A series of recent incidents involving pilot behaviour have given rise to widespread concerns in the passenger-aviation sector.

The aviation regulator of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is preparing a blacklist of airlines that are to be banned from using airports in the UAE owing to poor safety records or other issues of concern.

The licences of the two airline pilots have been suspended after the incident in which they not only overflew their destination – the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport – a week ago but also was out of contact with the air traffic control (ATC) for about 80 minutes in spite of repeated calls from the ATC tower.

The United States House of Representatives has passed the Airline Safety and Pilot Training Improvement Act of 2009.

The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has proposed fines against two major US-based airlines – US Airways and United Airlines – for having flown their  planes “on hundreds of occasions” violating the FAA’s rules or other standards for airline safety.

The United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating possible malfunctions of the airspeed sensor and altitude sensor on board Airbus A330 aircraft, the same type of plane that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on June 1, 2009.

Air France has completed replacing airspeed monitors aboard the carrier’s long-haul passenger planes Airbus A330 and Airbus A340 following the cash of the Air France Flight 447.

Scientific examination has revealed that the birds which caused US Airways’ Flight 1549 to splash-land in the Hudson River in New York on January 15, 2009, were migratory Canada geese.

Air France’s Flight 447 that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on May 31, 2009, might have flown into updrafts that shook the plane and also into lightning, which together contributed in knocking the plane out of the sky, according to aviation experts.

Investigators of the United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) have blamed the maintenance workers of American Airlines for the emergency landing of Flight 1400 at Lambert-St Louis International Airport in St Louis, Missouri, the United States, on September 28, 2007.

The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has proposed to keep information about bird strikes secret.

The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has ordered grounding and inspection of Bell Helicopter’s civil aircraft models for checking and repairing a control mechanism that was improperly installed.

The United States Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has started security and safety assessment of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport located in Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria, as a part of the measures to enable airlines based in Nigeria to fly to the United States.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) of Israel’s Transportation Ministry has said that the European Union does not intend to downgrade the safety rating of Israeli airlines following talks held in Brussels between the officials of the Israel Airports Authority (IAA) and a representative of the European Union over the flight safety of overseas carriers.

The agency that investigates air accidents in the United States has warned that there is “a high probability” of the fault which led to the crashlanding of two Boeing 777s in 2008 happening to other aircraft.

Southwest Airlines, the low-fare airline based in Dallas, Texas, the United States, has agreed to pay a $7.5 million in penalties for a series of serious maintenance lapses.

Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger, who successfully landed a stricken plane of the US Airways in the Hudson River in New York in January 2009, is sad about the state of the airline industry which he said was “in disarray.”

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), the aviation watchdog of Australia, is to be given greater powers to check the safety of foreign airlines.

American Airlines, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, the United States, had to inspect and begin follow-up action in order to bring its fleet of about 270 McDonnell Douglas MD-80 aircraft into full compliance with the safety rules after mistakes in maintenance led to damage of the passenger-evacuation slides on the rear of many MD-80 jets.

The United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has proposed 10 rules for news gathering helicopters.

Delta Air Lines, based in Atlanta, Georgia, the United States, and the world's largest airline, has reached an agreement with the Air Line Pilots Association and the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to reinstate the voluntary programme that allows pilots to report openly concerns over safety.

It has been revealed that the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had ordered stringent inspection of the type of engines on the US Airways plane that splash-landed in New York's Hudson River after a few of those engines were found to have a rare kind of stall problem known as "compression stall."

American Airlines, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, the United States, has partnered with the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) and the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to launch the Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP).

‘Miracle on the Hudson’: Both engines had failed at the same time, black boxes reveal.

Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger: Commercial aviation pilot as national hero after successful landing of US Airways flight in Hudson River after losing both engines

Seven airlines based in the United States have sued the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) alleging that the agency “broke its own rules and may have compromised flight safety when it set new standards for pilot rest times without input from the carriers.”

Southwest Airlines, the low-cost airline based in Dallas, Texas, the United States, is negotiating with the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) seeking to reduce the $10.2-million penalty that the aviation regulator had imposed on the airline for flying its Boeing 737 jets without required inspections.

The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has decided to lower Israel’s aviation security ranking after an inspection revealed what the FAA termed “severe security shortcomings in Israel’s Civil Aviation Authority.”

The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is taking steps to strengthen security vis-à-vis general aviation (GA) “to minimise further the vulnerability of GA aircraft flights being used to deliver illicit materials, transport dangerous individuals or employ aircraft as a weapon.”

The Unites States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has re-issued an urgent airworthiness directive requiring that pilots of Boeing 737 aircraft be advised to pay attention if they hear an in-flight warning horn.