Pocketknife found on plane causes major security drama at Dallas airport

by Scott Carmichael on

The discovery of a pocket knife on an American Eagle plane at Dallas Fort Worth airport triggered an aircraft evacuation, passenger rescreening and a two hour delay.

The knife was found by a passenger between two seats, and while common sense tells us that someone probably found it in their pocket after simply forgetting to remove it, the TSA treats these incidents as a major breach of security.

Of course, the stupid knife should never have made it through the checkpoint in the first place, but items making it past the checkpoint is barely news any longer.

I fully understand asking the TSA to come pick up the knife, but to force everyone off the plane is just stupid – and reinforces the idea that they are not doing their job correctly. If the TSA had faith in what it does to protect us, they should have taken the knife, apologized to all the passengers, and let the plane depart on time.

Airlines post worst on-time performance of the year

by Tom Johansmeyer on

June was the worst month of the year for airline on-time performance since December, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Together, U.S. airlines had an on-time arrival rate of 76.1 percent, down from 80.5 percent in May. But, they had fewer delayed flights than in June 2008.

Hawaiian Airlines put up the best on-time results in June, with Delta subsidiary Comair at the other end of the spectrum. Continental had the fewest delays among the legacy carriers (those that had a large footprint before airline deregulation in 1978), and American Airlines was at the bottom of the barrel for this category.

Unsurprisingly, weather, equipment problems and airport congestion were cited as the most frequent reasons for flight delays. To count as a delay, a flight must be more than 15 minutes late – canceled and diverted flights also count. Through most of the year, flight delays fell largely because airlines were cutting routes and servicing fewer passengers.

Mishandled baggage fell, as well, year-over-year, though it was up from May to June. Reports were down 20 percent from June 2008 to June 2009. AirTran had the fewest gripes from passenger. American Eagle (a unit of American Airlines) had the most.

American Eagle pilot tries to amuse his passengers and fails

by Scott Carmichael on

Passengers on American Eagle flight 4891 from New York’s La Guardia airport en route to Cleveland were already running 2 hours late when the pilot asked the flight attendant to advise the passengers that the aircraft would be diverted to Toledo. The reason given was “an emergency has shutdown Cleveland Hopkins Airport”.

Once the plane landed, passengers whipped out their mobile phones, expecting the need to make plans to get to their final destination, only to discover that the pilot had played a prank on them. There was no “emergency” and the plane has actually landed exactly where it was supposed to be.

Needless to say that some of the passengers didn’t share his sense of humor. American Eagle has confirmed the incident, and claims the matter is now “a personnel issue”. Fingers crossed for the pilot that someone at HQ understands the need for a joke every now and then.

I’ve been on the receiving end of a couple of cockpit pranks before, but I can’t say I’ve ever run into a pilot who tricked his entire plane into thinking they were going to land somewhere else.

What are your thoughts on this? Would you laugh it off, or immediately write a letter demanding one million miles?

(Image source: Flickr/Geir. W)

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Autistic child kicked off flight

by Iva Skoch on

This is an unbelievable story. It would also make you think we live in old communist Russia, not a country priding itself for valuing diversity.

Yes, a mother and her child were kicked off an American Eagle flight because she “wasn’t able to control her toddler.”

According to ABC Eyewitness News, the mother says she was “doing all she could to calm the autistic boy,” but got “no sympathy from the flight crew.”

The flight attendant kept coming over and tugging the kid’s seatbelt to make it tighter. He, in turn, kept wiggling around and trying to get out of his seatbelt. And, according to the mother, the flight attendant kept coming over, reprimanding him, and yelling at him until he got really upset and started rolling around on the floor. At which point, everyone involved lost it.

Then, the pilot apparently made an announcement that there was a woman and her child on the plane and the child is uncontrollable. He turned the plane around and headed back to the terminal.

American Airlines (American Eagle’s parent), of course, had a different story. They said the mother was pitching a “raging fit” and refused to comply with FAA regulations.

My question is: what did the other passengers do? Did they try to help the mother? Did they offer to wait until the child settles down? Or, do we live in a world where independent judgment and flexibility have vanished?