Almost 90 drones fell from the sky over Sydney's Darling Harbour during a popular winter light show, with footage showing devices splashing into the water, close to crowds. Organisers of Vivid Sydney, an annual three-week festival that features large light installations, said the malfunction on Monday evening, local time, was due to "an unforeseen change in the radio frequency environment occurring after take-off, and has cancelled several upcoming shows.
Footage of Monday's show captured dozens of drones as they tumbled out of the night sky, leaving bystanders confused by the aerial display.
Skymagic, the UK company behind the show, blamed a change in radio frequency for the glitch and said none of the drones fell outside safety boundaries.
"The sound of them crashing on the wharf was considerable even from probably 10 to 15 or 20 metres away; you could hear them physically crash and smash onto the cement marina," a Darling Harbour worker told the national broadcaster ABC.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9d330wqq2zo
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Air France and Airbus have been found guilty of manslaughter over a 2009 plane crash which killed 228 people.
The Paris Appeals Court found the airline and aircraft manufacturer "solely and entirely responsible" for the incident, in which flight AF447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. The passenger jet stalled during a storm and plunged into the water, killing all on board. All 12 crew members and 216 passengers on board the flight were killed when the plane crashed into the sea from a height of 38,000ft (11,580m), making it the deadliest incident in French aviation history.
A court had previously cleared the companies in April 2023, but they were found guilty on 21st May 2026 after an eight-week trial. Both have repeatedly denied the charges and say they will appeal.
The wreckage was located after a long search of 10,000 sq km (3,860 sq miles) of sea floor. But the flight recorder was not found until 2011, after months of deep-sea searches.
The companies have been asked to pay the maximum fine - €225,000 (£194,500) each.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czd2qmdvmq6o
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Commercial aviation has never been safer. In 2025 alone, airlines operated almost 39 million flights worldwide, with the accident rate falling to roughly one accident for every 760,000 flights. For passengers, that is reassuring. For investigators and regulators however, it is creating an unexpected reporting problem. The IATA says too many investigations are failing to meet the standards set out in Annex 13 of the Chicago Convention – the international framework governing aircraft accident investigations.
Between 2019 and 2023, only 63% of accident investigations were completed in accordance with Annex 13 requirements. The remainder were delayed, incomplete, unpublished or failed to meet international reporting standards.
https://aerospaceglobalnews.com/news/aviation-accidents-misreported-iata
img: IATA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Amazon has officially launched its first UK drone delivery service in Darlington, County Durham, the only location outside of the US. The service delivers parcels weighing less than 5lb (2.2kg), such as batteries, beauty products, and cables. It currently operates within a 7.5-mile (12km) radius of Amazon’s fulfilment centre. Amazon is using its latest MK30 drone, which is autonomous and equipped with sensors to avoid obstacles like people, pets, and power lines. It drops packages from a height of about 12 feet onto the customer's property.
Darlington was chosen because it provides a mix of residential areas and complex airspace (near Teesside Airport) to test the technology's versatility. The service currently requires customers to have a garden or yard for the drop-off, making it unsuitable for high-rise buildings or dense urban centres at this stage.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has approved the trial until the end of the year, allowing Amazon to fly drones "beyond visual line of sight" (BVLOS).
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx21k21vnmgo
img: From Amazon Press Centre
An early flood warning system designed to save the lives of thousands of people in the Everest region may no longer be working, Nepalese officials have admitted after it was allowed to fall into a state of disrepair.
The disclosure came after villagers in the local Sherpa communities said no inspection of the UN-supported project had been carried out for many years after the dangerous Imja glacial lake was last drained in 2016.
An early flood warning system designed to save the lives of thousands of people in the Everest region may no longer be working, Nepalese officials have admitted after it was allowed to fall into a state of disrepair.
Since then, no maintenance has been undertaken, which means siren towers have been left to rust, while some have even had their batteries stolen, according to locals.
On top of this, the satellite data reception transmitting the lake's water level - which can then be used to send out mobile phone alerts to locals - has been unreliable, officials at Nepal's department of hydrology and meteorology (DHM) told the BBC.
The Imja lake, which sits at a little over 5,000m (16,400ft) above sea level, has not burst since it was drained a decade ago - at which point, it was almost 150m deep in places.
Back then, the depth of the lake was reduced by about 3.5m as part of a $3.5m risk reduction project, which included the early warning system.
But scientists warn global warming-induced fast melting glaciers are causing many Himalayan glacial lakes to expand dangerously - meaning they can then burst out and sweep away downstream settlements, trekking routes and bridges.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czjwr93vrrzo
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