Marc Joel Atrero

Victoria’s Convair firebomber trial A 12 week lease is giving the Victorian government’s State Aircraft Unit (SAU) a chance to trial two Convair CV580 firebombers. Following the devastating 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, the Victorian government has made a significant investment in trialling large aircraft to contain and control fires, beginning with the 2009-10 fire season’s

Airline incidents in the new media age In 1998 then IATA DG Pierre Jeanniot warned that if the industry did not aggressively address the crash rate then “at a future time when there is twice as much traffic we will have twice as many accidents.” His warning was also in the context that the crash

Perhaps if John Borghetti is looking for a new theme song for his born again Virgin Blue Group he may like to consider Bob Dylan’s famous The Times are a-Changing. For they certainly are and probably faster than many suspect as a wide range of factors converge to turn the old order into a tail

Aviation responds to the Queensland floods EMS helicopters, ADF aircraft, commercial airliners and even general aviation pilots pitched in from above to provide vital supply drops, medevacs and support to anyone who needed it in flood-affected Queensland. Ravaged by January’s ‘worst floods in 50 years’, thousands living in the central and southeast parts of Queensland

Boom break, paperwork issues delay KC-30 A missed delivery deadline and then a broken boom during a routine pilot currency flight have thrown the spotlight on the RAAF’s delayed KC-30 tanker program. Airbus Military failed to deliver a KC-30A Multi Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) to the RAAF by the end of 2010, despite the company

Air NZ’s 777-300ER era arrives Now former Air New Zealand GM long haul airline Ed Sims is not one to make bold claims, so when he says that the airline’s new cabin makeover rolled out on its first new 338-seat Boeing 777-300ER in December “is the most significant advance in comfort for economy passengers since