Jaunted

Tags: Airline Safety / Travel Journalism / Media / Airline News / Safety / → All Tags

No CNN, Airplanes Are Not A 'High-Risk Environment'

Apparently there aren't any cute blond girls who've gone missing overseas lately, so someone at CNN got assigned to write up this tripe:

On a recent Southwest Airlines flight, a man dropped his pants and exposed himself to the female passenger sitting next to him, then punched her, according to an FBI affidavit. The plane was in midair, and the naked man reportedly grew angrier, screaming uncontrollably and shaking his fist in the air... 'Now people are more hyper-vigilant on what occurs on aircrafts,' said Ron Koziol, assistant section chief for the FBI's violent crimes unit, who calls airplanes a 'high-risk' environment.

Did you hear that? He shook his fist! Not only did he shake his fist, but he shook it in the air! If you continue reading this Woodward and Bernstein-like expose, you discover that there are 80 similar incidents every single year. We did some back of the napkin number crunching and concluded that, if you board a plane every morning for the next 365 days, you have a .00001% chance of seeing something that we have to deal with every single night on the way home from the bar.

more ›

Tags: Travel Health / Travel News / Safety / Travel Safety / → All Tags

Get Your Typhoid Vaccination Before Vacation

Going abroad on your next trip is no longer just a threat to your wallet, as a new study indicates that it could also be a threat to your health. Out of the approximate 300 cases of typhoid fever that are reported in the United States every year, most cases are believed to come from an international excursion. India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh seem to be the leading troublemakers when it comes to getting ill. Just to make you worried even more, over the last couple of decades the strains resistant to antimicrobial drugs have made treatment a little trickier.

All these numbers are coming out of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC statistics show that you probably won’t die if you get typhoid, but you will definitely spend some time in the hospital. Almost 80 percent of the patients that were studied did travel outside the country within 30 days of becoming sick. Officials looked at about 1,900 patients between 1999 and 2006.

more ›

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.

more ›

Tags: Airline Hell / Safety / Hawaii Travel / → All Tags

Tower Terror Travel: Hawaii Air Traffic Control Goes Dark

For a terrifying nine minute stretch last Thursday, all FAA air traffic control systems over the state of Hawaii went offline and radar scopes went black. Federal officials have said there were no close calls but, then again, who really knows? At least there were no crashes.

The cause of the mysterious computer blackout remains unknown, although a technician was working on the system right before it went down. Hawaii's airspace is relatively uncrowded but has enough regular comings and going to make even a mild outage like this a nail-biter.

Antiquated air traffic control systems are an epidemic in the US and get blamed for just about everything that makes commercial air travel miserable. The Congress has thus far refused to pony up for a much-needed new system, and the FAA is quarreling with airlines and private pilots about who will have to pay for what.

[Alex Salkever is the editor and founder of Hawaiirama.com, a Hawaii travel blog]

Related Stories:
· Nine-Minute Blackout Grips Isle Air Radar [Star Bulletin]
· The Future of Air Traffic Control [IHT]
· Airline Hell coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: lrargerich]

Tags: Southwest Airlines / Safety / Airplanes / Airplane Hell / Dangerous Travel / → All Tags

The Not-So-Friendly Skies: Wheels on Fire and Emergency Landings

The past 24 hours have been filled with some pretty unhappy landings. Earlier this morning in Ormond Beach, Florida, a small passenger plane was forced to make an emergency landing on Interstate 95 after it inexplicably lost power. Southbound lanes on the highway had to be shut down to accommodate the plane just before noon.

And yesterday in Phoenix, a Southwest flight coming in from Austin, Texas caught fire on the runway at Sky Harbor Airport. All 127 passengers aboard the plane had to be evacuated after the back right landing gear burst into flames. A spokeswoman for Southwest said "another plane will be put into service as soon as possible." Good idea!

Sadly for all you pyros out there, this incident didn't result in any cool photos like the ones we saw after the infamous flaming JetBlue landing in 2005.

Related Stories:
· Wheels on Southwest Plane Catch Fire [Austin A-S]
· Plane lands on I-95 in Ormond Beach [Daytona Beach N-J]
· Dangerous Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Wikipedia, via]

Tags: Safety / Travel Safety / Asia Travel / → All Tags

Travel Safety: Seriously, Don't Drink the Water

You probably already know to stick to bottled water when traveling in developing nations. But a recent outbreak of typhoid in the Philippines is really driving this home. Over 2,000 people in a city just 30 miles outside of Manila have become seriously ill, and it's a nasty bug.

According to the World Health Organization, typhoid symptoms include high fever, malaise, headache and rose-colored spots on the chest. Typhoid is a bacterial disease caused by ingesting food or drink contaminated by the feces or urine of infected people. So now you're wondering, how does that get into the water supply? Blame it on the weather, says a WHO official:

Flooding during the wet season and typhoons cause open sewerage drains to spill, enabling effluent to seep into wells and water pipes and spread diarrhea-causing diseases such as gastroenteritis and cholera.

Make sure to look out for tap water in its other, commonly-overlooked form: ice in your drink. Play it safe by brushing your teeth with bottled water as well. And if you want to be really cautious, you should just drink beer the entire trip.

Related Stories:
· Philippines Typhoid Outbreak Sparks Probe [Bloomberg]
· Travel Safety coverage [Jaunted]
· Asia Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: 96dpi]

Tags: Skiing / Winter Travel / Safety / → All Tags

What Will You Break on a Ski Break?

Skiing might sound like an invigorating winter vacation pastime, but some think it's got a dangerous side. Judging by the photos in a Times report out of the UK over the weekend, it's true. They put together a special about ski breaks of a different sort: those in holidaymakers bones.

As well as showing a neat collection of x-rays, the newspaper drew on the info at a website called ski-injury.com, which collates data about ski accidents in Scotland. What worried us the most was that it's not those risk-taking advanced skiers that are most likely to break a bone--it's beginners.

For skiers, the most common damage to do to yourself is injuring a knee, with the head and shoulders also taking a beating. Snowboarders face different dangers, with 25 percent of their injuries being to wrists.

On an across-the-world basis, winter sport enthusiasts will be happy to hear that skiing and snowboarding are really relatively safe. A skier would have to ride for around 1,000 days--nearly three years non-stop--to guarantee an injury, and snowboarders--depending on whose stats you believe--can go 500 days between incidents. The good news is that whichever stats you manipulate, it sure ain't as dangerous as Mom said, so get out there and hit the slopes.

Related Stories:
· Ski Breaks: The X-Ray Stories [UK Times]
· Skiing coverage [Jaunted]
· Ski Areas Near Airports Map [Jaunted]

[Photo: gojumeister]

Tags: Airlines / Safety / Travel Safety / → All Tags

Adventures of Link: A Few Pre-Flight Announcements

We know, we know. We're really supposed to pay attention to those pre-flight safety demos on planes. And honestly we usually do--though more out of sympathy for the FAs than interest in our own self-preservation. (True story: You'll fare better in a crash if you listen to the spiel.)

Even so, nobody else, it seems, tunes in when the crew is reminding you not to pull down on those red tabs before exiting the aircraft. Delta is making a new safety video to get passengers watching, and Virgin America came out with a witty animated clip awhile back. Still, is a fun video really gonna tear you away from those trashy celeb rags you bought at the airport newsstand?

Related Stories:
· Listen Up and Fly Right [NYT]
· Listen to The Safety Spiel [Coach Class]
· Remaking the In-Flight Safety Video [Under the Wing]
· Virgin Safety Video [YouTube]

[Photo: Delta]

Tags: Airlines / Qantas / Safety / → All Tags

..and Now for Some Qantas News That Doesn't Involve Sex

So back in Rainman days, Dustin Hoffman might've said (more than once) that he wanted to fly the safe airline, Australia's national carrier Qantas, because "Qantas never crashed." But he'd probably be singing a different tune right now, with the Australian media snacking on Qantas's safety record for breakfast these days.

As if the prospect of offshore owners taking control of the "Flying Kangaroo" isn't enough to whip people into a frenzy, there's been the Ralph Fiennes incident and the hair-obsessed baggage handler. On top of that, a recent safety audit of the engineering support in Singapore found problems including control cables that hadn't been replaced when due, plus:

Screws had been left scattered on a wing and the plane had been damaged when a large spare part had been dropped from an overhead crane.

And then last week an Airbus flew from Manila to Sydney without any emergency oxygen, though fortunately there were no passengers on board: just the staff were at risk. Still think you wanna fly Qantas, Rainman?

[Photo: Skazama]

Related Stories:
· Qantas Safety Breach [SMH]
· Ground Crew's Deadly Bungle [Herald Sun]
· Qantas Is Even Kinkier Than You Thought [Jaunted]

Tags: Crime / Safety / Public Transportation / Buses / → All Tags

Stop, Thief! He's Got My Hair!

It's a widely held guidebook opinion that Brazil can be a dodgy place to visit, although the Jaunted experience in Rio suggests sometimes the books' warnings can be over the top. Nonetheless, there's a disturbing new crime that's hit Rio this week: hair stealing.

On a Rio bus recently--and, without fearmongering, we don't recommend you ride those--a 22 year old Brazilian woman with hair down to her waist felt a strange tug. Then she realized that thieves had cut off her ponytail right at the top. They got away with masses of beautiful dark hair that could easily be sold--police suspect--to hairdressers or beauty salons who can charge hundreds of dollars to customers wanting hair extensions. You may not need to pack a gun in Rio, but it might not hurt to bring a hat.

[Photo: Wam Mosely]

Related Stories:
· Danger in Rio? [Jaunted]
· Hair Theft the Unkindest Cut [The Australian]

Tags: TSA / Safety / Regulations / Airlines / → All Tags

TSA Circus Continues; Ziploc Stock Gets a Boost

Sorta-good news has arrived for business travelers and their militant anti-baggage checking brethren. The TSA ban on carry-on liquids has been relaxed. Guidelines are still strict, but at least you'll have something to work with. The new rules officially take effect today.

Here's what you need to know. "Most" liquids bought inside secure airport areas are OK. That means you can bring your own water onto your next long haul without bringing tape worm off of it. Toiletries are also OK so long as they are in 3-ounce portions, and so long as your total cache fits inside a clear 1-quart size plastic bag. That means Ziploc just became your new best friend.

The true test of our fabulous new liberties and how they might affect your travel experience will come shortly. As always, the mob at Flyertalk has got your back.

Related Stories:
·   U.S. relaxes ban on liquids on airliners [CNN]
·   U.S. Eases Rules on Gels and Liquids in Carry-Ons [NYT]

Tags: TSA / Airlines / Virgin / Quantas / Safety / Laptops / Travel Tech / → All Tags

Make My First Class Seat Extra-Crispy

Looks like road warriors will have yet another problem to face getting their laptops on board: battery fears. No, not the fear of running out of juice--although that's always an issue--but a few airlines (Quantas and Virgin, among them) are banning certain laptops. They're worried they might catch fire.

The two main targets are Dell and Apple, which recently recalled some laptops amid fire concerns. Somehow we doubt that the airlines know WHICH Dells and Apples are fire-prone--they won't be checking serial numbers. More worrisome is the fact that the jostling the laptops suffer when they are checked makes them morelikely to catch fire than when they are in the cabin.

Ultimately, we're sure this policy will change, just as soon as airlines figure out a way to charge for customers to plug in their laptops on board.

[Image via sizemporesr/Flickr]  

Related Stories:
·   Some Laptops Face Ban [WSJ]