Divers

✈️ Turkish Airlines Boeing 737 made an emergency landing in Malta on January 1st after a passenger felt unwell. During the incident, four men escaped from the aircraft, causing a chase; two were arrested while two remained at large. The Moroccan passenger was hospitalized under police custody, and the flight later continued to Morocco.

✈️ Singapore Airlines' Airbus 350, flight SQ52, departed from Singapore and headed to Manchester, UK. It was rerouted to Gatwick Airport due to heavy snowfall closing Manchester Airport. The flight, initially lasting 15 hours, attempted to depart Gatwick for Manchester one hour later but faced air congestion. After another hour's wait and a further 2-hour flight, crew time limitations forced the flight to postpone until Monday.

🚀 Emirates, the Dubai-based airline, will use its new A350s on short-haul routes to Kuwait and Bahrain. The A350 will operate flights 853 and 854 to Kuwait and flights 837, 838, 839, and 840 to Bahrain, with twice-daily flights to Manama, Bahrain's capital. The aircraft, freshly delivered by Airbus from Toulouse, will also serve long-haul routes, including one to Edinburgh, Scotland. Emirates has been flying to Kuwait since its inception and currently offers 29 weekly connections. On these routes, A350s have 312 seats, with 53 being Business or Premium Economy class.

🐘 In Thailand, a Spanish tourist died on Friday after being attacked by an elephant at the elephant center on Yao Yai island. The fatal incident occurred during an elephant bath, where the elephant turned violent and impaled the tourist with a tusk. Thailand reported 39 elephant attack fatalities in 2024, mostly from wild elephants, according to the National Parks Department.

📹 A video uploaded on December 16 by Preferente to their YouTube channel shows an A330 from Plus Ultra being overtaken by an Iberia A350 while flying over the Atlantic. The Plus Ultra A330 departed from Madrid to Caracas, and the Iberia A350 also took off from Barajas, headed to Lima.

💥 Aviation incidents in recent weeks include tragedies in Azerbaijan and South Korea, with a plane crash in Kazakhstan claiming 67 lives. Alaska Airlines lost a door mid-flight, affecting Boeing's reputation. In Tokyo, a Japan Airlines Airbus 350 hit a coastguard plane, killing all rescuers on board, while the 379 Airbus passengers survived. March saw 15 deaths in a Russian military plane crash. A Voepass ATR 72 in Brazil crashed on August 9th, killing 62. A Swift Air pilot died during a cargo flight landing in Vilnius, Lithuania. December's incidents resulted in 179 deaths on Jeju Airlines and 38 in Azerbaijan.

💀 Swiss cabin crew member died after a 7-day hospital stay due to smoke inhalation from a flight on December 23 from Bucharest to Zurich. Emergency diversion to Graz, Austria, due to engine issues and cockpit smoke. Swiss mourns the loss, with Jens Fehlinger and Oliver Buchhofer expressing condolences and commitment to assist the family and cooperate with authorities to investigate the incident.

🚨 On December 22, 2024, at 5 p.m., a woman on an Alaska Airlines flight at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport opened the emergency exit and climbed onto the wing due to anxiety. Security cameras recorded the incident as the plane was parked. The emergency crew responded quickly, and the woman was transported to a hospital for medical evaluation.

💥 More than 120 people died when a Boeing 737 from Jeju Airlines crashed on Sunday, as the aircraft lost control and veered off the runway before hitting a wall and bursting into flames. The plane was carrying 175 passengers and six crew members. Korean agencies report that at least two survivors, both flight attendants, have been hospitalized.

🌎 Spanish tourism to Cuba plummeted by 26.8% between January and November 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. Other key markets also saw declines, with Canada down 5.2%, Argentina 4.8%, and the US 10.25%, while Russia and Mexico experienced slight increases of 4.4% and 3.2%, respectively. November 2024 alone recorded 44,272 fewer visitors than November 2023. The total number of tourists from January to November was 2,005,390, falling short of the 3.2 million forecasted at the year's start and the 2.7 million revised in September. Factors such as power outages, natural disasters, and perceived instability have affected Cuba's tourism industry, with December's high season unlikely to meet the revised goal of 2.2 million visitors set by Tourism Minister Juan Carlos García Granda.