It was a unique double career that Dickinson juggled. Both playing to stadiums full of fans and being a fully licensed and active pilot of jumbo jets. He was able to combine the two when flying the band on world tours. The group even had a jet with their own livery leased from Dickinson’s employers Astraeus Airlines.

A charter operation, in 2008 Astraeus Airlines expanded their business to include leasing planes to other airlines, including BMI. Business has however not been as good as expected, meaning that the company has been forced into administration.

It has been reported that Bruce Dickinson was in the air when he heard of his up-coming redundancy. As well as his functions as a pilot he had been appointed Marketing Director and has appeared in a number of internal safety training videos.

picture credit

It has been reported that passengers on a charter flight from India were faced with an unexpected demand to pay £20,000 for fuel.

The flight where this was alleged to have happened was a charter flight from Amritsar in India. The flight was chartered from Comtel Air, which s based in Austria.

Passengers are said to have been kept on the plane for over six hours after a refuelling stop in Vienna. Demands were made for tose on board to hand over £20,000 in cash in order to pay for fuel. Those that did not have the money to hand are said to have been escorted to cash machines.

Other flights involving the airline are now reported to be affected. Passengers are being urged to contact either the airline or the tour operator they are booked with.

The legal situation that the affected passengers are in is a complicated one. The Civil Aviation Authority has stated that they have no authority over the airline as it is based in Austria. Those who booked flights through ATOL registered tour operators have the right to have them find alternative arrangements.

In these kinds of situations it is important to kick up as much of a fuss as possible. If necessary seek legal advice to protect your consumer rights.

The Schengen agreement has for the last 16 years meant that the European Union (excluding the islands nations of the UK and Ireland) was treated as a single entity as far as borders were concerned. It has been possible to travel all the way from the southern tip of Spain to the Arctic circle without showing a passport.

The reason that there are moves afoot to reintroduce passport checks at internal European borders is because of the fear that North African refugees might be crossing them. How effective a measure this will be is a matter of debate.

There are not high razor wire fences between most European countries. Persons were able to bypass passport controls on roads by simply walking through adjacent fields if the wished to. In addition to this it is legal in most European countries to require anybody to show proof of identity anywhere, not just at borders.

Just as the Schengen agreement was largely symbolic, so is is revocation. The dream of a united Europe seems to be coming, perhaps, to its end.

Quite how essential the ‘Tube’ (as Londoners call it) is, has been proved on occasions where there have been strikes. Issues such as drivers pay have sparked an increasing amount of unrest.

Rather than meet the demands for higher pay, it has emergedthat there are tentative proposals to automate the network. There are already driverless trains in operation in some other contexts. At London’s Stanstead Airport for instance.

The proposal do do away with drivers has met with a mixed reception. Some have delighted in the way that the proposal would weaken the power of the driver’s unions – but others have expressed concern over passenger safety.

Under the proposals, not only would drivers be abolished, so would the majority of station staff. The drivers would be replaced by lower paid ‘train attendants’. These would in an emergency have to operate the train manually, and would also have to coordinate evacuation of over a thousand people in the case of emergency.

The Washington DC Metro is an example of a subway system where automation has been introduced. While it cut costs, there have also been problems associated with it. In 2009 the malfunction of an part of the system led to a crash that killed nine people.

The aeroplane in question is an Iran Air 727, and was carrying over a hundred people when the pilot discovered that the front landing wheels would not deploy. Amazingly the pilot managed to down the crippled air liner without a single injury either on board or on the ground.

Don Muang airport is not Bangkok’s main international airport. It does however handle the bulk of domestic and short haul connections. The disruption to travel caused by this airport being shut will be far from insignificant.

The recent floods are the worst that the country has ever seen. Unusually heavy monsoon rains have led to huge swathes of Thailand being underwater. The heavily populated Bangkok region is the worst affected.

A holiday has been declared in Bangkok and the surrounding area. This is to allow residents to better cope with the need for widespread evacuations, as well as a large amount of disruption.

Although the runways themselves have not yet been affected the airport is thought to be unlikely to be able to reopen for at least a week. Anybody with a holiday in Thailand booked should definitely check with their tour operator before travelling.