20 NOV 2002 _________________________________ *Pilot Who Jumped Faced NASA Probe *Girlfriend tells German court about Sept 11 pilot *Boeing Names David Wang President Of Boeing China *MedAire Extends Inflight Safety Services to NetJets Europe *Wing piece falls off Iberia Boeing 747, union says *FedEx Express Transports Six Threatened Polar Bears from Puerto Rico to the U.S. *Today in History ********************************************** Pilot Who Jumped Faced NASA Probe HOUSTON (AP) - A man who apparently jumped to his death from a single-engine plane at 9,000 feet was the target of a federal investigation involving the theft of NASA technology, authorities said. Russell Edward Filler, a 47-year-old engineer for a NASA contractor, became a suspect when federal authorities traced a NASA laptop computer to his home. The computer disappeared Oct. 25. He was contacted by federal authorities Thursday. On Sunday, Filler went to Hooks Airport because he needed more hours to renew his pilot's license. Filler turned the controls of the single-engine Cessna 152 over to his flight instructor, then asked him to turn the plane sharply so he could get a better look at the ground, Waller County Sheriff Randy Smith said. Smith said Filler then opened the cockpit door and unfastened his seat belt as the plane flew over a rural area about 45 miles northwest of Houston. The instructor looked away for a moment, and when he looked back he saw Filler's feet going out the door. Filler's body has not been found. Filler told authorities last week that he bought the computer for $500 through an ad posted in a grocery store, said Harris County sheriff's Capt. Robert Van Pelt. Van Pelt said Filler turned on the computer and saw that it had some non-sensitive NASA software on it, but he kept the computer. Filler admitted he knew the computer was stolen, Van Pelt said. Filler worked for United Space Alliance since 1996 in the contractor's integrated test and verification group, which does ground testing for the international space station. Waller County Sheriff's Lt. John Kremmer said officials are not officially calling the fall a suicide, but ``there was no accidental exit from the aircraft.'' There was no indication he had a parachute, he said. Federal officials inspected the Cessna, but found nothing wrong with its cockpit door latch or with the seat belt, Smith said. The investigation and the search for the body were continuing, authorities said. ************** Girlfriend tells German court about Sept 11 pilot HAMBURG, Germany, Nov 19 (Reuters) - The girlfriend of an alleged September 11 hijacker told a German court on Tuesday she helped him find a flying school, planned to marry him and got an odd phone call from him on the day of the attack. Aysel Sengun, a German-born doctor, spoke at length about her close relationship with Ziad Jarrah, who U.S. authorities believe flew the hijacked jet that crashed in Pennsylvania. "He called me on September 11...he was very brief. He said he loved me three times. I asked what was up. He hung up shortly afterwards... It was so short and rather strange him saying that repeatedly," Sengun told the court at the trial of Mounir El Motassadeq, a Moroccan accused of being the paymaster for the al Qaeda cell which led the attacks in the United States. Sengun said she met Jarrah in the western German city of Bochum in 1996. She talked of problems in their relationship, but said they kept in close contact throughout her Lebanese boyfriend's subsequent time in Hamburg and the United States. "He had a different view of Islam than I did. He was more serious... He wanted me to cover up. I said I wouldn't do so for him, only for God," Sengun said, sitting in a turtle-neck pullover and jeans next to her lawyer. Jarrah disappeared from November 1999 to February 2000. Prosecutors say he went to Afghanistan to meet fellow conspirators at an al Qaeda camp. Sengun said he told her he had visited Pakistan and returned with clothes and jewellery and a new plan to train as a pilot. "We looked on the Internet to see if it was cheaper in eastern Germany or if there was something nearby. We also looked at Turkey," she said. "We wanted to get married at some point and have children. He said he wanted to become a commercial pilot," Sengun added. She recounted Jarrah's subsequent move to the United States and her 10-day visit in January 2001. She described sitting like a passenger as Jarrah trained in a Boeing flight simulator. "He told me not to tell anyone that he was in the United States. I did tell a few people and he was very annoyed." Her only contact with the accused Motassadeq came from late 1999 to early 2000. Jarrah, who was out of the country, had asked him to look after her. Sengun said she had spoken to the accused two or three times on the telephone. However, she said she knew none of Jarrah's other friends in Hamburg, such as Mohamed Atta, who allegedly led the Hamburg cell and flew the first plane into the World Trade Center. Motassadeq, a 28-year-old electrical engineering student, is charged with being an accessory to 3,045 murders in New York and Washington and with belonging to the Islamist cell in Hamburg accused of leading the attacks. ************** Boeing Names David Wang President Of Boeing China CHICAGO -(Dow Jones)- Boeing Co. named David Wang president of Boeing- China. Wang will coordinate all business activities in China and pursue growth opportunities in that market, the aerospace company said in a press release Tuesday. Wang was most recently chairman and chief executive of General Electric Co.'s (GE) GE China. He succeeds Fred Howard, Boeing-China's president for the past three years, who will assume the new post of vice president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes' Asia/Pacific Sales. Howard will be based in Hong Kong. Boeing's shares closed Monday at $30.92, down 1.8%, on the New York Stock Exchange. Company Web site: http://www.boeing.com ************** MedAire Extends Inflight Safety Services to NetJets Europe Fractional Aircraft to Include Real-time Medical Assistance, Equipment and Training TEMPE, Ariz., Nov. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- As NetJets Europe(R) fractional aircraft owners and passengers take to the skies over the next three years, their flight crews will be more prepared than ever to handle unforeseen medical emergencies. Already a subscriber to MedLink, a 24-hour emergency physician consultation service provided by MedAire, Inc., NetJets Europe has extended the medical safety services it offers passengers and crew to include medical training for flight crew and emergency medical kits. "NetJets Europe set the international standard in 2000 when it added MedLink services to its fleet," said Aaron Hawkins, managing director of MedAire's European offices. "The additional medical training and kits now offered by NetJets clearly sets a new standard for the industry. NetJets Europe customers can travel anywhere in the world, knowing that the crew is prepared to effectively address and treat inflight illness and injury." Under the three-year agreement, MedAire will equip NetJets Europe's fleet of aircraft with aviation-specific Aircraft First Aid Kits and provide a two-day Management of Inflight Illness and Injury training course for flight crew. NetJets Europe will also receive access to MedAire's web-based medical training courses for annual refresher training. About MedAire Since 1986, MedAire has been providing fully integrated medical services and related equipment to the aviation and other industries. Offerings include remote emergency medical assistance, training and train-the-trainer programs, medical kits, defibrillation solutions and more. Clients include 42 commercial airlines, business aviation flight departments, governments and maritime operators. MedAire can be found on the Internet at www.medaire.com . SOURCE MedAire ************** Wing piece falls off Iberia Boeing 747, union says MADRID, Nov 19 (Reuters) - A metre and a half section from the wing of a Boeing 747 airplane, owned by Spanish airline Iberia, broke off during a flight to Miami, forcing the captain to turn back, a pilots' union said on Tuesday. An Iberia spokesman said the 747-200 had a fault and had turned back to Madrid's airport on Monday, where passengers were boarded onto a different plane. He would not specify the fault. "More than half an hour into the flight the crew felt unusual vibrations...a metal piece with a diameter of more than a metre and a half had fallen off the right wing," the SEPLA union said in a statement, adding that the piece had crashed against the tail. SEPLA has been at loggerheads with Iberia for months, accusing the airline of neglecting safety in a drive to cut costs. The airline has strongly denied this on numerous occasions and accuses the union of seeking excuses for conflict. In early October the union said it had asked Spanish aviation authorities to investigate what it said were recurrent break-downs of Boeing (NYSE:BA - News) 747 engines operated by Iberia. Also last month, a fighter jet escorted an Iberia 747 back to Madrid's airport after it shredded a tyre on takeoff and in August an Iberia 747 made an emergency landing in New York after a fire in one of its engines Iberia has eight Boeing 747s, including two 747-300s and six 747-200s. The 747s are the oldest planes in the carrier's fleet, and are the only ones to be replaced as part of Iberia's renovation plan, but the company has not fixed a date for their retirement. *************** FedEx Express Transports Six Threatened Polar Bears from Puerto Rico to the U.S. MEMPHIS, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 19, 2002-- U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service Will Rely on FedEx to Deliver Bears toZoos in Michigan, North Carolina and Washington State FedEx Express, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp., is donating the use of its express transportation network and logistics expertise to relocate six endangered polar bears from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to permanent zoo homes. "It is our privilege to work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and these zoos as part of this rescue mission," said Michael L. Ducker, executive vice president, International, FedEx Express. "We are proud to put our unique global network to this use in order to relocate the bears to a more suitable environment." In the first leg of the trip, FedEx Express will transport the bears - Willhelm, Masha, Boris, Kenneth, Royale and Barle - from San Juan to the FedEx Express Hub in Memphis onboard a DC-10 aircraft. Later in the day, the bears will be transloaded to three other aircraft in Memphis to fly to their final destinations near Seattle, Wash., Detroit, Mich., and Charlotte, N.C. FedEx Express will use its customs clearance expertise to expedite the animals through U.S. Customs. FedEx Express has considerable experience in transporting animals, including elephants, rhinos, lions and gorillas. In December 2000, FedEx provided air transportation, ground support and logistical expertise to deliver two giant pandas from Chengdu, China, to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. In October 2002, FedEx transported six rare white tigers from Memphis, TN to Bangkok, Thailand so that work could continue on an endangered species breeding program. The American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA) The American Zoo and Aquarium Association Bear Taxon Advisory Group (TAG) worked tirelessly to secure permanent homes for the bears so that they can begin recovering immediately from their inhumane treatment and accompanying illness. In March 2002, a seventh bear was taken from the Circus and is now thriving at the Baltimore Zoo in Baltimore, Md. According to Diana Weinhardt, curator of large mammals at the Houston Zoo and chair of AZA's Bear TAG, "The bears will be getting new homes in three wonderful facilities. The Detroit Zoo will be taking in the female bear, Barle, while the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma, WA will house two males, Kenneth and Boris. The remaining three male polar bears named Wilhelm, Masha and Royale, will go to the North Carolina Zoo, in Asheboro, N.C." ************* Today in History: Date of Accident: 20 November 1974 Airline: Lufthansa Aircraft: Boeing 747-130 Location: Nairobi, Kenya Registration: D-ABYB Flight Number: 540 Fatalities: 59:157 MSN: 19747 Line Number: 29 Engine Manufacturer: Pratt & Whitney Engine Model: JT9D-7 Year of Delivery: 1970 Accident Description: The aircraft crashed during takeoff. The hydraulic systems were not configured properly for the departure, which resulted in the failure of the leading-edge slats to extend even though they had been selected down by the flight crew. *******************