Amazonian Indians found nine survivors of a Brazilian Air Force transport that crashed in the jungle yesterday. One person was reported missing and one dead from the flight.

Here’s the BBC account.

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The FAA revocation of the pilot’s certificate for both captain and first officer on the infamous Northwest/Delta Flight 188 (NW188) last week contains some blistering language.

Here are some excerpts from the letters that each pilot received from the FAA on the flight, which overshot the Minneapolis airport by 150 miles on Oct. 21, while the pilots failed to make any radio contact with air traffic control for about 90 minutes

–”You operated NW188 in a reckless manner that endangered the lives and property of others.”

–[As a result of the incident] “you lack the qualifications necessary to hold an Airline Transport Pilot certificate.”

–”Your lack of awareness that NW188 had overflown the airport to which it had been dispatched and cleared until that aircraft had reached Eau Claire, Wisconsin, (approximately 150 miles beyond MSP [Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport] is completely unacceptable.”

–”You engaged in conduct that put your passengers and your crew in serious jeopardy … while you were on a frolic of your own.”

Here is the full FAA letter, identical to both pilots except for their names and titles.

Thanks to correspondent Jeremy for sending it.

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Major airlines have installed the third significant fare increase in as many weeks, according to Rick Seaney, the CEO of Farecompare.com

Yesterday morning, Seaney reports, AirTran “increased airfares by $6 and $10 roundtrip (based on distance) across the bulk of their route system. Shortly thereafter … American and Delta/Northwest matched on overlapping routes, while Continental took a further step matching on the bulk of their route system.”

Last night, “United and US Airways matched across the bulk of their respective route systems. This increase marks what appears to be well on its way to the 6th successful hike of 2009, all since June.”

He added, “Holiday travelers did get a bit of a break however today, as mixed in with the airfare increases several legacy carriers filed targeted off-peak “Holiday Airfares” (Turkey Fares), on the off-peak days around Thanksgiving and for Christmas and New Years Day. The widely matched deep discount 3-day off-peak winter sale started this past Tuesday by Southwest Airlines expires tonight, removing a big chunk of winter deals from the marketplace (for the moment).

“The volatility of airfare filings today simply underscores the continual tinkering that domestic airlines are doing as they hone in on price points reflect an uptick in demand but doesn’t scare off skittish travelers, and sounds another wakeup call for procrastinating holiday air travelers.”

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29 OCT 2009, 19:10
Lockheed HC-130H Hercules
1705 - US Coast Guard
7 / 7
San Clemente Island, CA (USA)
Military flight, during cruise flight
A Lockheed C-130 Hercules was missing after a reported mid-air collision between the C-130 and a US ... (more)

29 OCT 2009, ca 09:15
Cessna 208B Grand Caravan (C-98)
FAB-2725 - Brazilian AF
2 / 11
Aldeias Aurélio, AM (Brazil)
Military flight, during cruise flight
The Air Force Command announced that an aircraft C-98 Caravan disappeared during a flight between th... (more)

As of this morning, there had been no trace reported of a Brazilian single-engine transport with 11 aboard that went missing yesterday in the western Amazon.

The passengers were medical staff working in a campaign to provide vaccinations to in Indian settlements in the rain forest. Here’s a Bloomberg update this morning.

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[Photo: A C-98 Caravan similar to missing plane.]

The Brazilian Air Force said today that one of its transports, a Cessna C-98 Caravan aircraft, is missing in the Amazon.

The aircraft, with 11 on board, took off this morning from Cruzeiro do Sul in Acre state in the western Amazon, bound northeast for Tabatigna in Amazonas state.

A search is under way.

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Delays are mounting today at Denver International Airport as a slow-moving snowstorm stalled over the eastern front range of the Rockies.

According to Flightstats.com, as of 10.30 a.m. Mountain time today, 244 of the day’s scheduled 1,685 departures and arrivals had already been canceled.

Anyone bound for Denver or making a connection through Denver needs to check well ahead today, and probably for the next few days as the schedules sort themselves out.

Conditions are improving, though. Here’s a 10.30 a.m. update from Frontier Airlines, which was reporting delays of 3-4 hours at Denver but now says that’s lessening. However, Frontier says with engaging honesty, “departure times are rather fluid” today.

Here’s United’s far less-informative announcement. Come on, United — how hard is it to get some useful current information up about your Denver ops? Frontier did it.

The storm did not, by the way, dump a lot of snow (yet) on the central Rockies. I’m always amazed at how many people in the media fail to understand the difference between the high plains, the foothills and the Rockies, and the meaning of the continental divide.

And by the way,  what if the Rockies had made it to the World Series?

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A standard quarterly government report showing sharp air-fare declines in the second quarter is getting a lot of attention today, but really: What’s the point? The second quarter ended in June, and that news is …, well, it’s useless, frankly, to anyone interested in current fares.

As anyone interested in current fares knows, they’ve been going up steadily since the summer. Major airlines recently succeeded in installing their fifth successive nearly across-the-board fare hike since June (they’re a little less eager to hike fares on routes where there are discount competitors.)

I use Farecompare.com and the regular updates from its CEO Rick Seaney to stay on top of current fare trends. In the airline business, April, May and June were a long time ago.

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