Qantas maintenance fills oxygen tanks with nitrogen

by Grant Martin on

Yikes. Apparently someone misread the “oxygen” cart in Melbourne and Qantas technicians have been filling oxygen tanks with nitrogen. You know, the oxygen tanks that supply the air to your masks in an emergency? Those oxygen tanks.

I’m reminded of that first scene Mission Impossible II where Sean Ambrose knocks out the entire plane with special gas and they fly it into a mountain side as they parachute to safety below.

What’s worse is that they’re not sure how many planes this error was affected by. While it might be easy to track down Qantas flights that were incorrectly loaded, their maintenance teams are also contracted out to other carriers that fly through Melbourne.

Nothing like adding to insult to injury in an emergency. “In addition to the plane spiraling out of control towards the Pacific Ocean, we’ve filled the oxygen tanks with nitrogen! Ha!”

Spice Girls name Virgin Atlantic jet “Spice One”

by Catherine Bodry on

I’ll tell you what I want, what I really really want: an airline promotion without calendar girls, Playboy pinups or Victoria’s Secret models. Instead, I’d like an airline promo that makes and keeps promises — for example, I’d love it if an airline made a guarantee that I’d be compensated if my flight was delayed, like Indian airlines are now doing. And what would really make me say “zigga zag ah”? A reasonable fare, a comfortable seat and a decent meal.

But, the airlines don’t wanna be my lover, and so they’re resorting to calendar girls, Playboy pinups and Victoria’s Secret models — and the Spice Girls. Yes, Sporty, Scary, Baby, Ginger and Posh have recently unveiled the new name for a Virgin Atlantic jet: the not-really-that-clever Spice One.

The flirty fivesome offered online voters three choices for the Boeing 747’s name; Girl Power and Spice Girl lost out.

Spice Girls + Virgin = ???


New uniforms for the Northwest flight attendants

by Grant Martin on

Earlier this week, Northwest hosted a fashion show in their Detroit World Gateway to show off the new uniforms they’re unrolling. I asked any Gadlingers passing through to snap a couple of photos and in one way or another (thanks Dan), some came through.

In the interest of self preservation as a member of the media and Northwest Airlines‘ frequent flyer program, I’ll refrain from commenting on the uniforms, but I’m interested to see what Gadlingers and AOL readers think of the change.

If you look at some of the other photos in the set, you’ll see a timeline of flight attendant uniforms through NWA’s history; it’s interesting to look at some of the older uniforms and see how they changed over time.

Speed-dating at 35,000 feet in Europe

by Abha Malpani on

Catherine recently talked about finding love at the airport and the popularity of online social networking to meet someone while hauled-up at the airport.

But, if you want to skip the whole courage building process to approach the hottie you saw whilst boarding, or want immediate interaction with not one, but plenty of singles looking for in-flight spice, Central Europe’s low-budget airline Sky Europe will organize a speed-dating session for you mid-air. “Come with a bright smile and look forward to a great trip”, I had to laugh when I read that in its list of guidelines.

So far the Sky Dating service has been offered on Sky Europe flights to Italy, Portugal, Belgium and the Netherlands. It works like any other speed-dating service: you get 5-minutes with every person signed up and results are emailed 3 days post event. Unfortunately, you can’t sign-up for it on a spontaneous whim, you have to register for it in advance.

If you want to travel especially to meet someone, you can get the Sky Date package to a European capital. Trips are normally 1-3 days, your accommodation is taken care of and city tours will be organized, all with the idea of getting you hooked to someone on the trip. According to a recent article on MSNBC: on the last Sky Date flight – which combined speed-dating with overnight hotel stay and guided city tour, three couples were formed by the end of the trip.

Hmmm. Excuses for being single are running out way too fast! :)

Dreamliner production plods on

by Grant Martin on

Despite the recent setbacks and delays logged by Boeing on production of their new 787 Dreamliner, the fastest selling commercial airplane of all time, corporate sources are still holding to their (revised) Q4 ’08 delivery date. Production of the first three prototypes is well underway, the first (closest) for their “first flight” demonstration and the second two for static and fatigue testing.

You may recall the unveiling of the 787 earlier this year, which was a huge PR and photo event (get your CEO’s picture taken in front of the Dreamliner today!). Why can’t they fly that bird, you ask? Well, Boeing cut a few corners stitching that prototype together in time for the event. Now they’re going back, closing the gaps and getting the entire beast put together correctly for actual operation.

Their PR people tell me that the first flight is supposed to take place some time at the end of the first quarter next year. Hopefully the suppliers stay on schedule so that this actually happens.