How to not land: A picture lesson courtesy of Iberia

by Grant Martin on

It’s difficult to say exactly what was at play in these conditions, but the position and response of this photographer gives a great vantage point of an aborted Iberia (IB) landing in Bilbao earlier this week.

The consecutive photos posted here show a quick time lapse of what was going on in a few scary seconds over the tarmac.

Among the airline community, the general consensus is that wind conditions caused significant shear near the runway, resulting in turbulent gusts just prior to wheels down. After two tries at landing on this in Bilbao the IB flight had to divert to Vitoria for another rough (albeit successful) landing.

So don’t rush off to hate on the Iberia pilot. As we learned from last year’s One-Two-Go crash on Thailand’s Phuket island, landing in high winds can be extremely tricky.

I’ve been through a couple of aborted landings, but never one that has actually touched down and returned to the skies. As docile as my experiences were, they were still frightening. I wonder what people on this flight were thinking.

A tough way to earn 5,000 bonus miles

by Aaron Hotfelder on

Why do flight attendants have reputations for rudeness? Perhaps it’s the tight, cramped quarters of an airplane, or the public visibility, or the inability to please everyone. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s stories like this.

Travel guru Christopher Elliott brings us the story of an American Airlines passenger, John Buschman, whose encounter with an ill-mannered flight attendant results in his being pelted in the head with snacks, napkins, and water. His understandable anger is matched only by his bewilderment: Why did the flight attendant keep throwing stuff at his head? He writes:

“During the rest of the flight I was attempting to justify to myself what had occurred here. I knew that I did not provoke her. In fact, I didn’t even make eye contact with her prior to this occurring.”

He writes a letter to American Airlines that details what happened, and the airline responds with profuse apologies and by adding 5,000 additional bonus miles to his frequent flier account. They don’t, however, try to explain their employee’s bizarre behavior.

One commentor conjectures that it was a jilted ex-girlfriend or a “relative psycho,” which, if nothing else, is better than a full-blown psycho.

Whole thing here.

Christopher Columbus: Travels the New World, spreads syphilis

by Neil Woodburn on

Since the dawn of commercial flight, there has been a growing concern among health officials that modern travel is responsible for the rapid spread of dangerous, contagious diseases.

In the past, a random disease could infect an isolated tribe and kill them all off before the virus spread beyond their borders. Today, a backpacker could pick up a contagious disease in Papua New Guinea and be back home in Chicago coughing on people three days later.

Take SARS, for example. Acute Respiratory Syndrome first appeared in Asia in February 2003. Just a few months later the disease–which can only be transmitted by close, personal contact–had spread across the globe infecting people in more than 25 countries.

Such a rapid epidemic was only possible because of the massive proliferation of international flights crisscrossing the globe. One infected person in a single airplane landing at Heathrow could spread a disease like SARS around the globe within a day. This is scary stuff, folks!But hold on a minute. Diseases have piggybacked their way around the globe long before planes took to the sky–it just took a lot longer in those days.

In fact, a controversial report published last Monday seeks to finalize the debate that that it was none other than Christopher Columbus and his crew who were responsible for spreading syphilis around the globe. Researchers believe that members of the crew contacted the disease (probably a variation of tropical yaws) in South America and then returned home to spread it throughout Europe in 1495 and ultimately, the world.

Although the evidence is not yet conclusive, it does lend credence an old, popular saying: Columbus, did in fact, sail the ocean blue.

Har, har, har…

Airline lounges: an oasis from airport mayhem

by Grant Martin on

This year is the first year that I’ve actually buckled and purchased an annual pass into Northwest Airlines WorldClubs. With all of the traveling I was doing for work and on the side and the bucketsfull of hours I was wasting in airports, I figured that the 250$ was worth my productivity.

And now, I’m addicted. In Detroit‘s McNamara Terminal, the sprawling lounge includes free booze, snacks, wifi and showers, the perfect antidote for a long day of travel.

As airlines focus more on first and business class passengers, they too have noticed the importance of airport lounges. To keep our business, they’re constantly improving the lounge product to include amenities from fresh ramen noodles to automatic beer pouring machines to Smart Car sized espresso makers.

Now, as this New York Times article details, they’re also banding together to create uber lounges, each bent on dragging and retaining the high-value-flyer in their grasps. I suppose its a fair enough business model in the land of cutthroat competition.

If you ever do get a hankering for a little quiet productive time in an airline lounge though, consider stopping in for a visit; many lounges offer day passes for a modest fee. Sitting above the madness and looking down at the chaos unfolding is surprisingly peaceful.

10 tips for smarter flying


Another high-end Atlantic airliner

by Jerry Guo on

We’ve already written about two high-profile and high-end airlines, Silverjet and EOS, that promise spacious seats (that morph into beds) and an end to those coach class ghettos.

It seems the big boys want a piece of the pie. Starting in June, British Airways will start running flights from New York to various European cities under the subsidiary “OpenSkies,” their new premium-level airline. Here’s the run-down on the cabin configuration, using a Boeing 757. There will be 24 flat-bed seats, 28 “premium-economy” seats with 52 inches of legroom, and curiously, 30 coach seats.

It seems the coach seats, which were controversial, were added to entice stingier customers to upgrade (the theory goes they won’t be able to say no once they see the reclining beds).

The verdict is still out on premium flights like these. Virgin Atlantic has been running them for quite a while, and it’s catching on, though not like wildfire. Either way, I’d love to land a seat on one of these flights. Anyone have a spare ticket :-)?