Free Republic

As the holiday weekend draws to a close, it has been anything but merry for tens of thousands of stranded airline passengers who had their flight canceled due to a flare-up of the omicron variant that resulted in staffing shortages of pilots and crew for several major airline carriers. Data tracker FlightAware.com shows US flight cancellations exceeded 2,400 in just the past 48 hours.The situation has yet to ease on Sunday as total cancellations within, into, or out of the U.S. topped 754 flights as of 1300 ET. On Christmas day, U.S. cancellations topped nearly 1,000. Henry Harteveldt, president of...

Are >100 dead US airline pilots trying to send us a message about vaccine safety?A list deaths published in the Air Line Pilot Association magazine shows that most of the deaths in 2021 happened after the vaccines rolled out. Are dead pilots trying to tell us something? Yesterday, I received the following text message referring to an article in the Air Line Pilot Association (ALPA) magazine:OK, so at first glance, that looks pretty incriminating, doesn’t it? Especially the huge number of deaths in July (39) as compared to a pre-jab month like January (1) or March (1).Note that you can’t...

Army Flight Surgeon Who Urged Pentagon To Ground Vaccinated Pilots Testifies to Senate Panel.. U.S. Army Brigade Surgeon says "in one morning I had to ground 3 out of 3 pilots due to vaccine injuries" at a panel discussion hosted by U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson. An Army flight surgeon who recommended in September the Pentagon ground all pilots who took the COVID-19 shot testified before a Senate panel on Tuesday. During her testimony to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.), Lieutenant Colonel Theresa Long described how she had to ground three pilots for COVID vaccine injuries. “I saw 5 patients in clinic,...

The CEO of United Airlines has warned flight prices are about to spike as the busy holiday travel season looms — and surging jet fuel prices are to blame. Jet fuel prices are climbing to levels not seen before COVID-19 hit and those costs would likely have to be passed along to passengers, United’s Scott Kirby told CNBC on Wednesday. “Higher jet fuel prices lead to higher ticket prices,” Kirby said. “Ultimately, we’ll pass that through.”

British Airways operated its first-ever carbon-neutral flight powered by recycled cooking oil this week, a major step in the airline’s goal to reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050. The plane traveled from London Heathrow to Glasgow Airport on Tuesday and was powered directly by sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) provided by British multinational gas giant BP, according to a British Airways press release. The flight’s SAF was blended at 35 percent with traditional jet fuel “in accordance with technical aviation specifications,” according to British Airways.

Flight attendants have once again resorted to duct tape to restrain an unruly passenger — this time tying down a 13-year-old boy on an American Airlines flight as another family member punched a window, according to the airline. The teen threw a tantrum and fought with his mother aboard an American Airlines flight from Maui to Los Angeles on Tuesday, CBS Los Angeles reported. The boy acted up on the Airbus A321 about an hour into the flight, which took off at 12:44 p.m., according to the outlet and flight-tracking sites. Video posted by the station shows masked passengers helping...

This COVID-infected flyer is a total drag! An Indonesian man with the coronavirus disguised himself as his virus-free wife to board a commercial flight in the country, according to officials who arrested him. The traveler, identified only as “DW,” allegedly wore a niqab covering his face as he flashed his better half’s identification card to slip on the recent Citilink flight from Jakarta to Ternate, according to CNN Indonesia. The cross-dressing flyer allegedly also showed officials his spouse’s negative test results while claiming to be her, according to the outlet, which didn’t report when the incident happened.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg trolled for a free trip to space Tuesday before lamenting such a venture was not “in my budget.” As Amazon king Jeff Bezos’s space organ, dubbed New Shepard, lasted 10 minutes away from Earth, Buttigieg told the Economic Club of Washington, DC, virtually, “I would go up in a heartbeat. I think it’s such exciting stuff,” the AP reported.

TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, N.M.—Richard Branson is scheduled to travel to the edge of space Sunday in a flight aimed at spurring a new, multibillion-dollar space-tourism industry. The flight, originally scheduled for 9 a.m. ET, was delayed 90 minutes on Sunday because of weather overnight at the launch facility in New Mexico. The launch is now scheduled for 10:30 a.m. ET. At that time, a highflying Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. airplane is expected to take off from the Spaceport America facility near Truth or Consequences. The plane, called the VMS Eve, will carry the spacecraft VSS Unity, which will include Mr....

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter is preparing to explore a new region of the Red Planet today on its fifth scheduled flight (3:26 p.m. EDT, or 12:26 p.m. PDT), with flight data coming in around 7:31 p.m. EDT (4:31 p.m. PDT).  Off to new places! The #MarsHelicopter is slated for its fifth flight on May 7, with data coming down at 4:31pm PT (7:31pm ET). The rotorcraft will take off at Wright Brothers Field and will land elsewhere this time, which is another first for Ingenuity. https://t.co/JxLNz7UADw pic.twitter.com/zOGo1j7srt — NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) May 6, 2021 If all goes well, the...

STATUS UPDATES | April 12, 2021Work Progresses Toward Ingenuity’s First Flight on Mars Written by NASA/JPL NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter unlocked its rotor blades, allowing them to spin freely, on April 7, 2021, the 47th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. Download image ›The Ingenuity team has identified a software solution for the command sequence issue identified on Sol 49 (April 9) during a planned high-speed spin-up test of the helicopter’s rotors. Over the weekend, the team considered and tested multiple potential solutions to this issue, concluding that minor modification and reinstallation of Ingenuity’s flight control software is...

For hundreds of years, people have looked up at the hazy peaks of California's Santa Lucia Mountains at sunset and seen tall, cloaked figures staring back. Then, within moments, the eerie silhouettes disappear. These twilight apparitions are known as the Dark Watchers — shady, sometimes 10-foot-tall (3 meters) men bedecked in sinister hats and capes. One famous observer who felt the presence of the Watchers was the American author John Steinbeck. In his 1938 short story "Flight," a character sees a black figure leering down at him from a nearby ridgetop, "but he looked quickly away, for it was one...

Flight attendants in China are being advised to wear diapers in order to ward off COVID-19 infections — by helping them avoid the plane bathroom, according to new airline guidelines. The disposable undergarments and other personal protective equipment — masks, goggles, shoe covers — are on a list of recommendations for flight crew on flights to and from high-risk countries, CNN reported.

The couple, from Wailua, Kauai, was arrested Sunday on suspicion of reckless endangerment after getting on a flight traveling from San Francisco to Lihue. Kauai police said the man and woman, both age 46, knew they had tested positive for the virus and placed other passengers on the flight in “danger of death.”

An alarming flight map shows the staggering number of flights over the United States two days ahead of Thanksgiving — despite officials urging Americans not to travel for the holiday amid surging coronavirus cases. FlightRadar24, which tracks flight paths in real-time, reported 6,972 flights in the skies above North America as of noon Tuesday — fewer than the 7,630 flights on the same day in 2019 but more than the 6,815 flights on the same day in 2018.

Jerusalem (AFP) — An Israeli-American delegation will fly on the first commercial flight from Israel to the United Arab Emirates on Monday after a landmark deal between the countries, officials said Friday. “An official Israeli delegation will go to Abu Dhabi on a direct El Al flight for the first time ever,” a spokesman for Israel’s national carrier said, noting the flight from Tel Aviv was set for Monday. Jared Kushner, top aide and son-in-law to US President Donald Trump, has confirmed he will be on the flight, alongside National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien.

The Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Aviation Administration have issued a temporary flight restriction over the City of Portland for unmanned aircraft systems, such as drones, according to the Federal Aviation Administration’s website. That means personal drones cannot be flown within city limits. Administration officials said the restriction is for special security reasons, but they did not elaborate on those reasons. The restriction began July 16 and will end Aug. 16. The restriction is for aircraft systems that fly at or below 1,000 feet. Commercial airplanes and any manned aircrafts are not affected by the restriction. Kama Simonds,...

The United States is banning all Chinese flights to and from America as retaliation for China failing to let U.S. carriers freely conduct operations. President Donald Trump’s administration said seven China-based airlines, including Air China Limited and Xiamen Airlines, will not be able to fly to or from the United States. An order from the U.S. Department of Transportation said it was “responding to the failure of” China “to permit U.S. carriers to exercise the full extent of their bilateral right to conduct scheduled passenger air services to and from China.” As a result of that failure, the United States “is...

Gov. J.B. Pritzker defended his decision Wednesday to arrange for two charter flights to transport millions of masks and gloves from China to Illinois to bolster the state's limited supply of personal protective equipment as it responds to the COVID-19 pandemic. The flights, which cost about $1.7 million, were listed in a new state comptroller portal that tracks state spending on the public health crisis. Details of the fights are being kept secret out of fear President Donald Trump's administration might seize the cargo, Pritzker said. “It is true that the federal government seems to be interrupting supplies that are...

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. — When Panama City Beach resident, Jeff Elkins, was a kid, he says he knew one thing for sure. “I knew there would be flying cars by the year 2000,” he said in an interview. The year 2000 came and went without flying cars, so, Elkins took matters into his own hands. With screws and sheet metal, propellers and joysticks, he created an early version of the “Air-board.”