Wheelchair on plane explodes on landing

by Abha Malpani on

Having the battery of an electronic item you take on board a flight, short-circuit and then burst into flames, doesn’t even come to your mind when you think about plane accidents.

Earlier this month, a wheelchair stored in the hold of a Boeing 727-200 First Choice flight carrying 229 passengers, let out blue sparks while being offloaded from the plane. The minute it was placed on a vehicle to be transported at Manchester Airport, it caught fire and exploded. Luckily, no one was injured. Thank goodness it didn’t happen on the plane. A similar incident happened in February last year, where a fire started aboard a plane because a camera battery short-circuited while in the overhead compartment.

The articles about this incident talk about passengers needing to be more vigilant when taking items on board. True, but I also think it’s the ground staff’s responsibility to fiercely spread awareness of things like this, and make their check-in and boarding procedures more stringent. Although the exact cause of the accident has not yet been found, assuming it was a short-circuit, it could have been avoided by making sure the battery was fixed properly and that there was no way for it to switch on automatically while in storage.

Talking about seemingly innocuous items causing serious damage on an aircrafts, you can’t help but think of mobile phones. Although told a million times, I still know people who do not switch their phones off on a flight, even if they don’t use them. They forget, or don’t realize the importance of doing so. I haven’t heard of any planes crashing or catching fire due to a mobile phone, but if it can happen with a camera and a wheelchair, I imagine that things can happen with a mobile phone.

How can airlines be stricter? Perhaps when baggage is being screened, they should ask passengers to remove batteries from all electronic devices. But then you can’t be assured that the passenger won’t put the battery right back in. Other than spreading awareness through publicity, what’s the solution? Rely on the passenger’s consciousness?

Want cheap fun? Hang out in an airport. What’s your pleasure?

by Jamie Rhein on

When I was a child I fell in love with art departments. My dad was an art education professor who would take me to work with him, set me up in an art room with loads of supplies, and leave me to create. The smells were heaven.

For Ethan Gilsdorf, airports first struck his fancy as a kid. He has George Carlin, one of my favorite comedians, to thank for that. Gilsdorf recalls hearing Carlin’s line, “You know, there’s a spy in the airport: Your job: find him” as the one that enticed him to see airports as places worthy of spending some time.

Gilsdorf wrote about his airport love in an essay in the New York Times. For him, layovers, are sheer pleasure. He also sees that airports are a haven for transition from one place into the unknown. When you land at an airport, there is familiarity of the scene where you can go to the toilet, get something to eat and find something to buy before you step out into the unknown. Here are some of the things Gilsdorf loves about his airport visits:

  • sitting in an airport bar watching a ball game
  • browsing magazine stands
  • people watching, even in the baggage claim area. The family reunions get him every time
  • looking at the airports version of art
  • airport architecture
  • listening to conversations

Here is something I love. Moving sidewalks. I never get tired of them.

London’s Gatwick Airport up for sale

by Jeffrey White on

Last month, while in London, I wrote about how the BAA, the UK’s largest airport operator, might have to sell off two or three of its hubs amid concerns from Britain’s Competition Commission about the company’s market dominance.

It owns giant Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Southampton airports.

Yesterday the company announced that it was putting Gatwick, Britain’s second largest airport, up for sale.

Already some investors are interested. The BBC reports that Australian company MacQuarie, Germany’s Fraport and the owners of Manchester’s airport are considering making bids.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Virgin Atlantic, never one to shy away from publicity, has thrown its hat into the ring as well.

“Virgin Atlantic would relish the opportunity to bid for Gatwick as part of a consortium and inject our customer service expertise into any future running of the airport,” the company’s CEO, Steve Ridgway, tells the BBC.

Gatwick’s selling price? Around $3.5 billion or so, according to some reports.

This news all but seals the fate of London’s Stansted airport. The Competition Commission has suggested that the BAA needed to sell two of its three London airports, and there’s really no way it’s going to part with Heathrow.

We won’t know the CC’s exact recommendations until a report comes out next year. In the meantime speculation begins on which might be the third airport on the block, if the BAA needs to go that deep into its holdings.

Heathrow’s New VIP Lounge is Juvenile

by Josh Lew on

The presence of kids in the fast-paced world of airline travel can evoke as much controversy as McCain versus Obama. The harried business traveler not only has to worry about getting slowed up or annoyed by the incessant whining (real or imagined) of youthful travelers, they also have to be concerned about accidentally thumping a child on the head with a briefcase as they try to hurry to their gate.

In a nod to traveling tots, London Heathrow has created a VIP lounge specifically for families. It’s not the first, but definitely sounds the coolest. That’s right mom and dad, no need to put up with the icy glances of laptop jockeys in the regular first-class and business-class lounges. In fact, the kids’ lounge in Heathrow’s Terminal 5 doesn’t even require a business class ticket. Known as KidZone, it has an ample buffet, computers and whimsical decorations. Entrance costs $27 per trip and is also included in the membership perks of clubs like Priority Pass. Virgin Atlantic has a similar lounge at Heathrow, while some state-side airports like JFK and LAX boast child-friendly facilities as well. American Airlines will continue the trend by opening no less than 9 KidZone-like lounges at major airports in the US. Food you can eat with your hands, no worries about making noise, and I bet they have Legos too. Sounds better than the regular VIP to me. I wonder if they let you in even if you are not traveling with kids.

Why are these the world’s best airports?



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Jamie Lynn, Britany, Kanye: Celebrities at Los Angeles airport create problems for the rest of us

by Jamie Rhein on

Let’s say you’ve arrived at LAX airport and you happen to look, kind of, like Jamie Lynne Spears, and it–kind of, looks like you are carrying a baby. From this LA Times article’s account, you’d be surrounded by some paparazzi in a wild flurry as they snapped your picture hoping to sell it to TMZ, Perez Hilton, or some other celeb loving publication.

That’s what happened Wednesday night when Jamie Lynne Spears was to arrive at the airport with new baby in tow. Spears did show up, but the paparazzi were going after a decoy. [Although, by this account, she wasn’t a decoy–but someone who just happened to look like Jamie Lynn Spears who the police were helping get through the airport in the flock of paparazzi. I’m confused.]

At any rate. Supposing you weren’t a decoy, but someone who REALLY does look a bit like Jamie Lynn Spears? What Wednesday’s story does illustrate is that LAX is becoming increasingly a paparazzi paradise for snapping pics as celebrities haul themselves and their luggage through the airport.

Big deal, you might think. But, according to what I read, it’s having an influence on travel for the rest of us. Sure, you may not be hounded by people trying to take your picture, but when Kanye West was arrested earlier this week, it gummed up the airport’s flow. Security was busy handling Kanye West’s arrest outside the passenger security areas of Terminal 4. As exciting as it may have looked to be part of the melodrama, what about catching that plane?

The article also said that such nonsense creates flight delays for everyone else–not just the celebrities whose pictures are in high demand. The article also talked about how people happened to be at the airport the same time when Britney Spears was flanked by photographers who were vying for a good angle while she was making her way on the escalator.

It’s not that she was on the escalator by her lonesome. As the paparazzi flocked, some people were knocked askew. From the article’s description, it sounds like celebrities make it through the airport often, so much so that photographers stake themselves out there daily.

If you want to see what it’s like to be a celebrity, figure out which one you look like, head to the airport and try to act like you don’t want your picture taken. Might be fun—or not.

The question is. Is the photo of Jamie Lynne Spears or the decoy? I think it’s the decoy.