Australian Aviation

Todd Reynolds, a Virgin GM, said in a letter to the IASC that Jetstar “relies heavily on cabin crews based in Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, and New Zealand”.

The US aviation regulator’s comments come as it formally launches a probe into the incident involving an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 earlier this month.

The ‘Mini-Gulf’ program, which began in March 2023, added extra services on Mondays and Fridays to remote communities of Normanton and Mornington Island.

The $4 million investment will support Royal Australian Air Force’s F/A-18F Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler fleets currently stationed at Amberley, with upgrades to an external fuel tank workshop, communications support works, electrical repairs, and maintenance works.

More than 170 MAX 9s operated in US airspace or by US carriers are still grounded for safety inspections, with United and Alaska Airlines – the two major carriers that operate the aircraft – both reporting finding loose bolts.

The crash of VH-XWD on 31 March 2022, which killed all five people on board and was labelled “among the worst in Victoria’s history”, was a result of the pilot inadvertently flying into weather conditions that required instruments despite operating under visual flight rules (VFR).