Spooky stories from the skies

by Catherine Bodry on

If you’re afraid of flying and believe that scary stories are best set in haunted houses, you might want to stop reading right now. James Wysong, from Msnbc, delivers 13 terrifying tales from the not-so-friendly skies. Here’s a couple:

A flight to Europe took off with a crew of four pilots and came back with only three. During a break, one of the pilots wandered off and was never heard from again. The authorities took apart the plane but have yet to solve the case. Authorities determined that the pilot had been suffering from depression and was behind on his alimony payments; they surmised he had slipped off the airplane disguised as a passenger in hopes of starting a new life. But there is no record of him going through customs or immigration, and his bags were all still on board.

Freaked out? Here’s another:

When a pair of elderly newlyweds went to Europe for their honeymoon, the husband had a heart attack and died. The wife arranged to have his body brought back in a casket to their new home in Florida. She made the connecting flight but the casket did not; in fact, the airline could not locate it for five days. When the casket was finally found, at the deceased’s hometown airport, it was … empty! One way or another, that man got cold feet.

So scared?! Read the rest of the stories here.

Who would you like to sit with on a plane?

by Abha Malpani on

If you could choose one person to sit next to on a flight, who would it be?

Synovate Travel and Leisure recently asked over 1000 business-travelers and below are the top results in order of preference. The survey doesn’t mention why these were chosen though — but here are my snippets.

  1. Oprah Winfrey (As sad as that sounds, I think she’d be fun to sit next to)
  2. Bill Gates (I would like to talk to him about the work he does in India)
  3. Angelina Jolie (Hmmm. Nah, she’s this mixture of wild and noble. I’m not sure I’d be able to break into her)
  4. Hillary Clinton (Nah…)
  5. George Bush (No thank you)

Another similar survey listed :

  • The Pope (No comment)
  • The Dalai Lama (I’d like to sit next to him and meditate. No, seriously.)
  • Barak Obama (Nah…as you can see, American politics is not on my preference list).

I would have said Richard Branson, he is a box of surprises and his life fascinates me. Or perhaps David Copperfield, I’ve always had the desire to meet him.

Who is your “dream” flight seat neighbor? And why?
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No more feral cats at JFK

by Grant Martin on

Look out, the next security threat at John F Kennedy airport in New York isn’t terrorists, no, its cats. Reuters reports that authorities at JFK have started rounding up the feral cats that have been calling the airport home (seventy of them!). Animal rights activists were naturally up in arms, and have been protesting the Port Authority headquarters.

Seems that the airport workers (and the rats) have been feeding the animals, who have in turn been running around baggage claim and attracting more animals, such as birds. And when you mix birds and flying jets, well, then you have a safety issue.

Don’t believe me? Check out this video on YouTube. Make sure you have the audio on so you can hear the pilot saying “MAYDAY”.

I have an idea. Let’s the put the activists on a flight with a compressor stall we’ll and see how bad they want to keep the kitties afterwards.

Guardian’s 2007 Travel Awards winners

by Abha Malpani on

More than 13,500 readers voted for the 21st edition of Guardian’s Travel Awards that were recently held in Seville.

The Guardian is one of my favorite newspapers, and although I couldn’t take part in the survey (UK only!), I was curious to see what was on other readers hit-lists.

Here are some of the internationally interesting results:

Best Online Booking Service: www.i-escape.com

Best Long-Haul Airline: Singapore Airlines (expected – they are fantastic)

Best Short-Haul Airline: www.jet2.com

Best Business Airline: Emirates Airlines (expected — it’s a great airline but also there are over 100,000 British Expats living in Dubai)

Best Overseas City: Hong Kong (didn’t expect that!)

Best European City: Berlin (yeah…I understand this choice)

Best European Country: Switzerland (huh!?)

Best Long Haul Country: Cambodia (huh!?) — what does Long-Haul Country mean anyway?

I think such country based surveys say a lot about the general travel-mind of the country — and honestly some of the results surprised me.

Want to smell a new plane? It might be awhile if it’s American

by Jamie Rhein on

I’ve bought new cars and I’ve bought used. My last used car smelled lovely. The friend of mine who sold it too me must have either used wonderful soap daily —or wore a light, fabulous perfume. New cars don’t have to work hard to smell special. Smelling new like the grown up version of a fresh, just taken out of the box vinyl toy is enough–unless it’s brand new leather shoes, and then double yum.

A brand new airplane must really smell fantastic. I have no idea, though, since I’ve never been on a brand new airplane that I can recall. According to the latest news on U.S. carriers, it might be awhile before anyone will get the experience–at least if one is getting from here to there on an airplane from an American company.

These days, frugality is in–new planes are out. The airlines want to beef up their coffers in order to make up for the post 9/11 shortfalls that had them tumbling towards bankruptcy. Okay, so new is not an option, and according to the New York Times article that outlined all the reasons why new airplanes aren’t on the horizon, giving the airplanes a through cleaning is not a priority either. One guy who was quoted used words like “grimy” to describe the problem.

According to the airlines, older planes are safe so there really isn’t anything to worry about. I do admit when I was flying Delta round-trip from Columbus to Los Angeles a few weeks ago, when I rested my head against the seat, I wondered about the upholstery.