Congratulations pilots! You win the first ever AirlineReporter.com AWESOME Medal!
Commercial airline pilots haven’t been getting good press recently. I am reading a lot in the “mainstream” media about how this is an epidemic and how pilots are now so unprofessional. Most of these folks like big headlines, but offer little content or support.
Sure, they do have some valid material to work with. We have the Qantas pilots who forgot the landing gear, we have the pilot asking passengers to pray, we have the pilots who overshot an airport, and most recently a United Airlines pilot got arrested for being too drunk.
Yes, all these incidents are not professional, inappropriate, and dangerous. These pilots should be dealt with appropriately. But this is NOT an epidemic, this is not going to be an on-going trend, and most importantly these actions do not represent the huge majority of pilots out flying today.
Pilots don’t always have it easy. With pay cuts, increased hours, time away from family, it can be a difficult job. But most pilots are not doing it for the free airline tickets or a fancy pilot’s hat. They do it because they have a passion for flying and absolutely love their jobs.
On any given day in the United States there are about 87,000 flights. About 30,000 of which are commercial airline flights. Those are a lot of flights flown by professional pilots who safely get their passengers, cargo, and themselves to their destination safely each and everyday.
I just want people to be aware and do not discriminate against a whole profession, just from a few bad apples!
So, to celebrate the 99.9% of wonderful pilots out there, I give my first ever AirlineReporter.com AWESOME medal to all those great pilots out there, who help to make an airline industry exciting!
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Image: Orig from American Airlines
Virgin Atlantic "Tubular Belle" Boeing 747-400 that is taxiing (get it?)
Have you ever flown into a large city, had to grab a taxi downtown and thought, “man there have to be other people doing the same thing? I wish I could save a few bucks and share a cab.” Maybe you had the guts to ask people around you where they were going, but for those of us who don’t, you now have another option.
Virgin Atlantic working with NESTA (UK endowment to support innovation) is helping to test a program to help passengers share a Taxi. Called Taxi2, passengers can sign up on their website, input their flight details, they are then sent information on a probable match and can choose to accept or reject the match. The site will let you pick the sex of your passenger (presumably for safety female passengers, not to set up a date) and the program is not limited to just Virgin Atlantic customers.
Ed Maklouf, founder of Taxi2, said, “We are delighted to be partnering with Virgin Atlantic for this scheme, and our expectation is that this simple, sensible way of saving money and cutting down congestion and carbon footprint will become common activity for air travelers worldwide.”
You are even able to print off your own mini-sign (called “Clever-Ticket”) to help meeting up with your new taxi-friend.
The website isn’t clear where passengers can use the service. I asked Virgin Atlantic and they said, “Since the service is in beta for the first few months we developed it for the London to NY routes initially, however passengers traveling to any of our gateways can utilize the program.” It might be limited now, but hopefully it takes off (heh) and will spread to other locations worldwide. Passengers can get the speed and convenience of a taxi, but the cost of an airport shuttle.
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Image: Rich Snyder
Print that ticket at home, or it could cost you $150 to get into that door!
If you follow Ryanair or Michael O’Leary, the CEO of Ryanair, you know there is always something going down in Ryanair-land. Well, let’s step this up to the next level of craziness. In the good ‘ol days (aka now) you only have to about $60 for printing your boarding pass at the airport. But O’Leary doesn’t like check-in counters and wants people to stop getting boarding passes at the airport.
“You really now must check in before you get to the airport. If you don’t the fine is €40 [~$60] and if that doesn’t get rid of them all within a very short order, we double that fine to €100 [~$150],” said Mr O’Leary. “We don’t want people showing up without the pre-printed boarding card.”
If you don’t have a printer at home, it would be more cost effective to go out and buy a printer for $50, print your boarding pass, and pocket the $100.
This might not shock many of you, but complaints on Ryanair are up 140% and they have the highest number of complaints in the UK (although they are one of the biggest airlines as well).
But if you want to complain to Ryanair, good luck! It costs about $1.42 per minute to talk to a customer service representative. I am sure they will have no problem, sitting back listening to your complaints and even ask follow up questions.
Why do people keep making this airline successful? Because they want the cheapest ticket possible, period. Will there ever be a backlash with passengers realizing price isn’t everything? Or will this business model spread to the US (please no) and be the future of commercial aviation?
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Source: Irish Examiner via FlyersView Image: * mario *
Oops! Pilots on Qantas Airlines Forget to Lower Landing Gear
Qantas flight JQ12, a Boeing 767, was on approach at Syndney Airport on October 26th, when the pilots received a “gear too low” warning at about 700 feet. They had forgotten to put their landing gear down. They reacted quickly, aborted the landing and flew around again. Normally the aircraft should lower its gear between 2000 and 1500 feet.
It appears there was a communication breakdown between who was lowering the gear. Both pilots have stepped down during the investigation.
“The incident was reported to the ATSB and the pilots were stood down. We are supporting the ATSB’s investigation and our own investigations will determine what further action might be warranted,” a Qantas spokes person confirmed.
The airline states there was no “flight safety issue,” which I would have to disagree with. If the warning system had malfunctioned, this incident could have turned out much different. Putting down the landing gear is one of those important things to remember on a pilot’s landing checklist and should not be taken lightly when overlooked.
Source: News.com.au Image: Andrew Tallon
http://www.news.com.au/travel/story/0,28318,26303318-5014090,00.html
Qantas Boeing 767-300ER landing (with gears down)
A Qantas Boeing 767, was on approach at Sydney Airport on October 26th, when the pilots received a “gear too low” warning at about 700 feet. They had forgotten to put their landing gear down. They reacted quickly, aborted the landing and flew around again. Normally the aircraft should lower its gear between 2000 and 1500 feet.
It appears there was a communication breakdown between who was lowering the gear. Both pilots have stepped down during the investigation.
“The incident was reported to the ATSB and the pilots were stood down. We are supporting the ATSB’s investigation and our own investigations will determine what further action might be warranted,” a Qantas spokes person confirmed.
The airline states there was no “flight safety issue,” which I would have to disagree with. If the warning system had malfunctioned, this incident could have turned out much different. Putting down the landing gear is one of those important things to remember on a pilot’s landing checklist and should not be taken lightly when overlooked.
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Source: News.com.au Image: Andrew Tallon
Canadair Regional Jet CRJ-200
Nothing like a good ‘ol fashion false alarm hijacking to get the heart beating! A Delta Air Lines flight left from Northwest Florida Regional Airport bound for Atlanta last Wednesday. Shortly after takeoff, the plane was ordered by the TSA to return to the airport. Apparently a TSA employee who was on the flight was not properly screened.
This would have turned out to just be an annoying time delay, but no one informed the Air Force base near by for the flight change. When the military noticed the plane was altering its filed flight path, they were afraid it might be a highjack situation.
The USAF base sent word to the local Sheriff’s office stating, “at this time advising that there is a poss(ible) hijacked airplane in progress.’
Further communication states: ’œOkaloosa airport cannot make contact with the plane at this time and this is considered a security breach.’
It took about 20 minutes for the situation to get cleared up. The plane landed, the TSA employee successfully was screened and the flight was on its way back to Atlanta.
Currently, the TSA is, “reviewing the incident and will take appropriate action if necessary”, Sari Koshetz, spokeswoman for the TSA said. “If necessary?” They don’t see that maybe this is not the best practice? The simple solution is making sure TSA employees are screened properly, but if that solution doesn’t sound right, then maybe informing the USAF base next time a flight is diverted? Just my two cents.
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Source: Crestview News Bulletin Image: sparky05