An experienced pilot has died after a small plane crashed west of Ottawa near the town of Calabogie Monday afternoon.
The plane’s owner, Lorenzo Girones, identified the pilot as Bob Reany of Port Elgin, Ont., who was well-known in the flight community.
Reany was training Girones to fly the Socata TBM700 Aircraft.
“Wonderful man…he was an excellent pilot,” Girones, a Timmins, Ont. lawyer, told CTV Northern Ontario’s Kari Vierimaa.
“It’s just a tragedy beyond comprehension.”
The aircraft went down shortly after the noon hour in a wooded area between the towns of Calabogie and Griffith, about a two-hour drive west of Ottawa. CTV Ottawa reported that the plane was destroyed on impact.
Girones said he and Reany flew from Goderich, Ont. to Carp earlier Monday and Raeny decided to fly back and spend Thanksgiving with his family. Reany was supposed to return and pick up Girones for his last day of training Tuesday.
Girones said his instructor was an practiced pilot who had logged 26,000 hours of flight time.
The Socata was a “brand new” aircraft, he said, adding that he doesn’t understand what went wrong.
“He spiralled down from 27,000 feet.”
Officers with the OPP’s Renfrew detachment had to approach the crash site on ATVs. The force’s Emergency Response Team searched the wreckage with local officers, as well as officials from the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre.
Jacqueline Allan was with her daughter in the area when the plane went down.
Allan said she heard “a high-pitched whine, kind of like motocross vehicles.”
“It was waxing and waning and then we heard a loud bang,” Allan told CTV Ottawa. “But it was muted, and my daughter thought maybe it was a gunshot.”
Allan said she only learned that a plane had crashed when the owner of a local trailer park told her he had heard reports of a plane going down in the area.
Girones said he’s thankful that he wasn’t aboard the plane when the crash occurred, “but I’m sad that it was (Reany).”
“I’m very concerned about his family and about his wife, with whom he was married for 46 years,” Girones said.
“I’m just sad and my heart goes out to her and his family.”
Plane Crash Victims Have Close TAMU Ties KBTX
A plane crash on Saturday killed four people with close connections to Texas A&M University. Two teenage boys, their father and uncle were killed when their Beechcraft Bonanza plane crashed east of Dallas on the way to the Texas A&M game in Mississippi. See all stories on this topic »
1 hour ago – The brother of a pilot killed in a plane crash near Calabogie, Ont., Monday said 74-year-old Bob Reany of Port Elgin had always loved flying ...
2 hours ago – A man from Port Elgin has been identified as the pilot killed in a small plane crash west of Ottawa. 74 year old Bob Reany was identified by the ...
It isn't just in the U.S. that big birds are in the firing line. India's aviation ministry says Kingfisher Airlines 532747.BY -4.91% has fifteen days to explain why it shouldn't be grounded permanently.
That seems like a waste of time. It is hard to see what additional proof is needed that Kingfisher should be put out of its misery.
After accumulating seven straight years of losses and a heavy debt load, the airline has been stuttering seriously in recent months, with frequent flight cancellations, strikes and other delays. Flights have been halted since last week because staff are refusing to work until they are paid long overdue wages. The airline's best option is to shut up shop immediately, said consultancy CAPA -- Center For Aviation.
The dark clouds around Kingfisher do come with a silver lining. India's domestic aviation sector has much long-term potential: air travel revenue will grow at a compounded average rate of 23.1% until 2016 to reach $37.3 billion, Euromonitor says.
While the sector as a whole is growing, though, individual airlines are suffering. Steep jet fuel costs and high landing and parking taxes charged by state governments are a curse on the entire industry. Stiff competition among domestic carriers has also crimped margins.
But Kingfisher's recent woes and seemingly imminent demise might be a big help, easing competitive pressures in the industry. Already, ticket fares on domestic flights have almost doubled in the past six months, KPMG analyst Amber Dubey said.
The increase is more significant because it comes despite a slowdown in the economy and--according to the aviation ministry--flat growth in domestic air traffic between January and August.
Low-cost budget carriers like IndiGo and SpiceJet -- which have managed to be profitable by being punctual and cutting costs on luxury services and buying new aircraft -- stand to gain the most from less competition and higher fares, industry analysts said.
New Delhi last month allowed foreign carriers to buy 49% of a domestic airline -- a move long awaited by many in the sector. But taking out a significant player -- as Kingfisher was until recently -- will possibly help the sector just as much. The exit of a lame bird should be cheered by the entire sector.
Everybody has dreamt once of becoming a pilot during their childhood and few are able to make it possible. Becoming a Pilot takes lot of pain and labour, as it is one
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Australia faces a gathering threat to its 21-year run of recession-free growth that will probably require the central bank to cut interest rates to record lows and keep them there for some time, if the winning streak is to stretch to 22.
The slowdown in China has deflated prices for Australia’s main resource exports while forcing miners to scale back on their most ambitious expansion plans. When the country reported its widest trade deficit in three years for August, it seemed just a taste of what was to come.
“It’s like we’re watching a slow motion train wreck,” said Su-Lin Ong, a senior economist at RBC Capital Markets. “The decline in export earnings will take toll on wealth, incomes and consumption right across the economy. And it’s happening when fiscal policy is being tightened and the Australian dollar is restrictively high.”
As a result, she expected the economy’s strength would decline into 2013, leaving it dangerously exposed should a seven-year-old boom in mining investment also top out that year.
The government and the central bank still forecast growth of about 3 percent for the next couple of years.
But when the mining splurge turns, as it must, there will probably be significant quarterly declines in investment even as the level of spending stays high.
And since investment is set to reach a heady 9 percent of Australia’s 1.5 trillion Australian dollar, or $1.53 trillion, in annual gross domestic product, such declines could easily cause a couple of quarters of contraction, the textbook definition of recession.
The danger was hinted at by the central bank, the Reserve Bank of Australia, last week when it surprised most economists by cutting interest rates a quarter point, to 3.25 percent.
That was the lowest in three years and only a whisker from the nadir of 3 percent touched during the global financial crisis.
“The peak in resource investment is likely to occur next year, and may be at a lower level than earlier expected,” the bank’s governor, Glenn Stevens, wrote in explaining the latest easing. Previously, the bank had thought spending would crest as late as 2014.
“As this peak approaches it will be important that the forecast strengthening in some other components of demand starts to occur,” Mr. Stevens said.
The central bank has been hoping that as the investment stage of the mining boom topped out, other sectors like home building, retailing and tourism would take up the slack.
So far, however, the transition has been glacial. Growth in mortgage credit, for instance, was the slowest on record in August, while sales of new homes hit a 15-year low.
Consumer borrowing has been going backwards, with Australians preferring to stash cash away in banks rather than risk investing in homes or stocks. Since 2008, bank deposits have climbed 260 billion dollars, or almost 60 percent.
Household debt also remains high, at about 149 percent of disposable income.
Any foot-dragging by the rest of the economy could have serious implications for unemployment, as mining has been a big hirer in the past couple of years, helping to keep the jobless rate near 5 percent.
But although a lot of workers are needed to construct mines or liquefied natural gas projects, it takes far fewer to actually run them. This was a point highlighted recently by the head of the central bank’s economics department, Christopher Kent. He estimated that for iron ore mines, four times more people were employed in the construction than were needed to dig the steel-making mineral. For L.N.G. projects, the difference was more like 15 or 20 to one.
“So while employment and wage growth in the resource sector is presently robust, it is possible that this may start to reverse in the next couple of years,” Mr. Kent said last month.
When cutting rates this week, it was notable that the central bank was already sounding more downbeat on the jobs front by saying the labor market had generally softened.
Policy makers have long assumed the Australian dollar would ease the transition by falling sharply, making life easier for sectors like manufacturing and tourism.
But for investors to dump the local dollar they have to buy some other currency, and attractive alternatives are few and far between these days.
Central banks in the Britain, Japan, Switzerland and the United States are all adding to the supply of their currencies either through quantitative easing or outright intervention.
The European Central Bank has not gone quite as far as yet, but grinding recession and endless political risk are not exactly a recommendation for holding euros.
Australia’s AAA-rated debt also remains a big draw for sovereign funds and long-term investors wary of the risk of downgrades elsewhere.
Thus, although the Aussie dollar has eased in recent weeks, it remains high historically. Weighted against a basket of major currencies, its current level of 75.8 is not that far from 27-year peaks and a world away from the low of 51 touched in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.
That puts the onus on the Australian central bank to do more, particularly as Australia’s Labor government is politically shackled to a painful fiscal tightening aimed at delivering a promised budget surplus years before most other developed nations.
Unlike past downturns, inflation is still low, giving the central bank more room to reduce borrowing costs.
“The end of the commodity price and associated capex boom means more will probably have to be done to stimulate domestic demand,” said Adam Donaldson, head of debt research at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
He thinks 10-year government bond yields could get down to all-time lows of 2.5 percent in coming months, from a current 2.93 percent, with the central bank’s cash rate not too far behind.
“The strength in the Aussie against this backdrop is inherently disinflationary — so we look for interest rates to remain low for an extended period as the economy navigates this difficult path.”
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The first half of 2012 was quite unsurprising in the aircraft market as the prices continued falling. Although all aircraft cost considerably less than before, as expected, the biggest price drop could be spotted on the price-tags of the older generation aircraft. The cost of the Boeing family “ B737-300 and B737-400 models dropped by 13% in comparison with the 2011 end/ 2012 beginning rates.
Extensive demand
'Boeing 737 aircraft remains to be one of the most popular aircraft types in the world. During the first half of 2012 over 250 B737s were sold, leased or delivered. Moreover, additional aircraft are being re-delivered to the global market, since the recently bankrupted carriers, particularly the larger ones, are returning or selling out their fleets. Such ample offer of aircraft on the market is one of the main (and natural) factors which continue to push the prices down,' commented the Deputy CEO of AviaAM Gediminas Siaudvytis.
At the same time, due to financial difficulties in 2012 alone three large European carriers “ Malev, Spanair and Olt Express Poland “ were forced to file for bankruptcy. Their fleets, consisting mainly of aircraft "classics" like Boeing 737 and Airbus A320, as well as the fleets of other air companies which are also facing tough financial times, will potentially supplement the aircraft market offer by selling out or reshaping their fleets. Moreover, the market is also sensitive to the intensifying production rates of the main aircraft manufacturers. Boeing and Airbus have increased production by 10% (compared to 2011) and are planning to deliver over 1110 new aircraft by the end of this year.
Uncertain prospects
The diminishing price rates reflect the on-going financial uncertainty, particularly in the Western markets. Many carries are on the edge of bankruptcy and almost all of them are experiencing serious financial difficulties. As a result, the demand is shrinking, especially for the larger aircraft types. Moreover, any negative fluctuation in the airline community sends warning signals to other market players, forcing them to be more cautious with regard to any sizeable acquisitions. Furthermore, the latest traffic growth analyses have shown that the North American market also shrank in the end of 2011and the first signs of its recovery were observed in end of winter only. Compared to other regions, the traffic growth rates in Europe were very modest, too. Naturally, the demand had to suffer and the aircraft prices had to go down.
A chance for regional jets with 50 seats
'Unfortunately, some of the regions continue experiencing the aftermath of the recession, which naturally fetters carriers' expansion plans. However, there are two sides to every coin. Driven to cut costs, some airlines are considering shifting to smaller, regional jets in order to optimize their route maps and lower operational costs,' commented Gediminas Siaudvytis.
The figures clearly indicate that the prices for regional jets with 50 plus seats, such as Embraer ERJ 195 and Bombardier CRJ 700, were in the green. These types of aircraft are becoming more and more popular while their manufacturers maintain stable production rates, which are quite moderate in comparison with those of the two major aircraft manufacturers. Moreover, while Airbus and Boeing are suffering from a high inter-competition (even between the models of the same manufacturer), the regional aircraft market is certainly not as intense. The market picture clearly indicates that the supply of some larger regional aircraft simply fails to keep up with the rising demand thus triggering the price growth even further.
'The fact that more and more airlines prefer to operate the regional airplanes of 50 plus seats rather than long-haul narrow body models shows that carriers continue searching for ways to optimize their operations in the climate of economic uncertainty. This, along with the forecasts of drastically dropping carriers' profits, clearly sends warning signals to the market that the industry, possibly, hasn't recovered from the consecutive crises after all,' commented the Deputy CEO of AviaAM Leasing.
American Airlines pilots knew the cuts were coming, but the union calls the new terms “atomic.” A company spokesperson tells NBC 5 that there’s no joy in making the cuts, but claims it has to be done for the airline to survive.
“What they’ve elected to do is really kick the hornet’s nest. They told us they were going to go slow, that they’d like to get back to the bargaining table, but they’ve chosen the nuclear option here,” said First Officer Tom Hoban with the Allied Pilots Association.
Hoban said the cuts coming from American Airlines are just fueling pilots frustrations. The company got the green light last week from a judge to start slashing $370 million in pilot costs. The airline isn’t wasting any time.
“We’re going to be working more days with less pay, under some pretty significant, onerous conditions,” said Hoban.
American plans to increase the pilots maximum work time to 90 hours per month. Hoban said that’s up from an average of 83 hours per month now and that 90 hours equates to about 20 days away from home every month.
The company is also planning to freeze pensions and immediately ease code-sharing restrictions. That allows American to use smaller, regional planes like SkyWest and Express Jet. Pilots fear it will mean outsourcing their jobs and could impact passengers.
“When you buy a ticket on American Airlines, you expect to get on American Airlines. With code-share, you could be on ‘XYZ’ and not know when you purchase a ticket,” said Hoban.
American said it tried to reach an agreement with the pilots, just like it did with the flight attendants and ground workers. Right now, talks are at a standstill, which could increase the odds of a US Airways takeover. “If they don’t have a pilot contract in place, there’s a great deal of financial uncertainty and operational uncertainty,” Hoban said.
The pilots are now voting whether to strike. The outcome of that vote is expected by Oct. 3. The union said it will be up to a judge to decide if a strike is legal.
American Airlines spokeswoman Courtney Wallace said “This is more about federal law, which makes it really tough for a union to go on strike, and American and the APA haven’t reached the point where a job action (a strike) or other “self-help” would be allowed. The APA’s own general counsel reminded the union in a memorandum to its national officers and board of directors that any job action would be unlawful."
Airline labor relations are governed by the Railway Labor Act, which lays out a process for handling contract negotiations and labor disputes. Key to the RLA is the National Mediation Board, which steps into contract talks if the union and management cannot reach an agreement.
Under the RLA, a union cannot strike until a) the NMB has concluded that talks have come to an impasse; b) the NMB has proffered binding arbitration to the two sides; c) one party has declined the proffer; d) the board calls for a 30-day, cooling-off period; and e) the 30 days expires without a deal.”
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