Plane narrowly misses mountain

Paris: French accident investigators have opened an inquiry into a near accident involving an Air France Boeing 777 which narrowly missed central Africa's highest mountain with 37 people on board. An automatic "pull up" alarm went off when the plane, travelling from Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, to Douala, Cameroon's largest city on May 2, diverted from its normal route "to avoid storms," the BEA accident investigators said.

That manoeuvre had put it on course to hit the 4,040-metre (13,255-foot) Mount Cameroon, before the alarm prompted the pilots to swiftly gain altitude and miss the mountain. No-one was injured and the plane continued its flight without further incident.

Air France confirmed the incident, saying that it would be carrying out its own internal inquiry.

The EGPWS (enhanced ground proximity warning system) went off in the plane's cockpit and "the pilots to respond immediately by executing the appropriate manouevre," Air France added.

Plane loses power mid-air with 194 onboard

Singapore: Passengers on a Singapore Airlines (SIA) flight bound for Shanghai had a bit of a scare when both engines of the aircraft experienced a temporary loss of power amid bad weather, media reports said on Wednesday. The incident occurred at 39,000 ft about 3.5 hours after Flight SQ836, operated by an Airbus A330-300, left Changi Airport on Saturday, reported The Straits Times. "Both engines experienced a temporary loss of power and the pilots followed operational procedures to restore normal operation of the engines" it quoted the airline's spokesman as saying. The flight with 182 passengers and 12-crew on board continued to Shanghai and touched down safely at 10.56pm local time, he added. The engines were thoroughly inspected and tested upon arrival in Shanghai with no anomalies detected. SIA is reviewing the incident with engine maker, Rolls-Royce and Airbus, according to the Singapore daily.