CNN is reporting that the family of a woman who died at
Carol Gotbaum, 45, died in police custody last year after being detained in a fit of rage when she missed her connecting flight
She tried to escape from her handcuffs while in a holding cell and accidentally strangled herself, the network says. The family says police used unnecessary force in detaining her and did not follow its own procedures in handling people clearly disturbed.
Gotbaum was traveling to
It was about time somebody invented a hand dryer that actually dries hands and doesn’t just slowly blow air at them. I mean we have hair dryers powerful enough to take your scalp right off if you’re not careful. Then why are all those public bathroom hand dryers so flimsy?
As the latimes travel blog writes today, the airport bathroom is a glorified convention hall of international filth. “Some cultures don’t fret over toilet seat covers, some don’t sweat the use of scalding hot water to wash one’s hands, some don’t pay attention to dirty faucets and instead use their “clean hands” to turn off the spigots and then spread that bacteria to the handle and edges of the paper towel dispensers.” Lovely.
Fortunately, LAX is getting the A380 of hand dryers (without the ongoing pump problems, lets hope). The new Dyson Airblade hand driers are efficient, easy and hands-free. They use an ingenious blast of 400 mile-per-hour air to dry your hands. Since the air is not heated “it will not burn, and because the blast is so strong, one only needs to dip the drippy hands in for about 10 seconds, and voila, dry hands.”
This past Monday I posted an interesting article on how to get free Clear Security access, the new fangled super security screening that has popped up at numerous airports around the country.
Basically it involved applying to get free Hyatt special status, then turning around and using said status to get apply for a free one year Clear membership. I have yet to jump on the train, largely because Detroit doesn’t have Clear lanes (perhaps because their security is already pretty fluid).
It now looks like Marriott is going the same way with their rewards program. Platinum members of Marriott Rewards can now apply for their special passes, while Gold and Silver members will be given a marginal discount on the service. You can check out the full details at Marriott’s promo website.
I am suddenly curious as to why all of these Clear promotions keep coming up. I’m willing to bet that profits haven’t been super robust, largely because people haven’t been willing to cough up over a hundred bucks to pay for faster security when they could just arrive a half hour earlier and stand in line. Perhaps this is a way to appeal to some of the “higher dollar” business travelers who might find themselves important enough to become Clear members.
Here’s an idea Clear: offer the promo to Blackberry users.
If Saudi flights are anything like those in Pakistan, they probably begin with a prayer. Though it’s, of course, always good to have Allah on your side, having the flight attendants lead a prayer before taking off does not inspire confidence. But maybe it helped in this case…
A Saudi airliner flying into Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital, caught fire while landing yesterday, though none of the 307 passengers or crew on board were seriously injured.
Apparently one of the engines of the plane, a Boeing 747, caught fire as the plane touched down, but the fire thankfully did not spread to the fuel reservoirs. After landing, the pilot reportedly opened the emergency exit doors and the passengers left the plane via the big yellow playground slide. Fun!
More here.
With 4 safety scares in a month, Qantas seems to have serious problems to deal with.
The latest: 4 tires of one of its 747’s taking off from LA International Airport blew up on the runway. The 232 passengers and crew on board were not hurt; everyone was evacuated from the plane immediately and taken to a hotel. According to the story in the Sydney Morning Herald, the plane may leave today “subject to the aircraft being cleared for operations”.
Other things that have happened to Qantas this month (!):
– Qantas flying from Singapore to London was forced to land at New Delhi Airport for 36-hours due to a technical problem.
– Oil was found leaking from a Qantas aircraft about to land at Sydney Airport.
– A Qantas 737 flight from Townsville landed at Brisbane Airport with smoke coming from its landing gear.
AND…earlier this year in January, a 747 lost almost all power on its descent into Bangkok because of a water leak that shut down 3 of the 4 power generating units.
AND AND…all of this happened right after December last year when Qantas announced a record half-year profit before tax of $905 million, a 73 per cent increase on the previous year. Looks like that jinxed the airline big time.
