The flying kangaroo, AKA Qantas, has got problems. As if banning beer on some flights wasn't bad enough, the planes and the pilots have been misbehaving too.

Last week, there was the case of the pilots who forgot to put the landing gear down on their way into Sydney, forcing the pilots to abort the landing and go again later. Those pilots have now been suspended although the lack of landing gear is being put down to a "brief communications breakdown" by Qantas. ]]> amandak 2009-11-09T12:24:24-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/10/28/1610/6888

Note: These are not real pilots. Or are they?

By now, we've all heard about the Northwest Plane That Flew Too Far. But we haven't quite heard the full story on what caused these two fools pilots to stop paying attention during the landing. Until today.

Initially, the pilots said they were distracted by a "heated discussion over airline policy and lost track of their location." But it turns out that the pilots were not even handling the right controls.

The FAA has recently suspended the pilots--First Officer Richard Cole and Captain Timothy Cheney--because they copped to being on their laptops during the crucial moment. They still maintain they were discussing new crew schedules. But yes, their laptops. Laptops in the cockpit. Pilots diddling about on their computers while they were supposed to be landing a plane. Why not pull out your Blackberry and start playing Brickbreaker, for crissakes?

Not surprisingly, there will probably be a crackdown of laptops use by pilots in the future. Peter Greenberg even surmised that this sort of tomfoolery in the cockpit could lead to a flat-out ban of electronics for pilots. ]]> juliana 2009-10-28T16:14:18-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/8/24/7468/40479

Here we go again. Just a couple weeks after another flight was stuck in Minnesota for hours, a Sun Country airplane was delayed on the tarmac at JFK for hours en route to the North Star State. Flight 252 was supposed to leave New York on Friday around 11 am, but after a late boarding and weather delays, passengers were forced to spend most of the day stuck aboard the plane. Total delay time just sitting on the runway was about six hours.

Instead of throwing the passengers a bone and distributing some complimentary snacks and beverages to keep people comfortable, the airline rolled out the cart and began to charge for service items. Apparently travelers were quick to open their wallets despite the inconvenience as the snacks soon ran out leaving many thirsty, hungry, and cranky. ]]> kjb 2009-08-24T09:14:39-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/8/10/71839/5746

Over the weekend about 50 passengers experienced airplane hell aboard a Continental Airlines regional jet stuck on the tarmac. Everybody was headed to Minnesota’s Twin Cities, but thunderstorms in the area forced the plane to take a pit stop in Rochester to wait out the storm and get some gas. However, the pit stop that started around midnight lasted until the next morning, and everyone was forced to snuggle tightly in the cabin of the plane.

Passengers obviously were less than thrilled, and one flyer let everyone know that the smells of the toilets and babies aboard the ExpressJet plane were getting pretty bad. Unfortunately, the situation sounds pretty typical. The crew couldn’t do much since they were over their legally allowed hours for the day, the security screeners at the Rochester airport had gone for the day, and all the passengers got to eat were a couple bags of pretzels. ]]> kjb 2009-08-10T08:54:32-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/6/18/11230/3826

Update: The plane has landed safely at Newark. The news is reporting that the pilot died of natural causes; he is 60 years old and has been with Continental for 32 years. Because of the emergency landing, arrivals to JFK, LaGuardia, Philadelphia and Newark will be delayed between 1-2 hours.

Very sad news this morning as we learn of the death of the pilot onboard Continental Airlines Flight 61 from Brussels to Newark.

While details are still hazy, as the Boeing 777 hasn't even landed yet, it is confirmed that control of the plane has been taken over by the first officer, and that there luckily are reserve crew who are helping with this situation.

The flight is expected for an emergency landing at Newark-Liberty, its scheduled destination, within this next half hour. According to the morning news, there is a chance that the passengers onboard are not even aware of their pilot's passing away, but we guess we'll find out in the next 30 minutes. Stay tuned for more updates, or follow our example and anxiously track the flight on FlightStats.

[Photo: caribb]]]> JetSetCD 2009-06-18T11:23:00-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/5/13/0430/86562

Last night was a beautiful evening, that is unless you happened to be channel surfing as we were, and come across Anderson Cooper talking between shots of a Southwest Airlines plane on fire and evacuating passengers via emergency slide.

Of course it wouldn't have been a pleasant end to the day for the passengers aboard Flight 519 from New Orleans to Houston either, as sitting aboard a flaming plane wasn't in the plans.

Upon landing at Houston-Hobby airport, the Southwest jet's tire caught fire and burned steadily through until emergency personnel arrived to the crippled plane on the runway. At that point, the rear left emergency slide deployed to get all 47 passengers and 5 crew out safely. ]]> JetSetCD 2009-05-13T08:38:40-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/3/14/111759/948

If there's one thing that's hard to forget when you're on the road, it's how bad other people smell. Chinatown fish markets and sulfurous hot springs are one thing, but 43A's apparent allergy to showering is completely different.

Somehow, when you're in a particularly malodorous spot, the plethora of scented products typically sold under the umbrella of "aromatherapy" start to make a little sense.

Which brings us to the Cocoon Aroma-Therapy Travel Pillow. Provided its lavender scent (a typical soporific, or so we've heard) isn't of the cloying-candle variety, it could be quite pleasant to cuddle up next to on a long flight. At 13"x7" it would fit in a typical carry-on, so it wouldn't pick up any detritus from being carried through airports. And best of all, no inflating! But how long would the scent last?

We'll hold off on the travel pillow for now but we're keeping it in mind for later. Maybe it'd be faster just to soak ourselves in the stuff -- how much could a pillow do?

Related Stories:
· Cocoon Aroma-Therapy Travel Pillow [Travelsmith]
· The SkyRest Is An Abomination [Jaunted]
· Travel Gadgets coverage [Jaunted]]]> egw 2009-03-18T13:54:08-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/