Gatwick Bomb Scare

by Annie Scott on

If you happened to be at London Gatwick international airport at 6:45 AM on Sunday, you’re probably still mad.

United Arab Emirates flight EK 011 from Dubai was ten minutes from landing at London Gatwick when they found a note “implying there may be a suspicious device on board.”

Craptastic.

All 164 passengers and the crew were escorted from the plane (which is fine for them, they were probably about ready to get off anyway), but then the entire airport was shut down (!) while the aircraft and luggage were searched for a bomb!

Airport activity resumed about eight hours later and a man in his 20’s was arrested — no word yet on whether he was a passenger. Gatwick airport, as far as we know, is still there.

400 strip for Aer Lingus tickets, some of them hotties

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Remember that stunt we covered last week … where an anonymous airline was giving away free flights to people who would flash as a flash mob? Well, it was Aer Lingus, and there were only 400 winners. Fortunately, they all seem to be attractive. I’m guessing we didn’t want to see the other 600 anyway.

The strip site, which was kept secret until the last minute, was Jubilee Gardens in London. Thanks to the power of cliché, this St. Patrick’s Day get-together featured shamrocks for the participants to wear. Fortunately, this didn’t stop a few die-hards from going “Full Monty.”

As if anyone cares, the stunt was organized to promote new Aer Lingus routes from Gatwick Airport to Europe, with a tagline of “no hidden extras.” Though, I guess that depends on who was wearing the shamrock.

Drunk flight attendant escorted off plane and arrested

by Jamie Rhein on

When Anthony Shlyshen showed up for work at Gatwick Airport he had had a few–actually several. According to this article, Shlyshen was more than three sheets to the wind when he thought he might be able to manage his easy Jet Airbus shift. Maybe he envisioned the plane’s narrow aisle would keep him from weaving too much, and holding onto the seats from time to time would keep him steady. The pilot thought otherwise and called the police who showed up to escort Shlyshen off the plane.

A breathalyser test showed that his alcohol level was 182 mcg, eight times over the legal alcohol limit for work. It was twice the level for driving. Given his age, 48, I’m wondering why he just didn’t call in sick. By 48, one would probably recognize what being schnockered looks like to other people, particularly those who are trained to notice.

Now Shlyshen could be facing jail time. A fine is guaranteed. Calling in sick would have definitely been the cheaper option.

More stories of booze gone bad in the skies

Planeload of drunk Irish passengers creates havoc on Cuba bound flight

by Scott Carmichael on

In what can only be described as Déjà vu, 40 Irish passengers bound for Cuba created a riot on their Thomas Cook flight.

The group filled up on booze, harassing and punching fellow passengers, and one of them even went so far as to attempt opening the emergency exit mid-flight.

One terrified passenger ended up sitting with the flight attendants in the galley for 5 hours just to get away from the ruckus.

According to the (sketchy) report, the hooligans continued their drunken rioting at their resort, and even on the return flight. 17 of them were actually barred from boarding the flight back home to London Gatwick, but the article does not mention what their fate was, so for all we know, they are still stuck in Cuba.
After reading the story, and the reports from passengers on the flight, I’d say the group was lucky they were not on a US flight carrying federal air marshals. If a drunk fool started smoking and punching fellow passengers on a commercial flight in this country, I’d hate to think what would happen to them, but I’m fairly sure it would not be the weak “investigating events with a view to a possible complaint to police” reported in the source article.

(Via: Daily Mail)

More troublemakers in the sky


Gatwick airport gets some snow – shuts down for the morning

by Scott Carmichael on

Gatwick airport was taken by surprise yesterday morning when an unexpected flurry passed over the area. Even though just a fraction of an inch of snow actually landed on the tarmac, the airport decided it would be best to shut down all flight operations.

Of course, when over 100 flights are either heading towards Gatwick or getting ready to depart, you can understand that the mess was quite considerable.

Gatwick is in the regrettable situation of only having a single runway for all flight operations, despite being the second busiest airport in the UK, and the busiest single runway airport in the world.

It took airport operators 5 hours to get the ice and snow cleared, and allow airlines to arrive or depart again.

By then the damage had already been done. Major carriers had already diverted flights to neighbouring airports, including airlines who don’t even have operations at those airports. I briefly spoke to someone at Ghana International Airlines who saw their Accra flight end up in London Stansted instead of London Gatwick.

Flightstats now has the flight listed as having to reposition to Gatwick tomorrow morning, which is probably a better situation than having to load 200 passengers and crew on a bus.

None of this helps improve the image of BAA, the UK’s airport operating authority. The agency is already under fire, and was recently ordered to pay airlines back for failing to provide adequate service.

(Thanks to Chris for the tip, via Telegraph.co.uk)