Free Republic

In between keeping her passengers safe and comfortable, Delta flight attendant Robin Schmidt tends to another mid-air mission -- passing journals among the rows so passengers can help her thank American troops. Over the last five years, Schmidt has filled hundreds of passenger-written journals and sent them to the troops she "adopts" in Afghanistan and Iraq. Not connected in any way to the military, Schmidt said, "This is just part of who I am. This is what I do." And on the other side of the world, she's got a lot of grateful military men and women. "The soldiers often...

Airline asks passengers to pee before flying By Kesavan Unnikrishnan. Japanese airline All Nippon Airways is asking its passengers to use the bathroom before they board the plane in an attempt to reduce carbon emissions. The new policy was implemented by the airline from October 1. Signs are being put up at airport gates asking passengers to visit the lavatory before boarding. The new policy started a one-month trial but the airline plans to expand it indefinitely if it's effective. According to ANA, empty bladders will cut down passengers' overall weight which will result in lighter aircrafts and lower fuel...

Travellers to Europe face being treated like drug smugglers as security chiefs are expected to recommend new intrusive security measures. French anti-terror chiefs are expected to propose the new measures, such as full body X-rays or handing in all electronic devices, after a terrorist tried to kill a Saudi prince with a bomb he had inserted into his body. Al Qaeda's latest ploy was first pioneered by Abdullah Hassan al Asiri, who blew himself apart in Jeddah in late August in an attack on Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the Saudi anti-terrorism chief. The 23-year-old terrorist blew himself into 70 pieces...

HOUSTON - A missile may have just barely miss hitting a Continental Airlines flight on Friday. Liberty County sheriff deputies are meeting with the FBI and FAA to discuss this incident. Sheriff deputies say on Friday a missile may have been launched near Interstate 10 and mount Belview. A continental flight which had just taken off from Bush Intercontinental Airport may have been the target.

Here’s a real copy of an American citizen’s DHS Travel Record retrieved from the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol’s Automated Targeting System (ATS). This was obtained through a FOIA/Privacy Act request and sent in by an anonymous reader (thanks!) The document reveals that the DHS is storing the reader’s: Credit card number and expiration (really)IP address used to make web travel reservations Hotel information and itineraryFull Name, birth date and passport numberFull airline itinerary, including flight numbers and seat numbersCruise ship itineraryPhone numbers, incl. business, home & cellEvery frequent flyer and hotel number associated with the subject, even ones not...

The Maharaja witnessed his first in-flight Mughal-e-Azam at 30,000 feet above sea level on Saturday, as two members of the cabin crew—one male and one female—slugged it out with the pilot and co-pilot. Endangering the lives of 106 passengers and grossly violating safety norms, the airline staffers came to blows in the cockpit and galley of the Indian Airlines Airbus A-320 as the aircraft cruised over Pakistan en route to Delhi via Lucknow from Sharjah. The cabin-vs-cockpit tiff originated on the ground in Sharjah itself and then turned into a full-blown fight once IC 884 took off soon after midnight....

A mosque frequented by the leader of the airline plot terrorist cell has been a recruiting ground for extremists for more than 20 years. The Queen’s Road mosque in Walthamstow, northeast London, where Abdulla Ahmed Ali met his associates, is controlled by the ultraorthodox Tablighi Jamaat. Intelligence services around the world believe that Tablighi’s fundamentalism makes some of its followers easy prey for terrorist recruiters. Two decades ago the same mosque was hosting talks by followers of Omar Bakri Mohammed, one of the first Islamic clerics in Britain to preach jihad. The disclosure of the mosque’s history indicates that, despite...

Critics of the government's secret no-fly list scored a potentially important victory Monday when a federal appeals court ruled that would-be passengers can ask a judge and jury to decide whether their inclusion on the list violates their rights. In a 2-1 ruling, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reinstated a suit by a former Stanford University student who was detained and handcuffed in 2005 as she was about to board a plane to her native Malaysia. The ruling is apparently the first to allow a challenge to the no-fly list to proceed in a federal...

Capt. Chesley Sully Sullenberger made it his life's mission to protect lives because he couldn't save his father from suicide, according to the hero pilot's blockbuster new book. "One of the reasons I think I've placed such a high value on life is that my father took his," Sullenberger reveals in the memoir, a copy of which the New York Daily News obtained ahead of the tome's October release. Sullenberger reveals that his father, a dentist from Texas, battled depression and shot himself in 1995 at age 78 in the book "Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters." "I'm...

Southwest Airlines said Monday it has submitted a binding cash offer of more than $170 million to acquire Frontier Airlines, which will be sold at auction as part of Frontier's bankruptcy case. As part of the offer, Southwest would acquire about 80% of Frontier's existing Airbus fleet, or 40 aircraft, plus all of Lynx, Frontier's short-haul subsidiary. "We believe our bid ultimately should be seen as the strongest offer by all interested parties, including Frontier, its creditors, employees, and customers," said Southwest Air's Chief Executive Gary Kelly in a prepared statement.

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary wants passengers to stand on the budget airline’s flights, in a bid to pack in more people and boost profits. Passengers would pay less to huddle next to what have been described as “bar stools”, with seatbelts around their waists. O’Leary got the idea from Chinese airline Spring, which put forward similar plans — estimating they could pack in up to 50 per cent more passengers and slash costs by 20 per cent.

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – Air New Zealand has hit on a novel way to make sure even the most jaded flyers keep their eyes glued on its flight safety briefing. The national carrier's safety video for domestic services on its Boeing Co 737 planes show pilot and cabin crew dressed only in body paint.

DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del., June 29, 2009 – It was enough to make even the calmest airline passengers nervous: an irate man pacing the aisles of a commercial flight shouting, “I want to slit the captain’s throat!” Col. Thomas Kauth, Logistics Assessment Branch chief, presents Senior Airman Nicholas Barker, 436th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron crew chief, a certificate of appreciation for his excellence during Dover Air Force Base’s Logistics Standardization and Evaluation Program inspection. Two months later, Barker showed his excellence again by subduing an irate man on an international commercial flight. U.S. Air Force photo by Tom Randle  (Click photo...

News 8 Investigates: Airline mechanics who can't read English 10:03 AM CDT on Saturday, May 16, 2009 By BYRON HARRIS / WFAA-TV News 8 has recently revealed serious flaws in the way the FAA licenses mechanics who fix planes. There is evidence of years of problems in testing these mechanics. There is also evidence that hundreds of mechanics with questionable licenses are working on aircraft in Texas. Now there is evidence of repair facilities hiring low-wage mechanics who can't read English. Twenty-one people were killed when U.S. Airways Express Flight 5481 crashed in Charlotte, North Carolina in 2003. The plane...

Airlines slump, dollar rises on deadly flu outbreak By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch Last update: 4:12 a.m. EDT April 27, 2009 LONDON (MarketWatch) -- A deadly swine flu outbreak that originated in Mexico took its toll on airlines and cruise operators across the globe on Monday as traders feared a repeat of the SARS epidemic. Mexico City's streets were empty Sunday as an estimated 1,614 people in that country contracted the swine flu, killing 103 people. The Mexican government has closed schools in Mexico City and nearby states, and the U.S. declared a public health emergency. Twenty Americans have caught the...

A man who says he desperately needed to use an airplane bathroom after eating something bad in Honduras faces a federal charge after being accused of twisting a flight attendant's arm to get to the lavatory, the FBI said Wednesday.

<p>CNN) -- Passengers were reportedly taken hostage on a charter flight at a Jamaican airport.</p> <p>They were boarding the CanJet flight from Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay to Halifax, Canada, late Sunday when the security breach occurred, said Elizabeth Scotton, a spokeswoman for the company that manages the airport.</p>

   Damn, we missed the Concorde's 40th Anniversary yesterday. I love this amazing view of its cockpit. Looks like the cockpit in a military plane or spaceship rather than one in a passenger airliner. [Fast Company]

Arab airline starting Chicago route By Lorene Yue Feb. 02, 2009 (Crain’s) — Etihad Airways, the national airline for the United Arab Emirates, is making Chicago its second destination in the United States. The Abu Dhabi-based carrier, a relative upstart in the aviation industry, will begin non-stop service to and from O’Hare International Airport on Sept. 2. Etihad has been flying to New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport since October 2006. Chicago is part of Etihad’s growth strategy. The airline, which launched in November 2003, also plans to add routes to Melbourne, Australia; Athens, Greece; and Istanbul, Turkey, this year....

Note: The following text is a quote: https://www.osac.gov/Reports/report.cfm?contentID=96676 YOU ARE HERE: Home > Reports > Consular Affairs Bulletins > Report Warden Message: India Airline Threat Uncorroborated CONSULAR AFFAIRS BULLETINS South / Central Asia - India 30 Jan 2009 Printer Friendly Email Article RELATED REPORTS 26 Jan 2009 INDIA: POSSIBLE SURVEILLANCE DETECTED 9 Jan 2009 TRAVEL ALERT: INDIA 7 Jan 2009 INDIA SURVEY REPORT 24 Dec 2008 TRAVEL ALERT: INDIA 19 Dec 2008 MUMBAI ATTACKS BENCHMARKING SURVEY RESULTS U.S. Consulate General Mumbai released the following Warden Message on January 30: Indian media sources have recently reported on an increased threat of...

Vanity - sitting on the tarmac on a USAirways flight from Houston. Pilot announced a "system-wide hard shut down." Anyone know what's up?

For the first time since the dawn of the jet age, two consecutive years have passed without a single airline passenger death on a U.S. carrier. No passengers died in crashes in 2007 and 2008, a period in which 1.5 billion people took scheduled airline flights. One major accident occurred during that time, last month's crash of a Continental Airlines jet in Denver. Going without a crash fatality for a full year has been rare. Only four years since 1958 have passed without a passenger fatality, the analysis found. That makes the two-year string even more impressive, aviation safety experts...

Nine Muslim passengers were kicked off a flight from Washington, D.C., to Florida after other passengers reported hearing a suspicious remark about airplane security. AirTran Airways spokesman Tad Hutcheson called the incident on the New Year's Day flight from Reagan National Airport to Orlando, Fla., a misunderstanding, but defended the company's response. He said the airline followed federal rules and did nothing wrong. One of the Muslim passengers, Kashif Irfan, told The Washington Post the confusion began when his brother was talking about the safest place to sit on an airplane. "My brother and his wife were discussing some aspect...

India's state-run carrier Air India has dismissed 10 women flight attendants who were grounded last year for being overweight, a report said Monday. The sackings came after the cabin crew were warned about meeting minimum physical fitness standards and given sufficient time to lose weight, the Press Trust of India news agency reported quoting airline sources. The flight attendants were also offered alternative ground assignments which they refused, the report said.

D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton says she wants a hearing on airline practices after nine Muslims were booted off an AirTran Airways flight on New Year's Day.

A Britten-Norman Trislander, the kind of small aircraft that disappeared off the Dominican Republic Monday with 12 on board. A small Caribbean airplane that vanished into thin air Monday was allegedly stolen by a fired Dominican Navy cadet who may have been trying to carry illegal immigrants to America, the plane’s owner told FOXNews.com. Luis Perez, the Puerto Rico-based owner of the aircraft charter company, said his twin-engine plane was stolen by an unlicensed pilot named Adrian Jimenez. Authorities told him Jimenez was a student of the Dominican Republic Armed Forces and a former Navy cadet. “They took his pilot’s...

Dozens of federal air marshals charged with protecting the public from airplane terrorists have themselves been accused of criminal wrongdoing, including 18 who were charged with felonies. The tally comes from an investigation by the investigative journalism group ProPublica. Its story says marshals have been accused of aiding a human trafficking ring, smuggling drugs and money, trying to hire a hitman and trying to smuggle explosives from Afghanistan. "Since 9/11, air marshals have taken bribes, committed bank fraud, hired an escort while on layover and doctored hotel receipts to pad expenses, records show,” the story reports. They have also “used...

<p>An airline crew used duct tape to keep a passenger in her seat because they say she became unruly, fighting flight attendants and grabbing other passengers, forcing the flight to land in North Carolina.</p> <p>Maria Esther Castillo is due in court Thursday, charged with resisting arrest and interfering with the operations of a flight crew aboard United Airlines Flight 645, from Puerto Rico to Chicago.</p>

The great heave forward...  Chinese passengers are forced to get out and push their broken passenger plane   By John Garth  Anyone who has ever used budget airlines know only too well how uncomfortable it can be: long queues, cramped seats and every tiny extra costs you.  But at least they are never told to get out and help push their plane.That is exactly what happened to a group of passengers in China who were asked to get out and push after their plane broke down shortly after landing.      The Chinese Shandong airlines flight CRJ7 arrived safely...

How The West Was Won The rapid and unexpected decline of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq was officially recognized this week, when Maj. Gen. John Kelly, commanding the Marine Expeditionary Force, turned operational control of Anbar Province over to the Iraqi army and police. Anbar, a vast expanse of desert the size of North Carolina, had been the stronghold of the Sunni insurgency. For years, foreign fighters loyal to al-Qaida had sneaked across Iraq's northwestern border with Syria, into Anbar and down a "rat line" of safe houses in Haditha, Ramadi and Hit. From Fallujah, the arch terrorist Zarqawi...

Excerpt - ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - British Airways has suspended its flights to Pakistan because of security fears after a bloody suicide truck-bomb blast at a hotel in Islamabad on the weekend, an airline spokesman said on Monday. ~ snip ~

HOUSTON, Sept. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Continental Airlines (NYSE: CAL) today announced a $15 service fee for the first checked bag for certain customers who purchase economy-class tickets. The service fee will not apply to EliteAccess customers, including those seated in First or BusinessFirst, OnePass Elite and SkyTeam Elite members, customers traveling on full-fare economy (Y) class tickets, or military personnel and their families traveling on official orders. The policy will apply immediately for tickets purchased for destinations within the U.S., and between the U.S. and Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Canada for travel commencing on or after Oct....

Fox says there is an AA plane circling LAX with a blown tire, burning fuel before it attempts an emergency landing.

Mail Online Holiday flight is diverted after mid-air brawl breaks out By Daily Mail Reporter Last updated at 4:07 PM on 15th August 2008 A holiday flight between to Crete had to be diverted after a brawl erupted among drunken passengers, it has been revealed. An eye-witness told how one man began smashing overhead luggage bins before the captain decided to land the plane in Venice. Aoife O'Reilly, 18, a student from Dublin, said the men involved were all over 30 years of age and had obviously been drinking.

On July 20th, Julianna's (delayed) Delta flight landed in Atlanta at 7:30pm, with a connecting flight scheduled for 8:05pm. Julianna, who has muscular dystrophy, missed the connecting flight because nobody came with a wheelchair until 8:05—the same time the connecting flight took off. To make matters worse, the plane crew told Julianna she might make the flight anyway if she stopped waiting for help and got off the plane right now, so she crawled down the stairs on her own. When the wheelchair came she was "wheeled into a back room and advised" that her plane had taken off. But...

The Department of Homeland Security has solicited a proposal from a Canadian security company to develop a stun bracelet. In order to enhance the security of air travel and to help manage illegal immigration, the Department of Homeland Security has solicited a proposal from a Canadian security company to develop a passenger stun bracelet.

My father travels for work every now and again. He’s always complaining about the airlines and getting stuck sitting next to a big guy, that smells and loves to talk. I think he just likes to exaggerate. Then this morning I get up and read this story as I’m downing my cup a joe. Maybe air travel really does suck. (MIAMI - An uninvited passenger created a smelly situation on a plane in Miami. American Airlines Flight 915 from Miami to Bogota, Colombia, was delayed Wednesday night after a skunk was found in the back of the cargo hold, discharging...

Continental Airlines Inc., rumored to be in advanced talks to merge with United Airlines Inc. parent UAL Corp., told its employees Sunday that it has decided not to merge with any other carrier. In a message from chairman and chief executive officer Larry Kellner and president Jeff Smisek, the Houston-based carrier said it has decided that it should go it alone in the troubled airline industry. "We want you to know that our Board of Directors met today and has unanimously supported management's recommendation that, in the current industry environment, the best course for Continental is to not merge with...

It's interesting how asymmetric forces shape industries despite the best planning by corporate strategists. What's going on in the airline industry this week with Delta and NorthWest is just phase one of the Great Airline Consolidation movement. "Together We're Bigger" will not just be a marketing strategy but a survival one. My prediction is that you will see only about three majors, three regionals, and three variations of private aircraft before it's over. The next most obvious merger is United with American. It would give both of them dominance in the Chicago and Dallas routes as well as a strong...

Woman denies the allegations NEW YORK (WABC) -- A woman trying to board a JetBlue flight in New York City is accused of causing a a bomb scare at JFK Airport. The Daily News is reporting the woman, 44-year-old Rosalinda Baez, was trying to board a JetBlue plane but was stopped by an attendant because the jetway had closed. In a complaint filed with the Brooklyn Supreme Court, prosecutors allege that Baez told the attendant her suitcase was on the plane and asked, ""What if I had a bomb in my bag?" Baez, a Dell web consultant, says she asked:...

Even as rising fuel costs are grounding weaker airlines -- including three this month -- airline competition is heating up for travelers flying the Pacific coast. On the runway is JetBlue Airways Corp. with new 100-seat jets that will begin flying next month from Long Beach up and down the coast in a move that financial analysts say may be bold but risky Next month, the low-cost carrier, popular with Southern California leisure travelers, is adding six flights from Long Beach to San Jose, Seattle and Austin, connecting some of the nation's top tech-heavy cities. Long Beach passengers can fly...

Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines this week are expected to announce a long-anticipated merger, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. The merger may to be unveiled as early as Tuesday, The Journal reported, adding that the deal could go through without support of Delta's 6,000 pilots. Delta and its pilots were holding separate talks this weekend on a post-merger contract, while negotiations with Northwest's 5,000 pilots were to be held at a later date, the daily reported. Last week, US authorities gave tentative approval for Delta, Northwest, and four of their international partners to combine their transatlantic routes in...

April 07, 2008 © 2008 WorldNetDaily A group of concerned citizens has been raising alarms about the Islamic elements planned for the Flight 93 Memorial near Shanksville, Pa., for years. And a member of Congress has demanded the National Park Service make changes in its plans. But there's been no substantive response, and now the activists say it's time for the American people to let officials know whether they want to pay for and have installed in the memorial a crescent that points to Mecca to make up a "mihrab," the foundational point for every Islamic mosque, a tower that...

Driving winds and rain ground flights in Houston and Dallas after a massive weather system rolls across Texas. The stranded traveler syndrome was repeated hundreds of times at Bush Intercontinental Airport where airlines reported cancellations and delays of more than six hours. American Airlines diverted some flights from Dallas to Houston to avoid thunderstorms. Travelers weren't pleased with the outcome. "[We] landed in Houston. We taxied around burning fuel for about 15 minutes -- went to to the gate, the hangar refuel [with] still no information whether Dallas was gonna open or not," one woman said. At Dallas-Fort Worth International...

CERGY, France (AFP) — A French prosecutor has called for US airline Continental to be put on trial over the 2000 crash of an Air France Concorde, a court official said. A French inquiry found that the disaster, which killed 113 people, was caused in part by a strip of metal from a Continental plane, which fell off and later shredded one of the Concorde's tyres. A deputy prosecutor in the city of Pontoise, Bernard Farret, said a request was made to bring to trial the airline as well as four individuals, including the Continental mechanic who allegedly fitted...

China fabricated terror plots: Uighur leader by Jitendra Joshi WASHINGTON (AFP) - Exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer Monday accused China of fabricating alleged plots against the Olympics, and even of scheming to carry out its own terror attacks, to blacken her community's name. ADVERTISEMENT "It's completely untrue. All these allegations are falsified," the separatist figurehead, who joined her US-based husband in 2005 after six years in a Chinese jail, told AFP through an interpreter. "The real goal of the Chinese government is to organize a terrorist attack so that it can increase its crackdown on the Uighur people," the 61-year-old...

A major airline is under fire from environmentalists for flying an aircraft across the Atlantic with only five passengers on board. The flight from Chicago to London meant that the plane, a Boeing 777, used 22,000 gallons of fuel. It led to American Airlines being accused of reckless behaviour by green lobby groups. The latest "eco- scandal" flight took place on February 9 after American was forced to cancel one of its four daily services from Chicago to London. While it was able to find places for nearly all the passengers on the fully-booked flight, five still had to be...

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp. apparently won't be rushed into a merger until the carriers' pilots have ironed out their own integration plan, highlighting the importance of successfully negotiating thorny labor issues that have plagued industry mergers in the past. "If you don't have the pilots in, the success of the merger is definitely questionable because you won't get the efficiency you need over time to make the deal worth it," said Henry Harteveldt, analyst with Forrester Research. Pilots, not to mention mechanics and flight attendants, have to be satisfied with their pay...

Rising fuel prices have forced two small but well-known US regional operators out of business permanently. Big Sky Airlines shut down in January after a disastrous eastwards expansion, while Air Midwest faces liquidation later this year. Both operate on thin margins, relying on federal subsidies for rural service to smaller communities. Their demise is also a sign higher operating costs may force more domestic capacity cuts. The demise of Big Sky forces its parent MAIR Holdings into liquidation. MAIR's major ­holding had been Mesaba Aviation, which Northwest Airlines bought last year, leaving it with only small turboprop operator Big Sky...

The real hero of the Heathrow crash landing was revealed yesterday as a man named Coward. Straight after the drama Captain Peter Burkill was praised for safely bringing down his stricken Boeing 777 with 136 passengers on board. But Captain Burkill admitted yesterday that Senior First Officer John Coward was at the controls when the plane suffered a catastrophic power failure in both engines 40 seconds from landing. The initial investigation report confirmed both engines had failed two miles from the airport. "Flying is about teamwork - and we had an outstanding team on board yesterday," said the 43-year-old father...