Reuters
• David Shepardson
A congressional letter calls on the FAA to suspend the SMART system, an AI tool intended to assist air traffic controllers in the Washington area. Lawmakers cite unanswered questions about safety testing, controller training and oversight; the agency is being pressed to address those concerns before use continues.
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A congressional letter calls on the FAA to suspend the SMART system, an AI tool intended to assist air traffic controllers in the Washington area. Lawmakers cite unanswered questions about safety testing, controller training and oversight; the agency is being pressed to address those concerns before use continues.
The U.K. Civil Aviation Authority has outlined an approach for assessing noise from drones and electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, as part of efforts to integrate these vehicles sustainably. The report addresses how their noise should be evaluated and managed.
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Deadly attacks at Riyadh’s main airport are disrupting airline operations and prompting airspace closures, placing commercial aviation directly in the path of escalating geopolitical conflict. The attacks raise fresh questions about airport and airspace security, with potential consequences for carriers operating in or routing through the region.
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After a five-day voyage, a research crew has reached the remote South Pacific island of Nikumaroro to investigate a mysterious object in its lagoon that may be wreckage from Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Electra. Earhart disappeared in 1937 while attempting to fly around the world; the expedition will explore the site in search of evidence.
Rosaviatsiya has extended the approved service life of the SaM146-powered Yakovlev Superjet 100 variants RRJ-95B-100 and RRJ-95LR-100 to 20 years, with a limit of 40,000 flight hours. The change applies to those specific variants; the reports provide no further detail on the approval’s operational or maintenance conditions.
Aviation weather guidance emphasizes that student pilots should combine METAR observations, TAF forecasts and interpolation skills when assessing conditions before a solo flight. The aim is to make informed go/no-go decisions rather than rely on a single weather report.
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Two German Air Force Eurofighters scrambled after a Corendon Airlines Europe Boeing 737-800 flying from Corfu to Nuremberg transmitted a hijacking or emergency code. The aircraft landed safely; the airline attributed the alert to a radio malfunction, and authorities found no danger after a temporary suspension of airport operations.
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The FAA awarded $12 million to 19 companies for research and testing intended to safely expand drone operations in the national airspace. Separately, Raytheon received $729 million in counter-drone awards for the U.S., Qatar and Jordan, while other initiatives span autonomous interceptors, airport vehicle-collision prevention and the Pentagon’s Drone Dominance program.
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