Over in Australia, Jetstar Airlines is being investigated because of claims that a pilot was text-messaging while landing a plane, and because they were distracted they were forced to abort a landing attempt at an airport in Singapore.
Read the article, Pilot ‘texting during landing’, here.
Now who knows how many airplane pilots take naps in the cockpit. It’s joked about sure, so when it lands in the realm of printed fact it’s easy to get excited. The Rocky Mountain News published the article Pilots asleep on DIA approach today. It’s about what seems to be Frontier airlines pilots on a [...]
Interesting bits about air travel and varying levels of mental damage:
Flights east are harder on the system than flights west.
Jet lag gets to be an issue when crossing more than three time zones.
Unless you’re staying in your destination more than three days, it’s not worth “switching” to the new time zone.
» Read the BBC [...]
From Derek Willis’ excellent journalism blog,
Ronnie Greene of the Miami Herald used federal data and records obtained through FOIA for a three-part series on cargo plane crashes, finding that “from Texas to Alaska to Colorado and beyond, cargo pilots are dying in large numbers.
Read the blog post here, and read the Miami Herald’s report here.
I’m not making fun of airline safety or anything, but I’m intensely curious why the U.S. Transportation Security Administration felt the need to single out “Toy Transformer Robots” on their list of what you can and can’t bring in your checked luggage and in your carry-on.
Also, and this is something I didn’t know: It’s okay to bring saline or eyedrops with you, as long as the container is four ounces or less. Mascara and toothpaste are still no-nos, that is, unless you feel like putting them in your pocket.
Via the excellent journalism blog, The Scoop (blog post link):
Paula Lavigne of the Dallas Morning News used federal data to show that “despite previous estimates from animal rights groups that thousands of animals were killed, injured or lost on commercial airlines each year, only 56 incidents were reported nationwide in the past year, the first that official statistics were kept.” Most of the incidents involved dogs, with cats, birds and a rat making up the rest. A 2003 article by the Humane Society estimated that up to 5,000 pets a year were lost, injured or killed during air travel.
BBC delves into this — I think it’s a valid issue … most of the things we’re most afraid of aren’t because they happen a lot, it’s because they’re scary. You’re hundreds of times more likely to die driving a car in the U.S. than you are in a plane, but people don’t care about stuff like that.
(from Poynter)
KITV News in Honolulu says airport security screeners are seizing so many butane lighters that collecting the confiscated lighters has become a storage and safety problem. Screeners seize 30 to 40 pounds of the lighters each day and have collected 1,700 pounds of butane lighters since April 14. The airport has confiscated so many lighters that the Transportation Department now wants the lighters moved offsite from the airport because they are a safety hazard.
There’s a new player in some United States airports (both Houston airports, New York’s LaGuardia, Liberty in Newark, N.J., and Dulles in Washington): ReturnKey (www.itemreturn.com), which promises to ship items confiscated at the airport security check.