Air India Airbus A330
Habib Hussain moved to Medina, Saudi Arabia six months ago to get a job providing airline services through a private agency. Hussien was working aboard an Air India Airbus A330 prepping to head to Jaipur, India. He was not happy with his current situation and wanted to go home, however the company he worked for had his passport. He decided to lock himself in the bathroom and catch a free and illegal flight back home.
About 30 minutes into the flight he came out of the bathroom and sat down in a vacant seat. On a normal flight he might have been able to blend in, but this was a special Haj flight and he stood out in his overalls. Once he was detected he was frisked by airline personal and found not be a safety threat. The pilot decided to continue on to their final destination, however officials were waiting for Hussain once the plane landed.
Every international flight is supposed to thoroughly checked the aircraft and complete a headcount. Air India has stated it is not a common practice to check for stowaways.
“Only authorized personnel enter an aircraft for maintenance after clearing security checks in the sterile airport zone. Pilots announce before takeoff that all ground personnel must deplane. There is no practice of checking toilets or under seats to look for hidden passengers. The boarding card stub taken from passengers at the aircraft ladder is used to do a headcount with people seated inside. This is what airlines do,” said Air India spokesman Jitendra Bhargava.
Hussain was checked by security to be able to work on the aircraft. It is most likely Hussain will stay in India, but might face charges for his bathroom stunt.
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Source: The Times of India Image: Magnum78 fr via Flickr
Boeing 787 Dreamliner ZA002 with ANA livery, flying over the Olympics
Yesterday the second Boeing 787 test plane, ZA002, made its second test flight back to where it was built. The flight was from Boeing Field (Located in South Seattle) to Paine Field (located in Everett, WA).
The flight was required since there was debris found in ZA002’s fuel tank after its first flight on December 22nd. Paine Field and it needed to fly back to Paine Field, which has the proper facilities.
VIDEO:
KING5 caught video of the Dreamliner taking off and the Future of Flight braved the rain, dark and wind to see the ANA liveried 787 land.
The issue is minor and it provided people up north to see the Boeing 787 fly once again (Unfortunately I was at another blog-related event). This incident is not changing the positive mood of Boeing executives. “The 787’s progress has exceeded my expectations for where I thought we’d be at this point,” Dennis O’Donoghue, who runs the company-wide aircraft testing unit, told Bloomberg. “I’m almost giddy.”
And I am giddy too. This means I will have an opportunity to see ZA002 take off from Paine Field when it heads back south again.
Additional Information:
* Photo of ZA002 back at Paine Field via @ImperfectSense
* More photos of ZA002 over the Olympic Mountains vis Seattle PI
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Boeing 787 in First Choice livery. Photo from NewPlane.com
Preview what the Boeing 787 Dreamliner will look like in different airline liveries (scroll down a little bit for the custom liveries). From Aeroflot to VLAC.
It is great seeing the different designs in 3D on the computer screen, but I can’t wait to see them in person (of course you can already see ANA’s livery on the 787).
If the Boeing 787 liveries don’t distract you enough, you can also check out the new Boeing 747-8 Highlights page via Boeing.
Thanks to Sandy at the Future of Flight for finding this!
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Looks like the unruly passenger got his shirt back on in time for the police to escort him off the plane.
Just getting drunk, unruly, and causing a flight to divert just doesn’t seem to do it for me anymore. Well a Virginia resident, Muhammed Abu Tahir is taking it to the next level. He was on Air Tran flight 39 from Atlanta to San Francisco and decided to have a few (and by a few I mean five) airline-sized bottles of wine. Anyone having that much wine is mostly going to use the lavatory at some point.
Tahir seemed to enjoy being in the lavatory, but wanted to be a little more comfortable. He took off his shoes and socks and placed them outside the door. He later opened up the door and flight attendants could see he also took off his shirt and was shaving. At this point the crew felt it would be in the flight’s best interest if Tahir sat back down.
This is where Tahir had a decision to make. Either he sits down and provides a fun story the flight attendants to tell later or he makes a big deal out of it and causes a diverted flight and gets arrested. Unfortunately Tahir didn’t choose wisely. He become aggressive and refused to leave the bathroom. Flight attendants enlisted passengers to stand guard outside the bathroom with fire extinguishers while the crew blocked the cockpit door with a drink cart. Tahir was still in the bathroom when the flight finally landed.
The pilot decided to make an emergency landing at Colorado Springs and F-16’s were scrambled to help escort the flight. The flight landed with no other incident and Tahir got to make some quick friends with law enforcement. and might see some jail time.
No word if he got his AirTran miles for flying from Atlanta to Colorado Springs.
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Image: KDVR
Why would this Boeing 747 need a 5th engine?
This is not a photo shop, but a photograph of a Qantas Boeing 747-300 with a little extra cargo — a 5th engine.
When a Qantas airplane needs a replacement engine or to have one worked on, sometimes they will attached the 5th engine onto a Boeing 747 and fly it without power to its destination.
This ends up being more cost effective for the airline. The 5th engine will limit the 747’s performance (not that it is known for its sporty maneuvering already), but it provides no additional safety risk.
There is also a photo of a Qantas Boeing 747-400 with a 5th engine.
People on Twitter are sharing other airplanes with additional engines:
* Lockheed L1011 Tristar thanks FlyingPhotog
* Boeing 720 thanks apgphoto
* DC-8 thanks TxAGFlyer
* Pan Am Boeing 747 thanks Skippyscage
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