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from Photographers Blog:
Trading fear for photos on a stricken plane
We took off smoothly for the short flight from Singapore to Jakarta, and I started falling asleep. Suddenly I was woken up by the sound of two bangs, like a bomb or truck tire blowing out. My wife gripped my hand and asked “Do you smell something burning?” Yes, there was a sharp smell stinging my nose. I realized there was something wrong because all the stewardesses ran back with the food carts.
The plane started to vibrate, harder and harder. I held my wife’s hand tightly and looked at her face as she started praying. My two younger children were asleep, after their first ever trip abroad, but not Pradipta, the eldest one. “Pra look through the window and watch outside,” I said. “I see light, I see fire, I see fire,” he said. Then the electricity was switched off.
I realized the plane, an Airbus A330, had a big problem. I was afraid because I thought we would die. Pradipta looked into my eyes and asked: “Will we die?" I was afraid and could not answer the question. I looked at all my children’s faces and held my lovely wife’s hands tightly.
During my many years of assignments as a Reuters photojournalist, when flying I have imagined being on a plane that had a problem that forced an emergency landing, and then taking pictures. But I never imagined this situation with my family. But it happened. We will die together, so we can fly to heaven together, I thought. If we die together, I will not miss my wife’s delicious cooking, I will not miss the smell of my kids’ sweat. There will be no tears among us. My thoughts, to my surprise, stopped me being afraid any more.
from Reuters Investigates:
Boeing’s extreme outsourcing
Today's special report from Kyle Peterson takes an in-depth look at the development of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner. Boeing went further than ever before in outsourcing much of the work on the plane, upsetting its unionized workers in the Seattle area. This graphic shows why.
So what's the result?
A revolutionary, light-weight aircraft that is nearly three years behind its delivery schedule.
from Africa News blog:
Was Nigerian bomber a one-off?
Quite apart from the Nigerian would-be plane bomber’s lack of success, there are other reasons why Africa’s most populous nation cannot be expected to produce a rash of similar cases.
As this Reuters story from Sahabi Yahaya in the bomber’s home town of Funtua points out, it is Umar Abdulmutallab’s foreign education rather than his background in Muslim northern Nigeria that is seen as having radicalised him.
from DealZone:
Plane talk
Citi scrapped plans to buy a $50 million corporate jet after it raised eyebrows all the way to the White House. Politicians called the order, which was made in 2005, wasteful.
True, Citi has been propped up by taxpayers, swallowing up $45 billion of capital since October. Its market value is now only about $17 billion. And it has lost more than $28.5 billion in the last 15 months.
from Photographers Blog:
Stars align, for passengers and photographers alike
Gary Hershorn is the Reuters News pictures editor for the Americas
It was another ordinary Thursday in the Thomson Reuters building in Times Square.
I was spending endless hours at my desk on the 19th floor, helping to work out the logistics for next week's presidential inauguration and talking with photographer Eric Thayer.
from Tales from the Trail:
Press corps musical chairs on Obama plane
WASHINGTON - What a popular guy.
Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama is so popular that some "tough decisions" had to be made about which members of the press corps would fly on his plane during the final days of the campaign.
Off the plane this weekend will be the Dallas Morning 
News, New York Post and Washington Times. Among those taking seats will be staffers from the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune, according to a campaign official.
Flying with the candidate is crucial because it expedites getting to campaign events, eliminating the hassles of commercial travel, as well as provides access to the candidate or other officials on the plane.
"Unfortunately, demand for seats on the plane during this final weekend has far exceeded supply, and because of logistical issues we made the decision not to add a second plane," said Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
"This means we've had to make hard and unpleasant for all concerned decisions about limiting some news organizations and in some cases not being in a position to offer space to news organizations altogether," she said.
A campaign official said adding a second plane would have cut a city a day from the schedule and that also larger news outlets were facing new limits on the number of seats on the plane, such as for columnists and extra correspondents.
Conservative outlet DrudgeReport highlighted the fact that all three newspapers losing their spots on the plane endorsed Republican rival John McCain for president.
The Dallas Morning News said it had no evidence of a connection to its endorsement, blogging its explanation here. The New York Post wrote its response here, suggesting it was not in the news business to be "liked". The Washington Times said it was unhappy with the decision which it noted came two days after it endorsed McCain. A campaign official said the Times was told before it made its endorsement.
Psaki said the campaign would still help correspondents not on the plane with hotel reservations, space on the buses and ensuring they receive the information that is given to the reporters on the plane.
from Summit Notebook:
The credit crisis is affecting us all…
Spare a thought for the mega-rich.
While the man or woman on the street cuts back on non-essential spending as the value of their home falls and they worry more about whether or not they will keep their job, so too multi-millionaires are feeling the pinch.
Javier Arus Castillo, general manager of Santander Private Banking International, explains.
from Our Take on Your Take:
Up close and loud
By getting close to the action, Ahmad Firdaus has managed to give us a sense of how loud this scene must be through the child's reaction.
View this week's You Witness selection here.
