Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner was forced to land after one of its engines “lost thrust.” Rather, it’s no problem to fly on one engine, but they thought it prudent to land anyway.
That’s why they’re testing it. (After two years of setbacks.)
I’m sure Boeing will have things sorted out so they can keep selling them (840 orders so far for the 787 — the most ever) and we can get back to worrying about lost luggage and if overweight passengers should be buying one seat or two.
Sure you can understand how Mitt Romney’s attacker was shown the door on the way back from Canada, but what about a doctor, who asked for a glass of water for his very pregnant wife? Hard to justify that one. The plane was grounded at La Guardia airport for two hours and he reportedly made several pleas for a glass of water for his wife. That was apparently too much of a hassle, but it wasn’t too much of a hassle to boot him and his wife off the plane. Congrats Spirit Airways. That appears to be a new low in customer service.
Director Kevin Smith (self-described as “way fat”) was booted off a Southwest Airlines flight because of his size. The captain considered him a “flight risk.”
His 1.6 million Twitter followers could follow it minute by minute. Here’s what they read: “Hey @SouthwestAir? F**k making it right for me just ’cause I have a platform. I sat next to a big girl who was chastised for not buying an extra ticket because “all passengers deserve their space.” F**king flight wasn’t even full! F**k your size-ist policy. Rude…”
Southwest gave him a $100 voucher for the hardship he endured.
Bought to you by the South African carrier Kulula, who hopes to use this design to “demystify air travel.” They’re calling the plane “Flying 101.” The pilot is “the big cheese” and the toilet is labeled “Loo (or mile-high initiation chamber).” As someone pointed out on Gadling’s website, if it ever crashes it will be easier to put back together.
A 37-year-old Brit was arrested in Sweden after a Ryanair staffer claimed he was secretly filming their security procedures — whatever those on-board security procedures might be (putting the seat back? stowing luggage overhead? seat belt demonstration?)
The crew reported this to the police, who were on hand to greet (read: arrest) the suspect when he arrived at Skavsta airport south of Stockholm.
“We’ll now have a look to see if he was just filming things that everybody already knows about, like locating emergency exits and putting on safety belts, or whether it was something else,” police investigator Svante Melin told The Local (an English-language Swedish newspaper).
A TSA officer decided to play a little prank on a college student at a baggage screening check point at Philadelphia’s airport. The TSA worker pretended to plant a plastic bag of white powder in her carry-on luggage.
The victim, a 22-year-old University of Michigan student, wrote in a column for her campus newspaper about the incident. The TSA officer reached into her laptop computer bag and produced the plastic bag with white powder and demanded to know how it came into her possession.
She struggled for an explanation in tears, unsure if it was drugs or explosives, before he told her he was just kidding.
True what they say about the last laugh. The officer has since been fired (or quit).
On her way back from Costa Rica a Continental Airlines agent noticed two names on her passport: Joan Rosenberg and Joan Rivers. This raised the security flags and was enough to get her booted off the US-bound flight, leaving her stranded at the airport with just $100. Not exactly a Haitian-level disaster… maybe a 5.9 on the celebrity scale.
Typically, it’s a good idea to let the flight crew open the doors of the place. But if you must do it yourself, probably a good idea to make sure the aircraft has landed first.
Might seem like common sense to you and me, but a traveler heading from Washington Dulles to Las Vegas on United decided to step out for a breath of fresh air before the plane was on the ground, according to the Denver Post.
Here’s a shocker: The FBI reports that the man had been consuming alcohol.
On the bright side, the DIA says that’s nearly impossible to open an exterior door while in flight.
An unidentified man waltzed through a screening checkpoint at Newark Liberty’s Terminal C — without being screened. Security tried to identify him on surveillance camera footage. Meanwhile, they had to clear the secure area, search it, and rescreen everyone. A delay of about six hours. Better safe than sorry, but a bummer of a breach.
An American Airlines plane broke in two after landing in Kingston, Jamaica (en route from Miami). No causalities reported, though some were sent to the hospital.
All the king’s horses and all the kings men are presumably now working on the plane.
Bummer if you were caught holding a Flyglobespan ticket this holiday season. The Scottish airline (10 aircraft and 800 staff) picked a crap time to go bust.
About 1300 passengers had been due to fly on Thursday when flights were cancelled. About 5,000 were booked to fly in the next few days and still another 4,000 are already abroad and will soon be hoping to return home.
It was bound to happen. Stressed passengers and limited luggage space make for a rough combo.
A passenger got punched when tempers flared aboard a Singapore Airlines flight en route to Australia.
After a short enforced period of limited carry-on baggage following 9/11, we’ve all seen passengers at airports with a huge, wheeled bag, a laptop case or purse, plus a shopping bag. Sooner or later they’re going to get paired in the same row as another asshole trying to do the same thing. And when they start moving each other’s bags around and occupying other passengers’ overhead space, it seems like just a matter of time before more conflicts like this occur.
Now scientists (in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research) are staying that riding in a plane through a lightning storm could expose passengers to the equivalent dose of radiation that they’d get from 400 chest X-rays. Read more myfoxla.com>>
Somehow a commission found that four Canadian police acted lawfully when they Tasered a nervous Polish traveler at the Vancouver airport, which resulted in his death minutes later. Robert Dziekanski, 40, died in late 2007 and an amateur video of the violent (see below) arrest zipped around the internets.
The report by the Commission for Public Complaints Against the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the police officers “failed to adopt a measured, coordinated and appropriate response.” It also stated that the senior officer “failed to take charge.”
Dziekanski was an anxious first-time flyer, spoke only Polish and had just landed in Vancouver and couldn’t find his mother, who he’d been searching for for 10 hours in the baggage area. What’s the police response to such a predicament? Taser him to death, what else.
Hard to imagine what this commission was thinking. These officers should clearly not be allowed to wear police badges and they idiot who tasered him should be looking at a manslaughter charge.
Watch the video and see for yourself. (violence starts about 5min into the video)
Airport delays? You might want to check for coyotes. Seriously. Raleigh-Durham International Airport officials have noticed an increase in coyotes on the runway. They’re using bottle rockets and cap guns to scare them off, but that doesn’t seem to stop them from walking out in front of taxiing planes.
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