A co-pilot that plunged a plane 120 metres over the Atlantic because he mistook the planet Venus for another aircraft has had the incident blamed on fatigue.

According a report by the Canadian authorities, the pilot had woken up from a 75-minute nap on the flight from Toronto to Zurich and was disorientated. The incident caused minor injuries to 16 people as they did not have their seatbelts on, so hit their heads on the ceiling during the 46-second dive. All injured passengers and crew were taken to hospital when the aircraft landed in Zurich.

The Canada Pilots Association has now called for a third pilot to be mandatory on overnight flights.

See the video report and footage from inside the aircraft just after the incident happened here.

The pressure for a third runway at Heathrow grows, as a new poll suggests over 50% of international airlines are planning to move flights away from the UK because there is not enough room at the airport.

The Board of Airline Representatives in the UK (BAR UK), which represents 84 scheduled airlines, said its survey shows that airlines are looking at alternative bases in other countries rather than switching to other London airports. It added that if London restricts airport capacity to that of the last decade, then it is actively encouraging airlines to look elsewhere.

BAA chief executive Colin Matthews is expected to further push the third runway cause as he reveals the full results of the survey at a transport conference in London today. According to Sky news, Matthews will state that London is excluding itself from economic growth because it is unable to forge new airlinks with growing economies such as China.

A “technical problem” caused a Virgin Atlantic flight to make an emergency landing at Gatwick airport today; causing a two-hour suspension of flights and longer delays.

The West Sussex fire and rescue service confirmed they had been called to the airport for a fire on the Airbus 330-300. Passengers had to immediately evacuate through the chutes at the emergency exits, causing minor injuries to some.

A statement from the airline said: “Our teams at Gatwick are now offering full support, looking after our passengers and assisting with their immediate requirements. Virgin Atlantic is working closely with the authorities to establish the cause of this incident. The safety and welfare of our crew and passengers is Virgin Atlantic’s top priority.”

Richard Branson, the airline’s boss, tweeted: “Very sorry to all passengers on board VS27, the staff @virginatlanticare doing everything they can to look after everybody. More info soon.”

The Virgin Atlantic plane had taken off from Gatwick, bound for Orlando, Florida, at 11.48am BST then made the emergency landing at 12.17pm. Liam Moore, a passenger on the flight, told the BBC: “We were on the plane and everything seemed fine. Then the pilot came on the Tannoy about 10 minutes into the flight and said we would have to do an emergency landing.

“It all happened so quickly. We landed and suddenly all the doors flung open and the emergency slides were inflated.”

Some flights were cancelled or had to be diverted, and airlines asked passengers to check the status of their flights before going to the airport.

There will be no unruly passengers on Hong Kong Airlines‘ flights once they realise that the cabin crew have been trained in martial arts!

The airline, which flies between London and Hong Kong, said the Wing Chun training would enable flight attendants to “deal with any potential challenges.”

Wing Chun is primarily taught as self-defence, with the moves designed to work within a confined space, such as onboard an aircraft. Cabin crew have all received three hours training with an expert in the martial art to ensure competency; and as part of the training they wear their uniforms to prepare for real life situations.

Hong Kong Airlines’ president Yang Jian Hong said: “Aside from the obvious physical, mental and safety benefits, this demonstrates our commitment to delivering exceptional passenger service.

“The initiative has proved so popular with our flight attendants that we are now offering the training to our internal staff.”

1,200 redundancies could be made at BMI after recent takeover by IAG. British Airways (part of IAG) confirmed the news on Thursday, but stated that without the merger, BMI, which is losing £3m a week, would have closed with 2,700 job losses.

Integration with BA would secure 1,500 jobs, this would include up to 400 passenger service jobs at Heathrow. However, 1,200 redundancies at BMI’s head office at Castle Donnington in the Midlands and at regional airports are on the cards.

BA is in consultation with trade unions to organise ways of integrating BMI mainline into its Heathrow operations.

BA chief executive Keith Williams said: “BMI is heavily loss making and is not a viable business as it stands today. Our proposals would secure around 1,500 jobs that would otherwise have been lost.

“As we look to restructure the business and restore profitability, job losses are deeply regrettable but inevitable. We will work with the unions to explore as many options as possible and are already working with industry partners.”

On a more positive note, Williams added: “This deal is good news for our customers and will offer new destinations, new routes and new schedules in due course. For customers with BMI bookings to or from Heathrow this summer, it is business as usual and customers can continue to book with confidence.”

BA also said that it is working on potential job opportunities with industry partners in the Midlands and in Glasgow.

Heathrow Airport may not be able to cope with the extra number of passengers during the Olympic Games, warn MPs. A letter seen by the BBC from Culture Select Committee chairman John Whittingdale sent to Culture, Media and Sport secretary Jeremy Hunt, outlines Mr Whittingdale’s concern over Heathrow’s ability to cope with the arrival of ordinary passengers during the Games.

It said: “While visiting tourists will understand that the Olympics is a busy time, if the wait (at immigration) is in excess of an hour it may deter tourists from returning.

“The second impact may be that planes cannot unload their passengers into the terminal due to capacity being exceeded. This would lead to circling in the air, planes being left on runways or planes blocking gates.”

Airport operator, BAA, said waiting times at Border Control were “frequently unacceptable” at peak periods and has asked Border Force to address the problem before it’s too late.

The sentiment is echoed by warnings made by four airlines earlier this year (British Airways, BMI, Easyjet and Virgin Atlantic), and also by Shadow Olympics minister Tessa Jowell, who said failure to act could harm tourism “for years to come”.

Border Force says it is now working with BAA to ensure it will be ready to cope with the extra passengers.

There have been several surveys into travellers’ gripes on flights, one of which was children on flights. A Business Meetings & Travel show survey found that 74% of business travellers were annoyed by children on flights, suggesting sections for adults only. A similar survey by Skyscanner in 2010 found similar results with 59% wanting a ‘families only section’.

These results have not gone unheeded, with Malaysia Airlines confirming that it is to ban children from the top deck of its A380 aircraft on its London to Kuala Lumpur route. It also plans to implement the adult only sections on flights to Sydney from September.

The top deck of the aircraft holds 70 economy and 66 business class seats, passengers must now be 12 years and over to sit in this section. The airline said the decision follows many complaints from passengers regarding noisy children on flights.

What do you think to this change? Is it welcome? Or are you a parent that feels this is segregation too far? Comments below please.

Industrial action by pilots in SEPLA union is to cause much travel disruption on flights to Spain and Portugal. Strikes will be held every Monday and Friday until 20th July in protest against Iberia parent IAG‘s decision to launch a new low-cost airline Iberia Express.

Iberia were forced to ground 150 flights on Monday. British Airways is giving passengers booked to travel to Spain on these dates the option of cancelling or switching dates to fly.

Tomorrow there will be a strike by air traffic controllers in Portugal between 7:00hrs and 9:00hrs, further strikes will be held between these times on 19th, 20th,26th April.

Check the status of your flights with your airline  if they are during these times.

The ‘little piggy’ bank advert which claimed up to 30% off every seat, every route, every day by Easyjet has been withdrawn after an order from the Advertising Standards Authority.

Customers complained to the ASA that some of the available fares were the same price as before the promotion started. Easyjet argued that the seats were still discounted, but they were in a more expensive price bracket as the cheaper flights had sold out.

The advertising watchdog also found that the discount was not as high as 30% on more expensive peak time flights and banned the use of the advert and told the company to in future ensure at least 10% of seats be available at the advertised discount. The ASA also insisted that the airline had to include information about its pricing structure.

Always trying to save money and weight on its flights, Ryanair has halved the size of its inflight magazine to do just that.

The new ‘Let’s go with Ryanair’ is now A5 in size and will also double as the inflight menu, without reducing the number of pages or content.

The magazine will save more than £400,000 on production costs.

Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara said: “Ryanair and Ink have cut the page size of our award winning “Let’s Go with Ryanair” magazine in order to reduce its weight, as well as its paper and production costs, but we have sacrificed none of its 164 pages or its entertaining content.”