Tunisian pilot who prayed while crash landing a plane gets 10 years in jail

by Jamie Rhein on

If I were a pilot landing a plane after the engines had conked out on me, I might pray. That doesn’t mean I’d take my hands off the controls and stop doing my part to aim for a safe landing, but perhaps there would be words beseeching a power bigger than myself for a dose of divine intervention. It couldn’t hurt. Right?

For the Tunisian pilot I read about in the guardian.co.uk, uttering a prayer out loud got him in hot water when his case went to court. Back in 2005, he crash-landed a Franco-Italian ATR 72 charter plane into the Mediterranean off the coast of Sicily after the engine stopped working because the wrong fuel gauge had been mistakenly installed by a mechanic. The fuel gauge was too small, thus the plane didn’t have enough fuel. As a piece of information to keep in mind, the smaller gauge looked the same as the larger gauge.

At the time of the crash, the pilot was considered a hero since everyone on board didn’t die. Twenty-three people survived. After the investigation and trial, the tides have turned. The Italian court has decided that the pilot should have tried to glide the plane to Palermo. The court thinks that if he had done this, the 16 who died would not have. His prayers meant that he stopped doing his job correctly.

I guess these people didn’t hear about the US Airways plane crash landing on the Hudson River after the pilot was told to try to make it to an airport. What’s intriguing about this latest case is that the Tunisian pilot is Muslim. Calling out to Allah doesn’t seem to translate all that well in Italian court.

The co-pilot, mechanic and other airline executives are also going to jail. The charges include manslaughter.

These women were NOT praying — though they did cause problems in the air. Click the images to find out what they did.



Gadling Take FIVE — March 14-March 20

by Jamie Rhein on

Happy first day of spring! This week we’re having a book give-a-way. Pico Iyer’s book The Open Road: Global Travels of the 14th Dalai Lama can be yours. All you have to do is leave a comment about a place that captured your attention at the end Iyer’s Talking Travel interview. Two winners will be picked in a random drawing.

Mike just came back from his awesome trip to New Zealand and Australia. He’s promised to give us the highlights of his travels. Here’s his first missive. Then there’s Kent who is racing about Europe with his wife. They’re in the Competitours Race competition, an Amazing Race style contest that is keeping them hopping and us entertained.

Here are five other posts on subjects that range from eats to hikes and worldwide events.

  • Did you know that tomorrow is World Water Day? Brenda’s post gives the scoop about the occasion and a link to events.
  • Karen’s post on the top 20 list of the most bizarre holiday grievances includes something having to do with the size of an elephant.
  • Annie is continuing to taste test jerky. This week she dove into buffalo jerky and presented her take in a flavorful post.
  • Because we have friends who are moving to El Salvador, Tom’s post on green travel in El Salvador caught my eye.
  • This week, one of Kraig’s posts gave the rundown on ten great unknown treks.

Passengers revolt and refuse to fly without a new pilot

by Jamie Rhein on

Last month, two passengers heading through airport security thought a pilot was drunk and called the authorities. Last May, a pilot was found drunk and naked in the woods. In this latest what-is-wrong-with-the-pilot episode, more than 100 passengers on a Boeing 767 jet bound for New York from Moscow signed a paper saying they thought the pilot was three sheets to the wind.

This happened after the pilot sounded inebriated when he slurred the preflight announcements. According to this article in The Moscow Times, when he switched to English, the passengers had enough and refused to allow Aeroflot Flight 315 to take off.

It didn’t matter one bit that the flight attendants told the passengers to “stop making trouble,” and if the passengers didn’t like it, they could get off the plane. The passengers called for reinforcement from Aeroflot’s home office, but the talking heads wouldn’t pay any attention to the passengers either–at least not until a Russian TV personality and socialite, who happened to be on the plane, stepped in.

Finally, the pilot, along with the other three pilots on board, were switched out so new pilots could get the passengers air bound.

As absurd as this story sounds, consider this. An Aeroflot representative later said that it wasn’t that big a deal if a pilot is drunk because the plane flies itself with a press of a button. Kent?

In Dubai, money can buy you a room on a refrigerated beach

by Abha Malpani on


Sometimes the creativity that blistering hot weather breeds is truly mind-boggling: Pallazo Versace Hotel has decided to create a temperature controlled beach extending out and around its new hotel in Dubai, so that the “top people” (ugh) don’t burn their feet.

“We will suck the heat out of the sand to keep it cool enough to lie on,” says Soheil Abedian, president of Palazzo Versace. Of course, it’s “pure luxury” that the super rich want. REALLY!?

Climate change, eco-tourism, environment, throw them all out the window and you get Dubai, money, and ludicrous.

They’re going to put heat-absorbing pipes under the sand, refrigerate the hotel swimming pool, and have giant air coolers to keep the guests cool in Dubai’s scorching 104F-122F summer heat. The thermostats used in the system will be computer controlled. The hotel is planned to be ready by 2010.

Call it competition, call it thrill, call it whack-job, call it destructive tourism for the filthy rich; do these “top people” for whom this barbarity is being created, care? What is the point? Oh tourism $$$ of course!

Well, environmentalists are more than shrugging: “Dubai is like a bubble world where the things that are worrying the rest of the world, like climate change, are simply ignored so that people can continue their destructive lifestyles,” says Rachael Noble of Tourism Concern. I share the disgust in that statement.

Whether it will actually happen or not is another question, but they way things are here, there leaves little room for doubt.

I am not a saint, nor am I an environmentalist, nor do I do any important activity other than recycle. But when I read stuff like this, as numb as I think I am to crazy Dubai deeds, it always gets the better of me and I fail to understand why I live here. I’m waiting for this bubble to explode. Will it ever?

Think that’s weird? Check out these other unusual hotels:


Doctor turned over to FBI for trying to use front toilet in aircraft

by Abha Malpani on

A 65-year old Indian urologist was turned over to the FBI after he tried to visit the toilet in the front of the airline.

The first time the doctor tried to use the toilet on the Southwest flight, it was occupied by the captain, so he went back to his seat. When he saw the captain come out, he got up to go again when he was pushed back into his seat by airline staff. Apparently this was because it looked like he was trying to get near the cockpit, which is against the law if the cockpit is not secure.

This was explained to the doctor, however, when the plane landed there were police waiting there for him. He was handcuffed and taken to a detention center where they took his mugshots and fingerprints. Post a night in the detention center alongside 43 other accused people, the doctor was taken to court and asked to plead guilty to misdemeanor assault and pay a fine of $2,500.

Not knowing what to do and to avoid costly court proceedings, the doctor decided to plead guilty.

How crazy and paranoiac is this whole situation!? To me it looks like an old man on his way to a medical conference in Las Vegas attempts to use the bathroom on a flight and the next thing you know he’s been marked a criminal and is in court pleading guilty to an assault accusation.

Why couldn’t the airline staff just request him to use another bathroom on the plane? Why all this drama? Even if it was a case of racial discrimination post 9/11, it went far beyond reason. The poor guy must be traumatized and I don’t blame him.

Southwest Airlines defends how it handled the situation; they saw the old man as a potential threat because he wanted to get close to the cockpit. Excuse me, but that’s where the toilet was! The airline customer service sent him a compensatory letter with a $100 voucher for the next flight he takes on Southwest.

He is suing the airline for humiliation and arrest.

Other tales from the skies
Amazing and insane stories from a real-life flight attendant and co-pilot