flight

A Ukrainian stork has managed to outwit a Russian drone in flight. The video is the best clue about who will win the war

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Exactly a decade ago, the Dutch police presented a plan that seemed straight out of a medieval movie: training eagles to shoot down drones in full flight. That project lasted less than a year, because the birds They were too unpredictable and the propellers too dangerous even for them, but 10 years later it seems that they were not so wrong. The stork that left a Russian drone behind. In the middle of a war where Ukraine and Russia compete to automate battlefield, a seemingly trivial video has become an unexpectedly powerful metaphor. what we see: A Russian interceptor drone chases a Ukrainian white stork in mid-flight until the bird suddenly makes a sharp turn, leaving the device chasing shadows. The scene lasts just a few secondsbut it summarizes something much deeper: modern warfare is obsessed with creating machines that imitate capabilities that nature perfected millions of years ago, although we are still far from achieving it. The image is especially symbolic because the white stork is one of the national animals of Ukraine and because the video inadvertently exposes the enormous limitations that many drones continue to have when faced with an enemy as seemingly simple as a bird. The great military obsession. For years, military engineers they try to replicate the capabilities of birds flight. Modern drones can travel hundreds of kilometers, transmit video in real time or attack targets with enormous precision, but they remain much less agile than animals capable of instantly changing the shape of their wings, taking advantage of thermal currents or performing extreme maneuvers without losing stability. The video stork It does exactly that: detect danger, alter its trajectory and escape from a device specifically designed to intercept moving targets. The difference reveals a key problem with today’s autonomous war. Drones still rely heavily on relatively predictable trajectoriesimperfect sensors and reaction capacities much lower than those of biological organisms evolved to survive in the air. Drone warfare as an ecosystem. The conflict in Ukraine has accelerated the evolution of drones to unprecedented levels. Let us remember that at the beginning of the war they were relatively simple reconnaissance tools… and now there are coordinated swarmsinterceptors aerial FPVplatforms long range suicide bombers and autonomous systems capable of searching for targets by themselves. In parallel, the sky begins to fill with absurd situations and almost surreal where birds and machines share the same airspace. In the early years there were trained eagles to shoot down police drones. Today, just the opposite is happening: drones that chase birds because their radar signatures are too similar to those of enemy devices. Some species, such as storks or pelicans, are comparable in size to certain military drones and create enough confusion to cause real errors in combat. Nature is several steps ahead. The episode also leaves an uncomfortable conclusion for the military industry: the capabilities that militaries desperately seek already exist in nature. Birds master something that drones still cannot combine well: agility, energy autonomy, collective coordination and instant adaptation to the environment. An albatross, for example, can travel entire oceans taking advantage of wind currents Without spending much energy, Harris hawks or eagles coordinate extremely complex cooperative attacks. no centralized communicationand storks use thermals to gain altitude practically free. Meanwhile, defense engineers still experience with deformable wings, biomimetic systems and algorithms that allow drones to react with the same fluidity. The result is paradoxical: the more autonomous military technologies advance, the more evident it is that they continue to try to achieve abilities that a bird naturally possesses. A video that says much more. The Ukraine War will probably be remembered as the drone laboratory most important in modern history. Both sides are learning in real time how to automate attacks, saturate defenses and dominate airspace at low cost. But he stork video points towards something even more important: the winner will not necessarily be the one who has the most drones, but rather the one who manages to build capable systems to adapt to the environment with the flexibility of a living organism. Therein lies the great technological race that is beginning to take shape. Armies no longer just want fast or cheap machines, they also want platforms that learn, react, collaborate and survive like animals. And while Russia and Ukraine transform the sky into a permanent surreal experiment, a simple stork has just remembered that nature, for now, continues playing in another league. Image | Jean-Raphaël Guillaumin In Xataka | Ukraine has been terrorizing Russian soldiers with its heavy drones for years. Now they are literally giving it back. In Xataka | The war has entered the phase of mathematics: cheap Russian missiles are destroying the scarce Ukrainian interceptors

new scrub on the most critical flight in its history

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After postponing the release date several times, it seemed that, finally, version 3 of Starship I was going to take flight. However, flight 12 of the SpaceX giant had to do a scrub after stopping and restarting the countdown several times. In principle, the company is expected to make a new attempt today, at 5:30 p.m., local time in Texas (00:30, Spanish peninsular time). However, it has not been completely confirmed. A countdown that never ends. During the countdown prior to the launch of Starship there were several arrests. This occurs when engineers detect problems that they must solve for the imminent launch. After the necessary checks, the clock was moving again, but then it stopped again. It stopped up to 5 times. Unfortunately, not all the technical problems were solved, so a scrub was finally chosen. This is similar to the launch abort, although the abort occurs when ignition and scrubbing have already begun before ignition. The technical problems. The first stop in the countdown occurred shortly after T-40. That is, when there were 40 seconds left until the launch. At this point, engineers had to check the quick-disconnect grilles for their final setbacks. After this point, the countdown began, but not for long, as it stopped again at T-35 to manage the pressures of the quick disconnect system. Next, the big part came in the T-28. First, a problem was detected in the water diverter. This seemed solved, but when the countdown was reactivated, not even a second passed. He stopped again at T-28 so that the sensors on the arm that controls the quick disconnect system could be checked. And if that were not enough, there was one last stoppage, also in T-28, due to an error in the hydraulic pin that maintains said arm. Did not carry out the necessary retractionso it had to be reviewed. There were already too many problems and they could not be solved properly, so the launch was cancelled. SpaceX has a lot at stake. This is a very important release. It is not just another Starship flight, but the first in which its version 3 will be tested. Both the ship itself and the Super Heavy rocket incorporate a large number of modifications that should make its flight much more efficient. This is very important for future SpaceX missions, but also so that the company can maintain the proposed timeline for joining the Artemis missions as human landing system. If the flight failed, the losses, both economic and confidence, would be immense. It is important to solve even the smallest incident so that everything goes well. another try. Another attempt is expected this afternoon in Texas. In fact, the roads around the Starbase launch pad will be closed from 10 a.m. local time. That is, 17:00, Spanish peninsular time. Unless engineers cannot resolve all the issues, there will be another flight attempt today. We’ll see if this is the definitive one. Image | SpaceX In Xataka | SpaceX is preparing the largest IPO in history: the fact that it is doing so right now is no coincidence

How a seat change on flight KL592 has shown the cracks in the system

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We’ve been talking about it for two weeks. hantavirus in Europe and the script is getting more complicated. It is no longer just the three dead, the rejection of the president of the Canary Islands, the air evacuations to Nebraska or the French emergency decrees. Now, in the last few hours, the plane thing is added. And the Health Department of the Generalitat of Catalonia investigate a third case: a passenger on flight KL592 who did not appear in the first scan because she had changed seats during the flight. The important thing here is not the virus. It never has been: hantaviruses have been known for decadesthe Andes variant has waging war for years and the WHO itself classifies the population risk as low. The important thing is the x-ray that traces everything about our international epidemiological control system. And what a picture… The way in which this outbreak has been detected (an autopsy in Johannesburg and not through active surveillance protocols), the failures of tracing (about thirty people disembarked before there was an alert) and the heterogeneous response of the different states are drawing the first serious “stress test” for a world that said it was prepared for the post-COVID world. But it wasn’t. Although the response is being good, effective and worthy of praise, there are three big gaps that we cannot ignore: how diseases are tracked in an increasingly complex world, what happens to the international health cooperation network (when there are people actively trying to dismantle it) and how is it possible that a change of seat can be, even today, enough to lose a contact. In the end, what differentiates this outbreak from that of El Bolsón in ’96 or that of Epuyén in 2018 is that, in addition to affecting a considerable group of Westerners, it has generated an enormous trail of cases internationally. We must not forget that the first deceased from the ship died on April 11 and no one identified the cause until three weeks later. In fact, the detection has had a lot to do with chance: if it had not been for the autopsy that was performed on his wife in Johannesburg, no one would have found out until a long time later. That allowed more than thirty people to get off the ship and move around the world. And how is it that we have ‘unlearned’? The best example is the EU cross-border tracking system which, although it has many technical and legal devices, has been hibernating since 2026. But there are many more, no country had updated protocols for a virus that, let us remember, was causing problems in one of the largest (and interconnected) metropolitan areas in the southern hemisphere. And that should lead us to reflect on how we are going to prepare for a world where these types of problems They are going to be more and more common. Image | Ministry of Health In Xataka | It is not so contagious, but it is very lethal: in Argentina the hantavirus went from 17% to 33% in the blink of an eye

set a flight ceiling

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In 2025, just over 33.8 million of passengers. The one from Ibiza scored 9.1 and the one from Menorca 4.2. Although this enormous flow of travelers includes both residents and people who fly for family, work or study reasons, a good part are tourists who want to spend their vacations on the islands. That makes Aena terminals the great gateway to the Balearic Islands. Also in the new goal of efforts to prevent mass tourism from devouring the archipelago. In fact, there are those who are already talking about setting a flight ceilingjust as it has been proposed to reduce the limit of tourist placesthe vehicle entrance or the cruises. What has happened? What the Balearic Islands want have more weight when deciding what to do with their airports. A few days ago your Parliament gave the green light (with the votes of PP and the Més formation) to a proposal which reinforces the voice of the autonomous community in the management and planning of Aena’s infrastructure. To go ahead, the measure must still obtain the approval of Congress, something that is by no means guaranteed, but it shows a key objective of the Balearic Government: to prevent its airports from continuing to be an unlimited drain for mass tourism. What exactly do they want? The original proposal It started from the eco-sovereignty Més formation and has moved forward after incorporating amendments proposed by the PP, the party that heads the regional Government. Its objective is very simple: to give more weight to the Balearic authorities when deciding what happens to its airport network, in the hands of Aena. It is not about transferring ownership of the terminals, which now depend on the State, but about moving towards a “co-management” when it is time to set rates, frequencies or operational capacity. Aena already works with coordination committees in which different administrations sit, but they are only advisory bodies. That is, the airport manager does not have to follow their recommendations. In the Balearic Islands they want to apply two big changes to that model. First, reinforce the weight of regional institutions in the archipelago. Second, that their reports are binding in certain cases. Why is it important? Because beyond reinforcing the capacity of the Balearic Islands to decide what happens with one of its great entry and exit doors, the proposal has a much more specific objective: to become a tool to combat tourist overcrowding. In fact, that idea flies over the original textpresented by Més per Mallorca and Més Menorca in 2025. “Airport policy conditions the balance between visitors and residents, to the extent that the intensity of the flow of tourists and the average period of stay impact human pressure on the islands and, therefore, the satisfaction of residents with tourism and of tourists with the destination,” collect the initiative. Do they argue something else? “In recent years, an evident disconnection between tourism policy and airport policy has been revealed, which has resulted in a progressive increase in the number of flights and arrivals to the Balearic Islands, in a context of containment of the number of tourist places,” affects Més’s proposal, which states that one of the objectives of the new organization would be to set a “ceiling” of flights, passengers and merchandise. The training recalls that the Balearic airports have gone from moving 31.9 million travelers in 2014 to 47.4 in 2024. 48% more in ten years. Is the debate settled? No. Although the proposal has gone ahead in the Balearic Parliament thanks to the PP amendments that have rethought part of the original document (a red line What remains is the binding nature of the committee’s decisions), there is still a process that is as necessary as it is complex: the approval of Congress. Vox has already rejected the proposal in the Autonomous Chamber and PSOE and Unidas Podemos have opted to refrain. The truth is that the Balearic initiative is even more ambitious than the recently agreed between the central government and the Basque Country, which involves creating a “bilateral body for collaboration, coordination and management” focused on the three airports in the region. What makes the Balearic Islands different? From Mes it is alleged that the fact that the Balearic Islands is an archipelago gives even more relevance to airport traffic management. Mallorca, Menorca and the Pitiusas are, however, more than just part of an archipelago. They are also a destination they pass through every year. millions of visitors and in which tourism leaves one of lime and another of sand: although the sector moves billions of euros also has stressed the residential market and caused friction with the local population, who already has gone out into the street to protest against overcrowding. Més herself has demanded in the past curb uncontrolled touristification. Do you only look at airports? No. The debate on the overcrowding of the Balearic Islands and the measures to limit it has also extended to the tourist places of the archipelago, the vehicle entrance or the cruise traffic. In its original proposal, Més focuses, however, on the “complete disconnection” between these initiatives and the activity of the island airports. “The existence of these seat ceilings has not translated, in any case, into a containment of the flight schedule, which has been growing year after year, even in high season,” argues. Now the region wants to provide itself with a new tool that gives it greater control over its terminals. Images | James Stevenson (Unsplash) and Wikipedia In Xataka | Europe is back in “February 2020”: Lufthansa has canceled 20,000 flights and it is just the beginning of the crisis

China already has its “flying truck.” The HH-200 has just completed its first test flight

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China has just put into the air one of those machines that, by concept and ambition, do not go unnoticed. It is not a new fighter jet like the J-35Abut rather a commercial unmanned aerial system for transportation, completed its first test flight on April 15. There is still no logistics network deployed, but there is a movement that allows us to understand where the Asian giant wants to move in the pilotless air transport of goods, especially within the framework of its commitment to the so-called low-altitude economy. First flight. After the entire development phase, the program has already left paper behind. CCTV places the inaugural test in Puchengin the province of Shaanxi, and explains that it lasted for 22 minutes, with correct operation of the onboard systems and stable evolution of the device during the journey. To be precise, this is the first real flight evaluation, and it has been completed satisfactorily. The figures of the device. Once the test is confirmed, the next thing is to take a closer look at what kind of aircraft China has in its hands. It is a system with a square section fuselage, high wing, double engine and double boom, with dimensions of 12.2 meters long, 16.8 meters wide and 3.7 meters high. In the operational section, it boasts a maximum load capacity of 1.5 tons and a maximum range of 2,360 kilometers. Furthermore, according to official information, it is capable of reaching a maximum cruising speed of 310 kilometers per hour. The logistics part. Beyond dimensions or scope, one of the keys to the HH-200 is how its operations on the ground and in flight are planned. China News assures that the system has been designed with civil aviation standards and that it can perform the flight intelligently and autonomously from start to finish, with obstacle avoidance functions supported by AI. Added to this is a direct passage fuselage and a rear configuration designed to facilitate loading operations, allowing work with pallets, loading platforms and conventional forklifts, to the point that two operators could complete loading or unloading in five minutes. Where do you want to operate. The device is not only designed to move goods from one point to another under ideal conditions. Instead, it has a strong environmental adaptation capacity and can execute missions on short runways, high-altitude airports, extreme temperatures and adverse weather. China News gives us some interesting concrete examples: cargo routes in coastal and border areas, internal logistics routes between specific points and operations between islands in Southeast Asia, before opening the door to uses such as emergency rescue, remote sensing or agricultural and forestry tasks. From trial to market. After this first milestone, the next step will not be an immediate implementation, but an additional testing phase. It is expected that the vehicle will continue to accumulate flight tests before its eventual entry into service, an important nuance to avoid confusing initial technical success with operational maturity. Even in this scenario, according to China News, the project has 20 order intentions and closer cooperation with several firms. We have to wait to see if we will see the HH-200 beyond the testing scope. Images | CCTV In Xataka | Boeing has surpassed Airbus after years behind. That doesn’t mean I’ve regained control.

The massive flight of investors and millionaires suggests that he has achieved it

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For years, Dubai has been the promised land for millionaires from all over the planet who saw the United Arab Emirates as a idyllic place to live without paying taxes. The Iranian attacks with missiles and drones on different infrastructures in Dubai in recent weeks have changed that perception and the financial elite, especially Asian millionaires, are putting their feet (and fortunes) on the run. The city that seduced more than 81,000 millionaires Since 2014, it is now facing an unprecedented flight of capital and talent. The prestige that took decades to build is being tested in a matter of days. ​Explosions in the heart of the city. The last few weeks have left us images that few would have imagined in February. The Fairmont The Palm hotel, located in one of the artificial islands off the coast of Dubai, was hit for an explosion. Days later the remains of an Iranian drone demolished set fire to the iconic Burj Al Arab, the international airport has suffered damage from drone attacks and the american consulate has been the target of another drone attack. The city that boasted of being the safest in the world, in a matter of weeks, has become a scene of war. “The US-Israel war against Iran is undermining that crucial sense of security in Dubai. Dubai’s economic model relies on expatriate residents providing talent, muscle and investment capital. Stability and security are needed to attract skilled foreigners.”, assured to CNBC Jim Krane, researcher at the Baker Institute at Rice University. ​Asian money in retreat. However, the most visible impact is being felt among Asian investors, who had become one of the pillars of Dubai’s financial growth. According to data by Henley & Partners, Dubai is currently home to 237 centimillionaires (people with wealth of $100 million or more) and at least 20 billionaires Asia accounted for 47% of all multinational companies attracted to Dubai International Chamber in 2025, and around a quarter of the more than 2,270 foundations created in the Emirates have Asian ownership, according to data from the consulting firm BSA Law. Bloomberg published that the United Arab Emirates had attracted some 700 billion dollars from millionaires around the world, especially Asians. Singapore and Hong Kong, new chosen destinations. Grace Tang, CEO of Phillip Private Equity, pointed out to Reuters that between 10 and 20 of their customers, mostly Asian, are asking about how transfer your assets to Singapore to protect the value of its assets. Hong Kong also emerges as an alternative. For his part, Felix Lai, from the consulting firm JMS Group, counted to Bloomberg who had organized a private jet flight to transport 15 clients from Oman to Hong Kong at a cost of approximately $300,000. “They didn’t even care about the price,” Lai explained. “They just wanted to leave.” An advisor in Singapore who declined to be identified added that more than half of his 13 clients in the Emirates are seriously considering moving their assets: “Flying back and forth will be complicated even if the conflict ends tomorrow. It’s about trust.” Dubai’s economic model faces its biggest test. Dubai does not depend as directly on the oil industry as its neighbors, but its economy is based on its ability to attract expatriates, your investments and his talent. At the beginning of the year, the Dubai International Finance Center housed 1,289 entities linked to family offices (61% more than the previous year), and the 120 main families in the center jointly managed more than 1.2 billion dollars, according to CNBC. Although stock markets around the world have felt the earthquake resulting from the attacks in an area of ​​strategic resources for trade and energy, the impact of the conflict with Iran has been much more severe and direct for the Gulf markets. The Dubai Stock Exchange (DFM) has fallen more than 16.6% since the start of the war between the US and Israel against Iran. Fitch Ratings had already predicted before the war a real estate correction of up to 15% in 2025 and 2026. Everything indicates that they have fallen short the worst estimates of the financial consequences. Passing panic or structural change? Not all actors in the sector believe that this will lead to a permanent mass flight. Dhruba Jyoti Sengupta, CEO of Wrise Private Middle East in Dubai, pointed out to Reuters that his firm had not observed “serious conversations about capital flight” as its clients remain confident in the country’s long-term resilience. ​Nirbhay Handa, CEO of migration agency for millionaires Multipolitanpointed in Bloomberg “If uncertainty lasts a few weeks, some companies may pause their expansion, but stability will likely return quickly to Dubai as the situation improves.” What does seem clear is that the city will have to rebuild something much more difficult to build than its skyscrapers for millionaires: trust of those who chose it as a home for their money. In Xataka | A company wants to build a €4 billion megacasino in Dubai. The problem is that Dubai prohibits gambling Image | Unsplash (Wael Hneini)

United can kick you off the flight for doing so

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You’re so calm in your seat, and suddenly, you start to hear something nearby. It’s a TikTok video or a WhatsApp voice message that someone is playing at full volume. Because? Who knows. Maybe because that person wants everyone to enjoy that audio. Or maybe because he just doesn’t care. This habit of using your cell phone on speakerphone even when there are people around and you can be annoying is spreading like wildfire, but United Airlines has said enough is enough. If you want to use your cell phone, put on headphones. Until now it was a simple rule of elementary education, but at United Airlines they have turned it into a legal clause with drastic consequences. The American airline has updated their terms of service to make it clear that the use of headphones with a mobile phone, tablet or laptop in the cabin is no longer an option, but a safety requirement. Either you use them, or we kick you off the plane. The measure is not a suggestion from the company, but rather a novelty in its terms, according to which United Airlines reserves the right to deny transportation of a passenger, to expel them from the plane and even to permanently ban any passenger who refuses to use headphones while consuming audio or multimedia content. Now generating annoying noises is placed on the same level as serious infractions such as tobacco consumption. More and more connected in flight. United confirmed that update to its terms in a email to USA Todayand added that the inclusion of Wi-Fi connectivity on its flights already recommended the use of headphones. Now being connected to the internet on flights is more common, which means that passengers can consume content on streaming platforms or social networks, or use messaging apps normally. The key: Starlink. But now they are also beginning to offer additional connectivity through the Starlink satellite network. The more bandwidth, the greater the risk that the plane cabin will become chaos with WhatsApp audio or YouTube videos at full volume that can disturb the rest of the passengers. In fact, they explain in United: “With the expansion of Starlink, it seemed like a good time to make it even clearer by adding it to the transportation contract.” Legal support. On CBS Travel expert Scott Keyes indicated that he was not aware of other airlines having adopted this rule, but he saw it as reasonable. The update is specifically included under the “Security” section of your contract of carriage. By categorizing it this way, the company obtains solid legal support to act if this problem arises. Shapes matter. The rise of mobility and social networks has meant that little by little we have seen how in many spaces people use their mobile phones with speakers without worrying about whether or not they are disturbing other people around them. That’s common on public transportation like trains, subways and buses, and United Airlines’ move could set an interesting precedent for re-educating users and reminding them that, as Keyes says, “This is in line with the way the vast majority of travelers behave and the way they would like others to behave.” If you don’t have helmets, they give you some. At United Airlines they understand that some users may not have their own headphones, and in those cases they offer a simple solution: offer free ones that, although of low quality, will at least avoid inconvenience to the rest of the passengers and allow the affected person to comply with the regulations. We will see, of course, what types of headphones they provide, because nowadays mobile phones rarely include 3.5 mm connectors. No video calls. At United they already had rules in this regard: in their terms of use as well make it clear that it is prohibited for passengers to make video calls after the cabin doors are closed. With Starlink, these types of calls via WhatsApp or FaceTime, for example, are technically possible, but United prefers to “protect the silence.” Noise as a logistical challenge. This movement, we insist, could mark a before and after for the rest of the air transport industry, and perhaps also for other means of transport. Airlines know that entertainment screens can end up losing a lot of meaning if users can have an internet connection on their devices. That becomes quite a challenge, which makes a regulation so that we don’t bother each other seems reasonable. In Xataka | Ryanair has left Seville without many flights. In exchange he has given him 500 million euros to repair engines

Dubai was a mecca for expats. Now they are driving 10 hours and paying thousands of dollars for a flight to escape from there

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Iran has shown it needs very little to upend Middle East air traffic and hit the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where it hurts the most: the image of reliability that has been built for years at an international level, with great benefitsby the way. The wave of attacks launched by Tehran to neighboring countries that facilitate US military deployment in the region, such as Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait or the UAE itself, has affected thousands of flights and left a curious image: expats desperate to leave Dubai. There are those who are shelling out large sums to fly on private jets and those who have even driven 10 hours to get to Riyadh and get on a plane there. What has happened? If Tehran wanted to damage the image of stability of neighbors like the UAE, it was completely right. Although the country managed to intercept most of the drones and missiles launched by Iran, the truth is that some of the projectiles reached Dubai, the tourist and financial heart of the region. In practice, this translated into fires in luxury hotels, towers with windows shattered by explosions, a knocked out airport and, above all, considerable reputational damage for a city that has spent years building the image of a safe and comfortable destination for expats. Sums it up beautifully Elizabeth Rayment, a consultant caught off guard by the Iranian attack in Palm Islands: “You never expect to hear missiles flying overhead in Dubai.” Have there been more consequences? Yes. The most serious are undoubtedly the victims. Arab News I was talking yesterday about three deceased and 58 injured in the United Arab Emirates. There are not many if you take into account that the country’s authorities claim to have detected a total of 156 ballistic missiles and several cruise missiles, in addition to more than half a thousand drones, most of them intercepted and destroyed. The other consequence is the chaos generated in air traffic in the Persian Gulf, where some airports and airlines have had to suspend their operations, affecting both customers in the region and others who had planned to pass through Dubai, Abu Dhabi or Qatar to take connecting flights between Europe and Asia. Have many been cancelled? FlightAware estimates that around 2,800 operations and on Sunday more than 3,1500. Added to these are the flights canceled and suspended today by Gulf airlines. For reference, Financial Times assured this morning that more than half of the services that had been booked for today in the region have been cancelled. The Iranian attacks have altered to a greater or lesser extent the programming of Emirates, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways and the airports of Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi, as well as other terminals in Kuwait and Bahrain. The BBC has chatted with travelers who have found flights canceled upon arriving at the terminal. There are those who already talk about the biggest crisis aviation since the pandemic. How do I leave the country? That is the question that expats and tourists have been asking themselves since Saturday. The Iranian attacks have surprised them in the region and now they find that there are few (or no) regular flights that take them to other parts of the globe. Faced with such a scenario, there are those who have armed themselves with patience, those who have drawn on their checkbook and those who have resigned themselves to traveling kilometers and kilometers to reach airports with flights. So I told it a few hours ago FTwhich speaks of “tens of thousands of passengers” stranded in the region and assures that there are Dubai residents who have traveled to neighboring Oman to get a flight. What’s more, some have even driven 10 hours to get on a plane in Riyadh. They don’t have it easy. Most scheduled flights these days between Muscat (Oman) and Europe are reserved. And what do they do? The wealthiest, pull out their checkbook and try their luck with private jet companies. EnterJet, which is dedicated to intermediating between customers and available planes, says that reservations have skyrocketed 40% since the weekend. The problem is that the sector also has its limitations. Its founder explains to Financial Times that “the only viable option” to operate is the Muscat terminal, which makes it difficult to obtain landing slots. Added to this are the difficulties in finding ships. The businessman hopes that as traffic recovers in the Gulf, private flights will increase. Are they very expensive? The situation in the Gulf has caused a curious effect: while the price of airlines such as International Airlines Group or Air France-KLM they resent the price of private services skyrockets. The JetVip agency (Oman) explains to Guardian that a flight to Istanbul on a small Nextant jet costs around 85,000 euros, about three times the normal price. The same media reveals that seats on private charter flights to Moscow are paid for about 20,000 euros… per person. Rates vary depending on the company, but they usually always range in the five digits, or even more. It may sound strange, but we must keep in mind that Donald Trump has hinted that the offensive against Iran could continue even further. “four weeks” and the question remains as to how Tehran will respond. Added to this is that over the last few years the UAE has managed to position itself as a priority destination for thousands of expatsa position largely based on reliability and stability that Tehran has now managed to damage with missiles. Images | Michael Ranzau (Flickr) In Xataka | The arrival of the B-2s to Iran can only mean one thing: the search for the greatest threat to the United States has begun

If the question is how much money Ryanair can ask you for for messing up on a flight, the answer is: a lot.

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Making a mess on a plane is expensive, very expensive. At the beginning of the week, Ryanair fined one of its passengers a fine of 15,000 euros as compensation for damages and losses on a flight. The decision comes at the hands of the Dublin Court, and although the amount is one of the highest in recent years, it is far from being an exception. what has happened. According to Ryanair in his statementone of its passengers forced the plane he was traveling on to divert to Porto, after attacking passengers and crew on a flight from Dublin to Lanzarote. No specific details about the attack itself have emerged, but the Dublin Court has imposed a penalty of 15,000 in damages on the accused. The lawsuit was filed in January 2025, Ryanair is not fooling around. In this case, it was Dublin that imposed the amount of the penalty, but the airline has a rigid policy of sanctions for non-exemplary passengers. In June 2025, the company warned about fixed fines of 500 euros for any passenger expelled for misconduct before the flight. In the event that the flight has already started and results in a forced diversion, the policy is clear: legal persecution. It is not the first fine very high. Ryanair has been able to ban passengers for five years and obtain compensation for damages due to value of 3,000 euros on recent Berlin-Marrakech flights. He also managed to get sanctioned 2,000 euros to a passenger who decided to smoke on the plane. The measure fits within the framework of a company with a clear policy: squeeze every penny out of each clientwith a solid margin thanks to its aggressive strategies. The finer, fined. Ryanair has just received one of the highest fines in recent years (not the largest, estimated at more than 100,000 dollars and a lifetime ban by Jet2), but it is also the one that has the record of having suffered the highest fine to an airline by the Government of Spain. A profitable business model, focused on squeezing every penny from its passengers, and a clear policy regarding inappropriate behavior: pay. In Xataka | Spain and Ryanair are in a legal battle over the charge for hand luggage. Ryanair’s best ally: Europe

There will be a third search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370

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With permission of Amelia Earhart and the Bermuda triangle, what happened with Malaysia Airlines flight MH 370 on March 8, 2014 constitutes one of the greatest mysteries of modern commercial aviation: It seems that he disappeared from the face of the Earth without a trace*. 12 years later, we still have not found an explanation for his disappearance and it is not the first time we have tried: in fact, the third search mission has just been reactivated. We are going to D-Day, H-Time. A Boeing 777-200ER with 239 people on board (227 passengers and 12 crew) left from Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 12:41 am to Beijing International Airport, with an expected landing time at 6:30 local time. It never reached its destination. At 1:19 a.m. Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah he said goodbye from the Malaysian controllers with a “Good night Malaysian three seven zero”. It was the last time they contacted. A few minutes later and according to the radar record collected in the final report According to the Malaysian Ministry of Transport, the aircraft’s secondary radar went out at 01:21 over the South China Sea. Likewise, it registered a turn towards the west as if it were returning towards Malaysia, passing near the island of Penang and continuing towards the Strait of Malacca. Map of the scheduled flight of MH370. Weaveravel – Wikimedia Although it had its communication systems turned off, it continued to send a satellite signal that was key to following its subsequent trajectory. Using a methodology based on Doppler effectthe scientific team of the British satellite company Inmarsat determined that the ship was moving away from the satellite towards the south. He final report of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) confirms these facts, concluding that the combination of radars and mathematical data from satellite signals allowed us to conclude that the plane allegedly flew for just over six hours until its fuel was exhausted. in a remote area of ​​the southern Indian Ocean. Andrew Heneen. Wikimedia In the following hours, the news broke. At that time, the CEO of Malaysia Airlines, Ahmad Juahari Yahya, explained that there were no indications that the pilots sent a distress signal and their willingness to collaborate with the authorities in the search, since no remains had been sighted, as USA Today collected. A missing plane, a huge area to explore and many unknowns Shortly after, the airline updated its statement reiterating that it had not “established any contact or determined the whereabouts of flight MH370.” Malaysia’s Transport Minister at the time, Hishammuddin Hussein, explained that although there was no reason to suspect terrorism, all possibilities were being studied. Days later, the country’s prime minister, Najib Razak, declared that it was clear that the radars and flight data transmission system were deliberately turned off by someone trying to conceal the position and heading of the plane. The first search operation was international in nature, although it was led by the Australian ATSB and extended from 2014 to 2017, in which it was classified at the time as the most expensive search in aviation historywith an approximate investment of at least 44 million dollars by Australia, China, the United States and Vietnam, Reuters estimated. This operation included the deployment of military ships and aircraft in an area of ​​120,000 square kilometers in the Indian Ocean and South China Sea defined by the analysis of Inmarsat satellite data and called “Seventh Arc”. After almost three years of tracking with high-resolution sonar, the search was officially suspended in January 2017. without finding remains of the fuselage. The conclusions of the report detailed that it was not possible to determine with certainty the cause of the disappearance and that this change of course: “It cannot be explained by a known technical failure or by adverse weather conditions”, pointing to a “probably intentional” route modification. Which yes it has been found over time they have been more than 30 fragments identified as belonging to MH370such as parts of the wing, tail, cabin or engine in places as diverse as the coasts of East Africa and various islands such as Réunion, Mauritius or Madagascar. No human remains have been found, but it is assumed that all the people who traveled on the flight died. In fact, the first piece of the aircraft was identified by French experts on a beach on Reunion Island a year after the disappearance. More specifically, it was the flaperon, a mobile part with a wingspan of almost three meters placed on the trailing edge of the wing that is used to increase aerodynamic resistance. In 2018 the first Ocean Infinity missiona private robotics company specialized in the study of seabeds. In his history, helped locate the Endurance of the legendary explorer Ernest Shackleton in 2022 providing specialized personnel and underwater robots. On the table, initially an area considered a priority of 25,000 square kilometers located to the north of the previously explored area taking into account the new drift analyzes of the remains found on African beaches. Ocean Infinity Finally, 112,000 square kilometers were covered in just over three months thanks to a fleet of eight autonomous underwater vehicles, faster than the vehicles used in the initial search. It was not enough: in June 2018 he ended his mission with disappointing results, as its CEO explained. After a few years in standbyin Malaysian government has authorized a new search mission to an old acquaintance: Ocean Infinity, which got to work on December 30, 2025 after accepting the order in modality no find, no fee aka, what If they don’t find anything, they won’t be paid.. If you do so, the maximum reward will be 70 million dollars, about 60 million euros, according to El País. It is not much for the cost of the operation, but it would be the definitive boost to consolidate Ocean Infinity as the best underwater search company in the world. Little has emerged about the operation, beyond the fact that it will last … Read more

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