United Airlines settles lawsuit over porn found in cockpit

by Jeffrey White on

United Airlines has settled a two-year-old lawsuit in which it faced sexual harassment charges from a former female pilot who alleged she repeatedly found pornography hidden in the cockpits of domestic airline flights.

The Seattle Times lays out the case, in which former Capt. Lisa Stout, a 737 pilot based in Seattle, says she found pornographic pictures of women on more than 20 flights over a two year period starting in 2004. Who was putting them there? Presumably her co-pilots.

These pictures were hidden, either taped under unused ashtrays or — and I just love this — under a safety device known as the “stick shaker.” Indeed.

Each time Stout would find one, she’d record a complaint in the flight log. She alleges that United didn’t do enough to get to the bottom of who was sneaking porn into the cockpits on its domestic route.

Finally it got so bad that Stout grounded herself, saying the ordeal gave her a medical condition that prevented her from flying.

The lawsuit got ugly: United claims that Stout is essentially faking her medical condition to receive long-term disability to support a fledgling career as a painter. What does she paint? You guest it: Nudes.

Inside V Australia’s Boeing 777 flight simulator

by Grant Martin on

When I was invited out to visit V Australia‘s 777 on it’s maiden voyage from Seattle – Los Angeles – Sydney earlier this year, poor Amanda Bolger from public relations had no idea what she was signing up for. Sitting in the cockpit with Ken Pascoe, the pater familias of VA pilots, we took a couple of photos and he casually mentioned “Hey, if you come out to Sydney we should take out the simulator.”

Oh, but I was coming to Sydney, Ken, and after a few pestering emails, he finally gave in and invited us to come out to Silverwater, just outside of the city to take the simulator out for a spin.

Meeting Ken out at the Strathfield station earlier this week, we drove up to CAE, where V Australia had a small suite of offices and a simulator installed in a rear, cavernous room. This is where all VA pilots train, both in instrumentation at a computer console and in actual flight operation, inside of the 23 million dollar simulator.

The front of the cockpit is replicated in exact detail to a “white tail” aircraft, a generic 777 that still hasn’t got the exact installed features of VA equipment. A little bit later next month, they’ll be making those upgrades. Behind the pilot and co-pilot seats are an additional three seats where an instructor and observers can curate the flight.

As far as operation, Marty Khoury, another V Australia pilot on hand explained that the graphics and performance are so lifelike, even to the bump of every light in the runway, that sometimes the pilots forget that they’re even inside of the simulator.

So how did Gadling’s flight experience go? Disasterously. But I’ll tell you about that next week.

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Alitalia: The world’s worst airline company?

by Jeffrey White on

Is Alitalia, Italy’s national carrier, the worst airline in the world? Anybody out there have awful experiences with them?

I ask this because the other day I stumbled upon a recounting of one of the most nightmarish airline/airport sagas I’ve ever read, all focusing on the sheer ineptitude of Alitalia.

I can hardly improve upon it. So, I’ll just pimp it here and get out of the way. Journalist Michael Totten exposes Alitalia doing the worst for its customers and its own reputation.

You can find it here. Yes, it’s long (perhaps a wee bit too long), but it’s utterly amazing what he captures. When you have some free time, read it.

Five-hundred-pound plane engine part falls from the sky

by Jamie Rhein on

Earlier there was the story of plane engine parts falling from the sky, scattering across a warehouse roof in Queens, and smashing windshields of cars parked in the warehouse’s lot.

Here’s another plane parts falling from the sky story–an even bigger one. Chicken Little would really have something to squawk about with this one. An Arrow Cargo McDonnell Douglas DC-10 freighter, on it’s way from Brazil to Colombia, had an issue with an engine. One of the three engines conked out and left the plane, literally. Not all of the engine, mind you, but a large portion of it.

When an engine of this size leaves a plane, it’s impressive. When its pieces made contact after their tumble through the sky, they landed on 12 houses and many cars. The largest engine part weighed 550 pounds. Now, that’s some part that I bet made a mighty loud bang. The rest of the airplane was able to arrive safely in Bogota.

Luckily, no one was hurt, and the cargo company is paying for the damages. [The Aviation Herald Photo: PD/EPA/Arlesson Sicsu]

Man goes nuts on El Al flight, beats flight attendant

by Jeffrey White on

A man went crazy on an El Al flight earlier this week, though authorities do not really know why.

What we do know is that during a flight from Tel Aviv to Kiev, Ukraine, passengers heard a lot of shouting toward the back of the plane. Moments later, a panicked and beaten flight attendant charged up the aisle, apparently pursued by some guy shouting.

He had beaten the flight attendant. Again, no one knows why.

An air marshal was on board the flight and managed to slap some handcuffs on the guy. Ukrainian police met the flight when it landed in Kiev and arrested the man. He is still reportedly in Ukrainian custody.

El Al is looking into the incident.