Airlines and airport authorities have criticised new plans by the Government to impose an annual €1m levy on airports to beef up security inspections by the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA).

Four months after the Rescue 116 disaster off Black Rock fresh questions have been raised about when the company responsible for an onboard warning system were first alerted to shortcomings in the system, writes Ciara Phelan.

The inaugural Qatar Airways flight from Doha to Dublin landed yesterday as the airline pleaded with the UN to intervene in the crisis which has seen the Middle Eastern country cut off from its neighbours. 

Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary is one of the most successful businessmen this country has produced. He radiates a can-do, won’t-take-no-for-an-answer determination and positivity.

Good afternoon. Here’s all the news you need to know this lunchtime.

A centre that will be able to track aircraft in distress from space will be based at an Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) facility in Co Clare.

The second attempt to lift the fuselage of the crashed AirAsia jetliner has failed as the wreckage sank back to the ocean floor when a rope linking the lifting balloons broke.

For the first time, Indonesian divers have been able to enter the fuselage of the AirAsia jetliner that crashed last month into the Java Sea and retrieved six bodies, an official said.

The overarching problem with tracking planes is the vast expanse of Earth devoid of radar cover — with as much as 80% of the world a blind spot to surveillance, writes Justin Bachman.

The Netherlands’ prime minister has called a halt to the search for remains of victims of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 disaster in Ukraine, saying it is too dangerous to continue.

The European Union and US are to impose new economic sanctions against Russia following the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which has been blamed on Moscow-backed rebels in Ukraine.

The risk to passenger planes flying over war zones following the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 will be discussed at a special meeting of world aviation chiefs today.

Dutch air safety officials leading the investigation into the MH17 disaster have still not got safe access to the crash site in eastern Ukraine.

Bowing to international pressure, pro-Moscow separatists released a train packed with bodies and handed over the black boxes from the downed Malaysia Airlines plane.

Another 21 bodies have been found in the sprawling fields of east Ukraine where Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was downed last week, killing all 298 people on board.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has lambasted those he claims are using the downing of the Malaysia Airlines passenger jet in eastern Ukraine for “mercenary objectives”, the Kremlin said today.

Rescuers at the site of the Malaysia Airlines crash in Ukraine say they have recovered 251 bodies.

An urgent United Nations Security Council vote could take place as early as tonight on a resolution demanding international access to the Ukraine plane crash site.

Rebels have recovered the black boxes from downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 and will hand them over to the International Civil Aviation Organisation, a rebel leader said yesterday.

The family of an Irish woman killed in the Malaysian air crash are still waiting for information on her remains.

The Ukraine government and the pro-Russia separatists who control the site of the Malaysian plane crash have reached a preliminary agreement to remove the bodies of the victims, a senior Ukrainian official said.

Ukraine has accused Russia of helping separatist rebels destroy evidence at the crash site of a Malaysia Airlines plane shot down in rebel-held territory – a charge the rebels deny.

Hit by two tragedies in quick succession, the Malaysia Airlines brand may become the airline industry’s equivalent of asbestos or News of the World: toxic to the public and, according to experts, impossible to redeem.

Separatist rebels say they have found “most” of the recording devices from the Malaysia Airlines plane that was shot down over rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine.

Rescue workers, police and even coal miners are combing the site where a Malaysian jet crashed after being shot from the sky.

Up to 80 children were feared to be among the 295 passengers and crew who died after the Malaysian Airways plane was shot down over Ukraine yesterday afternoon.

As planes spent a third day hunting for two large objects spotted by satellite in the southern Indian Ocean, Australian officials today said they were far from giving up on what remains the strongest lead in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

The president of the Irish Airline Pilots' Association is calling on Transport Minister Leo Varadkar to launch an independent investigation into the effectiveness of the Irish Aviation Authority.

US airline passengers will be able to carry small knives on planes.

Global airlines yesterday called for a UN-brokered deal to prevent a row over aviation emissions between China and the EU spilling into a trade war.

The Chinese government has banned the country’s airlines from paying controversial charges on carbon emissions imposed by the European Union.

IRELAND has been ranked amongst the best in the world for regulating and implementing safety standards in civil aviation.

AN airline pilot was forced to declare an emergency after almost all the passengers fell asleep during its ascent just minutes after taking off from Dublin Airport.

THE aviation industry ignored calls to investigate whether planes could fly in certain “safe” levels of ash cloud on three separate occasions between 2007 and early April 2010.

WHEN the volcanic ash cloud covered much of Europe, the only option was to shut down the airspace, because nobody knew what else to do.

THE Labour Party conference this weekend cited the introduction of a higher rate of income tax for higher earners and the maintenance of employment as desirable political objectives in the current economic turmoil.

INDONESIA’S transportation minister yesterday said rescuers had not found the wreckage of a missing passenger jetliner, despite earlier statements from aviation and police officials that it had been located.

The number of air crashes around the world in 2006 was the lowest in 53 years, making it one of the safest in aviation history, an independent watchdog said in Switzerland today.

A REPLICA bomb, a gun and a knife concealed in a woman's underwear were among the items smuggled through security at Dublin Airport in an anti-terrorist audit yesterday.

The Egyptian charter company whose plane crashed into the Red Sea killing 148 people had been banned from flying to Switzerland for more than a year because of technical problems, a civil aviation official said today.

Israel is to ban foreign airliners without bulletproof cockpit doors from flying over the country or landing at its airports from October. 31, a spokesman for the country's Ministry of Transportation said.

Every airline and airport in the world will have to initiate new improved

The UN's Civil Aviation Agency is preparing laws to deal with air rage, that could develop into an international treaty.