Woman in New Zealand attempts to hijack a plane

by Iva Skoch on

It is not often you hear about women trying to hijack planes, but I guess it was bound to happen with the closing gap of gender opportunities.

As reported by Herald Sun, a 33-year-old New Zealand woman of Somali descent boarded a 19-seat plane headed from Blenheim to Christchurch earlier today and about ten minutes after take-off she demanded to be flown to Australia. She rushed into the cockpit and stabbed one pilot in the hand and the other in the foot, claiming she was going to detonate the two bombs she brought on board. She was subdued by the co-pilot as the twin-propeller plane came in to land at Christchurch, and arrested after landing.

Passengers on regional flights in New Zealand apparently do not have their carry-on luggage screened. That’s why she was able to smuggle a knife on to the plane. No bombs were found.

I feel bad for pilots these days, I really do.

Breaking news: TSA may be useful for once

by Jerry Guo on

Here’s a brief update to my post about US border control’s recent push in seizing laptops, iPods, and other electronic whatnots. It seems the Transportation Security Administration does remain somewhat in touch with reality: they actually responded to this concern on their handy blog.

Should anyone at a TSA checkpoint attempt to confiscate your laptop or gain your passwords or other information, please ask to see a supervisor or screening manager immediately.

And it seems they fixed another snafu earlier this week about taking all electronics out of your bag at security. Turns out you don’t have to do that.

Anyways, their new blog isn’t all bad–yet.

Avoid a layover in Dubai at all costs

by Jerry Guo on

A British traveler traveling through Dubai International Airport on a layover has just been sentenced to four years in a United Arab Emirate jail.

You’re probably thinking he did something crazy like punched a flight attendant, as Iva wrote about yesterday. You’ll never believe this: he was arrested for having a microscopic bit of marijuana on the bottom of his shoe.

The marijuana–which is strictly illegal in the UAE–weighed in at 0.003 grams, which is invisible to human eyes. But apparently the custom agents there practice a even harsher form of racial profiling than the American TSA folks.

Here are some more outrageous cases:

  • One man has been jailed for possession of three poppy seeds left over from a bread roll he ate at Heathrow Airport. Painkiller codeine is also banned.
  • A 25-year-old Briton who was found with a similar speck in one pocket as he arrived on holiday has been awaiting sentence since November.
  • A Big Brother TV executive has so far been held without charge for five days after being arrested for possessing the health supplement melatonin.

Air-traffic controllers leaving in droves

by Iva Skoch on

I have always admired air-traffic controllers. It is a stressful job, yet they hardly get the kind of respect that pilots do. I also just learned from yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, that there have not been any controller-caused jet collisions since the 1980s, the last time staffing was an issue. Yes, it was after Reagan fired more than 12,000 striking controllers in 1980.

Recently though, controllers are leaving their jobs at the fastest pace since the 1980s. A lot of the controllers hired after 1981 are becoming eligible to retire. It is not unusual they retire at the age of 50, after 25 years on the job.

In January, there were only 11,000 controllers – the lowest level in a decade, even though the number of flights has been increasing. The FAA is talking about a staffing crisis, that could further worsen airline delays. Even worse, overworked and fatigued controllers could even cause a catastrophic mistake.

The FAA response? Relax, travel has never been safer.

US border control seizes your laptops, iPods, cellphones

by Jerry Guo on

From the front-page of the Washington Post today comes a scary tale of the legal seizure of electronics at US immigration checkpoints. Many travelers flying into the US have complained about being forced to turn over their iPods, laptops, and cellphones to agents for examination. Often times the data subsequently gets copied–or worse.

It’s probably not surprising that most of the victims are of Muslim or Southeast Asian descent. Because of this policy, several corporations are requiring their business travelers to carry “blank laptops.”

In Canada, one law firm has instructed its lawyers to travel to the United States with “blank laptops” whose hard drives contain no data. “We just access our information through the Internet,” said Lou Brzezinski, a partner at Blaney McMurtry, a major Toronto law firm. That approach also holds risks, but “those are hacking risks as opposed to search risks,” he said.

Update: Turns out the TSA says this shouldn’t be happening. Read their response.

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