We were disturbed by reports today that two British travelers were questioned, detained, and deported by the Department of Homeland Security, allegedly because of two tweets. Leigh Van Bryan and Emily Bunting say they were questioned for hours, detained, placed in a cell with violent criminals who stole their food, and finally sent back to…
Monthly Archives: January 2012
Kayak Stares Into The Face Of New Competition From Google, Fights Back With New Design
We’ve long been fans of Kayak.com, though we have to admit that as of late, increased clutter and unreliability or lack of JetBlue results have had us using the site less often. Like most comparison sites, Kayak uses ITA software’s technology. ITA was purchased by Google last year, amid much fear that Google would use…
Rethinking Electronics in Flight or What’s Airplane Mode?
A few weeks ago, we commented on the ban on portable electronics. The truth is, in terms of the FAA’s stated rationale, there is little evidence presented that indicates the majority of electronics have any effect on aircraft systems. But, the other reason, the one not covered by the regulation, is the one that is…
God No Longer On Board Alaska Airlines
Having never flown Alaska Airlines, it was news to us that for 30 years, together with their meals, the airline has distributed prayer cards featuring serene color pictures and verses from the Book of Psalms. Now we’ll never have a chance to get one, as the airline announced that it will stop distributing the cards…
Construction Begins on Overpriced $791 Million 65 Foot High Fort Lauderdale Runway Expansion
The Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport is the 22nd busiest in the United States- and it’s about to get busier. On Monday, a ground-breaking ceremony was heldat the airport, marking the beginning of a $791 million runway expansion project. A princely sum, indeed, but the project which will lengthen an existing secondary runway from 5,276 to…
Angry Sun Erupts, Sending Planes South
For the second time in a week, the Earth has been hit by a coronal mass ejectionin the most severe solar storm since 2003. The increased radiation from the charged particles of the storm which can interfere with communications is strongest near the poles where the ozone layer is thinnest. The additional radiation poses little…
California Man Changes Flight 510 to Flight 420
43 year old Adam Blumenkranz of Los Angeles was arrested at Newark’s Liberty Airport Monday after he was discovered smoking marijuana in airport restroom on JetBlue flight 510 from Fort Lauderdale to Newark. Blumenkranz, who was somehow unaware that smoking of any kind is prohibited on aircraft, tried to show his medicinal marijuana card to…
Ron Paul Decries TSA Police State, White House Defends TSA
After his son, Senator Rand Paul, was detained and denied boarding for refusing an invasive pat-down, Representative Ron Paul issued a sharply-worded statement promising to eliminate the TSA should he be elected President “The police state in this country is growing out of control,” the elder Paul said in a statement released by his presidential…
Heavy Turbulence Sends 5 American Airlines Crew To Hospital
All was normal aboard American Airlines Flight 980 from Brazil to Miami. Then, two hours into the eight hour flight, with food service underway, the plane suddenly lurched violently. The unexpected turbulencesent a food cart flying, damaging the ceiling and landing on and injuring a flight attendant. In all, six members of the flight crew…
What Did US Airways Do With Angeline O’Grady’s Husband?
Angeline O’Grady wants to know what happened to her husband. On November 1, she was traveling through Philadelphia International Airport with the ashes of her late husband, Brian. She was told by TSA agents that she could not bring the ashes through security with her. TSA policy explicitly allows cremated remains to be taken on…
TSA: We Treated Rand Paul Just Like Anyone Else(Perhaps In Violation Of Section I, Article VI Of Constitution)
A short time ago, we reported that the TSA had detained Senator Rand Paul this morning. The Hill is now reportingthat the TSA is denying that Senator Paul was detained, saying rather that he was escorted from the secure area and not allowed to board his flight. “When an irregularity is found during the TSA…
Senator Rand Paul Refuses To Be Groped By TSA Agents, Detained In Nashville
We don’t agree with most of what Senator Rand Paul stands for, but we agree wholeheartedly with his stand for liberty and personal freedom this morning in Nashville. It is being reported that Paul, the son of Texas congressman and Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, refused an “enhanced pat-down” by TSA agents after setting off…
We’re Getting Bigger, Seats Are Getting Smaller
TSA Very Proud Of “Checpoints”
Are Unions Really What’s Wrong With U.S. Airlines? Brad Hall Thinks So(He’s Very Wrong)
Brad Hall “designs systems for improving workforce performance”. Brad Hall has a PhD industrial-organizational psychology. Brad Hall knows that U.S airlines have awful customer service. And Brad Hall knows why- unions. It is a foregone conclusion for Dr. Hall; one he is unwilling to let facts get in the way of. Dr. Hall begins with…
FAA Grounds Migrating Whooping Cranes For One Month In Alabama, Grants Them One Time License To Continue
Nine endangered whooping cranes, migrating from Wisconsin to Florida, recently spent a month grounded in Alabama, after the FAA decided that their “pilot guides” were operating in violation of a regulation which prohibits them from receiving pay for their services. The pilots, who work for Operation Migration are outfitted to look like the birds, as…
Is A Turboprop In Your Flying Future?
Out with the new, in with the old. After years of seemingly inevitable decline in the face of competition from jets, turboprops are making a comeback as oil prices remain high. ATR, a turboprop manufacturer partly owned by Airbus parent EADS, received firm orders for 157 planes in 2011, with options for an additional 79…
Pilot Who Was Fired For Reporting Imbalanced Wheel Ten Times In Two Days Ordered Reinstated
Terror At 35,000 Feet- Pre-Recorded Message Tells Frightened Passengers They’re About To Crash- In Error!
At 3am last night on British Airways Flight 206 from Miami to London’s Heathrow Airport, we imagine most passengers were comfortably sleeping. That changed in a hurry when flight crew inadvertently twice triggered a recorded message declaring that the plane could be about to crash. Passengers began crying and screaming, and were still on edge…
Fed Up, Man Seizes Opportunity In Spirit Carry-On Fees
While most airlines have been adding new fees, no American carrier has been more aggressive about doing so than Spirit Airways. Spirit ‘s strategy has been to tease outrageously low fares with obnoxious and vulgar advertisements, but charge exorbitant fees for normal services. Perhaps the most egregious of these is their charge for carry on…
At Sacramenento Checkpoint, Man Bolts, Gets Jolt Of Volts
It was a shocking experience for 26 year old Edwin Barton at a TSA checkpoint in Sacramento last week. After disembarking his flight from Connecticut and leaving the secure area, Barton realized he had left a bus ticket on the plane. He was given a pass to enter back into the secure area but became…
TSA To Begin Having Agents Wear Devices To Measure Cumulative Radiation Exposure From ‘Safe’ Scanners
There’s no health risk from the invasive scanners that the TSA has installed at airports around the country, the TSA has maintained. If you don’t like it, you can be searched in an inappropriately intimate way, or not allowed to fly. Now, the agency plans to begin testing the danger of these ‘safe’ machines, by…
Shocking Secret Cause Of Alec Baldwin’s In-Flight Meltdown
Much has been made of Alec Baldwin’s run-in with a flight crew last month resulting in his being removed from a plane for failing to comply with the instructions of the flight crew. Mr. Baldwin, it seems suffers from a powerful addiction: Words With Friends. Now, we have finally discovered who it was that introduced…
German Couple Discovers First Class Isn’t One Big Party, Force Plane To Land And Disgorge Them
Peter and Gabriele Strohmaier of Dusseldorf, Germany were traveling in first class on Delta Flight 414 from Atlanta to Costa Rica this evening. Early in the flight, they demanded food and champagne and refused to sit down, disregarding instructions from the flight attendants. As a result of their belligerence, the pilot elected to make an…
‘Cupcake Lady’ Sick Of Talking About Cupcakes, But More Sick Of TSA’s Ridiculous Security Theater
It turns out that Rebecca, the TSA Cupcake Lady is, of all things, a Media Studies Professor. In a letter to The Consumerist, she makes an excellent point that we’ve been trying to make, probably less eloquently. After refuting the TSA claims that the cupcake was a gel or mostly icing, she says Anyway, the…