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THE SEVEN-YEAR-OLD Syrian girl whose Twitter account provided a tragic window for the world into the destruction of her hometown Aleppo has described taking up blogging to give a voice to the city’s children.
Bana al-Abed was one of thousands of people evacuated from once rebel-held areas of Aleppo in the last days under a deal brokered by Turkey and Russia.
She was evacuated on Monday and taken to the Turkish capital along with her family, including her mother Fatemah who manages the account.
“We wanted the world to hear the voice of the children of Aleppo. We spoke of the bombardments and tweeted so that people could see the war,” Bana told AFP in an interview in Ankara.
Bana and her family lived in east Aleppo, which was controlled by rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and backed by Turkey.
They were evacuated as the area was being overrun by government forces, who are now on the verge of clinching their biggest victory in the six-year war by taking total control of Aleppo.
“I fear the war because he wants to kill us,” she said in apparent reference to Assad. “I am scared. I fear for my brothers and for my parents,” she said in Arabic.
Yesterday she was given the rare honour of being hosted along with her family by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the presidential palace in Ankara.
‘Like a hell’
For her 330,000 online followers, Bana became a symbol of the tragedy in Syria, as she and her mother sent poignant tweets on the destruction of their city and the struggles of daily life.
Assad’s regime has slammed her and her mother’s messages as propaganda, and pro-government critics even alleged the account was fake.
But her mother Fatemah, who runs the account @AlabedBana, said such allegations were purely motivated by jealousy.
“I think everyone says that because they are jealous. And they know that we are real and want to make us feel upset.
“So I think they must see this and he will recognise that we are not a propaganda,” Fatemah said, speaking in English.
Fatemah said “our life in Aleppo was like a hell”.
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9 of the 12 Irish MEPs supported the position of the Irish Air Line Pilots Association.
Europe has disregarded the advice of its own scientific advisors, and missed out on an opportunity to produce scientifically based rules in favour of commercial interests.
It’s a sad day for aviation safety!
I thought pilots could only fly a maximum of 900 hours per year , why does the above say a reduction from 1300 hours to 1000 hours?
Once again those unaccountable pen pushers delve into industries they know nothing about, this is bad for passengers and pilots alike. The winners are arsehole airline management who will award themselves bonuses and politicians creating busywork for themselves. All the scientifically based rest and ftl rules go in the bin.
Pilot can fly for 11 hours, truck driver can only drive a max of 10. Somethings not well thought out.
but in fairness no auto pilot on a truck and only one driver
At least if a truck has an emergency just pull over to the side of the road not the same for aircraft . And some air operations are single pilot.
And a doctor can work for 36 hours.
Commercial airlines have few single pilot. Do ialpa want hours flying even lower … is that why they object?
If you understood what commercial flying is, you would know that all commercial pilots operating with companies with an AOC are bound by JAR-FCL which is the same as airline pilots.
You are correct I don’t know the technical definition of commercial as I don’t work in the industry. But as a layman reading the article my take is that iapla want even further reductions and restrictions on flying time which would require more pilots to run a schedule. No doubt a pay cut isn’t part of their plans. Contract pilots likely to increase at progressive airlines. One layman’s view only.
Have the airline pilots been asked for their opinion on the rule changes and if not why not, judging by their negative reaction it seems not, but now the EU have once again gone ahead and changed the rules without consultation.
So the cost will just go up
What people have to remember regarding pilots hours is they are calculated from off blocks (plane pushed off stand) to on blocks plane arrives at the gate.
You then need to factor in taxi delays ATC flow restrictions,Turn around times of the aircraft and also the pre flight which normally is 1 hour prior to departure+post flight debriefing.
Worst case: try driving your family laden car up rough slippery track into your unlit garage at speed on a dark wet night after 11 hours on the road…
I hope the people that brought this in will be on board when the accident happens, pure madness
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