The United Express flight was flown by Trans States, but I feel both have some fault here (I am working on a blog talking about my feelings of regional carriers and the legacy airlines that put their names on them). In the most recent incident, Ginger McGuire was taking a United Express redeye from Philadelphia to Dulles, when she fell asleep mid-flight. A cleaning crew woke her up at 3:50am, over three hours after the flight landed.
That flight is flown by an Embraer ERJ-145. This is the same type of plane I just flew and blogged about. It is small, only 50 passengers, and I am not quite sure how someone could miss a passenger left on that plane.
Now, McGuire is suing United Airlines for false imprisonment, infliction of emotional distress and negligence. Is that going to far? I say yes.
First off, this is bad. Really bad. It shouldn’t happened and the airline needs to apologize, show they are taking steps to make sure this doesn’t happen again and probably give her some free tickets. The problem is, McGuire isn’t giving United and Trans States the opportunity to do so. This incident McGuire happened on Tuesday and today is Thursday. Can we give them at least over the weekend?
Either way, hopefully this trend of leaving passengers on flights will be over.
The DC-3 is a classic. It was the workhorse of commercial aviation. Delta Air Lines, via their blog, shared the restoration of Ship 41, which was the second DC-3 delivered to the airline. She entered service in December 24, 1941 and served a reliable 18 years with Delta before being sold to North Central Airlines.
DC-3 ended up serving with a lot of different airlines and in 1990, Delta started to make a big effort to track down any of the first five DC-3’s delivered. Ship 41, which was registered N29PR, had been flying cargo for Air Puerto Rico and in 1993, Delta bought the plane. The DC-3 was flown back to Atlanta for restoration.
When restoring the DC-3, Delta wanted to make sure the cockpit was updated, without taking away the plane’s history. Updated communication and navigation equipment were installs, but located in discrete areas of the cockpit. The cabin was remade with the original patterns and fabric.
Who hasn’t doodled a few aircraft designs before? I know I have and I also know they kinda bite! But who cares? The passion for aviation doesn’t care if the plane can fly or not (Boeing and Airbus probably care a bit more). Inspired by Harry Windsor’s drawing of a new Boeing airplane for Alaska Airlines, the Future of Flight is holding The Harry Winsor Design Your Own Aircraft Show. You can be a professional or using crayons to enter. And the best part? EVERYONE WINS!
Just follow these simple guidelines:
1. Be really creative. Let your imagination soar. Think above the box.
2. Please submit nothing smaller than 3’x 3’ (7.6 cm x 7.6 cm) no larger than 27’x41’ (68.5 cm x 104 cm)
3. Put your first and last name, age (if over 18 you don’t have to tell us your age or pick a age you’re comfortable with) and where you live on your art.
4. Submissions must be received by no later than June 7, 2010.
5. Have fun!
No matter how it turns out your drawing will be displayed at the Future of Flight from July 15th to July 30th and you will get an official badge. Come on now people! I know a lot of you out there have an interest in aviation and want to share it! No one will be judging. I will be drawing my own design and I know Sandy at the Future of Flight has already submitted her drawing that is 3D!
I know I will be heading on over to the Future of Flight sometime this week and add my own drawing to their collection.
AirTran has been fighting hard to get into Milwaukee and they have strong competition. AirTran has quite a few other special liveries already, but this one is special, it is the first baseball livery for AirTran. Catch this Boeing 717 on AirTran’s network and go Brewers!
When flying to Australia, make sure not to bring in porn or else!
“Do you have any firearms? Any illegal drugs? Carrying any items for someone else?” These are all questions that if asked while flying, wouldn’t make you think twice. How about “do you have any porn in your bags? Yes? Well we need to view it” That would make me do a second take.
Customs in Australia started asking the question in September 2009 to try and curb illegal pornography, like child porn. When filling our your Passenger Card while on the airline, en-route to the airport, you are asked if you are carrying any pornography. If you say yes, then you open yourself to having your porn viewed by a customs official.
Child porn is bad, don’t get me wrong, but so is invasion of privacy. There are some that are quite upset about this new policy. The Australian Sex Party asks ’œIf you and your partner have filmed or photographed yourselves making love in an exotic destination or even taking a bath, you will have to answer ’˜Yes’ to the question or you will be breaking the law,’ president Fiona Patten of the party said. She also questions if this means if any device that can hold a photo (camera, laptop, phone, key chain and so many others) can be scrutinized by customs.
Now, your standard type of X-rated porn is not illegal in Australia. So if you have a magazine or film with naked people in them doing dirty things they can be viewed, even though they don’t break the law. ’œIs it fair that Customs officers rummage through someone’s luggage and pull out a legal men’s magazine or a lesbian journal in front of their children or their mother-in-law,’ Patten asked.
Customs states that many porn items have been viewed and the items would be returned to the passenger. Offensive material having child pornography, bestiality, explicit sexual violence and graphic degradation are destroyed. Customs says that only specially trained officers will be tactful and discreet.
With seeing how officials have respected privacy already, I don’t buy it. “Don’t worry sir, we are just reviewing your private home videos and returning them right back. No one has made any copies and I won’t be showing them to my buddies after work.” This is a disgusting violation of personal privacy and doesn’t affect airline safety.
Before for those of you that believe, “If you don’t agree, don’t fly,” start to chime in, let me preemptively counter your argument. If I choose to have legal porn (it is for a friend, I swear) or even private shots of my self naked (which I don’t), that is my right. Me carrying those has no affect on airline and travel safety. If authorities would have probable cause that I am transporting illegal material, then yea, search away. But me stating I am carrying a very legal item should not give them the right to view the item. It would be like “are you carrying any drugs” and having to have all your legal prescription and over the counter drugs looked at if you answered yes because you have aspirin.
