Delta Air Lines Flight 253
It was lucky that the bomb didn’t go off on Delta Airlines Flight 253 by the so-called Christmas bomber. However recent research shows that the Airbus A330 with 278 might have been able to land, if the bomb had detonated.
BBC News did some research with a Boeing 747 that showed that flight 253’s fuselage most likely would not have broken and it should have been able to land safely. The testing shows the bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, and the passenger next to him would have most likely been killed, making it still a very horrific event. The explosion would cause injuries to passengers, smoke and chaos, but the plane would have still been able to land completely intact.
Dr John Wyatt, an international terrorism and explosives adviser to the UN, replicated the conditions on board the Detroit flight on a decommissioned Boeing 747 at an aircraft graveyard in Gloucestershire, England. The amount of explosives found on the bomber would not have been enough to break the skin of the flexible aluminum making up the aircraft’s fuselage. Even though the Boeing 747 was not the aircraft that flew on flight 253, the two planes are made similarly enough to be used in the test.
The researchers couldn’t do into great details of the damages that were caused for security reasons, but their goal is to assure passengers that airlines are safer than most people think. For the tests the plane was not pressurized since flight 253 was at about 10,000 feet and the pressure would have been similar on the inside and outside of the fuselage. The results could be much more different at a higher altitude.
If you live in the UK you can watch the full BBC show, otherwise you can check out a small clip of the show here.
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Here are the answers -- did you guess right?
Had a lot of great guesses from people on the photo livery quiz. You can see the answers above. Most people made the same mistake I did on the last one. I thought it was USAir, but if you look closely this was a bare-metal plane from American, with Southwest’s livery painted on it. You can read more about these planes and see larger photos on Southwest Airline’s blog.
Winners of being big airline livery nerds:
* TxAgFlyer
* DCSpotter
* Patrick Olave
* Unregistered user #473787 on the Seattle PI
Nice job folks. There were quite a few others that only got one wrong.
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What is the difference between customs and immigration is a great question. It is also one that a reader asked Steven Frischling over on his blog Flying With Fish.
“While many nations have merged Immigrations and Customs into one larger agency, such as US Department of Homeland Security and Canada’s Border Services Agency, their roles are quite different at the airport.
In short, here are the roles of the Customs and Immigrations” ’¦ CHECK OUT HIS BLOG TO READ MORE
Houston Airport's Food Court
Sometimes bad things happens and there is no one to blame. Some how William Ogletree, a lawyer from Texas, didn’t get that memo. Ogletree was flying from Houston to Las Vegas back last December and went to the food court in Terminal C for some food. When leaving, he accidentally left his $800 black leather jacket, which unsurprisingly, someone ended up stealing.
Yea, that sucks, but it is a fact of life. I have lost a few coats in similar fashions (not $800 ones thanks goodness), but I didn’t blame anyone but myself. Ogletree on the other hand is threatening to sue the City of Houston, Continental Airlines and the food court’s management for failing to have “collected the coat, kept it in a secure place and held it for a reasonable time” until he was able to claim the jacket. The bitter passenger claims the defendants, “breached their duty” in connection with how they “manage lost and found items for which they are responsible.”
The letter written to the defendants, obtained by The Smoking Gun, shows Oggletree gave them ten whole days to pay him the $800 or they would also be burdened with, “court costs, attorney’s fees, investigation, expert witnesses and other damages.”
I am sorry you lost your coat Mr. Ogletree, but seriously get over it. It is not the city, the food court or Continental Airlines’s fault (I don’t even get how could come close to blame Continental — for not asking every passenger if they remembered their coats?). There are only two people to blame. Oggletree and whomever stole the jacket.
No official word if Ogletree ever got his money or his jacket.
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Source: JetBlue’s B6 Blog Image: jgdillard
Croatia Airlines Airbus A320 (9A-CTF)
Can anyone take a guess where Croatia Airlines might be based? If you guessed Croatia, give yourself a pat on the back. The airline is based at Zagreb Airport and is a part of the Star Alliance.
They have a fleet mostly Airbus A320/A319, but also four Bombardier Dash 8 Q400’s. They fly to just under 30 destinations and have been in operation since 1989.
The airline started running cargo for UPS using Cessna 402 aircraft. At the time the airline was called Zagreb Airlines. After the first democratic elections were held in Croatia, the name was changed to Croatia Airlines in 1990. In 1991, Coatia Airlines leased a MD-82 and started passenger service.
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Image: johannes pape