December 3  
Media reports have the OZ Government planning to increase monitoring of flight schools and to issue compulsory photo identification for all pilots

From the media:- "plans for general photo identification were being developed by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority in consultation with the industry and were likely to be in place early in the new year"

Similar warnings were issued in the USA more than 12 months ago after the September 11 attack

 December 5  
Debate in the media have the recent failed terrorist attempt to bring down a Israeli airliner departing Kenya as 'survivable' as the hand held Russian SA-7 missile used had only a 1 kilogram warhead

"The missile will always hit an engine because they are heat-seeking but airliners would still be able to fly on the others"

Not a good argument when an airliner has 2 engines and 2 missiles are used against it!

Reports have the terrorist in possession of a number of SA-7s as well as USA's 1980 vintage Stingers from the Afghan 'war'

 December 7  
An Air Canada Airbus taxiing for departure for Toronto Canada with about 200 passengers on board got stuck in the mud at London's Heathrow Airport when one set of main wheels left the asphalt

"The aircraft was turning onto the runway at Heathrow when the right-hand gear left the taxiway and the plane became immobilised"

Last reports have the airport and airline officials trying to remove the stranded aircraft from the mud; there were no injuries

 December 6  
A light twin had undercarriage extension problems around midnight when trying to land at Sydney's Bankstown airport and was forced to make an emergency gear-up landing at night

The pilot and three passengers on board the unidentified twin-engine aircraft all escaped the ensuring crash-landing without injury

Media reports have the aircraft sustaining the normal bent props and minor fuselage underbelly damage

 December 5  
The BA Concorde carrying 96 passengers had part of it's rudder mechanism fall off on approach to New York's JFK Airport a few days back

"The pilots of the New York-bound aircraft reported feeling vibration as they made their approach to Kennedy (airport)"

The British CAA considered that there was no threat to safety after an examination of the rudder component one of four used

 December 6  
Two young Ghanaian stowaways were found dead in the undercarriage area of a Ghana Airway's DC-10 after it landed at London's Heathrow Airport

"The boys, thought to be as young as 12 stole aboard a Ghana Airways flight from Ghana's capital the port city of Accra"

The bodies were found in a wheel compartment of the passenger jet by a ground engineer carrying out a routine pre-flight inspection