January 5 last year was a day that the 177 passengers and crew of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 will never forget. Six minutes after taking off from Portland, Oregon, a door panel on the Boeing 737 Max 9 jet blew out. As some of the terrified passengers used their smartphones to film the suddenly depressurised inside of the juddering aircraft, tragedy was narrowly avoided as the pilots made a successful emergency landing.
Despite modern aviation being the indisputably safest form of transport, the incident highlighted the brittle nature of passengers’ and investors’ confidence in the industry. Before the day was over, Boeing shares were down more than 8 per cent and US federal officials had ordered the immediate grounding of many Boeing 737 Max 9 planes.
However, worse for the beleaguered manufacturer was to come. Last month, a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 crash landed at Muan International Airport in South Korea, killing 179 people on board. What caused the crash is still being investigated but two other incidents in December have put aviation as a whole in the spotlight.
On Christmas Day, 38 people died when an Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190AR crashed in Kazakhstan and three days later passengers on an Air Canada Express flight recorded sparks and flames coming out the aircraft’s left-hand side as it slid down the runway at a Nova Scotia airport following an apparent landing-gear failure. Although Russian President Vladimir Putin has since apologised to Baku over the crash of Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243, which followed what investigators believe was an “external impact”, overall it has been a sobering year for aviation and its safety, manufacturing and regulatory processes are all under scrutiny.
The industry is responding; on Friday, Boeing said it is making progress in rebuilding trust with passengers and regulators, having introduced more than a dozen new quality control checks. Expert investigators are meticulously examining the incidents in South Korea, Kazakhstan and Canada as they look for answers that will inform better safety practices in the future.
However, so many incidents in such a short space of time should spur aviation to double down on its safety culture in a proactive way. Instead of letting its enviable safety record lead to complacency or unquestioned assumptions – for example that incorporating more and more advanced technology into flight processes is always the right choice – regulators and manufacturers must move swiftly, and together, to shore up confidence in the industry.
This is especially true as new risks to flight safety emerge. In September, the results of a six-week workshop with more than 950 participants was published by OpsGroup, an aviation advocacy body. It said that last year there was a 500 per cent increase in GPS spoofing, a form of cyberattack when counterfeit radio signals are used to override location information. This can confuse pilots and send planes off track. In this region, the dangers are clear – in March, The National reported from Beirut on how jamming and spoofing of signals blamed on Israel was forcing civilian airliners to use alternatives to GPS, with one Turkish Airlines flight running into difficulties as it began its descent into Lebanon’s capital because it was still using GPS navigation.
The industry also faces new challenges in the form of damaging online misinformation. On Saturday, Emirates airline was critical of social media platforms for not taking down “false and alarming information” quickly enough after a hoax video claimed to show an Emirates plane crash that never occurred. In India, analysts have warned that a series of hoax bomb threats that hit many airlines there in October leading to flight detours and schedule disruptions, could have long-term consequences for airlines.
Aviation is not just about passenger flights; cargo flights are vital to the world economy and millions of people rely on aid that is flown in. Aviation’s indispensability makes it all the more important that everyone who steps on a modern jet airliner – pilots, cabin crew and passengers – are confident of reaching their destination safely.
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Results
1. Mathieu van der Poel (NED) Alpecin-Fenix - 3:45:47
2. David Dekker (NED) Jumbo-Visma - same time
3. Michael Morkov (DEN) Deceuninck-QuickStep
4. Emils Liepins (LAT) Trek-Segafredo
5. Elia Viviani (ITA) Cofidis
6. Tadej Pogacar (SLO UAE Team Emirates
7. Anthony Roux (FRA) Groupama-FDJ
8. Chris Harper (AUS) Jumbo-Visma - 0:00:03
9. Joao Almeida (POR) Deceuninck-QuickStep
10. Fausto Masnada (ITA) Deceuninck-QuickStep
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
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The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
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The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
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Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
TRAP
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue
Director: M Night Shyamalan
Rating: 3/5
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
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Most sought after workplace benefits in the UAE
- Flexible work arrangements
- Pension support
- Mental well-being assistance
- Insurance coverage for optical, dental, alternative medicine, cancer screening
- Financial well-being incentives
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LILO & STITCH
Starring: Sydney Elizebeth Agudong, Maia Kealoha, Chris Sanders
Director: Dean Fleischer Camp
Rating: 4.5/5
House-hunting
Top 10 locations for inquiries from US house hunters, according to Rightmove
- Edinburgh, Scotland
- Westminster, London
- Camden, London
- Glasgow, Scotland
- Islington, London
- Kensington and Chelsea, London
- Highlands, Scotland
- Argyll and Bute, Scotland
- Fife, Scotland
- Tower Hamlets, London
ADCC AFC Women’s Champions League Group A fixtures
October 3: v Wuhan Jiangda Women’s FC
October 6: v Hyundai Steel Red Angels Women’s FC
October 9: v Sabah FA
The biog
Siblings: five brothers and one sister
Education: Bachelors in Political Science at the University of Minnesota
Interests: Swimming, tennis and the gym
Favourite place: UAE
Favourite packet food on the trip: pasta primavera
What he did to pass the time during the trip: listen to audio books
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Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
Torque: 390Nm
Price: From Dh126,000
Available: Now
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Rating: 4/5
Directed by: Joseph Kosinski
Starring: Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Ed Harris
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
THE NEW BATCH'S FOCUS SECTORS
AiFlux – renewables, oil and gas
DevisionX – manufacturing
Event Gates – security and manufacturing
Farmdar – agriculture
Farmin – smart cities
Greener Crop – agriculture
Ipera.ai – space digitisation
Lune Technologies – fibre-optics
Monak – delivery
NutzenTech – environment
Nybl – machine learning
Occicor – shelf management
Olymon Solutions – smart automation
Pivony – user-generated data
PowerDev – energy big data
Sav – finance
Searover – renewables
Swftbox – delivery
Trade Capital Partners – FinTech
Valorafutbol – sports and entertainment
Workfam – employee engagement
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The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
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