What’s crazier than one passenger calling in a bomb threat to delay a flight? Having two different passengers calling in bomb threats to delay two separate flights a world away from each other.
The first one involves Claudia De La Rosa who didn’t want her boss to miss his American Airlines flight from Miami to Honduras last Wednesday. Instead of having to pay a ticket change fee or deal with a grumpy boss, she decided to email a bomb threat to delay the flight. It worked and the flight was delayed while police searched the aircraft. De La Rosa made it easy for police to track her down, since she sent the incriminating email using her work computer and was quickly arrested. That is going the extra mile for the boss, but I expect she won’t have her job for much longer. No word if her boss even made that flight.
All the way around the world in Delhi, a man called in a bomb threat last Sunday to delay his relative’s flight. Mubarak Ali’s relative got to the airport at 9pm, but his 8:55pm IndiGo flight was already pushed back from the gate. Not willing to accept his relative arriving late, Ali called the airline’s flight center and reported the plane had a bomb. The IndiGo flight, with 164 passengers, was sent to an isolated area of the airport and was searched. Of course no bomb was found and Ali was tracked down and arrested for making a fake bomb threat. As before, no idea if Ali’s relative was able to make it in time to pay for bail.
I have seen people do some crazy things (mostly just running very fast and asking people to cut in line, so not that crazy), but calling (or emailing) in a bomb threat just doesn’t make any sense. I for one would never want De La Rosa or Ali planning my next trip.
This great, 4minute video takes you the history of Northwest Airlines. From their first flight to a nod to the merger at the end. The video shows a few employees saying, “the sun will never set on Northwest Airlines,” however at the very end there is an animated Northwest tail that flips around and shows the Delta livery, showing they realize that the sun will soon set on the Northwest Airlines livery.
Last week, Boeing showed off its “light” livery on the new Boeing 747-8 Freighter. This new Boeing livery saves time and cost, since it is less complex than their standard livery.
It has a simple white background, with stripe and “8” on the tail. I got a glimpse of the new livery myself while driving by Paine Field (don’t worry my passenger took that picture) and it looks even better in person than it does in pictures.
Check out the photo gallery of additional photos and video of the B747-8 Freighter (I love that wing).
Thank goodness! United’s appearance has annoyed me for a while now. Flying on some of their planes is like time traveling back to the late 80’s. It seems United has had issues with deciding if they want to update their fleet or not.
Not too long ago they re-painted their fleet in a stormy clouds (my name) livery, which people didn’t like and didn’t last too long. I kind of liked it, even though it was dark, but they decided on a lighter livery (see photo). But they haven’t fully changed over their entire fleet (which I am ok with, b/c the new livery seems dated). It has been the slowest livery change I have ever seen.
The livery is not the only thing they have been slacking on. Anyone who has flown United Airlines in the last 10 years will see a familiar site: the same seats. They call the design “Tequila Sunrise” and I call it ’œdated and ugly’.
Good news! United plans to replace all the dated seats with new blue leather seats and they plan to re-paint all their aircraft. And not too soon! Brett Snyder with CrankyFlier.com recently flew on the last United Boeing 737 and it was obvious they were avoiding replacing those seats and I wouldn’t doubt other plans have the same ’œquick fix’.
United will also be updating their overhead bins, allowing more carry-on luggage and creating a friendlier atmosphere. The crew won’t be left out. Designer Cynthis Rowley is creating more trendy crew uniforms to match the airline’s new (or really consistent) interior look.
This also comes at a time where United Airlines is looking to purchase 150+ planes very shortly. Hopefully this is a sign that United is not going to be a dinosaur and fight for its survival. I wish them the best of luck!
I love making fun of Rynair, because they are a bunch of Turkeys!
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I hope everything had safe and uneventful holiday travel and that you are having a better meal than this United Airlines turkey sandwich!
I might be in a food coma this weekend, so no promises of a bunch of big blogs 🙂
