Venezuela is Plunging into Chaos: Which Airlines Still Fly?
https://viewfromthewing.boardingarea.com...still-fly/
INTRO: American Airlines is the sole remaining US carrier serving Venezuela. Panama’s Copa has the most flights, and Air France has Paris service six times weekly. Caribbean Airlines flies an ATR72 three times a way. Aruba Airlines has daily service to Maracaibo. Cubana flies twice weekly to Caracas. As the country has fallen apart, with mass shortages, rampant crime, and inflation over 5000%, American Airlines had found their Venezuela routes extremely profitable — because there was so little air service left.
Thanks to price controls on domestic flights, passengers waited at airports for days hoping to get on a flight. The National Guard pulls suitcases off of flights to loot them. Airlines complain they’re getting contaminated fuel. With flight crews getting robbed by bandits airlines fly crews out of the country to overnight, and try to refuel elsewhere as well.
Events in Venezuela are coming to a head, and so far American, Copa, and Air France continue to show their flights operating — although US diplomats have been given 72 hours to leave Venezuela as Nicolas Maduro struggles to hang onto power, severing relations with the United States. Maduro’s re-election has been declared illegitimate by the National Assembly, so he’s taken his swearing in at the nation’s Supreme Court instead. Following the law though the country’s opposition leader (and head of the Congress) is officially – and has declared himself – interim President pending new elections.
[...] Ultimately the fate of Venezuela – which has been largely in decline for 20 years since socialist Hugo Chavez was first elected President there – will depend on whether Maduro can continue to control the nation’s military to crush popular uprising as they did in 2017. So far the head of the military is still backing Maduro....
MORE: https://viewfromthewing.boardingarea.com...still-fly/
Department of Conservation and New Zealand Cruise Ship Association work to prevent birds being blinded by ship light
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news...d=12195554
EXCERPT: Cruise ships in the Hauraki Gulf are being told to dim the lights to help prevent seabirds being temporarily blinded. [...] The department's principal science adviser, Graeme Taylor, said the bright lights on ships can attract seabirds. "They can be momentarily blinded, causing them to fly into a cruise ship and end up lying stunned on the deck."
Taylor said seabirds at risk were foraging for food and young birds departing from their breeding colonies on their first trip to sea. "These seabirds have better night vision than humans. But this means they're more likely to be dazzled by a cruise ship's lights, especially on foggy overcast nights with no moonlight. Young seabirds are most at risk of crash landing on a ship at night."
If birds land DoC advises that if they are ''feisty with no obvious injuries'', they should be released over the side of the ship. If they are stunned or injured birds should be put in boxes and if they recover released...
MORE: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news...d=12195554
https://viewfromthewing.boardingarea.com...still-fly/
INTRO: American Airlines is the sole remaining US carrier serving Venezuela. Panama’s Copa has the most flights, and Air France has Paris service six times weekly. Caribbean Airlines flies an ATR72 three times a way. Aruba Airlines has daily service to Maracaibo. Cubana flies twice weekly to Caracas. As the country has fallen apart, with mass shortages, rampant crime, and inflation over 5000%, American Airlines had found their Venezuela routes extremely profitable — because there was so little air service left.
Thanks to price controls on domestic flights, passengers waited at airports for days hoping to get on a flight. The National Guard pulls suitcases off of flights to loot them. Airlines complain they’re getting contaminated fuel. With flight crews getting robbed by bandits airlines fly crews out of the country to overnight, and try to refuel elsewhere as well.
Events in Venezuela are coming to a head, and so far American, Copa, and Air France continue to show their flights operating — although US diplomats have been given 72 hours to leave Venezuela as Nicolas Maduro struggles to hang onto power, severing relations with the United States. Maduro’s re-election has been declared illegitimate by the National Assembly, so he’s taken his swearing in at the nation’s Supreme Court instead. Following the law though the country’s opposition leader (and head of the Congress) is officially – and has declared himself – interim President pending new elections.
[...] Ultimately the fate of Venezuela – which has been largely in decline for 20 years since socialist Hugo Chavez was first elected President there – will depend on whether Maduro can continue to control the nation’s military to crush popular uprising as they did in 2017. So far the head of the military is still backing Maduro....
MORE: https://viewfromthewing.boardingarea.com...still-fly/
Department of Conservation and New Zealand Cruise Ship Association work to prevent birds being blinded by ship light
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news...d=12195554
EXCERPT: Cruise ships in the Hauraki Gulf are being told to dim the lights to help prevent seabirds being temporarily blinded. [...] The department's principal science adviser, Graeme Taylor, said the bright lights on ships can attract seabirds. "They can be momentarily blinded, causing them to fly into a cruise ship and end up lying stunned on the deck."
Taylor said seabirds at risk were foraging for food and young birds departing from their breeding colonies on their first trip to sea. "These seabirds have better night vision than humans. But this means they're more likely to be dazzled by a cruise ship's lights, especially on foggy overcast nights with no moonlight. Young seabirds are most at risk of crash landing on a ship at night."
If birds land DoC advises that if they are ''feisty with no obvious injuries'', they should be released over the side of the ship. If they are stunned or injured birds should be put in boxes and if they recover released...
MORE: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news...d=12195554