Breaking News! Ethiopian plane hijacker deemed mentally unsound： ፓይለቱ የተከሰሰበት ወንጀል ውድቅ ሊሆን ነው：：

ፓይለቱ የተከሰሰበት ወንጀል  ውድቅ ሊሆን ነው：：

A psychiatric evaluation has revealed that the co-pilot who hijacked an Ethiopian Airlines flight and re-routed it to Geneva in 2014 was not of sound mind when he did so. As a result, the Swiss Attorney General will drop all charges against him.

Although the man planned the hijacking beforehand, he was not competent to judge the situation at the time and experienced paranoia, according to the Attorney General’s office.

The co-pilot will stand trial before the Federal Criminal Court, which will decide on the therapeutic measures to be prescribed to him. For now, he remains in a closed psychiatric ward.

In February 2014, the 31-year-old Ethiopian hijacked a flight from Addis Ababa to Rome, rerouting it to Geneva with 202 people on board. He took control of the plane while the pilot was using the restroom.

After landing in Geneva, the co-pilot exited through the cockpit window and turned himself over to authorities. He then asked for political asylum in Switzerland as he felt threatened in his homeland.

In March, an Ethiopian court sentenced him to 19 years and six months in prison for hijacking. The Swiss authorities decided not to extradite him to Ethiopia in order to try him in Switzerland.

Airbus A350XWB visits Addis Ababa while ET’s first enters final assembly

African aviation history was made earlier this week when an Airbus A350XWB flew into Addis Ababa’s Bole International Airport to showcase the world’s latest state of the art wide body aircraft, and one which will soon join the Ethiopian Airlines fleet.
Coming from the Dubai Air Show, where Airbus had the aircraft on display, is the new bird now completing a mini world tour which notably includes a stop in Africa. Ethiopian Airlines now has 14 A350XWB’s on order. It was therefore only logical that Airbus would give the ET staff in Addis the opportunity to see this aircraft type as they prepare to take delivery of the first aircraft in a couple of months.

Wow Air Will Fly You From the U.S. to Paris for Just $99

The Icelandic carrier already flies direct from Dublin to Reykjavik, which means Irish passengers will be able to connect to the West Coast cities with an estimated total journey time of 13.5 hours.

Prices will not be confirmed until flights go on sale in January 2016, the airline has told Independent Travel, but lead-in rates are likely to be considerably lower than the €329 each-way fares quoted for direct flights from Dublin to LA by Aer Lingus.

Aer Lingus is to fly direct to LA from May 2016, while Ethiopian Airlines has been operating a direct service from Dublin Airport since June.

WOW's stopover time in Reyjkavik is likely to be two hours, the airline says, and the Reykjavik-US route will be serviced by three new Airbus A330-300s aircraft, the first wide-body planes in its fleet.

Low-cost transatlantic travel is gathering momentum as fuel prices drop and the economy recovers, with Norwegian set to fly direct from Cork Airport to Boston from next May using narrow-bodied Boeing 737-800s.

WOW's "ultra-low-cost" transatlantic services also connect Dublin, via Reykjavik, to Boston and Washington, with its lead-in fares gaining wide publicity.

Flights from Dublin to Boston are currently quoting from €149 each-way on its website (wowair.ie), for instance, though they rise to as much as €454 on certain dates, excluding baggage fees.

By contrast, as we publish, Ethiopian Airlines' website (ethiopianairlines.com) is quoting return fares to Los Angeles from €449 next May.

WOW Air allows one cabin bag of less than 5kg for free, while charging €15 each-way for cabin bags of 5-12kg and €31 for checked bags of up to 20kg.

WOW's capacity will more than double to 1.8 million next year, it says

Ethiopian Aviation Academy graduates 201 aviation professionals

Ethiopian Aviation Academy, the largest aviation academy in Africa, a full ICAO TRAINAIR Plus member and IATA authorized global training center, has graduated 24 pilots, 96 aviation maintenance technicians, 37 cabin crew and 44 marketing professionals at a ceremony held at Ethiopian Headquarters on Tuesday.The graduates include nationals from Rwanda. The training equipped the graduates with sufficient theoretical and practical knowledge to qualify them in their carrier as Aviation professionals, according to a press release issued by the airlines on Wednesday.
On the occasion, Group CEO Tewolde GebreMariam congratulated the new graduates and welcomed them to the airline’s fast growing and dedicated workforce, gave out diplomas to all the graduates, flight wings to graduating pilots and cabin crew and achievement award to graduates with outstanding academic performance.
Tewolde said, “Ethiopian Aviation Academy is the bedrock of the airline’s success. Self-sufficiency in training of all aviation Services expertise right from the inception of our business has been one of the major success factors of Ethiopian Airlines. That is why we have invested huge amount of time, energy and money for the expansion of our Aviation Academy to meet the demand for trained aviation expertise of the 21st century and to set the standard in high-level quality education demanded by the aviation profession.â€�
“We will continue to invest in the Academy to scale up its capacity both in scope and scale not only to meet our internal demand for more than 17,000 employees envisaged in our vision 2025 but also to address the critical shortage of trained and qualified aviation professionals prevailing in the continent of Africa. Shortage of trained and skilled human power is one of the major reasons why our continent is lagging behind in all measurements of development in the civil aviation sector,” he added.
Ethiopian Aviation Academy is certified by the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority, the U.S Federal Aviation Administration, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), and IATA Safety Audit (IOSA).
The Academy has been providing training for pilots, maintenance technicians, cabin crew, and marketing personnel and in leadership development for Ethiopian and 50 different countries from all over the world for more than six- decade.

BREAKING: “Sniper” in San Diego Shuts Down Airport

There’s word that an “active shooter” in San Diego — specifically a “sniper” with a “high powered rifle” if the news media is to be trusted — is firing somewhat erratically into the air and as a result the local authorities have decided to shut down the local airport. The scene of the police standoff is directly below the approach path to San Diego’s local airport and officials are concerned that an errant bullet might hit an airliner and cause millions of dollars in damage or even some deaths. Stay tuned for more as we get it.

Ethiopian to launch new flights to Chicago and Houston? Good news..

Ethiopian to launch new flights to North America and Asia

By T3 News Network, Oct 30, 2015

Ethiopian Airlines is set to expand its network to North America and Asia next year. The expansion is made possible by the delivery of Ethiopian’s first batch of 343-seat A350-900s along with additional 270-seat Boeing 787-8s, according to a report by Centre for Aviation (CAPA).
As per the plan, New York will be Ethiopian’s fourth destination in North America joining Toronto, Washington Dulles and Los Angeles as the new flights kick off in June 2016. The report added that Ethiopian is also looking at Chicago and Houston, which could be launched in 2017.
In Asia too, the airline is planning to launch services to Chengdu (China), Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam), Jakarta (Indonesia) as well as Singapore. East Asia has been the main driver of Ethiopian’s rapid expansion in recent years – with two destinations added in 2015 for a total of nine – and will continue to be the Airline’s focus as it doubles its fleet over the next decade.

African Immigrants Express Frustration Over Driver's License Hurdles

African Immigrants Express Frustration Over Driver's License Hurdles
African Immigrants Express Frustration Over Driver's License Hurdles
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New America Media, News Report, Elena Shore, Posted: Oct 27, 2015


OAKLAND, Calif. – African immigrants in the Bay Area are upset that many of them have to go through a secondary review process in order to apply for a California driver’s license under AB 60.

But DMV officials say the reason some countries don’t appear on the list of acceptable passports has to do with security requirements, not geography.

At a recent forum in Oakland with DMV officials, several African immigrants said they didn’t understand why they were sent into secondary review. Attendees asked why more than half of African countries were not on the list of acceptable passports, leaving their nationals to provide more documentation in order to apply for a driver’s license.

Ekow Croffiie, an Oakland resident originally from Ghana, pulled out his passport and birth certificate, saying he had been in secondary review for months.

“Every time I call, they say, ‘You should wait for 90 days,’” said Coffie. “I’m just frustrated because I have a family, my wife doesn’t drive, and my kids have to go to school.”

Adoubou Traore, project director of the African Advocacy Network in San Francisco, has been meeting with DMV officials to answer some of the questions and concerns that he hears in his community.

“They contacted us,” Traore said about the recent forum in Oakland, one of more than 200 public forums the DMV has held across the state to provide information about how to apply for a license. Traore saw that as a hopeful sign. “It shows that there’s a will to see this issue taken care of.”

Still, he said, “You could feel people’s frustration.”

Since January 2015, the DMV has issued more than 500,000 driver’s licenses to unauthorized immigrants in California under AB 60. To be eligible, they must provide proof of identity and California residency, as well as pass all required tests.

Passports and other documents accepted by the DMV must meet all of the standards of security. This includes questions like how easy it is to forge a passport, and how the country verifies people’s identities.

Mexican nationals, whose country has a security agreement with the DMV, need only present one document to prove their identity. This can include a Mexican passport issued in 2008 or later, a Mexican consular card (matricula consular) or a 2013 Mexican federal electoral card (Instituto Federal Electoral Credencial para Votar).

A second group, including those from some other Latin American countries and those whose passports are approved by the DMV, needs to present two documents.

Those who do not fall into either of the first two groups, including nationals of many African and Asian countries, are sent to secondary review, where they are asked to provide additional documents to verify their identity.

According to the DMV, a majority of those who have been sent to secondary review in January and February have gotten approval to move forward with their application.

But Armando Botello, deputy director of the DMV’s Office of Public Affairs in Sacramento, noted that the number of applications that required a secondary review exceeded the DMV’s expectations. As a result, the wait time in some cases exceeded four months.

“To everyone who has been waiting for their secondary review,” Botello said, “we apologize and ask them to be patient.”

Traore said he plans to continue to meet with DMV officials to help more African immigrants take advantage of AB 60.

“Education is needed on both sides,” Traore said. “It’s in everyone’s interest,” he said, to allow people to apply for a driver’s license – not only for those who get a driver’s license through AB 60, but for the safety of everyone sharing the road.

For more information about how to apply for a California driver’s license under AB 60, go to: DMV.ca.gov.

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