Woman calls in fake bomb threat to keep boyfriend from leaving

by Gadling Staff on

In a time when everyone’s on heightened alert against terrorist attacks, a woman in Chile called in a fake bomb threat to keep her boyfriend from flying off to a new job. MSNBC has reported that Grace Guajardo phoned in the threat to keep Rodrigo Gomez from departing on his Iberia flight bound for Madrid.

The couple, who’ve been in a relationship for over eight years and have three children together, were to be separated for several months while Gomez worked as a cruise ship waiter. Guajardo first tried to get authorities to tell Gomez his father was gravely ill. When that ploy failed, she did what any other reasonable and distraught girlfriend would do — she phoned in a bomb threat.

Ironically, Gomez stayed behind in Santiago, but Guajardo now faces up to 61 days in jail if convicted of making the false bomb threat. Had she pulled this stunt in the U.S., she’d likely be facing terrorism charges and they’d be separated for years — not a few months.

MSNBC currently has a poll going — love story or crazy girlfriend? An overwhelming majority have declared her “the crazy girlfriend”. What’s your vote — is this a story of true love or is she just plain crazy?

Embraer’s private jet allows for toilet take offs and landings

by Grant Martin on

Two hours into a Tarmac delay, have you ever wondered why passengers aren’t allowed to be in the lav during taxi and takeoff? It’s actually got to do with the FAA rules for protecting a passenger during a potential crash — there have to be enough restraints in place to provide ample protection, and without a seatbelt and surrounding support a toilet-bound passenger could be in serious trouble in an emergency.

Seems like a reasonable restriction for commercial passengers, but what about high paying private passengers? Brazillian airframe manufacturer Embraer has your solution: seatbelts on toilet seats. The Phenom 100, Embraer’s very light business jet is just about to get approval from the FAA for toilet assisted take-offs and landings, meaning that luxury passengers wont have to move from their comfortable spot before leaving the Tarmac.

According to SeattlePi, current Phenom 100 owners will be able to upgrade their equipment later this year.

Breaking: Boeing plans new aiplane — 797?

by Grant Martin on

Jon Ostrower over at Flight Blogger has some interesting gossip for us from the airplane world: Boeing‘s CEO Jim McNerney was quoted earlier this week as saying that the manufacturer is looking into new airframes above and beyond the 787.

From Ostrower’s blog, McNerney says [bolding by Ostrower]:

“We’re gonna do a new airplane. We’re not done evaluating this whole situation yet, but our current bias is to not re-engine, is to move to an all-new airplane at the end of the decade, beginning of the next decade.

“It’s our judgment that our customers will wait for us, rather than move to an airplane that will obsolete itself when [Airbus does] a new airplane. I understand why they’re doing it, we haven’t seen the need for it yet. I feel pretty comfortable we can defend our customer base both because they’re not going ahead of us, they’re catching up to us and because we’re going to be doing a new airplane that will go beyond the capability of what the neo can do. I feel very good about our position there.”

Reached for comment, Bernard Choi from Boeing Corporate communications shed further light:

We continue to evaluate and are actively working with our customers and industry partners to identify the best solution to dramatically reduce fuel burn and carbon emissions and to lower overall operating costs. We continue to evaluate the potential of a new airplane design in terms of fuel burn, operating costs, carbon footprint, reliability and passenger comfort. Of course technology availability will be a critical issue and an area of focus during 2011, but we expect to have more clarity by mid-year. Based upon what our customers want, we maintain the ability to select from several choices, including a new engine or an all-new airplane.

Could this be the long rumored 797 that frequently crops up on myth sites? Probably not to the effect of those legends, but it does say that Boeing is seriously thinking about new airframes in an active, agressive manner.

Video of the Day – In the Air

by Stephen Greenwood on

The more I fly, the more I take it for granted. When flight starts to become a routine mode of transportation, it’s easy to lose the sense of wonder and amazement that we all had on our first airplane rides.

The thrill of taking off. The unfamiliar view of roads and cars from up above. The wingtips slicing through wisps of clouds.

Today’s Video of the Day from filmmaker Ryan Booth captures those small moments in a way that takes me right back to those early memories of flight. Set to a dreamy soundtrack by Imogen Heap, Ryan shot this video with a 5D Mark II and used Final Cut Pro for color correction. Check out more of his work here.

If you have a great travel video that we should share, leave a comment below, and we could feature it as our next Video of the Day!


Surely you can’t be serious? Airplane! returns to the big screen!

by Scott Carmichael on

First of all – yes, we are serious. And stop calling us Shirley! AMC Theaters is bringing the best aviation slapstick comedy back to the big screen – but only for two days!

On Saturday January 29 and Tuesday February 1, select AMC theaters will bring pilot Clarence Oveur (R.I.P), flight attendant Elaine Dickinson and Ted Striker to almost 100 different locations. Show times are listed on the special AMC Airplane! page, along with the theaters.

Oh, and if you arrive on time, you’ll be able to claim a full-size commemorative Airplane! poster at your theater. We’ll close with one of the funnier parts of the movie – and a segment I’m pretty sure wouldn’t go down to well in today’s society…