Eos Airlines filed for bankruptcy in the New York courts yesterday. This puts two of the three startup all-business class carriers out of business in the last four months (MaxJet folded in December), leaving Silverjet the only remaining contender.
At least they tried to run a few flights after officially shutting down operations. Several flights between JFK and Stansted ran today in an attempt to get a few strandees moved around. Apparently during the Skybus incident people just showed up at the airport and found kiosks and gates deserted. That’s not cool.
As of Monday, April 28th though, all operations will cease.
If you were booked on Eos, you’re going to need to call your credit card company to explain the situation and dispute the charges. Silverjet is also offering assistance to those stranded on their website, but don’t expect any free handouts.
The company that owns Go Airlines says the two pilots in the cockpit for that fateful flight between the Hawaiian capital Honolulu and Hilo are out, though they are not releasing their names.
Investigators tell the Associated Press that they are reviewing whether the pilots had fallen asleep in the cockpit during the short flight, which had 40 passengers on board. Apparently air traffic control could not raise them for close to 30 minutes.
The flight ended up landing safely in Hilo. The local pilots union is appealing the firing.
You’ll never believe what other crazy stuff the airline industry been involved with lately …
Did your airline lose your luggage recently? Relax, it could be worse. Just ask Barbara Blewitt.
When she arrived in Atlantic City recently on a Spirit Airlines flight, she was shocked at what she found: When her luggage materialized, it was burned, including everything inside.
“I had no clothes, no underwear, no cosmetics, nothing but a burned suitcase,” Blewitt tells Tampa Bay’s 10 News.
The airline reportedly issued Blewitt a “baggage irregularity receipt,” but she has yet to receive compensation. Spirit Airlines tells the television channel that it is looking further into the matter. It is still unclear how this might have happened.
Asks Blewitt, “How do I know how good your plane is if you can’t even take care of my luggage, or at least say I’m sorry.” A fair question.
Here’s another one: Why go to Atlantic City in the first place?
Word on the secret underground is that United Airlines and US Airways may be in talks to merge, and may even announce their plans as early as TODAY. Other reports say that they’re waiting on union approval and could postpone an announcement in early May.
I know we’ve all been speculating about whether any other legacy carriers were going to merge after the Northwest and Delta deal got rolling; many believed that Continental and United were next in line, especially with Continental’s suspicious postings on their new website, co-industryconsolidation.com.
Perhaps that’s not the only deal in motion though? United and US Airways, two airlines that have faced particular hardship over the last few years could well-benefit from the consolidation of their services. Both are in the same airline alliance and have numerous domestic hubs that could directly compete with the the new Northwelta.
Keep an eye on the news and UAUA today. Again, this is all still speculation but big news could be on the way.
Welcome to Plane Answers, where our resident airline pilot, Kent Wien, answers your questions about everything from takeoff to touchdown and beyond. Have a question of your own? Ask away!
This question was submitted by Jim,
Hi Kent,
My question concerns how much advance notice pilots get when there are other planes in their immediate air space. In some of my travels, while at cruising altitude, I’ve seen other planes cross paths just below us. Knowing how many planes fill the sky each day and knowing that your reaction time is minimal, I wonder how pilots and controllers work together to keep all those planes apart. Also, what’s the rule on how much distance must there be between planes when on the same route and at intersection points?Thanks Jim,
I know it can be a little disconcerting to see another airplane cross under or zip by overhead just as you look out the window of an airliner.
Air traffic controllers have rules on how far laterally they must keep airplanes apart as well as how much vertical space needs to be kept between them.
For lateral separation, airplanes that are en route–flying faster and further away from the ATC facility–must have at least 5 nautical miles between them. When the airplanes enter the approach controller’s airspace, that requirement goes down to 3 nautical miles. Finally, when the airplane is in the control of an airport’s tower controller, aircraft can be spaced much closer if that controller has visual contact with the airplanes or if at least one pilot reports they have the other aircraft in sight. A good example of this is the visual approaches to San Francisco where airplanes are lined up on final approach for the parallel runways. You would think the airplanes are flying in formation at times.
This visual separation doesn’t apply when airplanes are in the clouds, in which case the controllers keep airplanes spaced about 2 1/2 NM apart, more if the preceding aircraft is a heavy (over 250,000 pounds–757 or larger) and the following aircraft is not. This limitation is a function of the wake turbulence generated by larger airplanes.
But I suspect the airplanes that you’ve been seeing lately have been even closer laterally than that. Because of some technology improvements to corporate jets and airliners, most of the world has adopted the Reduced Vertical Separation Minima (RVSM) standards. This allows aircraft flying above 29,000 feet to be spaced at 1,000 foot intervals. In the past, that number was 2,000 feet apart.
This has actually had the effect of doubling our airspace above 29,000 feet, which allows for more direct routing and the ability for us to get out of annoying areas of turbulence.
Westbound aircraft are normally put at the even flight levels (altitudes) and eastbound aircraft fly at the odd levels. That doesn’t apply to the North Atlantic, where most of the traffic flies westbound in the morning and eastbound in the afternoon. In that case, airplanes are spaced 1000 feet apart which makes for some great views from our seat as you can see from the following video clip:
Have a question for Kent? Ask away and he’ll pick one to answer here on Friday.