Airport noise ignites tempers, sparks obscene sign on homeowners’ roof

by Catherine Bodry on

Before the FAA changed Philadelphia’s flight plan a month ago, Michael Hall and his girlfriend, Michaelene Buddy had no issues sleeping. Their home was quiet. Then came the flight pattern change, and with it the constant roaring of commercial jets overhead.

Hall and Buddy have tried contacting the FAA’s noise disturbance hotline, but claim that the voice mailbox is always full. So the duo took matters into their own hands: in 7-foot letters the couple spelled out “FU_K U FAA” on their roof — in plain sight of any jet flying overhead.

The sign might not spark any changes, but I imagine it felt good for the two to say what they wanted so say and know that someone will hear (or see) it.

Americans advised not to fly Philippine Airlines

by Iva Skoch on

I didn’t realize the FAA officially rates airlines based on their security standards. Well, they do.

Just this week, Philippine Airlines got downgraded to a Category 2 airline requiring “heightened FAA surveillance.” They join countries likes Ghana, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Ivory Coast, all of which apparently have inadequate air safety standards.

Philippine Airlines will continue flying to the United States, but US citizens are advised to use carriers from countries whose civil aviation authorities meet international standards.

Airline safety survey kiboshed by NASA

by Grant Martin on

NASA appears to be sandbagging on reporting the results of a survey they conducted a few years back on airline safety. Their data, which is taken from phone interviews across 24,000 pilots, apparently suggest that the number of “incidents” in airline travel are significantly higher than reported by the FAA.

Asked to reveal the data to the AP, NASA politely declined, stating that revealing the findings could damage the public’s confidence in airlines and affect airline profits.

Since when does safety take a back seat to airline profits? Does anyone else see the airline lobby at work here?

I’m well past the conspiracy theory and into the complacent stage in my life where this sort of stuff doesn’t bother me anymore. Perhaps its because I’m still confident in the general safety record of the industry. As the MSNBC article concedes, there is only 1 fatality in about 4.5 million departures. I suppose I can take my chances for now.

Airlines’ On-time Record Getting Worse

by Catherine Bodry on

Despite assurances from the FAA, George Bush, and individual airlines that travel will improve, airlines’ on-time records (and reputations) are getting worse. A report from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics marks 24th consecutive month in which on-time performance deteriorated from a year earlier. In August, 159 flights sat on the runway for at least three hours, and the longest wait was six hours.

Long waits and late arrivals are not the only grievances from customers; in August alone there were 1359 complaints about service — more than two times the amount there were in August 2006.

Mishandled bags have also been a growing problem — over one million bags were lost in June and July in the U.S. alone!