame as a glamour model in the 1980s before becoming a pop star, married her partner of six years Linda Oslen in 2022, with a lavish ceremony in Essex. The former Celebrity Big Brother star and Linda announced their engagement in March 2020, four years after they first struck up a romance in 2016.

During an appearance on Loose Women, Sam revealed that it was Linda who proposed, after panellist Frankie Bridge asked Sam if she was surprised when it happened. “Kind of, I did hint!” Sam admitted, before adding: “I mean I’m getting on a bit now. When I met her, I knew I was completely in love with her and wanted to be with her forever.” Recalling the moment she first dropped some wedding hints to her now-wife, Sam added: “I was doing a concert in Slovakia and we stayed in a 16th century castle and I said, ‘wouldn’t it be lovely to get married here?’ She waited until Valentine’s Day 2020 to ask me to be her wife. She got down on one knee and it was all very traditional, I cried, she cried.”

Read the full story originally published at mirror.co.uk

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The plane was en route to Nashville from Mount Sterling, Kentucky, when it crashed about 3 miles from Nashville’s John Tune Airport, Aaron McCarter, an NTSB air safety investigator, said at a press conference Tuesday.

The flight had originated from Ontario, Canada, before it made stops in Erie, Pennsylvania, and Mount Sterling, McCarter said. All passengers on board were Canadian nationals and the NTSB is working with the Canadian government to identify the deceased passengers.

During the flight, there were no reports of any mechanical irregularities or anomalies. However, upon approaching John Tune Airport, the plane ascended and passed overhead at 2,500 feet before reporting a catastrophic, complete loss of engine power, according to McCarter.

The control tower at John Tune Airport received the message about the plane experiencing engine and power failure at around 7:40 p.m., with the pilot requesting permission to land, which was granted, according to Don Aaron, public affairs director for the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.

Air traffic control, which was in communication with the pilot, declared an emergency on behalf of the pilot and offered assistance in landing at the airport. The plane then made a U-turn and crashed into the road on Interstate 40 East, between mile marker 201 and 202, McCarter said.

After the crash, it then tumbled, stopped on a hill and burst into flames, killing all the passengers on board, McCarter said.

The pilot contacted the tower and said the aircraft was not going to make it before the crash, according to police.

The plane wreckage is now being transported to a facility in Springfield, Tennessee, where the investigation will continue to determine what caused the engine failure.

Witnesses told police the plane was in distress as it came over the interstate, Aaron said. The plane crashed behind a Costco just off the eastbound lanes of I-40, he said.

Read the full story originally published at abcnews.go.com

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Images of the gaping fuselage hole that nearly caused disaster went viral — and the suing passengers told new terrifying stories of their experience after filing suit, including of a teen’s shirt nearly getting sucked out.

“We took off fine and then just five minutes, and we heard the loud pop,” passenger Kyle Rinker told KGW News, referring to a door plug blowing off, creating a gaping hole in the 737 MAX 9 plane.

“We were just sitting there trying to relax and then, that thing just happens. The oxygen masks come down, just like, ‘Oh, wow, something’s going on. We got to get these on.’”

“The wind just came rushing it. It was very, very cold all of the sudden, obviously, because you’re flying up there at 16,000 feet,” he added.

Rinker and his girlfriend Amanda Strickland, along with another passenger Kevin Kwok, late last month filed the lawsuit in Multnomah County, Oregon, on behalf of passengers aboard Alaskan Airlines flight 1282.

It alleges the defendants ignored obvious warning signs and that fight should have never taken off.

Rinker and Strickland, both of Portland, sat two rows behind 15-year-oldJack, who lost his shirt during the snafu.

During the flight, Rinker posted images on X of the chaos.

“This is mostly about the systemic problems at Boeing, which is jeopardizing the lives of the entire traveling public who travel on Boeing aircraft,” said the plaintiffs’ lawyer Jonathan Johnson. “They should not be trusting luck to avoid a planeload of people being killed.”

Johnson said that although the aircraft manufacturer acknowledged their role in the blowout and vowed to fix such problems from happening in the future, the lawsuit will push both companies to prioritize safety.

Read the full story originally published on nypost.com

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Flight UA883 left Heathrow on Friday morning and was due to land at Newark, but instead was diverted to Bangor International Airport.

In an emailed statement to the BBC, United Airlines said police removed the two passengers after landing.

The customers will be banned from future United Airlines flights.

After a seven-hour journey across the Atlantic, FlightRadar shows flight UA883 on a path toward New York before making a sharp detour south-east toward Bangor.

“United flight 883 landed in Bangor this morning after two passengers, who appeared intoxicated, became disruptive,” the airline said in a statement.

“Law enforcement officials removed the two passengers and the flight has already re-departed for Newark Liberty International Airport. The customers will be banned from future United flights while we review this matter.”

The flight – which had 150 people on board and 10 crew members – left London at 07:52 GMT and landed safely in Maine at about 10:00 local time (15:00 GMT), the Federal Aviation Administration added in a statement.

It described what happened on board the Boeing 767 as a “passenger disturbance”.

Bangor Police Department said their officers assisted Customs and Border Protection and the FBI, who are now handling the investigation, in removing the two passengers.

Read the originally published story on bbc.com

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Robert Brown bludgeoned 46-year-old Joanna Simpson with a claw hammer in their family home in October 2010 as their two young children cowered in a playroom.

The killing was the subject of a recent two-part ITV documentary The British Airways Killer.

Brown’s High Court challenge against a Government move to block his automatic release from prison was dismissed by Mr Justice Ritchie on Wednesday.

Brown, who was jailed for 26 years in 2011, claimed that “political motivation” amid a media campaign against his release improperly contributed to a decision to refer his case to the Parole Board.

His lawyers argued at a hearing in London earlier this month that Justice Secretary Alex Chalk’s referral was unlawful.

Brown was cleared of murder after a trial, but admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, with a psychiatric report saying he suffered from an “adjustment disorder”.

Aged 47 at sentencing, Brown believed he was “stitched up” by a prenuptial agreement and was affected by stress linked to his divorce, a judge was told.

He was due to be automatically freed on licence halfway through his sentence in November last year, but Ms Simpson’s friends and family urged Mr Chalk to intervene.

In October 2023, the minister used new powers to have Brown’s case reviewed by the Parole Board, an independent body that carries out risk assessments on prisoners to determine whether they can be safely released.

Brown’s lawyers argued the referral was “an obvious attempt to seek to reverse engineer justification for a decision that was in reality prompted and obtained through conscious or unconscious political bias”.

His legal team said the risk posed by Brown had not increased and that he had been “subjected to a high-profile campaign through the media and with politicians that has sought to block his release”.

The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) rejected his allegations, arguing that Mr Chalk “in no way seeks to ‘go behind’ or ‘disapply’ or ‘fail to respect’ the sentencing court’s decision”.

Lawyers for the department said Mr Chalk believed Brown “would pose a significant risk of serious harm to the public if released on licence”, adding that the offender had “persistently refused to engage in the rehabilitative elements of his sentence”.

Mr Chalk’s referral, enabled through a “power to detain” provision introduced through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, overrode Brown’s automatic release.

Ms Simpson’s mother, Diana Parkes, has previously urged the Parole Board to “keep him in jail” and was made a CBE in December for services to vulnerable children suffering from domestic abuse and domestic homicide.

Read the full story originally published at standard.co.uk

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A deal for Airbus A321 and Boeing 737 MAX 8 jets could be announced as early as next week in conjunction with a March 4 investor meeting, the sources said. The final mix of aircraft is still in flux, with the U.S. carrier also considering whether to include Boeing’s forthcoming 737 MAX 10 as part of the deal following certification delays.

The move comes amid a scramble for scarce Airbus production slots, with rival United Airlines, opens new tab already in talks with Airbus for a potential mega-order to replace hundreds of MAX 10s on order from Boeing, Reuters reported last month.

Bloomberg was first to report that Airbus’ share of the deal is set to win a larger portion of the order.

The airline industry’s 2024 plans were upended after Boeing was thrust into a new crisis after a January accident when a cabin panel tore off of an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX jet mid-flight.

American had sought to place a new order for planes for deliveries in 2027 and beyond. Chief Financial Officer Devon May told Reuters last month the carrier was talking to Boeing, Airbus and Embraer, opens new tab for the new order, but was mindful of Boeing’s ongoing issues.

“We absolutely take current events into consideration as we’re going through our analysis of this order,” May said in the interview last month.

American declined to provide specifics on the deal, referring to May’s previous comments on the negotiations.

Airbus declined to comment. Boeing deferred comment to American Airlines.

Reporting by David Shepardson and Valerie Insinna in Washington, Rajesh Kumar Singh in Chicago, Tim Hepher in Paris and Kannaki Deka in Bengaluru Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Matthew Lewis – reuters.com

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The suspect, 24, who worked at Terminal 5, is said to have charged customers £25,000 a time to abuse a loophole in order to fly them across the BA network without crucial visa documents.

Police are working with counterparts in India to try to trace the man, who vanished with his BA ground services partner after being arrested and bailed.

As part of his fiddle, he got clients, most from India, to fly to the UK on a temporary visitor visa where he arranged for them to jet elsewhere.

Other clients were UK-based asylum claimants who feared being returned to their country of origin.

Canadian authorities raised the alarm after years of BA flights to Toronto or Vancouver on which arrivals would immediately declare asylum.

A probe found all were checked in by the same man who falsely verified the travellers had an eTA — electronic travel authorisation — to enter a chosen country.

An eTA can be applied for by a passenger only in their country of origin, and would have been rejected without the BA official’s help.

He was nicked on January 6 but bailed after which he flew to India, from Heathrow, where he has bought several homes, it is said.

A source told The Sun last night: “He exploited a loophole knowing that immigration checks are no longer carried out by officials but are left to airline staff.

“By inputting wrong data, and claiming eTA documents had been secured, he got people to countries they had no permission to enter in the first place.

“On arrival, the bogus passengers would shred their documents and claim asylum.

“Many jetted to Britain to pay him to get them to Canada.

“Others had been stuck in the UK immigration system for up to 10 years, and feared being sent back to their country of origin.

Read the full story originally published at thesun.co.uk

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Holidaymakers had been returning to London from Gran Canaria tonight when the pilots were forced to make the emergency landing.

The plane was over northern France when the plane declared a 7700 general emergency.

The BA2707 flight took off from Gran Canaria Airport at 6.30pm today.

It was set to land at London Gatwick Airport – but instead landed at Brest, France, at 10.53pm.

The squawk code was issued at around 10pm.

A BA spokesperson said: “The flight diverted due to a customer requiring medical attention where it landed normally.

“Our teams are working to ensure customers are able to continue their journey as soon as possible.”

Read the originally published story at The Sun

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Chris Bowers booked a $1,400 flight for his nephew, Frazer Linscott, last November from Sapporo, Japan to Brisbane so he could accompany his daughter Sasha.

However, when Mr Bowers made the booking, he incorrectly spelt Frazer with an ‘s’ instead of a ‘z’, mistakenly spelling his nephew’s name as ‘Fraser’.

Mr Bowers told the Sydney Morning Herald once the small error was noticed, he quickly called the airline.

The customer was informed the only way it could be fixed was to cancel the flight and rebook.

In the time Mr Bowers had booked and needed to cancel and repurchase, the $1,400 fare had hiked up to a whopping $3,000.

‘The injustice was compounded when I discovered that the cancelled flight had also attracted a $300 cancellation charge bringing the total cost of a single letter spelling mistake to $1900,’ he said.

Mr Bowers made a complaint to Qantas before contacting the Airline Customer Advocate.

However, the advocacy lacks any powers for resolution.

A Qantas customer care person informed Mr Bowers that spelling could only be fixed if the booking was completely operated by the airline.

Mr Bower’s booking for his nephew included flights that were operated by Jetstar Japan, which Qantas is only a minority shareholder in.

They advised Mr Bowers the only way to fix such an issue was to cancel and rebook and warned the fare price could not be guaranteed.

Qantas also advised they would not refund the difference in fares but would instead provide a letter for his insurance company with details of the incident.

Mr Bowers said the airline had shown ‘zero empathy’ who had ‘refused to engage’ when the customer asked Qantas if they ‘thought this was the right thing to do’.

A Qantas spokesman told Daily Mail Australia said they do offer free name corrections, but they have to be made on the day of booking.

The airline also said name changes can be made to bookings with other airlines on the day of purchase without a fee if they were bought through qantas.com

‘Whilst the customer was given the correct information from our customer care team regarding changes for a Jetstar Japan booking, we have offered the customer a refund for the cancellation fee as a gesture of goodwill,’ they said.

However, Qantas ended up offering Mr Bowers a $1,600 travel voucher a day after they were contacted by media.

Consumer’s Federation of Australia chairman Gerard Brody told The Sydney Morning Herald there is a gap in the law surrounding unfair trade practices by airlines.

‘Refusing to allow a simple name change and imposing additional costs by forcing the customer to cancel a ticket and make a new booking at significant expense doesn’t sound fair,’ he said.

Read the full story originally published at dailymail.co.uk

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All three planes include Etihad’s new cabin interior, set in a two-class configuration of 32 business suites and 271 economy seats. The planes are set to enter service later this month.

“We are thrilled to welcome these brand-new, state-of-the-art Boeing 787 Dreamliners to Abu Dhabi. Their arrival is key to our network expansion strategy and comes at the perfect time as we continue to add multiple new destinations and expand frequencies into key markets,” Antonoaldo Neves, Chief Executive Officer, Etihad Airways, said.

He added: “These new aircraft support our commitment to Abu Dhabi, allowing us to bring more guests to experience the incredible capital of the UAE, either as their end destination or on a stopover when connecting across our expanding network.”

The 787-9s will further bolster Etihad’s fleet as it launches additional destinations over the coming months.

Excitement takes flight as our three new 787-9 Dreamliners touch down, welcoming in the next generation experience of premier flying with our stylish new cabin interior! Where can we fly you next? pic.twitter.com/IMUGvNjNl4

— Etihad Airways (@etihad) February 23, 2024

On March 31, 2024, Etihad will begin flying to Boston, its fourth US gateway, and will soon add Nairobi and Bali to its network.

It will also operate summer routes to Nice, Malaga, Mykonos and Santorini.

The arrival of the three new Dreamliners follows the delivery of a Boeing 787-10 in October 2023.

Read the full story originally published at aerotime.aero

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