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On Friday, the Transportation Security Administration debuted new software for the airport’s body scanners that eliminates “passenger-specific” images, instead showing security screeners a generic, computer-generated outline of a person.

French jet manufacturer Airbus has told airlines that early indications from the Air France Flight 447 data and voice recorders is that there was no major fault with the aircraft that led to the June 2009 crash, according to today's Wall Street Journal (subscription required).

HANK KRAKOWSKI, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration's Air Traffic Organization, resigned several days ago. He had drawn criticism for a series of incidents in which air traffic controllers were discovered asleep on the job. Unfortunately (and predictably), Mr Krakowski's departure doesn't seem to have made his underlings any less tired. On Saturday, yet another air traffic controller was found snoozing, this time in Miami. It's the sixth such incident so far this year.

As I, and other aviation reporters, continue to write about Southwest Flight 812's mid-flight hole in its fuselage, we look to industry experts to explain complicated issues like metal fatigue, lap joints, and double current eddy inspections.

Southwest Airlines early Saturday decided to ground 81 of its older airplanes for emergency inspections after another airplane developed a hole in its roof during flight.

Southwest announced early this morning that it is grounding 79 Boeing 737s in its fleet to check for metal fatigue.

2010 was not a particularly good year for airline safety. Data put together by Ascend, which provides information to the aviation industry, show that the year's rate of one fatal accident for every 1.3m flights compared poorly with one per 1.5m in 2009 (the safest year ever). Similarly, the number of fatal accidents rose from 23 in 2009 to 28 in 2010. And passenger deaths on passenger revenue flights rose from 609 to 726, of whom 472 died in four main accidents.

Continental Airlines has put out a response to a French court's decision finding it and a mechanic criminally responsible for the 2000 crash involving an Air France Concorde SST. Says Continental:

THE debate over the new policies of America's Transportation Security Administration (TSA) grew to a dull roar last week. Activists upset by the airport security agency's new "scope or grope" (i.e., full body scanners or full-body pat-down) policies launched their less-than-successful "opt out day" protest. 

A video is being widely circulated showing a shirtless boy receiving secondary screening from a Transportation Security Officer (TSO). A passenger filmed the screening with their cell phone and posted the video on the web. 

That reported mystery missile launch off of California? Well, the Pentagon may not have been able to figure it out but someone else did. Apparently it was just an airplane contrail with some atmospheric conditions helping create an optical illusion.

YOU probably didn't realise this, but sky marshals—the undercover federal agents who are secretly on board many US flights—almost always fly first class. The airlines, naturally, don't like this arrangement. 

The comings and goings of federal air marshals are supposed to be invisible to travelers, but it doesn’t always work out that way. Many road warriors think they can pick out the clean-cut law enforcement types.