Breaking: Yet another plane crash. This time near Amsterdam

by Jamie Rhein on

I have to say, as much as flying does not bother me, it’s a bit unnerving to click on The New York Times to see if any thing new has happened in the past few hours to find out that the new thing that has happened is another plane crash. This time the crash was just outside Amsterdam, but in a soft field instead of on a house near Buffalo, New York, on snow near Nome, Alaska or on the Hudson River.

The Turkish Airlines Boeing 737-800, en route from Istanbul, was almost to the airport when it suddenly lost speed and dropped. According to one person on board, the crash only took a few seconds. According to the article, most people did not suffer major injuries even though the plane broke into two pieces because there wasn’t much fuel left. If there had been more fuel, the outcome would have been worse. Still, the outcome wasn’t good.

Nine people died, including both the pilots. There were 25 with serious injuries, 24 with minor injuries and the rest walked away. In all there were 134 people on board. Considering that I was just in Amsterdam a couple months ago and flew into Schiphol Airport from the U.S., I’m thinking about how those fields looked when we were coming in for our landing. Yep, it’s a bit unnerving.

[This photo by PhillipC is of tulip fields when he was in route to Amsterdam from Gatwick.]

44 snakes and lizards almost smuggled on a plane

by Jamie Rhein on

Not that I’ve thought much about smuggling lizards and snakes on a plane, but reading about this Australian guy who was nabbed a couple days ago trying to smuggle 44 snakes and lizards from Australia to Bangkok got me thinking. Why 44?

Seems to me that’s overshooting one’s luck. Wouldn’t it have been better to stop at 10, perhaps? Not that I want to give anyone smuggling advice since I think animals and plants should be left where they’re found unless it’s legal to transport them and a person has a permit to do so, but I’m flummoxed that this guy thought he could get by with it.

Look at the X-ray. A snake looks like a snake in an X-ray, and a lizard looks like a lizard. Not long ago a woman was apprehended trying to smuggle three banana plants in her underwear. If that didn’t work, considering that plants are inanimate objects, it seems three black headed pythons might attract some attention.

Along with those three he had an Albino Carpet Python, 24 Shingleback Lizards and 16 Blue Tongue Lizards. He must not have seen Catherine’s post from 2007 when a snake smuggling culprit was caught in Cairo. Or maybe when he saw that the Cairo guy was trying to transport 700 snakes, 4 snakes and 44 reptiles didn’t seem like all that many.

For his efforts, he could spend 10 years in jail and be fined a hefty sum. [via Buzz Feed]

Man arrested for grabbing butts of flight attendant, passenger

by Jeffrey White on

It’s been a while since we’ve had a good “passenger does something stupid” story for you in on Gadling. For those going into withdrawal, let me introduce you to David Watson, 41, of Selkirk, N.Y.

David seems to have a bit of a grab-ass problem.

He was arrested last Friday upon landing at Southwest Florida International Airport and charged with battery and resisting an officer.

He is accused of groping the butts of both a flight attendant and another passenger.

Details are a little sketchy in this Fort Myers News-Press report. Apparently, the flight attendant was trying to secure the airplane during landing when David got a little rowdy. While she tried to subdue him, he struck her on the butt. When the plane landed, a passenger said that David proceeded to grope her as she tried to get her bag out of the overhead compartment.

When police arrived at the scene, David warned officers that the situation was about to “get nasty,” and that they were “going to get it,” according to the newspaper, which is quoting the arresting report. Police cuffed him.

David now has a March 17 court date. No word on which airline he was flying.

Besides David Watson, who else has been causing havoc in the skies? These women —

Aisle seat is healthier alternative

by Tom Johansmeyer on

If you’re worried about blood clots, sit on the aisle. A recent study from Lahey Clinic Medical Center confirmed that getting bumped by the beverage cart can help keep deep-vein thrombosis away. The research team found that 75 percent of these cases occurred among non-aisle passengers, because they were not moving enough. Flights lasting between four and eight hours were worst.

It’s not just a matter of leg room. Window seats in business class led to the same results. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to keep yourself healthy. Put on compression stockings, and you’ll reduce the blood clot risk. If this is too cumbersome for you, try drinking plenty of water … and avoiding alcohol and caffeine (well, that might actually be harder).

Before you loosen your seatbelt and move freely throughout the cabin, just make sure the “fasten seatbelt” light is off and that you’re not blocking the meal service. Hungry, thirsty passengers can put your health at risk, too.

[Via MSNBC]

10 tips for smarter flying


Is a “Passenger Bill of Rights” the answer to bad airline behavior?

by Aaron Hotfelder on

There’s no denying the recent string of high-profile episodes of airlines mistreating their customers– whether it’s forcing passengers to spend nine hours in a grounded plane, booting off beautiful girls for their revealing clothes (the nerve!), or inadvertently boarding an 83-year-old woman on a flight to Puerto Rico instead of her actual destination, New York.

After every such incident, it seems someone writes a blog post or an op-ed about how a “Passenger Bill of Rights” would prevent similar misbehavior in the future. But would it?

Not according to George Petsikas, the president of Canada’s National Airlines Council. He says that enacting a such a law would cause airfares to skyrocket since under Canada’s version of the Bill of Rights, airlines would be fined for, among other things, leaving passengers in the plane on the tarmac for over one hour ($500 per person per hour), as well as failing to notify passengers of delays in a timely manner ($1,000 per instance).

Although I am loath to agree with the spokesman for the big, bad, evil airlines, it does seem as if the proposed fines are excessive, and that these costs would merely be passed on to the consumers. I have no doubt that, when airlines “strand” people on the runways for ninety minutes waiting for take-off, they’re actually doing their best to get the plane in the air. Sitting on the tarmac for an extended period of time is inconvenient, frustrating, and uncomfortable, but it is also usually not the airline’s fault. (Nine hours is another story altogether.)

What is needed is not governmental micro-management of the airlines– fifty minutes on the tarmac is okay, but sixty minutes is not– but rather a minimal set of standards of behavior which airlines must live up to. For example, an airline may not allow passengers to wait on the tarmac for over three hours. An airline may not bump a passenger from a flight without offering them reasonable compensation.

When you start fining airlines for every little offense, they will simply raise ticket prices. In effect, we’ll be taking money out of our left pockets to buy the airline tickets, and putting it into our right pockets to compensate ourselves for the airline’s misbehavior.