BOSTON (AP) — Five airline employees have been charged with using their security clearances to smuggle more than $417,000 in cash past checkpoints at Boston's Logan International Airport.

Federal prosecutors allege the workers used their clearances to sneak cash past Transportation Security Administration checkpoints from public bathrooms near the baggage claim, passenger pick-up and drop-off areas, and elsewhere at the airport.

Authorities say the money was the proceeds of illegal drug sales.

Those arrested are four JetBlue Airways employees and one Delta Air Lines customer service ramp agent. Each is charged with money laundering and conspiracy to defraud the United States.

Authorities say the employees got cash payments from a cooperating witness in return for delivering the money to secure areas of the airport and aboard commercial flights.

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All flights into and out of Chicago's O'Hare and Midway international airports were grounded early on Friday due to a fire at an air traffic control tower, snarling traffic nationwide ahead of the weekend.

The Chicago Department of Aviation said employees at the Federal Aviation Administration control tower in Aurora, Illinois, were evacuated when the fire broke out before 6 a.m. CT. FAA also confirmed the fire but gave few other details.

The fire has led to the cancelation of about 700 flights across the country, according to NBC News.

Crews responding to the fire found a man with self-inflicted wounds in the basement of the facility, the Chicago Tribune reported. NBC News, citing two sources at the FAA, said officials believe the fire may have been intentionally set.

A contract employee might be responsible for the fire, CNN reports.

Chicago is a major transfer point for flights across the United States, and O'Hare is a major hub for several airlines. More than 300 flights into and out of the two airports had been canceled by 7:30 a.m. CT on Friday, according to the tracking website FlightAware.com.

Southwest Airlines Co. suspended all flights until noon at Midway, Chicago's aviation department said. It was not immediately clear what other airlines planned to do.

The man found at the facility was taken to a hospital, the Tribune said, citing an Aurora Police Department spokesman.

Representatives for the police department could not be immediately reached for comment.

(Reporting by Colleen Jenkins, Karen Brooks and Mary Wisniewski; Editing by Scott Malone and Susan Heavey)

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An early morning fire at the Federal Aviation Administration's Chicago-area air traffic control center in Aurora has grounded all flights going in and out of Chicago's O'Hare and Midway airports. The Auora facility was evacuated and shut down.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) is investigating. Local media reported that the ATF confirmed that fire was intentionally set. 

According to the Chicago Tribune, a non-FAA employee with self-inflicted wounds was also discovered on the premises.

O'Hare is the world's busiest airport, and Midway is an important regional hub for Southwest Airlines.

Also known as "Chicago Center," the Aurora center is located 40 miles west of Chicago. Its responsibilities have been passed off to other centers for the time being, while flights headed in and out of the area will be delayed due to the ongoing investigation. 

SEE ALSO: Fire At Chicago Air Traffic Control Facility Is Causing Massive Delays

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After a fire Friday morning at a regional air traffic control center southwest of Chicago, a few flights are arriving and departing at O'Hare International airport. But at Midway airport, planes remain grounded. 

A spokesman for Southwest Airlines, which has substantial operations at Midway, said all flights have been canceled.

Business Insider also reached out to United Airlines and American Airlines for updates, but we haven't received any new information.

According to CNN, the fire at the Aurora, Ill. facility has led to cancellation of more than 1,300 flights. The news network is also reporting that the intentionally set fire was the result of a botched suicide attempt.  

SEE ALSO: This Is What It Looks Like When The World's Busiest Airport Shuts Down

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Severe thunderstorms have caused significant damage to Phoenix's international airport.

The storms have also grounded all flights, according to the Phoenix Sky Harbor airport's Twitter account.

Parts of the airport are reportedly flooding, and a portion of the airport's roof appears to have been ripped off in the storm.

Check out some photos and video of the damage:

BREAKING: Considerable damage @PHXSkyHarbor from thunderstorms. Source: some planes returning due to possible damage pic.twitter.com/XEXXPOnaOw

— Adam Longo (@adamlongoCBS5) September 27, 2014

Microburst at #skyharbor#phx airport blew out this window near #barriocafe. #azwx#phxwx#travelpic.twitter.com/mmM7Jthj3K

— Linda Seid Frembes (@tenpixels) September 27, 2014

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Wednesday extra Ebola screening will be put in place at five U.S. airports: New York's John F. Kennedy, Newark Liberty, Washington Dulles, Chicago O'Hare and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta.

"These five airports are the destination of 94 percent of individuals who travel to the United States from the three countries that are currently affected by Ebola," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in a news briefing.

"This is an additional layer of screening that can be targeted to that small population in a way that will enhance security but also minimize disruption to the broader traveling public," he said.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey and Mohammad Zargham; Editing by Jim Loney)

SEE ALSO: White House: 5 US Airports Will Impose Extra Ebola Screening

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - A long-awaited overhaul of New York's LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy International airports moved a step closer to reality on Monday when the state and federal governments touted a sweeping plan to make over two of the busiest U.S. travel hubs.

The initiative, announced by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Vice President Joe Biden, envisions state-of-the-art facility upgrades, improved transportation links and more efficient air-traffic control technology at the two aging airports in the country's most populous city."The front doors for business and tourism are the airports," Cuomo said at an aeronautics school in the borough of Queens, where both facilities are located. "Airports themselves, let alone the front door, are a very big business."

The plan is still short of specifics, with neither a final price tag nor completion dates revealed. Both will depend on master-plan designs to be selected after competitions that will begin in 30 days, the Democratic governor said.

The airports, which are operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, served 77 million passengers and generated $53 billion in economic activity last year, according to the state.

The airport initiative also envisions the creation of a regional cargo distribution hub at Stewart International Airport, 67 miles north of midtown Manhattan. The improvements would allow cargo to be diverted from JFK, leaving room to expand other services and amenities at the main airport, which opened in 1948 as Idlewild Airport.

At a second suburban airport, Republic in East Farmingdale on Long Island, the state will look to find a new operator. It would also set up tax-free zones at both Republic and Stewart.

At LaGuardia, which Biden once described as fit for a "third world country," a redesign could include a new airport layout, and a high-speed ferry and rail service. In an industry survey, the 75-year-old airport routinely ranks as the country's worst.

"From LaGuardia to Manhattan by water can only be a couple of miles," Cuomo said. "How can you not use that access route better and faster?"

With 50,000 people employed by LaGuardia and JFK, Biden said: "Investing in infrastructure is all about jobs."

The airport initiative is part of a $17 billion strategy announced in January to revamp New York’s infrastructure, transportation networks, energy supply, coastal protection, weather warning system and emergency management.

(Writing by Frank McGurty; Editing by Peter Cooney)

SEE ALSO: LaGuardia Airport's Stylish New American Express Lounge Is Fantastic

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The US will begin requiring travelers from three countries in West Africa to arrive at one of five airports, USA Today reports.

Anyone traveling to the US from Liberia, Sierra Leone, or Guinea will be required to arrive at Washington's Dulles, Chicago's O'Hare, New Jersey's Newark, New York's John F. Kennedy, or Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airports.

About 150 people per day arrive in the US from these countries, and 94% of them were already coming through these airports, according to USA Today.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will send extra staff to these five airports to help with the screening of passengers entering the country, according to a press release from the agency.

The government has come under increasing pressure to contain Ebola in the US after a man contracted the disease in Liberia and flew to the US before showing any symptoms.

"We work to continuously increase the safety of Americans," CDC Director Tom Frieden said in a press release. "We believe these new measures will further protect the health of Americans, understanding that nothing we can do will get us to absolute zero risk until we end the Ebola epidemic in West Africa."

Ebola has hit Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea the hardest. The deadly virus is still far from being contained in these countries, and thousands of people have fallen ill already.

All travelers coming into the US from those three countries will be taken aside for screening, during which staff will observe them for signs of illness, ask them a series of health and exposure questions, and take their temperature, according to the CDC release.

If the traveler is thought to require further evaluation, he or she will be referred to a public health authority.

This screening process in the US will serve as a second layer of protection. Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea already do exit screenings for people leaving those countries.

From the CDC:

In the last two months since exit screening began in the three countries, of 36,000 people screened, 77 people were denied boarding a flight because of the health screening process. None of the 77 passengers were diagnosed with Ebola and many were diagnosed as ill with malaria, a disease common in West Africa, transmitted by mosquitoes and not contagious from one person to another.

Two people have contracted Ebola in the US, both of whom are nurses who cared for Thomas Eric Duncan. He came to the US for a visit and became sick shortly after he arrived. Duncan died earlier this month.

SEE ALSO: Here's What We Should Learn From Nigeria's Incredible Effort To Shut Down Ebola

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In What If?: Serious Scientific Answers To Absurd Hypothetical Questions, Randall Munroe, creator of the popular web comic xkcd, provides pages of in-depth responses to questions you probably never thought to ask.

Q. Which US state is actually flown over the most?  — Jesse Ruderman

A. When people say "flyover states," they're usually referring to the big, square states out west that people stereotypically cross over while flying between New York, LA, and Chicago, but don't actually land in.

But what state do the largest number of planes actually fly over? There are a lot of flights up and down the East Coast; it would be easy to imagine that people fly over New York more often than Wyoming.

To figure out what the real flyover states are, I looked at over 10,000 air traffic routes, determining which states each flight passed over. 

Surprisingly, the state with the most planes flying over it — without taking off or landing — is...

...Virginia.

This result surprised me. I grew up in Virginia, and I certainly never thought of it as a "flyover state."

It's surprising because Virginia has several major airports; two of the airports serving DC are actually located in Virginia (DCA/Reagan and IAD/Dulles). This means most flights to DC don't count toward flights over Virginia, since those flights land in Virginia.

Here's a map of US states colored by number of daily flyovers:

Close behind Virginia are Maryland, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.

These states have substantially more daily flyovers than any other.

So why Virginia?

There are a number of factors, but one of the biggest is Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

Atlanta's airport is the busiest in the world, with more passengers and flights than Tokyo, London, Beijing, Chicago, or Los Angeles. It's the main hub for Delta Air Lines — until recently the world's largest airline — which means passengers taking Delta flights will often connect through Atlanta.

Thanks to the large volume of flights from Atlanta to the northeast US, 20 percent of all Atlanta flights cross Virginia and 25 percent cross North Carolina, contributing substantially to the total for each state.

However, Atlanta isn't the biggest contributor to Virginia's totals. The airport with the most flights over Virginia was a surprise to me.

Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) seems an unlikely source of Virginia-crossing flights,  but Canada's largest airport contributes more flights over Virginia than New York's JFK and LaGuardia airports combined. 

Part of the reason for Toronto's dominance is that it has many direct flights to the Caribbean and South America, which cross US airspace on the way to their destinations. In addition to Virginia, Toronto is also the chief source of flights over West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York. 

This map shows, for each state, which airport is the source of the most flights over it:

Flyover states by ratio

Another possible definition of "flyover state" is the state that has the highest ratio of flights over it to flights to it. By this measure, the flyover states are, for the most part, simply the least dense states. The top ten include, predictably, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, Idaho, and the Dakotas.

The state with the highest ratio of flights-over-to-flights-to, however, is a surprise: Delaware.

A little digging turned up the very straightforward reason: Delaware has no airports.

Now, that's not quite true. Delaware has a number of airfields, including Dover Air Base (DOV) and New Castle Airport (ILG). New Castle Airport is the only one that might qualify as a commercial airport, but after Skybus Airlines shut down in 2008, the airport had no airlines serving it.

Least flown-over state

The least flown-over state is Hawaii, which makes sense. It consists of tiny islands in the middle of the world's biggest ocean; you have to try pretty hard to hit it. 

Of the 49 non-island states, the least flown-over state is California. This came as a surprise to me, since California is long and skinny, and it seems like a lot of flights over the Pacific would need to pass over it.

However, since jet-fuel-laden planes were used as weapons on 9/11, the FAA has tried to limit the number of unnecessarily fuel-heavy flights crossing the US, so most international travelers who might otherwise travel over California instead take a connecting flight from one of the airports there.

Fly-under states

Lastly, let's answer a slightly stranger question: What is the most flown-under state? That is, what state has the most flights on the opposite side of the Earth pass directly under its territory?

The answer turns out to be Hawaii.

The reason such a tiny state wins in this category is that most of the US is opposite the Indian Ocean, which has very few commercial flights over it. Hawaii, on the other hand, is opposite Botswana in Central Africa. Africa doesn't have a high volume of flights over it compared to most other continents, but it's enough to win Hawaii the top spot.

Poor Virginia

As someone who grew up there, it's hard for me to accept Virginia's status as the most flown-over state. If nothing else, when I'm back home with family, I'll try to remember — once in a while — to look up and wave.

(And if you find yourself on Arik Air Flight 104 from Johannesburg, South Africa to Lagos, Nigeria — daily service, departing at 9:35 a.m. —  remember to look down and say "Aloha!")

Excerpt from WHAT IF? by Randall Munroe. Copyright 2014 by xkcd. Used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

SEE ALSO: This Is What It Looks Like When The World's Busiest Airport Shuts Down

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The image at right, taken by an AP photographer, shows the spot in Pyongyang, North Korea, where the government is building a new international airport terminal at record speed.

The AP reports that the initiative is part of a series of "speed campaigns," big infrastructures built in record-time thanks to thousands of workers dressed in brown or green uniforms, who "toil under huge signs calling on them to carry out their tasks with 'Korea Speed,'" the AP writes. Patriotic music is also blasted from loudspeakers as they work.

North Korea is hungry for foreign cash and since Kim Jong Un took over as supreme leader a couple of years ago, the country has launched an ambitious campaign to boost the appeal of the reclusive kingdom to international tourists. Remember the Dennis Rodman stunt?

Pyongyang, though, is still served by an old, small airport, Pyongyang Sunan. It has just one baggage carousel and a tiny duty free shop. Only a handful of international connections fly there, mainly from China.

Work on the new airport is still done the old style, with a few simple tools or even by hand. The AP reports that most of the work is now completed, and the workers are focused on flattening a large tarmac area outside the terminal, as shown in the picture below. The date of the opening has not been announced yet.

SEE ALSO: This Is North Korea's Version Of The iPhone

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The winner of the unfortunate title for the world's worst airport is Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto International Airport. 

It says something — and not a good something — when your airport is named the world's worst at a time when commercial air travel is considered by many to be an unsatisfying experience.

The travel website The Guide To Sleeping In Airports conducted a survey in which it asked the site's readers to submit ratings and comments.

The site then evaluated numerous airport terminals across the world on their comfort, cleanliness, conveniences, and customer service.

Although many facilities fared quite well, others failed miserably.

Benazir Bhutto International Airport, serving the country's capital of Islamabad, is one of the busiest in Pakistan and is home to the country national airline — PIA. 

That it was named world's worst should prove to be a welcome sigh of relief for last year's winner, Manila's Ninoy Aquino Airport. Benazir Bhutto International finished fourth last year. 

So what makes Benazir Bhutto Airport so bad?

According to the survey, passengers, "likened [ the airport] to a central prison, criticized it for the crowds (and absence of crowd control), the pervasive corruption, the aggressive-yet-inconsistent security checks, and the overall lack of cleanliness and technology."

Amenities at the airport include only four restaurants — none are open 24 hours — and no car-rental facilities. 

Fortunately for flyers headed to Pakistan's capital, a brand new international airport is set to come online within the next few years.

In case you were wondering, New York's LaGuardia Airport made the list as well. Its 10th place finish makes the airport the worst in North America, according to the survey.

SEE ALSO: Take A Look At Qatar's Astounding New $16 Billion Airport

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NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New York and New Jersey will automatically quarantine medical workers returning from Ebola-hit West African countries and the U.S. government is considering the same step after a doctor who treated patients in Guinea came back infected, officials said on Friday.

The steps announced by the two states, which go beyond the current restrictions being imposed by President Barack Obama's administration on travelers from Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea, came as medical detectives tried to retrace the steps in New York City of Dr. Craig Spencer, who tested positive for Ebola on Thursday.

The new policy applies to medical workers returning from the region through John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey. In the first instance of the new move, a female healthcare worker who had treated patients in West Africa and arrived at the Newark, New Jersey, airport was ordered into quarantine.

She had no symptoms upon arrival at the airport but developed a fever Friday evening, the New Jersey Health Department said in a statement. She is now in isolation and being evaluated at University Hospital in Newark. The agency gave no further details.

"Voluntary quarantine is almost an oxymoron," New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said. "We've seen what happens. ... You ride a subway. You ride a bus. You could infect hundreds and hundreds of people."

Cuomo, who appeared at a news conference with the governor of neighboring New Jersey, Chris Christie, had earlier in the day sought to reassure New Yorkers that Ebola's threat was limited the day after Spencer tested positive for the virus.

In Washington, Obama also sought to reassure a worried public with an Oval Office hug of Dallas nurse Nina Pham, who was declared Ebola-free on Friday after catching the virus from a Liberian patient who died.

As concerns over the possible spread of Ebola eased, U.S. stocks closed out their best week since January 2013.

But Republican lawmakers, many of whom for weeks have called for a tougher response to Ebola, continued their criticism of the administration at a congressional hearing.

Cuomo said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had agreed that individual states have the right to exceed federal requirements.

A federal quarantine of healthcare workers returning to the United States from the three West African countries was one of a number of options being discussed by administration officials, Tom Skinner, a CDC spokesman, told Reuters.

Spencer, 33, who spent a month with the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders in Guinea, was the fourth person diagnosed with the virus in the United States and the first in its largest city.

Dr. Mary Travis Bassett, New York's health commissioner, said Spencer was awake and talking to family and friends by cellphone and was listed in stable condition in Bellevue Hospital's isolation unit. Meanwhile, workers in biohazard gear began cleansing Spencer's apartment in upper Manhattan.

The virus is not airborne but is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids from an infected person who is showing symptoms.

The Obama administration has implemented a series of steps aimed at preventing the further spread of Ebola in the United States but has stopped short of a travel ban on people from Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea called for by some politicians.

The United States is funneling travelers from those countries through five airports conducting special screening for signs of infection and is requiring them to report to health authorities for the 21-day Ebola virus incubation period. The airports include JFK and Newark.

"We want to strike the right balance of doing what is best to protect the public’s health while not impeding whatsoever our ability to combat the epidemic in West Africa. Our risk here will not be zero until we stop the epidemic there," Skinner said.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest declined to discuss the possibility of a nationwide quarantine policy but said "these kinds of policy decisions are going to be driven by science" and the advice of medical experts.

NURSE RELEASED

Pham, one of two nurses from a Dallas hospital infected with Ebola after treating the first patient diagnosed with the disease in the United States, walked out smiling and unassisted from the Bethesda, Maryland, hospital where she was treated.

Emory University Hospital in Atlanta and the CDC also confirmed that the other nurse, Amber Vinson, no longer had detectable levels of virus but did not set a date for her to leave that facility.

Pham, who was transferred to the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, from the Dallas hospital on Oct. 16, thanked her doctors at a news briefing.

Looking fit in a dark blazer and a turquoise blouse, Pham said that even though she no longer is infected, "I know that it may be a while before I have my strength back." She said she looked forward to seeing her family and her dog.

Photos of the Oval Office meeting showed Obama hugging Pham. Reporters and television cameras were not allowed in for the meeting.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he could not pinpoint any one factor that contributed to Pham’s speedy recovery. He said it could be any of a number of factors, including the fact that “she's young and very healthy” and was able to get intensive care very quickly.

Spencer finished his work in Guinea on Oct. 12 and arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on Oct. 17. Six days later, he was quarantined at Bellevue Hospital with Ebola. The three previous cases diagnosed in the United States were in Dallas.

Three people who had close contact with Spencer were quarantined for observation. The doctor's fiancée was among them and was isolated at the same hospital, and all three were still healthy, officials said.

The worst Ebola outbreak since the disease was identified in 1976 has killed at least 4,877 people and perhaps as many as 15,000, predominantly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Spencer's case brought to nine the total number of people treated for Ebola in U.S. hospitals since August. Just two, the nurses who treated Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan, contracted the virus in the United States. Duncan died on Oct. 8 at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, where Pham and Vinson were infected.

Obama's response to Ebola ran into fresh criticism from Republicans during the congressional hearing.

Republican Representative Darrell Issa of California, who chairs the House of Representatives Oversight Committee, blasted the "bumbling" administration response, saying it had been characterized by missteps and ill-considered procedures to protect U.S. healthcare workers at home and troops in West Africa.

Local officials told New Yorkers they were safe even though Spencer had ridden subways, taken a cab and visited a bowling alley in Brooklyn between his return from Guinea and the onset of symptoms. Authorities on Friday declared the bowling alley safe.

(Additional reporting by Edward McAllister, Sebastien Malo, Frank McGurty, Barbara Goldberg, Luc Cohen, Robert Gibbons, Natasja Sheriff, Frank McGurty, Jonathan Allen, Ellen Wulfhorst and Laila Kearney in New York, and Bill Trott, Steve Holland, David Morgan and Toni Clarke in Washington; Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Lisa Shumkaer)

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SEE ALSO: This Is The Worst Airport In The World

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TEL AVIV (Reuters) - The Boeing 737 narrow-body jet has been certified in Europe and Israel for airport towing by the TaxiBot system developed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and its partners, the state-owned Israeli company said on Monday.

The annual global cost of towing passenger aircraft is estimated to reach $8.4 billion by 2020, but TaxiBot has the potential to reduce the cost to less than $3 billion a year, IAI said. The company said that the system also reduces CO2 emissions by 85 percent and noise by 50 percent.

TaxiBot is a semi-robotic, pilot-controlled vehicle designed to transport planes from airport gate to the runway and back without using the aircraft's engines. It was developed by IAI and its French risk-sharing partner TLD Group, a maker of airport ground support equipment, in cooperation with Lufthansa Engineering and Operational Services.

Boeing and Airbus provided support for the project, which is expected to begin in-service evaluation next month for Lufthansa 737 flights at Frankfurt Airport.

A Boeing 747 or Airbus A320 consumes about a ton of fuel (1,250 liters) for a 17-minute taxi before takeoff, which TaxiBot would reduce by 85 percent. The TaxiBot itself consumes 25-30 liters of fuel.

'ECO-FRIENDLY REVOLUTION'

"This innovative system will create an eco-friendly revolution in the commercial aviation industry and will save millions of dollars in fuel for airlines, ground-handling companies and airports worldwide," IAI Chief Executive Joseph Weiss said.

IAI expects the TaxiBot to receive approval for operational tests with Airbus A320 narrow-body aircraft soon. The 737 and A320 families comprise more than 70 percent of the world's active commercial aircraft fleet, it said.

European and U.S. airlines are in advanced talks to use the TaxiBot, IAI Said.

Last month IAI and TLD signed an agreement with Air France to evaluate use of TaxiBot on the airline's wide-body fleet at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport.

Authorization for use on wide-body aircraft is expected by the end of 2015, IAI said.

IAI officials estimate that TaxiBot will earn the Israeli company hundreds of millions of dollars over the coming years.

"We invested tens of millions of dollars in this project, as did TLD," Shuki Eldar, vice president of business development, told reporters. "Lufthansa, which helped us and was involved, also invested."

IAI, which supplies the robot for the TaxiBot, is setting up a company in Europe to market the product. TLD supplies the tractors for the system.

(Editing by David Goodman)

SEE ALSO: Airbus Patents 'Bicycle Seats' That Look Terrifying For Airline Passengers

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Amazing overhead footage of an active major international airport is incredibly difficult to come by.

Probably because flying drone through an active takeoff and landing zone full of massive airliners can be tricky. So it's definitely a very cool occasion to see drone footage of Mexico City International Airport by Postandfly, as seen on Avgeekery.

The concept of remotely operative flying vehicles is still somewhat controversial is most places. Legal regulations in the in the US still place strict prohibitions on the use of drones in many settings — especially around airports. In fact, a drone nearly collided with a U.S. Airways jet near Tallahassee Regional Airport early this year. 

Fortunately, the filmmakers received permission from Mexico City International to collect this spectacular footage. In fact, the drone even got a friendly wave from an air traffic controller in the airport's tower. Due to FAA regulations, it is highly unlikely we will ever be able to capture such gorgeous footage in the U.S. So, hooray Mexico!

SEE ALSO: This Amazing Airplane Seat Could Change Everything About Luxury Flying

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A SpiceJet Boeing 737-800 collided with a stray water buffalo this week while taking off from an airport in the western Indian city of Surat.

All 146 passengers and crew onboard the Delhi-bound flight emerged from the incident unscathed, but the aircraft suffered significant damaged to its left engine. According to the BBC, the low-cost Indian airline claimed the buffalo — which was unfortunately killed  — was essentially invisible on the dark runway. The passengers were flown to their destination on a later SpiceJet flight.

Following the incident, Spicejet announced in a statement on Twitter that it was suspending operations immediately from the airport. 

The airline's COO, Sanjiv Kapoor, also took to Twitter to blame the airport's poor security and lacking infrastructure for the collision — calling the presence of a buffalo on the runway "simply inexcusable."

Passengers and news organizations have tweeted photos of the damage caused by the collision between the 170,000 pound aircraft and the 1,800-2,000 pound animal.

Although most major airports in India have modern perimeter fencing, some of the smaller provincial facilities have experienced perimeter breaches in recent years. A Kingfisher Airlines aircraft collided with a stray pig in the central Indian city of Nagpur in 2009, reported The Times of India. The publication also reports that a Mumbai Airport shut down for 30 minutes when a stray dog was spotted on its runways in 2010.

Runway incursions are not isolated to the developing world. In 2012, a man scaled an 8-foot tall perimeter fence at New York's JFK Airport when his jet ski ran out of gas. Earlier this year, a pair of wayward kayakers breached the same perimeter fence near the airport's runway.

SEE ALSO: This Amazing Drone Footage Shows You What It's Like To Be A Bird Flying Over An Airport

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One hundred and sixty-eight residential properties will have to disappear if Gatwick is given the okay for its proposal for a second runway.

The Davies Commission on the over the expansion of airport capacity for London presented its assessment of the main options today: a second runway at Gatwick; expanding the current runways at Heathrow; or building a complete new runway at Heathrow.

The Gatwick option includes the area where the new runway would be built: a big chunk of land just south of the airport, plus another portion to the west (map above).

Most of the area is part of the village of Lowfield Heath, which is within the district of Crawley. It is a mainly rural area, not densely populated, but still home to several retail and business units, as well as a few houses.

Business Insider UK went on a virtual tour of the area thanks to Google Streetview: Most of the buildings are warehouses and deposits connected to the activity of the airport. There are plenty of parking lots too:

 It is not all commercial. There are also many fields:

The whole area is green. A quiet home in the countryside was probably what these families were looking for when buying these houses. They shall be demolished if the new runway is built.

The same could be said of this house in Peeks Broke Lane, which is about 2 kilometres from the airport. It will have to be demolished, if the plan passes on.

And even the local church of St Michael will be demolished. It was built in 1867 and it has even a dedicated Wikipedia page:

The Davies Commission has just the task of presenting the different options. It will be up to the Government to come up with a decision, but the consultation process has started.

It's not all pastoral charm, however. One of the sites is occupied by the Travelodge hotel:

Others are occupied by courier express or transport companies, like Sea Space, whose Gatwick unit is in Old Brighton road, right where the runway is going to be built if the option passes:

A similar fate will occur to all the buildings on the same road:

Gatwick is the cheapest and easiest option, costing a minimum of £4 million less than any further expansion at Heathrow, according to The Guardian.

Heathrow though has the perk of keeping most of the traffic in the same location, a much better option for anyone catching a connection.

The consultation process closes on February 3 next year.  

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The Associated Press recently ran a very good story about the increasing number of close encounters between commercial aircraft and drones.

The proliferation of small UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) is an emerging threat. I’m usually the farthest thing from a doomsayer, but this is something we all should be worried about. Left unchecked, it’s an accident waiting to happen. The FAA needs to act quickly to better enforce restrictions. Rules already exist, but many drone operators either don’t know about them, or flout them. “The agency’s near-total ban,” says the AP story, “has been ignored by operators ranging from real estate agents to farmers who use them to monitor crops.” The FAA can’t be patrolling our parks and streets, of course, so it’s going to need help from local law enforcement.

One problem, maybe, is that hobbyists and other drone operators don’t see their drones as dangerous. However, it’s absolutely true that a collision between a drone — even a relatively small drone — and a commercial jetliner could be catastrophic. This is particularly so if the collision were to damage the plane’s control surfaces, stabilizers, tail or cockpit. A jetliner traveling at 250 miles per hour (in the U.S., that’s the maximum speed when flying below 10,000 feet) hitting a 25-pound UAV would create a huge amount of force — around 40,000 pounds of it. The bigger the drone, the greater the potential damage from the impact forces, shrapnel, etc. Most hobby drones are a lot lighter than 25 pounds and don’t fly very high, posing little danger. But bigger, heavier machines are out there, and we’ll be seeing more of them: Paramilitary border patrol drones; police departments surveillance drones; Bezos and his fleet dropping iPhones and toaster ovens from the sky. It’s these larger drones that are of greatest concern. If an operator should lose control of one of these things, or it otherwise wanders into airspace it shouldn’t be in, the results could be deadly.

Drones are normally invisible to air traffic control and onboard radar.

One part of the AP story that needs clarifying, though, is the part where it says, “The reports underscore the difficulty the FAA faces trying to control drones, which could cause a crash if one collided with a plane or was sucked into an engine.” Actually, a small drone impacting an engine would be very unlikely to cause a crash. It would almost certainly result in a failure of that engine, and possibly its destruction and subsequent airframe damage, but as most people realize commercial planes can fly just fine on one engine. As a pilot I’d much rather deal with engine damage than, say, damage to the tail or a horizontal stabilizer. That said, a large-enough drone hitting an engine could introduce serious complications, such as the engine breaking from the pylon and hitting the tail structure, or pieces penetrating the cabin, etc.

Neither would a drone be “sucked in,” as the reporter puts it. That’s not how it works. Jet engines don’t suck in objects from out of the sky. Whether a drone impacts an engine, a wing, or any other part of the plane, it’s really just a function of speed, direction, vector.

SEE ALSO: Pilot Explains What It Really Means When There's Turbulence During A Flight

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It's about to get a lot more enjoyable to wait for a flight at Newark Liberty International Airport's United Terminal.

An ambitious new $120 million makeover plan of Terminal C by airport amenity manager OTG includes 55 new restaurants headed by celebrated chefs (see the list here), new retail spaces, and visual upgrades galore.

As part of the plan, OTG will be installing 6,000 new iPads so passengers can order from the fancy new menus.When passengers sit down at one the iPads, they scan their boarding pass or enter their United MileagePlus account number. The screen then shows updated flight information, which is always visible, even when the screen shifts to the food menus of the new restaurants. 

Shopping is also possible from the iPads, and passengers can order travel amenities like ear buds or a neck pillow. Orders are expected to arrive at your seat in 15 minutes, and passengers can pay for both food and other items with either credit card or their MileagePlus award points.

For the tech obsessed, there will also be power outlets at every seat and over 10,000 in total.

Master architect David Rockwell's Rockwell Group, which has designed everything from the Academy Awards to restaurants, was behind over half of the spaces in the new terminal. According to Fast Company, this includes the "beer garden" with an intricate metal roof and an Italian-style cafe area with huge columns.

"We didn't really believe them when they said they wanted this," Rockwell told Fast Company. "We did something that was kind of out there and they said 'Well, we'd really like it to be incredible.' That's when I realized this is really about pushing the boundary of these airport spaces and making them [about] communalfood and art."

Renovations for the new restaurants have already started and existing restaurants will continue to close gradually so the spaces can be updated. The first new restaurants will be open for business in summer of 2015, with the whole project completed in 2016. 

SEE ALSO: 10 First Class Airline Seats That Might Be Better Than Your Apartment

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