Turbulence hurts: leading cause of in-flight injury

by Tom Johansmeyer on

If you aren’t splattered in a fatal crash, you’re most likely to be injured by severe turbulence. Don’t get shaken up by this, though, odds are the biggest risk you’ll face is a middle seat sandwiched by garlic-eater and a heavy talker (choose which way you want to read that one). While you can’t be saved from the people around you, you can protect our body from a bouncing plane: put on your seatbelt.

The discussion of people getting smacked around in flight on a plane has arisen (again) because of the 21 people injured on United Flight 967 because of severe turbulence. According to USA Today:

Some passengers were tossed around the plane like dolls, passenger Kaoma Bechaz, 19, told The Denver Post. One woman’s head struck the side of the cabin, leaving a crack above the window, and a girl was flung against the ceiling, Bechaz said.

Last year, according to data from the NTSB, 15 of the 22 people seriously injured on flights in 2009 (e.g., broken bones) had turbulence to blame.

Flight attendants, of course, are at greater risk, given that they are more mobile in flight than passengers. Sixty-two percent of serious injuries were experienced by flight attendants, according to an FAA study.

Are you feeling sufficiently alarmed? Yeah, it’s not worth getting upset about. But if you’re wearing a helmet on your next flight, we’ll know why.

[photo by mockstar via Flickr]

Air France in-flight thefts solved – flight attendant arrested

by Scott Carmichael on

Earlier this year, we wrote about an Air France plane that had been hit by a pickpocket. The thief had emptied the wallets of business class passengers, and upon arrival in Paris, local police boarded the plane, but were unable to find the criminal.

Six months after that incident, French police have arrested an Air France flight attendant suspected of being behind the thefts. In total, 142 Air France flights had been involved in theft incidents, and when police compared their reports with staff rosters, they pinpointed their suspect. Upon searching her home and a bank deposit box, they recovered jewelry, checks, credit card numbers.

When asked by Bloomberg about the incident, Air France had “no comment” on the arrest. Naturally, aviation law only covers luggage placed in the hold, so the airline does not accept liability for cabin baggage. Personally, I am amazed it took 142 reports of theft to finally get a hold of their suspect.

Just like we mentioned in January, always keep your personal items close to you, never let your wallet out of sight, and keep expensive electronics locked in your hand luggage. Sadly there is not much most you can do against in-flight theft, especially if it involves an inside job like this.

[Photo credit: DAVID BOILY/AFP/Getty Images]

Cougar attacks 14-year-old boy in flight

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Southwest Airlines is being sued. A passenger claims that the airline’s flight attendants weren’t able to protect his 14-year-old son from the prowling of an in-flight cougar. The older female passenger, he claims, offered his son illegal drug and made sexual advances during the flight to Orlando on July 13, 2008. The teenager was traveling alone, according to the Associated Press, and “was so frightened by the experience that he refused to return home by himself, so his father flew down to accompany him home.”

According to the family’s attorney, Jeffrey Deutschman, the kid asked to be moved to another seat “repeatedly,” but the flight attendants wouldn’t let him do so. Southwest isn’t commenting on the lawsuit. The family is looking for more than $50,000.

[photo by Harlequeen via Flickr]

Australian flight attendants object to airline ad of flight crew sponging down airplane

by Scott Carmichael on

Using sexy flight attendants to advertise an airline is nothing new, but the Flight Attendants Association of Australia says it has had enough of them. According to the FAAA, the ads are demeaning, and increase the risk of sexual harassment. One of the clips that triggered their outrage can be seen above.

The clip, made for Russian low cost airline AviaNova, shows the flight crew stripping down and sponging off the airplane. A spokeswoman for the FAAA said:

“It is a sad reflection of the attitude of the airlines’ executives, dare I say more than likely middle aged males, towards cabin crew, in particular female cabin crew, by portraying them in such a demeaning, distasteful and irrelevant manner.”

Now, I’m partly in agreement with her, but to paint airline executives as a bunch of middle aged males shows an equal amount of disrespect, as many of these ads come from the airline PR firm, and I highly doubt the airline executives specifically asked for something with some skin – PR and marketing people don’t need help from airline executives to know that sex and partial nudity sells.

The FAAA is going to take the issue to the International Transport Federation, but I suspect that they have more important issues to deal with than asking airlines to stop promoting themselves in the most effective way possible.

The Russian carrier is by no means the first to resort to this tactic, using looks and fashion to sell airplane tickets dates back to the 60’s and 70’s when airlines would pick attractive flight attendants for their planes, and feature them in commercials. In recent years, carriers like Ryanair and VivaAerobus have even commissioned calendars showing off their cabin crew.

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Photo of the Day (7.8.10)

by Meg Nesterov on
Delays happen. Sometimes there are mechanical issues. Other times, weather plays a role in the form of ash clouds or blizzards. And other times, your flight crew just needs to sample every flavor of Jelly Babies, the UK equivalent of Gummy Bears.

This Flickr shot from OurManWhere captures a moment in Bangkok in the Golden Age of Air Travel (at least for the crew) when travel is still an exciting and sweet time. So what if you are stuck in the airport when you could be enjoying a “Bigheart” treat? Add some local tabloid reading and a quick airport massage, and you could have a rather pleasant layover.

Catch any flight attendants on a sugar high or find a way to make the most of your flight delay? Submit your images to Gadling’s Flickr group right now and we might use it for a future Photo of the Day.