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Fliers traumatized by emergency landings and frightening events in the air can expect little or no help from U.S. airlines in dealing with the aftereffects.

USA TODAY has found that the well-being of passengers who are traumatized in harrowing incidents can often be ignored or forgotten.

Instead of getting passengers help to deal with shock and trauma, some say, airline and airport personnel are often more preoccupied with rebookings, collecting baggage information and issuing meal or travel vouchers.

TRAUMA: Lingers for passengers long after flight

Airlines are required by law to inform survivors and families of victims that the American Red Cross will provide care and crisis assistance when there’s a crash that involves deaths.

However, there’s no law requiring airlines or anyone else to help those who have near-death experiences while flying — a situation that some air victims and passenger groups say needs to be changed.

“The emotional and psychological needs of fliers traumatized in harrowing incidents have been neglected for too long,” says Gail Dunham, executive director of the National Air Disaster Alliance/Foundation, largely made up of families of air crash victims. “Airlines and the government should be required to provide assistance and help them recover.”

Any support that passengers get from the airlines after frightening incidents is offered voluntarily by the airlines.

The Air Transport Association, which represents U.S. airlines, would not comment on whether airlines should be required to assist passengers.

Dunham says the federal law for providing help in fatal accidents, the 1996 Aviation Disaster Family Assistance Act, should be broadened to assist fliers who say they’ve been traumatized in harrowing incidents even when there’s no death or serious injury.

“The act has worked well and been terrific for many families, but it needs to be updated and expanded,” Dunham says.

Others disagree and say broadening the law would expose airlines to unnecessary litigation by anyone saying they were traumatized.

“If the family assistance act was expanded to folks on airplanes that had non-fatal incidents, it would need to be renamed the Lawyers Assistance Act,” says veteran aviation consultant Michael Boyd. “It would be a field day for airplane chasers trying to prove their clients had severe mental strain.”

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Article extracted from usatoday.com

Donated liver salvaged from plane crash, successfully transplanted at English hospital

Rescuers saved a donated liver from a fiery plane crash in central England and rushed it to a nearby hospital, where it was successfully transplanted, officials said Saturday.

The private jet carrying the organ clipped an antenna as it was landing at Birmingham Airport in thick fog on Friday afternoon and caught fire as it hit the ground.

Two crew members were injured, but rescuers managed to put out the fire and take the organ to Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital on a police motorbike.

The liver was undamaged and was successfully implanted in a patient during a four-hour operation, the hospital said in a statement. The hospital praised the rescuers for their quick thinking.

The patient was now stable, but the hospital declined to release any further details, citing medical confidentiality.

The crash forced Birmingham Airport to close, disrupting 80 other flights, as investigators examined the site of the crash. The airport has since reopened.

Investigators are looking into the cause of the crash.

By abcnews.go.com

In this photo made available by the West Midlands Fire Service, a rescue vehicle at the site of a plane that crashed, at Birmingham Airport, Birmingham, England, Friday, Nov. 19 , 2010. A plane carrying a donated liver crashed at an airport in England, but the organ was rushed to a hospital and implanted in a patient, officials said Saturday. The Cessna carrying the organ clipped an antenna as it was landing at Birmingham Airport in thick fog on Friday afternoon, catching fire as it hit the ground. The hospital said that liver, which was undamaged in the accident, was successfully implanted in a patient during a four-hour operation. The hospital released a statement praising the rescuers for their quick thinking. (AP Photo/West Midland Fire Service, ho)

The pilot of an Air India flight that crashed in May, killing 158 passengers, slept through more than half the flight and woke up disoriented when it was time to land the aircraft, an investigative panel has concluded.

The Court of Inquiry appointed by the Indian government to investigate the May 22 crash concluded that flight Commander Zlatko Glusica was disoriented and his reactions were slow while bringing the aircraft in for a landing at Mangalore airport, Hindustan Times newspaper reported.

A government official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, confirmed that the newspaper report was accurate, but said the report would be made public only after it was presented to the Indian Parliament.

The Air India Express flight from Dubai to Mangalore in southern India overshot a hilltop runway, crashed and plunged over a cliff, killing 158 people instantly. Eight people survived the crash.

The panel examined information contained in the digital flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder of the aircraft, which were found at the crash site.

The panel said that Glusica reacted late and did not follow many standard operating procedures during the landing.

Glusica was suffering from “sleep inertia” after his nap and was “disoriented” when the plane began its descent at Mangalore airport.

The data recorders caught the sound of heavy nasal snoring and breathing, Hindustan Times said.

The co-pilot, HS Ahluwalia, is heard repeatedly warning Glusica to abort the landing and try the procedure again. The last words captured by the recorders as the plane crashed were those of one of the pilots saying, “Oh my God.”

Glusica, a native of Serbia, had more than 10,200 hours of flying experience, while Ahluwalia had clocked in 3,650 hours.

By telegraph.co.uk

The Air India Express flight from Dubai to Mangalore in southern India overshot a hilltop runway, crashed and plunged over a cliff, killing 158 people instantly

The United States plans to sell up to $60 billion worth of military aircraft to Saudi Arabia, the U.S. State Department announced on Wednesday in a move designed to shore up a region overshadowed by Iran.

Andrew Shapiro, the assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs, told a news conference the U.S. administration did not anticipate any objections to the sale from Israel, traditionally wary of arms sales to nearby Arab countries.

“We think it will enhance regional security and stability rather than diminish it,” Shapiro told a news conference.

The sale, which had been expected, includes 84 new Boeing F-15 aircraft and 70 upgrades of existing Saudi F-15s. It also includes 70 of Boeing’s Apache attack helicopters and 36 of its AH-6M Little Birds.

In addition, the deal will include 72 Black Hawk helicopters built by Sikorsky Aircraft, a unit of United Technologies Corp..

Shapiro said the total value of the package would not exceed $60 billion, although he emphasized that Saudi Arabia may choose not to exercise all of its purchase options during the program, which will last from 15 to 20 years.

Alexander Vershbow, the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, said the United States had discussed the matter with Israel, and concluded that it would not undercut Israel’s qualitative military edge in the region.

“We have consulted with Israel as this sale has taken shape … based on what we’ve heard at high levels, Israel does not object to this sale,” he said.

‘DANGEROUS NEIGHBORHOOD’

Vershbow and Shapiro both stressed that bolstering Saudi Arabia’s own defense capabilities would improve U.S. security in a vital part of the world where fears are growing over Iran’s nuclear program.

“This is not solely about Iran,” Shapiro said. “It’s about helping the Saudis with their legitimate security needs … they live in a dangerous neighborhood and we are helping them preserve and protect their security.”

Vershbow said the sale would improve Saudi Arabia’s ability to coordinate with the United States on shared security challenges “so it means we may have to station fewer forces on a continuing basis in the region.”

U.S. and international concern about Iran’s growing military capability includes advances in a nuclear program the West believes is aimed at developing atomic weapons — accusations Tehran denies.

The United States has also flagged concern about Iran’s growing missile capabilities and has been quietly helping Arab states boost their missile defenses.

That includes the expected sale of the THAAD missile defense system manufactured by Lockheed Martin Corp to the United Arab Emirates. Similar talks are underway with Saudi Arabia.

U.S. officials are also discussing a possible deal to upgrade Saudi Arabia’s navy, which one official estimated could be worth an additional $30 billion.

By reuters.com

A Saudi air force jet flies in formation during a graduation ceremony for air force officers at King Faisal military college in Riyadh December 27, 2009.

Swedish authorities who released a passenger taken into custody after a plane made an emergency landing are trying to find a caller who tipped off police that a man onboard had explosives — an assertion that proved untrue.

The plane — which had 273 people aboard and was flying from Canada to Pakistan — landed Saturday morning after the phone call, authorities said.

The man, in his late 20s, was confronted by authorities in a “very nondramatic fashion” as all passengers filed off the plane and was cooperative, said Stockholm Police spokesman Kjell Lindgren.

“He said that he doesn’t understand anything and that he has no idea what this is all about,” Lindgren said. “He also said that he could not understand why he had been the subject of these accusations.”

After several hours, the Swedish Prosecution Authority issued a statement saying, “The on-call prosecutor has decided not to arrest the man who has been held suspected of bringing explosives onto an airplane. The suspicions against this man are not strong enough to formally arrest him and he is therefore free to leave Sweden.”

The plane was allowed to continue to Pakistan later Saturday.

Lindgren initially said the man was suspected of “preparation of aviation sabotage,” though a search of the aircraft and the individuals yielded no evidence of explosives.

Pakistan International Airlines Flight 782 was heading from Toronto, Canada, to Karachi, Pakistan, when it landed because of “security reasons,” said Sultan Hassan, an airline spokesman.

The plane landed at Arlanda airport in Stockholm, Sweden, at 7:30 a.m. (1:30 a.m. ET) Saturday after a woman calling from a pay phone in Canada tipped off police that a man on the plane had explosives, police spokesman Janne Hedlund said.

Canadian authorities contacted the plane while it was in Swedish airspace, Hedlund said.

The man is from Pakistan and has a Canadian passport, Hedlund said.

The investigation is still ongoing, but is now focused on the caller in Canada, Lindgren said.

By cnn.com

Sept. 25: Two anti-terrorist policemen, center, secure one of the passengers as a Pakistan International Airlines Boeing 777 is evacuated at Stockholm Arlanda International airport. The aircraft was en route from Toronto to Karachi, when Canadian authorities received a tip-off that a passenger could be carrying explosives and the plane was diverted to Stockholm. Swedish police detained a man described as a Canadian citizen of Pakistani origin aboard the plane, but a bomb squad that searched the plane found nothing suspicious on board.

A domestic passenger plane has crashed in south-eastern Venezuela, killing 15 people, but 36 of those on board miraculously survived the terrifying ordeal.

The plane carrying 47 passengers and four crew, en route to the resort city of Isla Margarita, burst into flames mid-air and broke almost in two as it came down near a steel works owned by the Sidor group in Bolivar state.

The Conviasa Airlines ATR-42-300 plane went down about 10 kilometres from Puerto Ordaz. The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.

Officials said the quick response by the emergency services, after the pilot warned air traffic control that the flight was in trouble, had prevented a higher death toll.

“Unfortunately we do have deaths but… given the condition of the plane, I think that we were lucky,” Transport and Communications Minister Francisco Garces said.

Rescuers arrived at the scene quickly with medical helicopters on hand to transport the wounded to local hospitals that had been placed on alert. A burns unit was also on stand-by to treat those caught in the blazing wreckage.

The plane went down at a site mostly used by Sidor to store scrap industrial material. None of its employees was injured in the crash but they were among the first at the scene helping rescue passengers, Bolivar governor Francisco Rangel Gomez said.

He said the pilot appeared to have “lost control” of the plane and had radioed a control tower to warn the flight was having technical difficulties.

A spokesperson for ATR, the aircraft manufacturer, said the firm was investigating the accident.

“We are working in close cooperation with the company (Conviasa) and authorities to understand the causes of the accident. At the moment we do not know what caused it,” a spokesman in Paris said.

The last major air accident in Venezuela was in February 2008 and also involved an ATR-42-300, which crashed in the Andes, killing 46 people.

Three years earlier, 160 people were killed in a Venezuelan crash that was one of the world’s deadliest ever.

The flight was en route to Martinique and the majority of those killed - 152 of the passengers - were from the small Caribbean island.

An investigation into the disaster later concluded human error was to blame.

By abc.net

Rescue teams work at the site where an ATR-42 plane crashed in Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela. (Reuters: Ho New)

Tuesday night’s deadly China plane crash highlights the risks in China’s booming air travel industry. A disproportionate number of flights now have to take off and land at night without proper lighting.

The China plane crash that killed 42 people late Tuesday night was a rare blot on the country’s aviation safety copybook, say experts here. But it highlights the risks of flying in and out of some small regional airports at night, something more airlines are forced to do to meet the demands of China’s booming travel industry.

A domestic Henan Airways passenger jet crashed and burst into flames at a fog-shrouded provincial airport near Yichun in Northeastern China, killing 42 and injuring 54, according to official reports.

It is still not known what caused the accident “but from news reports I deduce that the reason is human error,” says Wang Yanan, deputy editor of Aerospace Knowledge magazine. “I think it came down too fast or too steeply.”

It emerged Wednesday that another airline, China Southern, decided last August to avoid night flights into Yichun. A technical note on the airline’s website said that “in principle there should be no night flights at Yichun airport,” citing worries about landing strip lighting, weather conditions, and the surrounding hilly terrain.

The newly built airport, one of a number of such regional facilities springing up all over the country to serve China’s booming travel industry, sits in a forested valley. China will have 244 airports by 2020, up from about 175 today, according to figures from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC.)

“Over the last few years, because of the high demand and big market, regional aviation has developed very fast,” says Mr. Wang. “The quality of personnel and facilities may not be keeping up.”

Tuesday’s crash, however, was the first major commercial airline accident in China for nearly six years, Wang points out. “I think it is an isolated case,” he adds. “In general aviation safety in China is normal.”

The government credits this to a nationwide crackdown on safety that it ordered in 2004, upgrading aircraft and airports, after 10 serious airplane crashes in four years had given China a notoriously dangerous reputation.

But at new airports a disproportionate number of flights take off and land at night, because airlines serving them can no longer get daytime slots at the busy hubs they fly to and from.

“At night in Northern China it is often cold and wet, so it may be foggy,” Wang points out, suggesting that Yichun airport’s landing lights may have been too weak to see properly in Tuesday night’s fog. “Small airports should install the right sort of equipment to cope with different conditions,” he adds.

The China plane crash that killed 42 people late Tuesday night was a rare blot on the country’s aviation safety copybook, say experts here. But it highlights the risks of flying in and out of some small regional airports at night, something more airlines are forced to do to meet the demands of China’s booming travel industry.

A domestic Henan Airways passenger jet crashed and burst into flames at a fog-shrouded provincial airport near Yichun in Northeastern China, killing 42 and injuring 54, according to official reports.

It is still not known what caused the accident “but from news reports I deduce that the reason is human error,” says Wang Yanan, deputy editor of Aerospace Knowledge magazine. “I think it came down too fast or too steeply.”

It emerged Wednesday that another airline, China Southern, decided last August to avoid night flights into Yichun. A technical note on the airline’s website said that “in principle there should be no night flights at Yichun airport,” citing worries about landing strip lighting, weather conditions, and the surrounding hilly terrain.

The newly built airport, one of a number of such regional facilities springing up all over the country to serve China’s booming travel industry, sits in a forested valley. China will have 244 airports by 2020, up from about 175 today, according to figures from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC.)

“Over the last few years, because of the high demand and big market, regional aviation has developed very fast,” says Mr. Wang. “The quality of personnel and facilities may not be keeping up.”

Tuesday’s crash, however, was the first major commercial airline accident in China for nearly six years, Wang points out. “I think it is an isolated case,” he adds. “In general aviation safety in China is normal.”

The government credits this to a nationwide crackdown on safety that it ordered in 2004, upgrading aircraft and airports, after 10 serious airplane crashes in four years had given China a notoriously dangerous reputation.

But at new airports a disproportionate number of flights take off and land at night, because airlines serving them can no longer get daytime slots at the busy hubs they fly to and from.

“At night in Northern China it is often cold and wet, so it may be foggy,” Wang points out, suggesting that Yichun airport’s landing lights may have been too weak to see properly in Tuesday night’s fog. “Small airports should install the right sort of equipment to cope with different conditions,” he adds.

By Peter Ford

Chinese paramilitary policemen stand guard near the damaged Henan Airlines plane which has crashed on landing in Yichun in northeast China's Heilongjiang province Wednesday.

The plane went down about 100 miles from the border in what analysts say may have been a defection attempt.

A North Korean military aircraft crashed into a cornfield in northeastern China about 100 miles from the border in what analysts believe was a failed defection attempt, the Chinese government said Wednesday.

The pilot was killed in the crash Tuesday, according to China’s official Xinhua news service, which also reported that the government “is in communication on the matter with the North Korean side.”

Chinese authorities released little information about the crash which took place in Fushun prefecture, Liaoning province. But photographs reportedly taken by villagers were widely distributed on Chinese blog sites showing the wreckage with a red star in a blue circle, the insignia of the North Korean air force. North Korea’s first air division’s 24th regiment is headquartered in Uiju, just north of the border city of Sinuiju, and pilots frequently train near the Yalu River which forms the border with China.

The aircraft was identified as a Russian-made MiG fighter, most likely a MiG-21, although early reports had described it as a helicopter.

South Korean analysts said they believed the pilot was attempting to escape his impoverished homeland, possibly heading toward Russia, which is more hospitable to defectors than China. Along the way, he might have run out of fuel and attempted an emergency landing in the fields.

“This couldn’t be a training accident — the border is clearly marked,” said Kim Chul-woo of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses. “An attempted defection is the only plausible explanation.”

A respected military analyst in Seoul said that South Korean intelligence is still trying to determine what happened.

“I’m skeptical of what the Chinese government is saying,” said the analyst, who asked not to be quoted by name. The analyst said he believed the plane might have carried one or more passengers besides the pilot and might not have crashed accidentally.

Among the theories in circulation is that the pilot was heading toward a nearby airport in Shenyang and ran out of fuel. The plane was reported not to have sustained serious damage, making it conceivable that a passenger escaped.

Defections have increased in 2010 amid growing food scarcities in isolated North Korea, with most people escaping by foot across the border into China. However, there have been several famous incidents, one in 1983 and another in 1996, in which North Korean air force captains flew their planes across the demilitarized zone into South Korea.

By Barbara Demick

In northeastern China, people look over the wreckage of a North Korean military aircraft. (Yonhap / AFP/Getty Images / August 18, 2010)

One passenger was killed when an airplane crashed in bad weather and split into two when landing early Monday on the island of San Andres, Colombia, officials said.

The number of injured remained unclear Monday morning, but the national police said six of at least 127 people aboard the plane were not hurt.

There also were conflicting reports as to how many people were aboard the Aires airline 737-700 jet when it crashed around 1:49 a.m. (2:49 a.m. ET). The Colombian national police initially said the flight had 131 people — 121 adult passengers, four minors and six crew members. A list the police later released, however, indicated 127 people on board — 121 passengers and six crew members.

The passenger list included six Americans, five French, four Brazilians, four Costa Ricans and two Germans, said Col. Hector Carrascal, director of navigation services at the Colombian Civil Aviation Authority.

Police identified the woman who was killed as Amar Fernandez de Barreto. The passenger manifest, which goes by last name first, lists a Barreto Fernandez Paola Andrea.

There also was conflicting information about what caused the crash. The initial report from the national police said a downdraft may have shaken the airplane as it prepared to land. But Pedro Gallardo, governor of San Andres y Providencia state, told CNN en Español that lightning hit the plane. The pilot also reported a lightning strike, El Tiempo newspaper said.

A storm was reported in the area but not at the airport, Carrascal said.
The accident occurred about 260 feet (80 meters) before the start of the runway, Carrascal said. Wreckage was spread about another 328 feet (100 meters) on the runway, officials said.

Photos of the airplane on the runway show it split in two, with the nose and first eight rows of seat pointing in one direction and the rest of the aircraft almost pointing in the opposite direction.

The flight had taken off from Bogota, Colombia’s capital, shortly after midnight, police said.

By the CNN

The Aires airline 737-700 jet lies in pieces after crashing early Monday on the Colombian island of San Andres.

Seventy Dutch passengers were among the 103 people killed in the Libya plane crash in which an 8-year-old boy was the sole survivor, the Dutch Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

Officials had previously said 58 Dutch passengers died in the accident Wednesday.

Afriqiyah Airways confirmed on its Web site late Wednesday that the other 92 passengers and 11 crew members were killed when the plane crashed while trying to land at the Tripoli International Airport.

The child, identified as Ruben van Assouw, suffered multiple fractures in his lower limbs and underwent an operation at Al Khadra Hospital in Tripoli, a doctor at the hospital said.

He lost blood but is now much better, said the doctor, who declined to give her name.

The boy has seen a Dutch Embassy representative and is sedated and asleep, she said, adding that he will undergo multiple scans Thursday.

The Dutch Foreign Ministry, which had a representative at the hospital waiting to identify the boy, declined to confirm the child’s name.

The Afriqiyah Airways plane originated in Johannesburg, South Africa. As well as the 70 Dutch citizens killed, six South Africans died along with two Libyans, two Austrians, one German, one French, one Zimbabwean and two Britons.

Other passengers’ nationalities could not immediately be identified. The 11 crew members were all Libyan.

The plane, an Airbus A330-200, was at the end of its nearly nine-hour flight when it crashed at 6 a.m.

“We express our sincere regret and sadness on behalf of the airline. As well, we would like to express our condolences to the relatives and friends of those who had passengers on Flight 8U771 destined for Tripoli late last night, due to arrive around 6 o’clock this morning,” said Nicky Knapp, a representative of the Airports Company South Africa. She was speaking on behalf of Afriqiyah Airways.

Jerzy Buzek, president of the European Parliament, said the child’s survival, “given this tragic event, is truly a miracle.”

At the crash site, workers with surgical masks combed through the smoldering wreckage, which spilled over a large area. A wheel lay atop a pile of bags. Two green airline seats sat upright and intact amid burned parts of the aircraft.

Officials recovered the plane’s flight data recorder, which investigators use to piece together a flight’s last minutes.

The Tripoli-based Afriqiyah (Arabic for “African”) operates flights to four continents. The planes in the fleet carry the logo 9.9.99: the date when the African Union was formed.

The plane that crashed was one of three Airbus 330-200s that the airline owns.

By the CNN

A Dutch boy is the sole survivor of a plane crash in Libya that killed more than 100 people. The plane crashed short of the runway at Tripoli airport en route to London's Gatwick airport.