UK’s premium carrier British Airways reported pre-tax losses of £ 148 million for the quarter ending June. Last year for the same quarter the airline had made profit of £ 37 million. BA is now feeling the heat of the recession as there has been a reduction in the passenger traffic.

To fight this recession they have taken a few steps, including the latest which has come as a surprise to many. No more sandwiches for passengers taking short haul flights of less the 2 hours and 30 minutes after 10 am. This is said to have some 22 million pound impact too, so in these diehard times all cost cutting measures are welcomed by the airline management.

BA is considered to be an upper segment airline and this change could change the lookout of many travelers as such strategies are adopted usually by budget low cost carriers. The airline has also done a staff reduction of 1450 employees since March end. Another measure on the same lines is reducing overtime and opting for more part time workers. The airline has also planned to ground 20 aircrafts by 2010 and have also delayed the delivery of A380.

So next time you are traveling on a short haul flight by British Airways, make sure you carry your lunch with you.

There was the huge uproar in the Indian parliament over president Mr. APJ Abdul Kalam was frisked by staff of Continental Airlines before boarding a flight to the US. Several Members of the Parliament confirmed the report and have asked the aviation minister to take this matter seriously. As per protocol former presidents and similar level dignitaries are exempted from such searches. Mr.Praful Patel, the minister of civil aviation also confirmed to the house that this matter would be investigated and action will be taken accordingly.

However the Continental Airlines spokeswoman said that it was a normal security procedure for all boarding the aircraft and Mr Kalam was “very co-operative” and “happily underwent the entire process”. She also added that there were no separate rules for any VIP or VVIP traveler and the airline follows the same procedure for everyone.

Mr. Kalam was president of India from 2002-2007. He is also knows as the father of Indian space program, as under his leadership the Indian space program reached new heights.

This incident happened in April when Mr. was on his way to the US, he was made to take off his shoes, empty the content of his pockets and checked by hand held metal detectors.

According to the latest reports an Iranian official, Deputy Transport Minister Ahmad Majidi said that there were no problems with the aircraft pilot and he was not to blame for the crash thus suggesting that there could have been a technical snag that resulted in the crash. The flight data recorder has been recovered but it is badly damaged. The tapes had actually come out of the black boxes and now it would be sent to Russia, the manufacturer of the aircraft for further investigation.

Caspian Airlines Russian built Tupolev-154 had crashed shed on Wednesday leaving all 168 people on board dead. The plane had crashed in a farmland in the Qazvin province 120 kilometers North West of the Iranian capital Tehran.

According to witnesses the Russian made Tu-154 which has been in service for 22 years, node dived from the sky with its tail on fire. The impact created a large crater and the wreckage lay scattered in a large area.

Most of the passengers on board were Iranian and there were also some Armenian and Georgian passengers. It is also reported that to identify the remains the Iranian authority would do DNA testing.

This is the third deadly crash of a Russian made Tu-154 in Iran. As there is a trade embargo on Iran, they only have aircrafts of Russian origin. Most of the fleet is aging and there have been issues related to maintenance in the past.

Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, the state run broadcaster reported on Sunday that 152 bodies recovered from the crash site have been handed over to family members. There are also reports that a Russian team has arrived in Iran to investigate the crash of the Caspian Airlines aircraft. The aircraft had gone down in a field near the Iranian city of Qavzin on 15th July, killing all 168 people on board.

The flight data recorders have been recovered are currently being studies by a joint investigation of Iranian and Russian experts. Other focus of investigation is wreckage aircraft parts recovered from the crash site. These could give vital clues to determine the cause of the crash. The aircraft fell from the sky and disintegrated into pieces with huge blast and created a large crater at the site of crash.

It is also being reported that onboard the flight were the ten members of the Iranian youth judo team including eight athletes and two coaches. This is the fifth major crash this year after crashes of aircrafts of carriers Colgan Air, Turkish Airlines, Air France and Yemenia Airways.

The Tupolev 154 has had a good track record although it is banned in the west as it does not clear the European noise and pollution regulations. This is the first crash in the history of Caspian Airlines since its inception in 1993.

A plane crash has occurred in Iran and does not look to have dropped slowly and from the crater it has made it looks like it dropped straight down. The crash happened 90 miles from Tehran near the Jannat-abad village close to the Iranian city of Qazvin and was on it way to Armenia. It was a short haul flight and the crash sight is disturbing and the damage looks immense.  As per the latest report the plan was a Tupolev-154 and belonged to Caspian Airlines. The Tupolev-154 is an aircraft of Russian origin and was an aging aircraft. Tupolev-154 has a sad history as there have been eight crashes in the last decade.

The plane crashed 16 minutes after take off at 11:33 local time and had 168 people on board and most of the passengers were Armenian citizens. No survivors have been found and all are expected to be dead. The aircraft wreckage is spread over a 200 meters x 200 meters square. There was a large fire at the site after the crash but it has been extinguished by the local fire services. More details will be available once the black box of the aircraft is recovered. The flight number of the Armenian Tupolev-154 was 7908.

The American Air Force Col. Willie Berges, based in Brazil, has signalled that the search operations carried out by the two ships hunting for black boxes of Air France have been discontinued. The commander of U.S. military forces sustaining the search endeavour has said that the other ship tugging a search device will also conclude its lookout venture in few hours.

Berges however stated that a French nuclear submarine is still carrying on the probe for the missing black boxes that will play a significant role in finding the root cause of such an unforeseen tragedy. The Black boxes emit aural pulses also called pings which the French submarine has been trying to locate. However, despite these efforts no success has been achieved in the matter.

The battery life of the aural locator beacon in the black boxes is a mere three weeks after which they start fading. The craggy ocean base coupled with testing ocean storms have also added to the woes.

Significant doubts still loom large over the unexpected breakdown of the Air France Flight 447 that sank into the sea off the Brazilian coast leaving no survivors. The 600 pieces of wreckage inclusive of the structural constituents of the ill-fated flight have been shipped out from the Atlantic Ocean and are being shipped to France for detailed investigations into the 1st June crash. The almost integral tail piece, engine cover, unused life vests, seats and kitchen appliances were first kept in Recife, Brazil, where the search procedures were initiated post the crash.