PERTH, Australia, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - A computer glitch may have caused a Qantas jet to plunge mid-flight, an investigator said Wednesday as passengers told how they were slammed against the cabin roof in the terrifying drama.

PERTH, Australia, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - Passengers told Wednesday of their terror as a Qantas jet plunged dramatically in mid-flight, slamming them against the cabin roof, breaking bones and causing spinal injuries.

PERTH, Australia, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - Passengers told Wednesday of their terror as a Qantas jet plunged dramatically in mid-flight, slamming them against the cabin roof, breaking bones and causing spinal injuries.

CANBERRA, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - A computer glitch may have caused a Qantas jet to plunge suddenly mid-flight, an Australian air safety investigator said Wednesday after 36 passengers were injured in a terrifying mid-air drama.

PERTH, Australia, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - Up to 40 people were injured in a mid-air incident that forced an Australian Airbus A320 airliner to make an emergency landing on Tuesday, police said.

PERTH, Australia, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - Up to 40 people were injured in a mid-air incident that forced an Australian airliner to make an emergency landing on Tuesday, a police officer said.

PERTH, Australia, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - Up to 40 passengers and crew were injured, some suffering broken bones and cuts, when a Qantas jetliner suddenly changed altitude on Tuesday, Australian police and the airline said.

PERTH, Australia, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - Up to 40 passengers and crew were injured, some seriously, in a mid-air incident that forced a Qantas jetliner to make an emergency landing Tuesday, the Australian carrier and police said.

STOCKHOLM, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - Scandinavian airline SAS said Tuesday that the deadly crash at Madrid's airport in August involving its subsidiary Spanair had cost it about 52 million euros (71 million dollars).

PERTH, Australia, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - Thirty-six passengers and crew were injured, some seriously, in a mid-air drama that forced a Qantas jetliner to make an emergency landing Tuesday, the Australian carrier and police said.

The terrifying incident saw the Airbus A330-300 issue a mayday call when it suddenly changed altitude during a flight from Singapore to Perth, Qantas said.

JOHANNESBURG, Oct 6, 2008 (AFP) - South African rescue workers were searching for a light aircraft that went missing in a mountainous region of the northeastern province of Mpumalanga, a spokesman said Monday.

JOHANNESBURG, Oct 6, 2008 (AFP) - Nine people, including four children, were killed when their light plane crashed in South Africa's mountainous province of Mpumalanga, a police spokesman said Monday.

Everyone on board the aircraft -- the pilot, two couples and their four children -- died in the crash Sunday, police superintendent Abie Khobane told AFP.

MADRID, Oct 3, 2008 (AFP) - A mechanic who repaired a technical problem on a Spanair jet that crashed in Madrid in August, killing 154 people, did not follow the instructions of plane maker Boeing, a newspaper reported Friday.

MOSCOW, Oct 2, 2008 (AFP) - A Russian plane carrying 108 passengers made an emergency landing in the western Russian city of Kaliningrad overnight but no one was injured, Ria-Novosti news agency reported Thursday.

KIEV, Oct 2, 2008 (AFP) - A plane carrying Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko made an emergency landing near Kiev on Thursday but nobody was injured, the president's spokeswoman told AFP.

'The president's plane made an emergency landing at Borispol airport due to technical problems 20 minutes after takeoff,' spokeswoman Irina Vannikova said, adding: 'Nobody was injured.'

KIEV, Oct 2, 2008 (AFP) - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko was forced into an emergency landing Thursday and seized the aircraft of his bitter political foe, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who had to find another plane.

CHICAGO, Sept 30, 2008 (AFP) - The privatization of the first major US airport could net the city of Chicago 2.5 billion dollars, officials said Tuesday.

The 99-year lease of Chicago's secondary airport, Midway, must still be approved by the city council and federal regulators but officials expressed confidence it would pass.

WASHINGTON, Sept 30, 2008 (AFP) - Israel has asked to buy up to 75 F-35 Joint Strike fighters in a deal worth as much as 15.2 billion dollars if all options are exercised, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency said the sale initially would be for 25 fighters designed for conventional take off and landing.

ISLAMABAD, Sept 23, 2008 (AFP) - Pakistan's army said Wednesday it was probing the crash of a suspected unmanned US spy plane in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan where American military strikes have caused tensions.

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico, Sept 19, 2008 (AFP) - The burned bodies of four men who died in a plane crash near the US-Mexico border have been recovered, Chihuahua state officials said Friday.

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico, Sept 17, 2008 (AFP) - Four people died, including top US and Mexican water officials, in a plane crash on the US-Mexico border, the US consulate confirmed here Wednesday, after conflicting reports on the aircraft's disappearance.

MADRID, Sept 18, 2008 (AFP) - A Spanish newspaper Thursday released a video of last month's the crash of a Spanair jetliner at Madrid airport in which 154 people were killed.

The jerky images show the aircraft accelerating along the runway amid a cloud of dust. Its wheels are barely off the ground when it crashes in a mushroom cloud of smoke and flames.

MOSCOW, Sept 18, 2008 (AFP) - An ill-fated Aeroflot jet, which crashed into the Ural mountains killing all 88 people onboard, had broken down in Moscow just eight days earlier, a witness told a Russian newspaper Thursday.

MEXICO CITY, Sept 16, 2008 (AFP) - Mexico's foreign ministry denied that four people had died in a plane crash on the northern border with the United States, as claimed by a local governor, and said the search continued for the missing plane Wednesday.

MADRID, Sept 17, 2008 (AFP) - A preliminary report into last month's Spanair plane crash in Madrid which killed 154 people contains 'imprecisions,' a senior airline official has said.

OJINAGA, Mexico, Sept 16, 2008 (AFP) - Four people died, including top US and Mexican water officials, in a plane crash in northern Mexico near the US border, the Chihuahua state governor said Tuesday.

MADRID, Sept 16, 2008 (AFP) - The wing flaps on a Spanair jet that crashed in Madrid killing 154 people, were not operating properly and an alarm failed to go off, Spanish media quoted a preliminary accident report as saying Tuesday.

MOSCOW, Sept 16, 2008 (AFP) - Russian prosecutors on Tuesday said they would conduct a flight safety inquiry on national carrier Aeroflot following a crash that killed 88 people, the prosecutor general's office said.

MADRID, September 15, 2008 (AFP) - A pilot who saw the Spanair flight crash last month said the wind's direction and speed suddenly shifted before the plane plunged to the ground, killing 154 people, local radio said Monday.

PERM, September 15, 2008 (AFP) - Russian investigators on Monday sifted through the wreckage of an Aeroflot jet that crashed in the Ural mountains killing all 88 people on board, as the region marked a day of mourning.

BERLIN, September 15, 2008 (AFP) - Air Berlin said Monday that one of its flights from the Spanish city of Malaga to Nuremberg in southern Germany had to turn around in the air and return to the airport due to a technical problem.

PERM, September 15, 2008 (AFP) - Russian investigators on Monday sifted through the wreckage of an Aeroflot jet that crashed in the Ural mountains killing all 88 people on board, as the region marked a day of mourning.

PERM, September 14, 2008 (AFP) - An Aeroflot Boeing-737 jet crashed Sunday on the outskirts of Perm in Russia's Ural mountains killing all 88 passengers and crew on board.

MOSCOW, September 14, 2008 (AFP) - One of the victims of Sunday's Aeroflot plane disaster was General Gennady Troshev, a former top commander of Russia's war in Chechnya who once called for the public hangings of Chechen rebels.

MOSCOW, September 14, 2008 (AFP) - The crash of an Aeroflot-run passenger jet near Perm in the Ural mountains on Sunday is the latest in a string of Russian air disasters in recent years. Here are some of the worst:

PERM, September 14, 2008 (AFP) - An Aeroflot Boeing-737 jet crashed near a Ural mountains city Sunday killing all 88 passengers and crew on board, after reportedly catching fire in the sky, the airline said.

There were 21 foreigners and seven children on the jet which came down as it prepared to land in Perm on a flight from Moscow. The wreckage cut off the Trans-Siberian railway.

MADRID, September 13, 2008 (AFP) - Black boxes from the Spanair jet, which crashed last month killing 154 people, recorded a series of ringing alarms and a man's scream from inside the pilot's cabin, El Pais daily reported Saturday.

LONDON, September 12, 2008 (AFP) - Virgin boss Richard Branson vowed Friday to 'wage a major battle' to block a proposed merger between his competitors British Airways and American Airlines.

Launching a campaign against the deal, Branson said a tie-up between BA and AA would lead to price-fixing and force travel agents to put business their way.