Dry Ice Bombs at LAX Bring Increased Security, Quick Arrest

by Chris Owen on

Regardless of how it happens, who made it or where it came from, when something explodes in an airport, it’s serious business. After not one but two dry ice explosions occurred on consecutive days at California’s Los Angeles International Airport, police are increasing securlty.

They are simple enough to make; add dry ice to a 20 ounce plastic bottle and wait. There is plenty of dry ice in the area, food service vendors use it daily.

Finding out who did it, apparently, might not very difficult either; police arrested an airport employee Tuesday night. Dicarlo Bennett, a 28-year-old employee for the ground handling company Servisair, was charged with possessing and exploding a “destructive device near an aircraft,” according to a statement from police, reports CBS News.

The exploded bombs did not cause any injuries or damage.Bennett apparently took the dry ice from a plane and placed it in an employee restroom Sunday night where it exploded about 7pm, locking down terminal 2. Another device exploded in a restricted area outside the international terminal on Monday.

New Costa Condordia Images Show Scene Of Tragedy

by Chris Owen on




Eleven months after the cruise ship Costa Concordia grounded off the coast of Italy, the ship remains on its side. “60 Minutes” sent a camera crew in that brought out never-before-seen images of the surreal site on this “60 Minutes Overtime” web exclusive.

“You’ve got this giant thing that’s three football fields long sitting on a slanted mountainside underwater,” says “60 Minutes” producer Rich Bonin, whose story on the Costa Concordia salvage project aired on the broadcast this week on the “CBS News” website. “It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before.”

“CBS News” photographers used a number of unusual photographic techniques to get the shots including a hovering drone flying miniature cameras above the ship, cameras as close to the hulking wreck as possible.

[Video Credit- CBS News]

New Airport Entertainment Options Coming Soon Via Wi-Fi

by Chris Owen on

Airport entertainment options run the gambit from TV monitors hanging around here and there to the magazine racks of gift shops. In Singapore, travelers killing time between flights can go for a swim. In Orlando, kids can visit a huge Disney store. Starting this fall at Raleigh-Durham airport, ClearVision arrives as a new video diversion for travelers.

A product from Clear Channel Airports, known as the world’s leading marketer of airport advertising, ClearVision will bring together a customized lineup of news and entertainment programming.

“Airports ultimately will be able to leverage Wi-Fi services to provide travelers accustomed to on-demand content access to the ClearVision network on their smartphones, iPads and laptops,” said Clear Channel’s Toby Sturek in an Executive Travel Magazine article.

Rather than just CNN’s news-only airport network, ClearVision will bring together a customized lineup of news and entertainment programming from a variety of sources, including CBS News, CBS Entertainment, CBS Daytime and CBS Interactive; NBC offerings like “The Today Show,” “Smash,” “The Voice,” “America’s Got Talent” and “The Office”; daily headlines from The Wall Street Journal’s WSJ Live; and sports from the Tennis Channel.

The company said it will work with airports and a partner called connectVISION Digital Networks to assemble content from media providers, adding local news programming into the mix.

In a statement, connectVISION marketing chief David Tetreault explains, “Our goal is to provide travelers – especially frequent business travelers – a diverse, 20-hour-a-day programming lineup of top network shows, news, weather, and sports while enabling airports to deliver a customized TV station with local flare and programming.”

Interesting to be sure. But not as much fun as Singapore’s tallest slide at Changi Airport’s Terminal 3 where travelers can speed along at 6 meters/second as we see in this video:



[Flickr photo by bgmb42]

Travel Expert Brings Local Flavor To Guidebooks, Video

by Chris Owen on

Known worldwide as travel editor for CBS News, Peter Greenberg has traveled the planet bringing far away places into living rooms for decades. Now, Greenberg shares his expertise on destinations around the globe in his new “Like a Local” series of guidebooks, videos and travel tips that go on sale April 16.

Teaming with Michelin, Greenberg is releasing the series of “Like a Local” travel guides to Buenos Aires, Cuba, the Caribbean, New Orleans, and Miami that have must-see sights and activities, but also reveal insider tips on how to navigate the process of travel to get the best experience.

“Learn tips like how to avoid the touristy tango clubs in Buenos Aires and dance with the locals in a milonga,” says a release touting Greenberg’s endeavour. Telling “where to find street food stalls serving locally sourced seafood in the Bahamas; how to spend a day with Cuban tobacco farmers in Pinar del Rio” and more, the series looks to be a winner.

Recently, I had the opportunity to talk to Greenberg in Amsterdam and found him as colorful and descriptive about travel as one might expect. Speaking of his recent PBS special, “Mexico:The Royal Tour,” Greenberg was as passionate about experiencing the country with Mexico’s President, Felipe Calderón as his guide, undertaking whale watching in Baja California, rappelling down the Cave of Swallows in San Luis Potosi and zip-lining through the jungles of Puerto Vallarta.

Bringing that level of up-close and personal experience to us via guidebooks, videos and tips, the project promises to be far more than the sum of it’s parts.


[Image via Flickr user LollyKnit]