January 1 
Another year has past and a new year is with us once again - Welcome to 2003

This AirCentre News Digest has been published for almost 7 years and will enter the 8th year of "on the Internet" in July 2003

Normally at this time mention is made of the past years highlights but for this year that tradition will be dispensed with as the highlights would consist of most of last years' AirCentre News, and that information is readily available in the archives section

For those of you who enjoy pop-ups - for those readers that don't there's no need to read any further - place your mouse over the dark blue based headline banner above and click for a new year message

 December 24 
Two of Russia's top aeronautical design engineers and a number of senior engineers from the Antonov factory and Ukrainian nationals lost their lives when an An-140 crashed in Iran

"It was the same model plane that we are developing with Ukraine, but I don't think the crash will affect this project"

The aircraft with 42 passengers and four crew was carrying the engineering team to Isfahan to carry out final tests on a locally made version - the Iran-140 - of the Antonov

 December 31 
The culture in OZ's air traffic controller's club has caused Dick Smith - once voted the best person for an Australian President - to compare the (poor) level of service available here in OZ for private flights with that offered by controllers in the USA

 December 27 
In the USA a Delta Airlines co-pilot was removed from a passenger aircraft at the Norfolk International Airport after he failed a breathalyser test for alcohol consumption

The 42 year-old pilot had a blood-alcohol level of 0.07; the FAA's legal limit for a flight crew member is 0.04

The pilot of a home-built light aircraft suffered leg fractures and internal injuries after his aircraft impacted the ground west of Port Macquarie in NSW yesterday