Bus accident at airport sends passengers to hospital in a travel snafu

by Jamie Rhein on

If you’ve flown enough, you’ve probably been on one of those buses that transport you between airport terminals.

When riding in such a vehicle, who really thinks about anything but making a connection? After reading this article about an accident at the Sydney Airport in Australia this morning, I’d say, here’s another reason to hope there’s enough time for terminal transfers in order to catch a flight.

This morning, a bus was bringing passengers from the international to a domestic terminal when the driver had to swerve quickly and slam on the brakes to avoid hitting another vehicle. I can imagine the body slams. Several people flew out of their seats. As a result, seven people were hurt, although nothing so serious that they couldn’t walk off the bus.

Still, I imagine there was quite a ruckus as paramedics in seven emergency vehicles arrived at the scene of the accident to check folks out. Several passengers were taken to the hospital for a careful, just in case, look over. Can’t you just hear the protests? “No, no, no, I’m fine, really. I have a flight to catch. I’ll miss my connection.”

That’s one way to experience a flight delay. Hopefully, folks found themselves winging their way to their destinations soon after, and had a kiss and make up ticket voucher in hand. With luck, there wasn’t another bus transport involved in the rest of their journey.

5 steps to smarter packing

Woman ends up in Sydney, Nova Scotia by mistake. She wanted Australia

by Jamie Rhein on

Okay, listen up. If you are getting on an airplane and you get an inkling that something is not quite right, that perhaps you are off course, PAY ATTENTION to that feeling and double check.

If you want to head to Sydney, Australia but something seems amiss, ASK, for heaven’s sake. Otherwise you could be like Monique Rozanes Torres Aguero who boarded an airplane in Buenos Aires, Argentina with visions of taking in the Syndney Opera House, perhaps, and trying out phrases like “G’day Mate,” only to land in another city–another Sydney, a town in Nova Scotia that does not have one tourist attraction listed on its Web site, according to this article in the Sydney Morning Herald. It does have the largest Ceilidh Fiddle in the World, though.

Ms Torres Aguero’s situation was not the first time this gaff has happened. Sydney, Nova Scotia, located on Cape Breton Island, has had other visitors unwittingly arrive at the airport expecting that they have landed Down Under.

Instead, there they are in an industrial, former coal mining town making the best of it since they are on vacation after all.

The problem that causes such errors is the drop down menu box that list airports with when you book on line. booking. Highlight the wrong airport and BAM, there you are one fine day in an unexpected place. This is kind of like Dorothy stepping out of the house in Munchkinland I would imagine.

There was a comment left on the post I wrote about a woman my mom met on a Greyhound bus who thought it only took one day to go from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Los Angeles, California. She thought she’d be in L.A. by morning.

The commenter told about one woman he met who was heading to Manchester, New Hampshire, or so she thought, but ended up in Manchester, England.

If you do ever end up in Sydney, Nova Scotia, by mistake or on purpose, it has a “beautiful island coastline” and you can use it as a springboard to a trip on the Cabot Trail, the trail followed by explorer John Cabot.

I hope there are some good restaurants at least and a decent hotel in Sydney, Nova Scotia. If you think about it, this travel story is a far better one to tell the grandkids later in life. Lots of people have the “my trip to Sydney, Australia” story. This other version gets you interviewed for a newspaper article.

Check out other troublemakers in the skies!


Qantas: And now even the toilets don’t work!

by Abha Malpani on

The way Qantas is going, the airline is better off shutting down: Hole in the aircraft, tires blowing up, fluid leaks, doors not closing, hydraulic failures, rudder problems, and now dysfunctional toilets.

A Qantas 737 from Sydney to Perth was forced to land because the toilets wouldn’t flush; they’d forgotten to empty the them after the last flight. The plane was diverted to Adelaide to sort out the toilet situation.

This isn’t the first toilet issue for the airline. Not long ago passengers were doing their business in the airline’s sick-bags as they were not allowed to move from their seats for an hour as the plane tried to land.

This is the 5th or 6th flight issue with Qantas since July 25 when “explosive decompression” caused a four meter hole to rip across the plane when it was at a height of 29,000 meters.

Qantas oh Qantas. Sort your sh*t out!

Google Street View captures a proud moment for one Aussie

by Meg Massie on

Since its launch in May of 2007, Google Street View has been a source of controversy. The Google feature offers web surfers 360° street-level views around hundreds of cities worldwide. Some of the photos, taken by a car-mounted video camera, have captured some personal moments, like people entering adult book stores, leaving strip clubs, picking their noses, and entering buildings with questionable methods.

Critics claim that posting photos of these things on the internet is a privacy violation. But Google’s not breaking any laws. All the photos are taken in public places, and the company has even taken steps to decrease its questionable content, from blurring faces to allowing users to flag photos that may be inappropriate.

The latest Street View gem comes from the new Australian Street View. There, cameras caught a young man passed out drunk on his front lawn. The man claims he’d been drinking all weekend after the death of his best mate. While he knows what he did was dumb, he wasn’t pleased when the photo was posted for the whole world to see. Amid the controversy, Google removed the image from its Street View page.

Remember — just because there’s not a crowd around you, that doesn’t mean you have privacy when you’re out in the open. You may laugh now, but just wait until Google’s cameras come to your town…

“Bomb” bag passes through security at Brisbane airport

by Abha Malpani on

When a large bag with the word “bomb” written on it passes through airport check-in without question, there’s got to be a problem with their security system. This is exactly what happened at Brisbane’s Domestic Airport at a Qantas counter, ultimately causing a 40 minute delay.

The bag was only questioned once the baggage handlers saw the “bomb” bag and raised an alarm. The bag, still unscreened (!), was then dragged through the populated airport before it was opened and checked. Fortunately it turned out to be a false alarm.

This made me think: 1) Why would anyone choose to travel with a bag that has “bomb” written on it? 2) How on earth could that be missed on check-in, and then dragged through the airport without being screened first? What if there really was a bomb in it?

Anyway, the case has been referred to the police and the Transport Worker’s Union at the Brisbane airport have demanded an investigation of the airport’s security system.