(JNi.media) A revelation made by Defense Aerospace last week exposes what could emerge as a sinister plot on the part of the US and F-35 maker Lockheed Martin to disable at will the new aircraft while it is in use by a client state.

Back in September, JNi.media quoted Steve Over, Lockheed Martin director for F-35 International Business Development, who said that even though Israel will have “plenty of capability to do light maintenance in-country” for the aircraft, all the heavy maintenance of the airframes and engines will be done at Joint Program Office-managed, company-established facilities “just like we do with all our other partners.”

At the time, we attributed the Americans’ anxiety to the fact that Israeli technicians love messing around with their American machines until their makers can barely recognize them. We wrote: Perhaps betraying their reservations about what usually happens to the American weapons after the Israelis lay their hands on them, Lockheed executives said Israel would be able to add specific capabilities or upgraded functions—which the Israelis love doing—as long as it did not affect the overall design or the aircraft software. As Over put it: “The Israelis have an ability to do some unique things. But anything wholesale that would impact the design or capabilities driving all the airplanes for all the countries would have to be done by consensual agreement.”

According to Defense Aerospace, the US has made a unilateral decision to locate all F-35 software laboratories on US shores, where US personnel will manage the operation and support of all the F-35 fleets, foreign and domestic. This unprecedented move introduces a huge risk that the F-35—which must maintain permanent data exchanges with the software labs and logistic support computers to operate effectively—may be disabled or even downed in extreme cases, any time the two-way flow of information is disrupted.

Mind you, this vulnerability does not refer to a malicious interruption on the part of the US operators, only the loss of Internet service for any reason, such as accidentally corrupted router tables to a malicious Russian submarine cutting the undersea Internet cables which they have been aggressively operating near as of late. But, this same “problem” could become an enormous leverage for the US, should it decide to severely hamper the operation of entire foreign F-35 fleets.

For an aircraft that costs around $100 million per unit, this is some design glitch.

It will mean that all the F-35s in the world will have to update their mission data files and their Autonomic Logistic Information System (ALIS) profiles before and after every sortie—and not while in the air—to guarantee that the systems on-board are programmed with the latest available operational data and that ALIS is kept permanently informed of each aircraft’s technical status and maintenance requirements. At the moment, that process is also excruciatingly slow.

Here’s a fun fact: according to Defense Aerospace, the ALIS has been known to prevent aircraft from taking off because of an incomplete data file.

The F35’s shortcomings are well known, involving hardware malfunctions and software glitches cost its development program three years and $200 billion over budget, according to CNN. Then, while the world was watching, there was that bedeviled mock dog-fight last January, when the spiffy, new F-35 kept losing to the plane it is supposed to replace, the good old F-16, because the F-35 just couldn’t turn quickly enough to engage the F-16.

US Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said back then that the dogfight provided “valuable data,” which could mean a lot of scary things. Then she promised the new F-35 will be a completely different plane when it’s fully operational and will guarantee the US’ continued air supremacy over its rivals.

But when she said that no one would have guessed she was talking about booby trapping the F-35 sold to US allies.

A Royal Jordanian Airbus A320 flight from Dubai to Amman, Jordan was forced to make an emergency landing, in Israel at Ben Gurion Airport.

The plane, RJA611, was diverted due to poor landing conditions in Jordan, and low fuel.

The plane landed safely at 3:15 PM.

Airport personnel gave the passengers Krembos (a cookie and cream treat).

Passengers on the flight from Dubai receive Krembos after landing in Israel.

(JNi.media) The Russian Airbus that crashed in the Sinai Saturday, killing all 224 people on board, broke apart “in the air,” according to a senior official of the Russian Interstate Aviation Committee. RIA-Novosti reported that committee chief Viktor Sorochenko believes “the disintegration happened in the air and the fragments are strewn over a large area.” However, Sorochenko cautioned it was “too early to draw conclusions.” Sorochenko is part of an international panel of experts from Russia, Egypt, France and Ireland investigating the crash.

According to The Telegraph, Egypt’s civil aviation minister Hossam Kamal reported there was been no evidence of problems during the flight: “Up until the crash happened, we were never informed of any faults in the plane, nor did we receive any SOS calls,” Kamal said. All contact with air traffic control was normal, and the routine, pre-flight checks showed no problems, he added.

Earlier, Ayman al-Muqadem, a member of the Egyptian Aviation Incidents Committee, said the pilot reported technical difficulties before losing contact with air traffic controllers, and asked to land at the nearest airport.

Experts have doubted ISIS’ boasting, accompanied by a video claiming to show that their affiliates in the Sinai shot the plane down, suggesting it was impossible for a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher to hit the plane at its cruising altitude of 31,000 ft. However, an advanced surface-to-air missile could do it. Should ISIS have been able to acquire such a system in Iraq or Syria and manage to transport it to the Sinai, under the watch of both the Egyptian and Israeli armies—then taking down an Airbus could have been carried out.

Le Parisien quoted former French intelligence agent Yves Trotignon, who pointed out that ISIS’ claim was vague on how the flight was actually destroyed. Normally, the ISIS videos showing the downing of enemy aircraft are accompanied by a live sound track, rife with astonished cries of “Allahu akbar” as the target is hit. The newest video is silent, accompanied by an Arabic song track. It also starts with a plane flying and getting hit, absent the usual “before” shots that lend the video context and authenticity.

“The [ISIS] statement does not say they shot it down, but that they destroyed it,” Trotignon said. “You could imagine explosives on board, or sabotage.”

(JNi.media) The Israeli government is still waiting, like the rest of us, for results from the Egyptian investigation of the Russian plane that crashed in the Sinai on its way from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg. Although it is not largely believed that this was done deliberately, as ISIS is claiming, Israeli state officials are still waiting to see proof that the Islamic State is not behind the crash.

Amos Gilad, head of the political and security office in the Defense Ministry, told Walla on Sunday: “We trust the Egyptian statements which have shown good judgment and a professional examination. ISIS do have anti-aircraft missiles, but not the type that can hit a plane at a cruising altitude (the Russian plane was at an altitude of 40 thousand feet and shoulder-fired missiles simply do not reach that far up). There will be an in-depth investigation to rule out any possibilities of terror. Right now, they’re leaning towards a technical malfunction.”

Regarding the suspension of Air France and Lufthansa flights that pass over the Sinai, Gilad said: “These private companies have decided to suspend flights until they see the test results. Israeli companies will continue flying to Eilat normally because their airplanes are protected in three envelopes. The Elbit defense system is most impressive technologically, and Israel has adopted it. In addition, the Israeli Intelligence and deterrence systems are operating to prevent this kind of situation. Israel is well aware of the range of threats emanating from ISIS. This is a murderous organization with extremist ideologies that tries to undermine the existing order in the Middle East.”

Meanwhile, Russia’s air safety regulator has ordered Metrojet, the airline whose charter plane crashed in the Sinai, to suspend flights pending the probe, Al Ahram reported. Rostransnadzor, Russia’s transport safety watchdog, on Sunday ordered the carrier to ground its fleet of Airbus A321s following Saturday’s crash.

(JNi.media) Congressmen Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) and members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Thursday introduced bipartisan legislation to help keep families seated together on commercial flights.

HR 3334, The Families Flying Together Act of 2015, would require the US Department of Transportation to direct airlines to notify passengers traveling with minors if seats are not available together at the initial booking stage, and for each airline to establish a policy to ensure, to the extent practicable, that families are seated together during flights.

“Air travel is complicated and expensive enough for families without adding new stresses,” Nadler said, adding, “Families should not be stuck paying hidden fees, or buying ‘premium’ seats, simply because they wish to be seated together on crowded flights. It is positively absurd to expect a two- or three-year-old to sit unattended, next to strangers, on an airplane. It is up to air carriers to make their seating policies clear and easily accessible to the public.”

The current bill to authorize the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) expires at the end of September. Davis and Nadler are working with the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to get these provisions included in the upcoming reauthorization.

In 2012, Congressman Nadler introduced a bipartisan bill secure equal treatment of Palestinian and Jewish refugees, “strongly” encouraging the US administration, when speaking on the issue of Middle Eastern refugees at international forums, to pair any explicit reference to Palestinian refugees with similar reference to Jewish and other refugee populations.

(JNi.media) Flight LY81 departing from Ben Gurion Airport to Bangkok on Sunday night was targeted with a green laser at least 3 times, according to a passenger who contacted JNi.media. The passenger, who lives in Samaria, identified the laser beam as coming from the village of Beit Ur al-Tachta, some 15 miles from the airport.

Dozens of pilots in the US and Europe have reported being flashed with green laser beams. When somebody aims a laser at the cockpit, it can flash-blind the pilot to the point that he can’t see anything. If the beam gets both eyes, the pilot is disabled.

Last year, the FAA reported 3,894 laser incidents, and this year pilots in the US have already experienced more than 2,750 laser flashes.

An El Al spokesperson told JNi.media she could not confirm or deny the information, as the company does not keep a record of these incidents. According to the spokesperson, the green lasers pose no risk to El Al flights, and El Al complies with all security requirements.

Flight tracking websites such as Flight Aware help track the progress of flights to and from Ben Gurion. A terrorist living near the airport, looking to disrupt an El Al flight, could easily use websites like this to determine if the flight that just took off belongs to El Al.

Firefighters fought a large fire in Ein Yael, Jerusalem, located opposite the Biblical Zoo, and up the road from Malcha Mall.

A firefighting plane had to be called in to control the blaze.