This time, a passenger struck a flight attendant

by Iva Skoch on

Just last week, we wrote about a pilot whose mental breakdown caused an emergency landing.

Now, AP reports that a flight from New York to Paris was diverted to Boston last night because a French passenger “struck a flight attendant.” Why? We don’t know. Nonetheless, the American Airlines flight landed safely after 8 p.m. Wednesday night at Logan Airport. The “attacker” was taken into custody.

Is it the cabin pressure that makes people go crazy?

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A commercial airplane with a king size bed? I wonder how much that costs…

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Denver International Airport wants to offer carbon offsets to passengers

by Anna Brones on

Carbon offsets are a hot item these days, especially for travelers. In terms of travel methods, flying is one of the biggest producers of CO2. But sometimes opting for a long train ride is out of the question and we are forced to hop on an airplane. This is when the eco-conscious traveler finds a good carbon offsets program and pays to have a carbon neutral footprint.

The Denver International Airport is currently trying to facilitate that process and institute a program which would allow passengers to buy carbon offsets in its concourses. The offsets would pay for renewable energy and power-saving projects that help in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Currently the airport is looking for a carbon offset provider by soliciting proposals for a 3 year non-exclusive contract to offer the carbon offsets to passengers. Initiating a program such as this one would make it one of the first airports in the country to do so.

“Airports and airlines are under more and more scrutiny regarding greenhouse gas emissions and how they can offset climate change. . . This offers a small step in the right direction to raise awareness and let people know that airports want to do the right thing,” stated Janelle Barrilleaux, the airport’s director of environmental programs.

Denver hopes the program will be running by August, but not only out of goodwill; the airport expects to reap a percentage of the profits, according to the Rocky Mountain News. You can read more about it here.

Turn off your laptop when going through security

by Grant Martin on

As we barrel through the cold, snowy, dry months up here in the great American North, here’s another tip for going through security at the airport: if you’ve been working on your laptop outside of security and just closed the screen real quick to pass through to resume working, you may want to consider turning it all of the way off.

With humidity as low as it is, people generate a lot of static electricity when removing jackets, shoes, scarves and sweaters before going through the metal detector. Doubling that by putting everything back on, we now become supercharged as we dangerously, in slow motion, reach down to our hibernating notebook computers….. until ZAP! we discharge on them.

And it doesn’t take a genius to realize that any electrical discharge onto a live circuit could result in you frying the whole thing.

After shocking myself and my Thinkpad for the 500th time last weekend I said to the woman watching me pack up my stuff, “Dude, you should ground something here so I can discharge myself”

She replied “Dude, you should turn off your laptop”.

Wise words from the TSA. Amazing.

The most delayed airports in the world

by Aaron Hotfelder on

Living in the Midwest, I do all I can to avoid scheduling flights in and out of O’Hare Airport in Chicago. I’m always hearing nightmare stories from other travelers, particularly during the holidays, about flights that were either delayed or cancelled altogether. So perhaps it should provide some comfort– but it doesn’t– to read an article about the world’s most-delayed airports, and see that O’Hare barely gets a mention.

The country that wins the dubious honor of having the most-delayed airports is, somewhat surprisingly, Brazil. Brasilia International Airport is the worst in the world for on-time departures, with about 27% of all flights leaving on time. Airports in Sao Paolo (41%) and Congenhas (43%) are only slightly better. Other notoriously late airports worldwide include those in Cairo, Beijing, Mumbai, and Charles de Gaulle in Paris– Europe’s worst.

In the US, three New York-area airports are singled out for their late arrivals: LaGuardia, Newark, and the worst, JFK, with about 40% of its flights late.

Needless to say, if you’re traveling through any of the above airports, bring a magazine. If you’re traveling through Brazil, bring Tolstoy.

Whole thing here.

Wasps nest inside planes, cause delays

by Iva Skoch on

The airline industry hardly seems to run out of reasons for flights to be delayed or canceled. Here is a really good one from Australia.

A total of five Qantas airline flights were delayed or canceled between January and March 2006 because of “wasp infestation.” Yes, apparently, wasps had built 20-30 nests inside parts of the A330 planes while they were waiting on the runway, according to BBC.

While the plane was taxiing away from the runway, the pilots noticed the brake temperature rose to 685C, causing six of the eight main landing gear tires to deflate. Smoke was coming from the main landing gear area, but nobody was hurt (aside from the wasps).

Qantas and the airport operators have been criticized for responding too slowly to the wasp infestation but a subsequent “enhanced pest eradication program” had now brought the problem under control. Man wins again!