How much more innocent can you get than a game of peek-a-boo? Well it is not so innocent when a child ended up locked in an overhead bin on a recent Virgin Blue flight.
Natalie Williamson says her and her 17month son and husband were on a Virgin Blue flight from Fiji to Sydney, when the fun game turned serious. The husband (who is now estranged) was playing a fun little game of peek-a-boo with their child, Riley when one of the flight attendants decided to join in. She thought it would be a good idea to put Riley into the overhead bin and shut the door. Bad call.
“My husband, Shayne, was standing one metre behind my son, Riley, when the air steward picked him up and placed him in the overhead compartment,” Natalie told the Herald Sun. She stated that people around her were laughing and found it funny, but found it very disturbing.
The airline has confirmed that the the flight attendant did put Riley into the overhead bin and has since been fired. Virgin Blue offered Natalie free flights for having to deal with the bad situation, but that doesn’t seem to make things okay in her eyes.
For most people this might become a story to tell, but Natalie is saying that things for Riley aren’t going too well. She states that he is having trouble sleeping and won’t leave her side. “If I’m not in the same room as him, he will scream and yell ‘Mum, mum, mum’,” she said.
It sounds like the flight attendant messed up, but enough to deserve a firing? Well, I guess we don’t know if the flight attendant has other mess ups. I am no counselor, but it seems a bit odd that Riley would have so many issues after only a few seconds in the overhead bin. Either way I don’t think other flight attendants should try this game with other kids anytime soon.
So what the heck does “TAP” stand for? When the airline was established in 1945 it stood for Transportes Areos Portugueses. In 1979 the name was changed to TAP Air Portugal and finally it was simplified to just TAP Portugal.
TAP has an all Airbus fleet of A319, A320, A321, A330 and the A340. They also have 12 Airbus A350s on order. The airline flies to 65 destinations in 31 countries via their fleet of 66 aircraft. They also run a regional airline, called PGA, with 16 additional aircraft.
The livery overlaps the TAP on the front of the fuselage and mostly just has the “P” on the tail. This gives it a clean and unique look, especially with the “TAP PORTUGUAL” going vertically up the tail.
Watching a space shuttle take off is a pretty amazing experience. Seeing it take to the sky from an airliner is that much better. This is an amateur video of the Space Shuttle Discovery taking off for the last time. Some readers on Airliners.net pin-pointed the flight as a JetBlue flight from Orlando, FL to Richmond, VA.
How many of these six landing gears can you recognize? Me... um, not all of them.
You guys have shown your livery skills, but what about landing gears?
What kind of planes do these landing gears belong to? No prizes on this one, but a nice shout out with the answers. Uber bonus if you can tell the airline (I know on a few you can).
UPDATE: Although the “official” contest is over, you can still take a guess and check your answers here.
Flashing lights, warning alarms and that shrieking voice saying “pull up.” There are a lot of emergency indicators in the cockpit of an airliner and Boeing is looking at adding another. The warnings already hit two senses: sight and hearing… it’s time to add touch. Boeing submitted a patent application to make the pilot’s seat vibrate in a number of different situations, but not only in emergencies. Can this help keep pilot’s awake during flight? It sure can’t hurt.
