Northwest flight to Tokyo hits severe turbulence, 50 injured

by Jeffrey White on

As Gadling’s resident pilot Kent would no doubt point out, here’s a story that shows why we’re asked to keep our seat belts fastened when seated during flight.

The Associated Press is reporting that 50 passengers have been injured on a Tokyo-bound Northwest Airlines flight from the Philippines today after the plane hit a patch of severe turbulence.

Four passengers are in the hospital right now, including one with a serious neck injury.

The turbulence hit when the plane was about 30 miles outside Tokyo’s Narita airport. The plane apparently descended sharply to get out of the rough air, sending those who were not wearing the seat belts flying forward and up.

The plane, a 747-400, was carrying 408 passengers and 14 crew members. Some of the crew also suffered minor injuries.

Your paltry Delta miles aren’t accepted here

by Grant Martin on

If Delta Skymiles could be equated to a currency, they would be Zimbabwean Dollars.

Over the past several months, numerous changes at the Atlanta based company have brought significant detriment to the joint Delta and Northwest frequent flyer program. These modifications range from an increase in mileage fee for economy tickets (tickets to Europe, for example, went from 50K to 60K miles,) application of fees for award bookings (up to $150,) and the reduction of benefits such as free miles redeposits and system wide upgrades.

There are plenty of small annoyances, but what all of these program changes boil down to is a change in the model in which award tickets are exchanged. Formerly, supply of award miles was lower, availability was higher and the top few passengers who earned numerous miles could spend them fairly easily.

Now, supply is higher, availability is lower and the masses all generally have access to a few scrappy seats. The very few extra that are booked are done so at excruciating costs. So as a result, the airline loses less money on award bookings and gives passengers the false sense of reward with useless miles.
No passenger is in a better perspective to observe the change than he who was a Northwest Worldperks member. Over the last six months, that customer watched his counterparts at Delta reap the benefits of numerous mileage bonus offers, virtually dumping miles into the pockets of passengers and severely diluting the mileage pool.

Meanwhile, program changes continue to cut Worldperks down to the level of Skymiles and defectors leave in droves. At a poll on the frequent flyer website Flyertalk, nearly 30% of passengers queried are leaving the conglomerate to join another airline program, another 20% are leaving at year’s end and 20% are too distraught to know what to do.

Out on the underground mileage exchanges, Delta/Northwest miles have lost their value. Most don’t even bother trying to trade, and one passenger trying to exchange Delta miles for an equal number of competitor miles was laughed at. The best offer so far? A few beverage certificates.

Other tales from the skies
Amazing and insane stories from a real-life flight attendant and co-pilot

Ryanair introduces in-air mobile phone calls on select routes

by Scott Carmichael on

Last year, Ryanair optimistically announced that they were just “weeks” away from launching their in-air mobile phone and data service.

It took a little longer than planned, but the first 20 planes are now equipped with the gear needed to let passengers annoy their fellow passengers with their mindnumming phone conversations.

The 20 planes are all on routes to and from Dublin, and the service allows passengers to make and receive phone calls, send and receive text messages, and transmit data.

Thankfully, the in-air prices are so high, that most people will probably keep their calls to a simple “hi mom, I’m in the air”.

Calls will cost between €2 and €3 per minute, and data is a staggering €1.50 per 100KB (about the size of a basic email). For comparison – a 3 hour broadband WiFi session on Virgin America costs under $10.

Of course, the whole thing is rather ironic, since we have been told for years that keeping your phone on may result in the plane crashing and killing everyone. That was of course until the airlines learned they could make money off your calls. Then it was suddenly no problem.

Jeffrey covered a different angle of in-flight mobile phones today; the mobile phone in the cockpit. Of course, the issue here is not interference from signals, but the interference from a ringing phone during critical portions of the flight.

I’m pretty much addicted to my mobile phone, but even I think filling a low cost carrier plane with 100 chatting passengers will eventually result in someone having to have their mobile phone surgically removed.

Lose your job? JetBlue will refund your plane ticket

by Jeffrey White on

With the economy in the toilet, JetBlue is looking to give some people the confidence to book flights even if they fear that their jobs might soon be on the cutting block.

The airline is introducing what it’s calling “The JetBlue Promise.” It states that if you lose your job, JetBlue will refund your fare and wave its normal $100 cancellation fee.

What’s the fine print? You can find all of it here. But the highlights are:

  • Refunds are good for flights purchased between Feb. 1 and June 1 2009
  • You must have involuntarily lost your job on or after Feb. 17, 2009
  • You must have paid for the trip yourself (rather than have had corporate pick up the tab)
  • You must send in your refund request at least 14 days before your flight
  • You must allow 30 days for your refund to process

There is paperwork that you’ll need to fill out, which is available at the above link as well. JetBlue reserves the right to refuse your refund request. If it does, it’ll still cancel your flight, and charge you $100 for the cancellation.

Are pilots not following regulations and keeping their cell phones on?

by Jeffrey White on

The Federal Aviation Administration has issued a new alert to flight crews re-stating regulations that require cell phones to be shut off during take off and inflight, even those belonging to flight attendants and pilots.

It seems that in at least one example a pilot was not following the rules regarding cell phones.

An FAA air safety inspector was recently riding in the cockpit jump seat of an unnamed airline, performing routine observation, when the first officer’s cell phone began to ring just as the plane reached V1, the speed at which the captain has to commit to taking off.

Needless to say, the inspector made a note of this gaffe. “It was later determined that the sound came from the first officer’s cellular phone, which had been left in the ON position,” a report of the incident notes, according to Flightglobal. “As a result the ring tone caused a distraction between the crew members during the takeoff phase and could have led the to crew to initiate an unnecessary rejected takeoff.”

Of course, the whole cell phone on a plane issue is a favorite for passengers to debate. Last summer, Gadling’s own resident pilot and blogger Kent made the case for the “no phones” regulation when an angry passenger claimed that warnings about cell phones interfering with navigation equipment was just so much hooey.

I’m not that convinced, though, and not just because I have inadvertently left my phone on during a flight and we didn’t plummet in a ball of flames. Rather, a lot of airlines right now are debating whether to allow cell phone use in flight (European airlines seem poised to allow them), which to me sort of blows the whole danger factor out of the water. I mean, you can’t for years universally insist that using cell phones will screw with a plane’s navigation technology and then one day permit inflight calls and not expect passengers to conclude that the danger has always been overstated. If it was truly dangerous, cell phone use would never be allowed, period.

Now, if we could just get airlines to chuck their ridiculous insistence that I can’t listen to my iPod during take off. I hate to fly and it relaxes me — and it’s not like I’m going to somehow miss the fact that we have just crashed.