It’s pouring here in New York, with a severe weather alert out for high winds and quarter-sized hail. It’s a good thing I haven’t been going outside this summer–and my apartment, with its windows facing an inner courtyard shields me away from most of nature.
In honor of weird weather, here in New York, in Beijing (where it’s predicted to rain for the better half of this week), and apparently on the runways, here’s an unbelievable clip of an A380 in a crosswind. As an added bonus, the commentary is in Icelandic!
Passengers on Canada’s low cost carrier WestJet might be in for a bit of a surprise if they are traveling to Prince George in northern British Columbia. During September, the airline will not be relying on their fleet of Boeing 737s to make the trip. Instead, passengers will find themselves boarding one of two Bombardier Dash-8 turboprop planes that have been leased by the airline.
WestJet’s fleet is made up of 737s. So why the change?
In the days of airline budget cuts, you might be surprised to know that the turboprop flights are not the beginning of a new cost-cutting strategy.
Construction on the main runway at Prince George’s airport will necessitate the use of a shorter runway, which is not long enough to accommodate the Boeing 737. The airline chose to continue service with the prop planes rather than taking Prince George out of the picture for a month. The Dash-8 will be able to safely land on the shorter runway.
Flights to Prince George might take a little longer during the month of September, but passengers will be able to use prop plane experience as a conversation starter at happy hour.
An Irish air traffic controller last week showed that he could think quick on his feet when he helped a small Piper airplane that had lost electricity make an emergency landing by sending text messages to the pilot.
The twin-engine Piper lost all electrical power shortly after taking off from Kerry airport in Ireland on its way to the Channel island of Jersey.
Realizing the problem, the pilot contacted air traffic control in Cork using his cell phone. When that signal weakened, a controller sent a series of text messages confirming the plane was clear for an emergency landing and providing coordinates and headings to guide the plane safely to the ground.
The plane carried four passengers, and none were injured in the incident.
Other tales from the skies Amazing and insane stories from a real-life flight attendant and co-pilot
Are you handy with the camcorder, good at setting up shots and taking quality video? Were you the founding member and president of the A/V club in high school? Do people always think that you’re the center of attention at parties? Then you might be a great candidate for Southwest‘s new Blog-o-spondent position to which they just started recruiting.
Over the past few months, the airline took one of their lucky employees through a whirlwind tour of the company as she video blogged the entire experience. Now, they’re looking for a Southwest fan to hand off the reins. The lucky person will be assigned a year’s worth of excitement as he or she jetsets around the country, video blogging on the entire airline, experience and any excitement that’s going on in the Southwest community.
Obviously the airline is going to pick someone that’s quirky, loves flying and is great on video, so try to emulate those traits if you don’t have them and put together a one minute video application.
Think you’ve got what it takes? Take a look at the trailer and head over to Nuts About Southwest for details on the contest.
Successfully hydrating on airplanes has recently become difficult; as an adult you can no longer bring beverages aboard. And apparently even babies have the same problem, or at least it seems so after an incident concerning a mother breast-feeding her child last week on WestJet.
The Vancouver woman says that she was asked to cover up while breast-feeding during a recent flight, and that the incident has led her to consider filing a human rights complaint. After “discreetly” lifting her shirt to breastfeed her son, a flight attendant offered the woman a blanket to cover up. She declined twice, but the flight attendant insisted “She said that some men find the sight of a bare breast quite offensive,” said Ms. Tarbuck. According to the report, she wasn’t even bothering the people around her; the only other people in the row were her husband and two children.
Despite what your beliefs are on breastfeeding, let me just put it this way: traveling with children is difficult, maybe we should cut these mothers some slack. Do you really want to be enduring the sounds of a hungry, crying baby during the duration of your flight???