On April 29, 2007 a Thomson Airways Boeing 757, flight 253H, was taking off from Manchester Airport on its way to Spain when a bird (most people said a heron, but it looks black and smaller to me) got sucked into its starboard engine. The video shows the bird going in, the flame out and the plane landing safely at Manchester Airport.
Always a lot of American Airlines' aircraft at Dallas/Forth Worth
I have flown a lot in my life, but I have never had a bag lost. I know I have been lucky. Talking to those who have been through it, I am glad I haven’t had to go through that.
Airlines have gotten better at not losing bags, but it still happens. American Airlines is testing out some pretty cool new technology to help bags get to their destinations and faster.
Each baggage vehicle has a computer screen which can tell workers flight status, gate changes and connections all in real-time. Workers also have hand-held computers to keep an eye on bags while away from the vehicle. At most airports, this is all done with paper, pencil and maybe a radio.
Right now, the technology is only being used at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Hopefully it will be rolled out to other airports and adopted by other airlines if successful. Let’s also hope this new technology can stop bags from having unknown fluids spilled on them!
Yesterday, ZA004 took to the skies over Washington state (and looks like she might have dipped down into Oregon a little bit) on her first flight. Randy Tinseth, Vice President of Marketing for Boeing points out in his blog that ZA004 is sporting the Boeing “light” livery. This livery just paints the aircraft in solid white, with a line going down the fuselage. This saves Boeing time and money, versus the full livery) and I think it looks pretty slick.
Each of the Boeing test planes have a lead pilot. Captain Heather Ross is the one in charge of ZA004 and was at the controls yesterday. She is one of ten lucky pilots who have been able to fly the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
Tinseth is expecting all six of the test planes should be airborne by the end of the second quarter.
Above is a video from KING5 showing the landing of ZA004 yesterday at Boeing Field.
This is the fourth Boeing 787 made (notated by ZA004), but only the third one to fly. The third aircraft (ZA003) is the one I was able to tour the interior previously and Boeing will be flying it shortly. Today the fourth one got to spread its wings early, taking off from Paine Field.
I wasn’t able to get out today and watch the take off, but Sandy with the Future of Flight was there and got video from above. Currently she is flying over eastern Washington.
Express Jet EMB-145's might be leased by Branson airport to bring in more visitors
Back in May of last year I talked about Branson Airport (BKG) being the first privately owned airport. Since then, the airport has had some success (and some failures) in getting airlines to fly profitable routes to their airport.
Brett Snyder (aka Cranky Flier) wrote up a great piece on how the airport is looking to create its own airline…well kind of. They are looking to charter some regional jets from ExpressJet to fly to Branson from Austin, Des Moines, Houston, Shreveport, and Terre Haute starting in May.
To learn more about what Branson is up to, check out CrankyFlier.com.
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Image: Drewski2112