KLM pilot gets lost flying over India

by Anna Brones on

When you take a road trip, you have a map to help you find your way. When you fly, you have a lot of fancy controls and tracking devices; but you still need to have a general idea of where you are going. Apparently that was not the case for the Dutch pilot of a KLM flight that flew from Amsterdam to India this weekend. The flight was destined for Shamshabad — Hyderabad’s new airport which just opened on Saturday — but because the pilot knew nothing of the airport, he diverted and flew to Delhi and then on to Mumbai, creating a detour of about 1500 miles, according to the Times of India.

The pilot apparently was not aware of the new airport, and was flying in the direction of the old facility Begumpet. Traffic control directed him to Shamshabad, to which the pilot’s response was “What’s Shamshabad?”

In the pilot’s defense, he did say that he was not willing to land at the new airport because he had not received the “notam” (notice to airmen) about the Begumpet closure from KLM corporate headquarters. Still, there is no denying the fact that he did get a little lost. Maybe our in-house pilot Kent Wien can weigh in on the situation and tell us if it’s as ridiculous as it sounds.

[Via Today in the Sky]

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An alternate route into Clear Security

by Grant Martin on

You may have heard about Clear, the new airport security lanes that have been popping up at airports all over the country. They offer an “enhanced” security screening, where they initially take your iris and finger prints then you can fly through their special security lanes without waiting in line for TSA and the other schlubs. Willy wrote about their rollout last year.

You may have also, like me, taken a quick look into the service, discovered the 128$ enrollment fee then abandoned your research right there. I don’t know you, but it’s worth 128$ for me to stand in line for the regular screening.

There may be an alternate route to Clear memberdom though. Apparently, members of Hyatt’s Platinum rewards program can enroll in a free year of Clear because of their exalted special status. But there’s also a promo going on right now where you can get Hyatt Platinum for free after one stay.

Just sign up on the special Hyatt page and next time you’re traveling for work, book a Hyatt room. After that, check out the special Clear page (which I also happen to have), and BANG. You’re all set.

You can weird out about all of the information that Clear collects from you later while you’re sending me a thank you card.

[Update, Marriott Rewards members are now eligible too!]

Photo of the Day (3-23-2008)

by Catherine Bodry on


No, this is not from the set of Lost. And no, this is not a shot of a plane crash-landing on a tropical island. But it sort of looks like it, doesn’t it? Matt.Hinsta captured this scene on the island of St. Maarten. He titled the photo “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” and writes that the beachgoers got “a rush as Air France flight 488 from Paris (operated by an Airbus A340-300) passes over their heads before touching down on runway 09 at Princess Juliana International Airport on Friday, March 21st, 2008.” He also points out that the woman on the far left is facing the wrong way. No word on whether this type of landing occurs 5 times an hour or once a week, but it seems pretty extreme, based on the vacationers’ body language.

Have any crazy travel photos you’d like to share with the world? Upload them to Gadling’s Flickr pool and we’ll consider them for our Photo of the Day feature.

US-to-UK flights expected to increase 31% by July

by Iva Skoch on

At some point I want to know how many more planes the sky can handle. I don’t even mean it from the perspective of the environment. I mean how many planes can we fit without sacrificing safety?

On March 30, the Open-Skies Agreement goes into effect. It will finally allow airlines based in the United States and Europe to fly across the Atlantic between any two airports in each region, NY Times reports. Before the pact, trans-Atlantic flights were governed by separate agreements between the United States and individual European nations. For example, the agreement required airlines to take off or land in their native countries, and limited which airlines could serve certain airports.

That is about to change. For the first time, the open market will dictate all trans-Atlantic routes between the United States and Europe and for example, Continental, Delta and Northwest will be able to serve Heathrow for the first time. According to OAG Back Aviation Solutions, flights from the United States to Heathrow are expected to increase 31 percent, to 2,932 flights in July from 2,233 this month. Heathrow is congested and chaotic as it is. No wonder, there are constant protests about expanding the airport. There has got to be such thing as “too many planes.”

Got Feedback? TSA wants to know

by Iva Skoch on

Starting this week, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is placing “Got feedback?” stickers on screening equipment of 5 major US airports. The stickers should serve to drive traffic to TSA’s blog: www.tsa.gov/blog and encourage travelers to leave comments.

The blog was launched January 30 a features up to 4-5 weekly posts written by TSA employees, according to USA Today. So far, it has generated about 5000 responses.

Honestly, I pity the poor person who has to go through the comments. I am surprised only 137 comments have been banned because they contained profanity, threats or personal attacks. I would think that the TSA would be more of a punching bag.