Woman gives birth in flight…abandons baby?

by Jeffrey White on

There’s a little controversy brewing over in New Zealand, where authorities are trying to figure out whether a woman who gave birth on a flight from Samoa to Auckland left her baby on board the plane intentionally.

Reports differ. Some say the mother abandoned the newborn and walked off the plane. Others say she tried to go back to the plane for the baby (so, presumably, she merely forgot about it).

This happened on a Pacific Blue airline flight today.

It’s also not known whether any of the crew noticed that the woman was in labor or had given birth. All the New Zealand Press Association says is that “the baby was found on the aircraft” after landing.

Both mother and child are recovering at an Auckland hospital as the investigation continues.

Click the pictures for more stories of women causing problems in the skies …


American Airlines passengers: Get double elite miles

by Grant Martin on

Now that the economy is low and demand is tapering off, airlines are doing whatever they can to encourage passengers to return to flying the friendly skies. Sure, oil has come down from it’s all time high of $5000/barrel, but without passengers to fill airplanes, some equipment has to be shelved, and that’s never good for profit.

What to do? Incentivize. A deluge of fare sales including dirt cheap tickets to Barcelona, Tokyo and Moscow have all hit the charts this past week, and the few of us with the travel bug have been booking tickets like madmen.

Other promotions include American Airlines recent Double Elite Qualifying Miles (EQM) bonanza. You might remember that Elite miles/points, the nifty little jobbers that get you points towards Elite status are fairly hard to come by, and those that maintain status often have to do Mileage Runs to keep up their quota. But with this promotion, passengers can earn double elite points through June 15, effectively reducing the number of miles to earn Gold, Platinum and Executive Platinum to 12.5, 25 and 50K respectively. Heck, I might even take a gander at that.

You can sign up for the DEQM promotion here using the code DBEQM. Check out American’s elite info here.

AirTran cuts flights to VT, nobody cares

by Tom Johansmeyer on

When AirTran‘s first flight touched down in Burlington almost a year ago, the airline’s director for strategic planning and scheduling, John Kirby, said, “This is going to be a home run.” I guess that didn’t work out.

It didn’t even last a year. AirTran’s nonstop service between Burlington, VT and the Washington, D.C. area is now but a memory “seasonal.” The route will now be serviced for around four months a year. The airline cites the economy as the reason it halted flights in early September. Flights to and from Baltimore are expected to resume in April or May 2010. Last year, 5.5 percent of passengers flying out of Burlington did so on AirTran.

Well, I guess it really isn’t “seasonal” after all. AirTran’s decision to run flights from May to August – with the possibility of April and September – seems to overlook the fact that ski season is the state’s big draw.

All hope is not lost, though. Burlington International’s airport director, Brian Searles, says the airport is in discussions with AirTran in the hopes of returning year-round service to the city. Vermont politicians, including Governor Jim Douglas and Senator Patrick Leahy have been getting in on the action as well. With AirTran’s $273.8 million loss last year, it seems these guys are wasting their breath.

Northwest flight attendants go retro before assimilation

by Grant Martin on

Rumor in the underground has it that Northwest Airlines‘ flight attendants will be going retro during the last week of March, in a throwback to all of the old Northwest and Northwest Orient garb over the ages. Apparently April 1st marks the first day that staff are required to wear the new Delta uniform, so employees will be digging back into their closets to pull out the vintage gear. And as one of of the airlines with the oldest rank and file of Flight Attendants, I’ll bet that those uniforms go way back.

So which uniforms will come out? Will it be the 1980’s drab brown suits with bow ties and Russian hats? The late seventies, crazy pattern blouses? Or the old school, Northwest Orient red dresses? You can check them all out at uniformfreak.com

Either way,If you’re flying Northwest Airlines over the last week of March, keep your eyes peeled for flight attendants wearing wild vintage uniforms and wish them the best on their new careers at Delta.

Here’s a tip: teaching your girlfriend to drive on an airport runway is a bad idea

by Karen Walrond on

The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that the Philippines’ top aviation official, Frisco Santo Domingo, has been suspended because of the hijinks of his son, which resulted in a near collision with a commercial plane.

According to the story, the pilot of the airplane, filled with 80 passengers, was forced to abort a landing, narrowly escaping a collision with the van of the official’s son Luis, as Luis taught his girlfriend how to drive on the runway. Luis, who lives near the airport, admitted that he often used the runway to give his girlfriend driving lessons, and also used it as a shortcut to get back to his home, which is near the airport.

So let me get this straight: a grown man took his girlfriend to an active runway to teach her to drive, causing his airport-executive dad to lose his job? Wow.

Bless his girlfriend’s heart.