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Tags: Bad Pilots / Northwest / Delta / Bad Landings / Airplane Hell / → All Tags

Were The Northwest Pilots Just Perplexed By The New Facebook?

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.

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Tags: Airplane Hell / Airline News / Travel Storms / Sun Country / JFK / → All Tags

No Brett Favre For Passengers Stuck Onboard Grounded Flight For Six Hours

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.

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Tags: Airplane Hell / Continental / Airline News / Travel Storms / → All Tags

Passengers Forced To Be Cramped Campers Aboard Regional Jet

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.

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Tags: Breaking News / Continental Airlines / Death / Airplane Hell / → All Tags

Pilot Dies Mid-Flight Aboard Continental Transatlantic Flight 61

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]

Tags: Airplane Hell / Accidents / Houston / Southwest Airlines / Landings / Jetblue / Safety / → All Tags

Southwest Jet Suffers Tire Fire at Houston-Hobby

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.

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Tags: Travel Pillows / Travel Gadgets / Airplane Hell / Aromatherapy / → All Tags

Aromatherapy Smells Like Travel Comfort

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]

Tags: Travel Gadgets / Airplane Hell / → All Tags

Cup-Pilot: For The Clumsy, Or The Crazy?

It seems frivolous today to complain about anything that happens on a flight that lands safely and in the neighborhood of "on time."

Yet there we were last Friday, in a window seat, feeling a two-thirds-full can of Sierra Mist soaking into our jeans after we clumsily knocked it over on our tray. We'd mopped it up as best we could with the SkyMall catalog and the book we were reading (the watery incident occurred between pages 223 and 226), but we still squirmed to think our seatmate would wake up and assume we'd wet ourselves.

The sad truth is, we probably need the Cup-Pilot, a doohickey that attaches to your seat pocket or tray table to hold your soda or coffee cup. We're just that klutzy. But how could we live with ourselves for packing a $19.95 portable cup holder? Andrea Sachs of the Washington Post actually got hold of one and deemed it "a bit excessive" and "resembl[ing] a basketball hoop for Team Smurf," but handy -- and it sounds like she has the same butterfingers problem that we do.

Praying for the grace of a ballerina hasn't been working out so far for us, but would you dare the Cup-Pilot?

Related Stories:
· Cup-Pilot [Magellans.com]
· It Came in the Mail: Cup-Pilot [Washington Post]
· Travel Gadgets coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Magellans]

Tags: Airplane Hell / AirTran / Columbus / → All Tags

AirTran Flight 373's 12-Hour Columbus Ordeal

As hard hit as Kentucky was by yesterday's storms, we think we found a few people who had it worse: The 84 passengers on AirTran Flight 373 who were stuck on a Columbus runway for 12 hours yesterday.

The Boeing 717-600 was bound for Orlando, but ice overnight had frozen it to the runway, and gallons of de-icer were defeated when continuing rain refroze the bird. (Those aboard were reportedly none too pleased when informed of how much the de-icer was costing the airline.)

The passengers, who boarded at 7:20AM, were allowed to deplane in order to get lunch, but were stuck without water or air until 4:30, when AirTran gave up on that plane and the passengers reboarded one that came in from warmer Atlanta. (A spokesperson said the fact that the passengers weren't offered food at any time was "clearly a mistake.")

The airline has offered free round-trip tickets to 373 survivors. Since we do keep score, this is AirTran's second gaffe of 2009; on New Year's Day, they pulled a family off the plane whose safety chatter was making other passengers uncomfortable, and then refused to rebook them. As if De-Icegate wasn't bad enough, AirTran reported a $273 million loss for 2008 in a press conference yesterday, a margin largely due to fuel hedges which came back to bite them when oil prices dropped. Again -- too dumb to be evil?

Related Stories:
· Orlando-bound passengers trapped in frozen plane [WESH via Tripso]
· AirTran passengers' flight to Orlando delayed for 9 hours [Orlando Sentinel]
· TK [Jaunted]
· AirTran posts $273M loss for 2008 [Triangle Business Journal]
· AirTran: Too Dumb To Be Evil? [Jaunted]

[Photo: WESH]

Tags: Travel Gadgets / Airplane Hell / → All Tags

The Skyrest Is An Abomination

We've all seen those brave travelers who bring their own pillows on airplanes as their "personal item." It's hard to blame them, considering airlines like JetBlue and US Airways have started charging for the wafer-thin comforts that used to be free. Of course, your other option is to buy a pillow specifically for traveling -- something like the Skyrest for $29.95.

The Skyrest is a self-inflating coated PVC pillow that puffs up to 14 inches wide and is designed to sit on a tray table. Vendor SkyMall, an emporium for all the gadgetry you didn't know you needed, boasts that the Skyrest carrier "is able to sleep comfortably in any seat" with the "uniquely different" pillow, much improved over the U-shaped model sold in every airport gift shop.

He might be sleeping, but most likely he is hanging his head in shame. Its website boasts that Skyrest "is unlike any other travel pillow," and that is true: Any more than occasional traveler would be embarrassed to be seen with this monstrosity, the offspring of a dorm-room "boyfriend pillow" and the arm of a sofa. In fact, if you have purchased this product, please stay home instead, for you will never be comfortable otherwise.

Related Stories:
· SkyMall Monday: Skyrest Travel Pillow [Gadling]
· Hotel Pillow Loot Improves [Jaunted]
· Travel Gadgets coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: TransportTrends.com]

Tags: Travel Gadgets / Travel Gear / Airplane Hell / → All Tags

Would You Fly With Your Own Seat Cushion?

We'll never deny that flying can be a pain in the ass. But travel outfitter Magellan's has addressed that problem head-on with a portable seat cushion, the G-Seat Light, which promises to ease back pain from cramming into a coach seat for six hours. The pad goes right underneath your bum and each cheek gets its own cushion. Yet we must ask: is this a cushy essential for the frequent flier, or a $59 joke?

Given that we can't say the word "coccyx" with a straight face, we're going to pass on this ridiculous gadget. Though not immune to the allure of products promising to fix what's wrong with air travel -- we do own a neck pillow and an eye mask -- you can get the same back-adjusting results by sitting on a coat or shoving a sweatshirt behind you in the seat. And we can't remember the last time we wished for a more padded seat instead of more leg room.

We'd rather do in-flight yoga to get the kinks out, but are we being short-sighted?

Related Stories:
· G-Seat Light [Magellans.com]
· Would You Ever Use An Airplane Seat Cover? [Jaunted]
· Airplane Hell coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Magellans.com]

Tags: China Travel / Airplane Hell / Airport Delays / → All Tags

Chinese Airport Travel: New Solutions for Hydraulic Problems

Here's a Friday joke for you: How many Chinese airport workers does it take to push a 20-ton plane with 69 passengers and 7 crew? The answer: 30.

If you're not laughing yet, it's because it's not actually a joke, but a true story. This week in Zhengzhou a CRJ7 plane landed with a faulty front hydraulic system, which apparently meant it couldn't be attached to the tow truck. So airport officials sent out 30 staff to push the plane instead.

Two hours later, the 30 exhausted workers had pushed the plane less than half a mile but it was neatly out of the way and the passengers could disembark. And at least the airline didn't ask the passengers to get out and help push. Perhaps that's what they'd do on a low-cost carrier?

Related Stories:
· Airport Workers Get the Push [Ananova]
· China Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Ananova]

Tags: Airplane Hell / Qantas / MNL / → All Tags

These Particular Qantas Passengers More Than Allowed to Clap on Touchdown

Passengers on a Qantas 747-400 got to try out emergency oxygen masks yesterday when the cabin depressurized as a chunk of the cargo bay blew off the airplane. The flight, QF 30, operates from London to Hong Kong to Melbourne, and it was on that second leg when the accident occurred. The pilot put the jumbo jet down in Manila, at Ninoy Aquino International Airport, where there were no injuries reported among the more than 300 passengers and crew.

Leave it to an Aussie to be totally rational about the wild ride:

There was a terrific boom and bits of wood and debris just flew forward into first and the oxygen masks dropped down. It was absolutely terrifying, but I have to say everyone was very calm.

People were so relaxed that flight attendants were actually working the aisles wearing portable oxygen masks, which totally impresses us.

After landing in Manila, passengers deplaned for a bit then got back on another aircraft that was specifically sent to pick them up. Hope there were free cocktails!

Related Stories:
· Qantas Jet Lands with Hole in Fuselage [AP, via Google]
· Hole in Jet Forces Emergency Landing [IHT]
· Qantas coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Raw passenger video taken on-board]