Woman in New Zealand attempts to hijack a plane

by Iva Skoch on

It is not often you hear about women trying to hijack planes, but I guess it was bound to happen with the closing gap of gender opportunities.

As reported by Herald Sun, a 33-year-old New Zealand woman of Somali descent boarded a 19-seat plane headed from Blenheim to Christchurch earlier today and about ten minutes after take-off she demanded to be flown to Australia. She rushed into the cockpit and stabbed one pilot in the hand and the other in the foot, claiming she was going to detonate the two bombs she brought on board. She was subdued by the co-pilot as the twin-propeller plane came in to land at Christchurch, and arrested after landing.

Passengers on regional flights in New Zealand apparently do not have their carry-on luggage screened. That’s why she was able to smuggle a knife on to the plane. No bombs were found.

I feel bad for pilots these days, I really do.

Air-traffic controllers leaving in droves

by Iva Skoch on

I have always admired air-traffic controllers. It is a stressful job, yet they hardly get the kind of respect that pilots do. I also just learned from yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, that there have not been any controller-caused jet collisions since the 1980s, the last time staffing was an issue. Yes, it was after Reagan fired more than 12,000 striking controllers in 1980.

Recently though, controllers are leaving their jobs at the fastest pace since the 1980s. A lot of the controllers hired after 1981 are becoming eligible to retire. It is not unusual they retire at the age of 50, after 25 years on the job.

In January, there were only 11,000 controllers – the lowest level in a decade, even though the number of flights has been increasing. The FAA is talking about a staffing crisis, that could further worsen airline delays. Even worse, overworked and fatigued controllers could even cause a catastrophic mistake.

The FAA response? Relax, travel has never been safer.

This time, a passenger struck a flight attendant

by Iva Skoch on

Just last week, we wrote about a pilot whose mental breakdown caused an emergency landing.

Now, AP reports that a flight from New York to Paris was diverted to Boston last night because a French passenger “struck a flight attendant.” Why? We don’t know. Nonetheless, the American Airlines flight landed safely after 8 p.m. Wednesday night at Logan Airport. The “attacker” was taken into custody.

Is it the cabin pressure that makes people go crazy?

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A commercial airplane with a king size bed? I wonder how much that costs…

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More than 26% of last year’s flights late. Blame congested skies

by Iva Skoch on

As far as airline delays go, 2007 was the second worst year ever, with over a quarter of all US flights arriving late. In December, more than one third of all flights arrived late. Only 2000 was worse, with over 27%.

Rising passenger demand and an industry preference for smaller planes causing congestion in the skies and on runways is to blame, AP reports. Experts say that flight delays will be getting increasingly more common. There is no hope for improvement anytime soon, because airlines continue to replace large planes with smaller ones in order to maximize profit margins by flying with fewer empty seats.

We can expect, once again, that the airlines will just adjust their flights times. If you tell passengers upfront that a flight from Boston to DC takes 4 hours (although it should only take about 1 hour) and you get them there in 4 hours, there is–technically speaking–no delay.

(Photo: NASA – Day In the Life of Air Traffic Over the United States)

Get a pilot license in 20 hours and for $340 bucks

by Jerry Guo on

At some point in the last couple of years, chances are you’ve come across the term “very light jets” or the catchy acronym VLJ. These are Chevy Suburban-sized planes that let you avoid the hassles of flying commercial.

But what about the flip-side of this trend towards the ultra-small? I’m talking about propeller planes that fit only two passengers and weigh less than 1,300 pounds. To encourage people to get a pilot’s license, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has come up with a new class of licenses for these “sports planes.”

Instead of the standard 40 hours of flight-time instruction as well as many hundreds of dollars you’ll have to pay, you can get the sports pilot license in 20 hours and for a couple hundred of dollars. Best of all, these sports planes can cost half as less as conventional planes: $80,000 instead of something like $200,000.

Hell, even I can afford to do this (maybe).

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Curious to know what it’s like to fly a 757 for a commercial airline? Follow along with Gadling’s resident pilot, Kent Wien, in Cockpit Chronicles.