(“Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither.” – Benjamin Franklin). Last night, agents of the Transportation Security Administration visited the homes of two aviation bloggers: Steven Frischling, of the popular Flying with Fish blog, and Christopher Elliott, syndicated travel journalist and blogger.
We’ve maintained consistently that the most effective anti-terrorist tool in intelligence. Good intelligence can stop a potential terror suspect before he gets anywhere near the airport. Beyond that, we have screenings. The New York Times reports that the U.S. Government’s response to a warning from the man’s father that he developed radical views, had disappeared and might have traveled to Yemen, was not to revoke the young man’s visa to enter the United States, which was good until June 2010. Now, on some level, that makes sense. But their response was to flag him for an investigation should he ever apply for another visa and to add him to a list of over half a million other individuals with possible terrorist connections.
As my name(the Infrequent Flier) suggests, I don’t often have a chance to get up in the air. As a result, my trips form a time-lapse portrait of the flying experience as it has changed. Each time I fly, I am amazed at the new rules, regulations and procedures that have been put in place. It has become common to refer to this group of measures as “Security Theater”- a group of actions for show which have no real impact on security.
On Friday, a passenger on a Northwest flight set off a small explosive device shortly before landing in Detroit. The man, Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab, was subdued. He had connected in Amsterdam to the flight from a KLM flight inbound from Lagos, Nigeria. He had been rescreened in Amsterdam, as is standard procedure there. The device failed to fully detonate, and has been described as a mixture of liquid and powder, and were described as more incendiary than explosive.
In only another week, 2009 will be over. So much has happened this year. Sitting warmly here, thinking of Decembers past, and the holiday travel season, I think to my formative years. When school let out, my family and I would be on a flight out of town till New Years.
The Houston Chronicle reports that on Tuesday, a pair of otters chewed through their wooden cage and caused a nearly 90 minute delay as employees tried to recapture them. In fact, one employee was injured, although not seriously
Reports are coming in that an American Airlines plane overshot the runway, crashed, and broke in two. Flight 331 was landing in pouring rain at its final destination of Norman Manley Airport in Kingston, Jamaica. We will update this post…
As part of regulations unveiled today that were advertised as groundbreaking rules to protect passengers in the event of tarmac delays, a second, in our opinion, more significant portion of regulation has been unveiled. Airlines will now be required to adopt a Customer Service Plan. Airlines have been required to submit plans to the DOT before, but not quite at this level. These plans, which will apply to all airlines, must be audited by each airline for compliance.
This morning, the DOT announced a new rule that will take effect in 120 days which would address tarmac delays. The new rule prohibits U.S. airlines operating domestic flights from permitting an aircraft to remain on the tarmac for more than three hours without deplaning passengers, with exceptions allowed only for safety or security or if air traffic control advises the pilot in command that returning to the terminal would disrupt airport operations.
Today, while we are stuck in our homes in the snow, our thoughts are with those stuck at the airports. In preparation for this storm, airlines around the Northeast United States preemptively cancelled flights, airports were closed for hours, and some people are being told it might be days before they get home. At least 800 flights were cancelled in the New York Area alone. We don’t have the magic bullet that will solve all of these problems.
Last night, we upgraded the software that runs this blog to the latest version, which now supports embedded video from a variety of sites. We figured we’d see what sorts of things we could now embed. We’ve been posting Youtube videos for some time, but we’ve never tried some of the other sites. So, courtesy of Hulu, we now are offering you a chance, if you missed it, to experience the CNBC documentary, Inside American Airlines. It is a good documentary that shows a lot of interesting aspects of the industry in general, and American in particular. To those of you outside the U.S., unfortunately, Hulu is U.S. only.
The Latest Roundup…
Today is a historic day in the history of flight, one of many, but one we are happy to share with our fellow aviation enthusiasts. We couldn’t be there, so we have sourced some of these pictures from David Parker Brown at AirlineReporter.com.
Earplanes are Air Pressure Regulating Earplugs that help with pain causes by pressure changes. Our editor bought a pair of them a while back, after flying with a cold and spending two days afterward barely hearing anything, and have been waiting to try them out.
This evening, two of us headed down to the New York advance screening of Up in the Air, the new air travel themed movie starring George Clooney
Allegiant Air announced today that it will move service from ten U.S. cities from Orlando-Sanford Airport(SFB) to Orlando International Airport(MCO), effective February 1st. By March 5th, they will base 5 MD-80s at MCO, which will be their eighth base. The cities, which are roughly a third of the total they serve to Orlando, are:
JetBlue is having a Cyber Monday Sale Today Only till 11:59PM MST.
Last week, the Airline Industry Examiner asked the question Whatever Happened to United’s Friendly Skies? We wonder about that too, although not always specifically in relation to United. For years, United Airlines was the free world’s largest airline. Now they are third.
CheapOair is, as we define it, an online travel agency. To be precise, CheapOair is the brandname, Fareportal, Inc. is a Technology Company and Travelong, Inc. is an accredited ARC/ Travel Agency. As they put it, Fareportal, Inc. is the operating fulfillment company for CheapOair, and Travelong, Inc. is the travel agency.
Image by Getty Images via Daylife Holiday seasons are usually times when many of us take to the air to see relatives and enjoy a little time away. It is also a time when thoughts turn to security. The government…
The first Air France flight to New York using the Airbus A380 landed today. The flight included the 380 winning bidders in an auction that raised 300,000 euros for five humanitarian projects for children in need. The plane will begin daily service on the route from New York-JFK to Paris-Charles de Gaulle on Monday.
We haven’t been writing enough lately. That does happen sometimes when real life interferes with this(which is unfortunately a hobby). Here’s what we’ve been reading about. If Pat Kiernan of New York City based station NY1 can make a name for himself reading the newspaper and running Pat’s Papers online, we can try to see if people like such a feature.
JetBlue is having a One Day Sample Sale, Today only until 11:59PM MDT. Sale fares are valid for travel December 2nd through December 16th, and January 6th through January 28th. Fares on some routes as low as $29/$39/$49. Cross the country for $99 or less one-way.
Image via Wikipedia On Friday, the New York Times reported that Congress is starting to take a look at the fact that airlines have been increasingly charging for a variety of services from the checking of luggage to preferential seats.…
This week’s latest in route developments.