A Learjet has crashed in South Carolina, killing four people and critically injuring former Blink 182 band member Travis Barker as well as DJ AM. The plane was carrying six people and was leaving shortly before midnight on Friday when air traffic controllers reported seeing sparks, said Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen on Saturday. Debbie Hersman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, says the plane went off the end of the runway, crashed through antennas and a fence and careened into an embankment across a five-lane highway, where it was engulfed in flames.   Read the whole story here [Read more]

Finnair passengers are now able to use the Finnair web site to make all their travel arrangements on-line at the same time as booking their flights. Tickets for special events, tours and other transport bookings can be made at the following link: www.finnair.com – Plan & Book – Tickets, Tours & Transfers. Mikko Tuomainen, responsible for Finnair’s Internet sales says, "Our customers now have the chance to make bookings for all the services they want at one location." "Unaira has produced the new service in cooperation with Amadeus, and that means the service is easy to use." [Read more]

TweakFS has released the second member of its ToolBox Series of utilities.   The TweakFS ScreenShot ToolBox is a utility that will bring out the artist in you! Some screenshot artists are becoming very skilled, applying similar techniques used by real-world photographers in their use of angles, lighting and shot composition. Screenshots are a great way to immortalize your FS flight adventures, moments that can be shared with your FS buddies and uploaded to forums for all the world to enjoy. With the TweakFS ScreenShot ToolBox you can easily create, display, edit, upload, download and email FS screenshots. The major feature is the Apple "Coverflow" style 3D image display system which uses cutting-edge DirectX technology. Check... [Read more]

Horizon Simulations has released VFR London X, a detailed city expansion for Microsoft’s Flight Simulator X. Horizon Simulations has released VFR London X. The scenery adds hundreds of buildings to London and 60cm land textures. “…Having been built using an aerial photographic template, it is such an accurate and faithful representation that it is already being used by $multi-billion defense contractors for counter-terrorism and contingency planning for the London 2012 Olympics (among other things). If you want to bring that extra level of realism to your simulation experience, VFR London should, without doubt, be top of your list of FSX add-ons. It has been fully optimized and we’ve had reports from beta-testers... [Read more]

Pacific Simulators today announced the sale of its first professional flight training device – to Dubai Aerospace Enterprise Flight Academy.Modelled on the Boeing 737-800, the flight simulator will be deployed by DAEFA as part of its airline focused pilot training programme. The device is compliant with a recognised European standard for flight training devices, and is due to be independently certified by the Scandinavian CAA later this month. Pacific Simulators’ Chief Executive Bill Highet said the sale was a significant milestone for the company, and would be the first of many sales of its flight training devices internationally. [Read more]