Clearing the Bar Is the Easy Part: [NYTimes] "Mark Hollis is a pole-vaulter, and while he and his competitors here feel significant pressure as they compete for a place on the Olympic team, the anxiety they experience just trying to get their equipment to meets is sometimes even more excruciating."
posted by Fizz
on Jun 23, 2012 -
35 comments
Imagine this: you live in a fairly remote place and need emergency eye surgery to save your sight that very same day. you get onto a plane but mid-trip
your flight gets cancelled because of a technical problem. flying with most airlines we know would mean you'd miss your surgery and be in a pretty tough spot.
but not when you're flying SAS. instead of leaving you stranded with a voucher, the airline found a replacement aircraft at another airport,
flew it over to the passenger and got her to her surgery on time (
original article). there is a lot going wrong in the airline industry these days but in my book that's pretty awesome.
posted by krautland
on Apr 12, 2011 -
76 comments
Crew on a
British Airways flight from London to Hong Kong
accidentally trigger a message to the cabin that "This is an emergency. We may shortly need to make an emergency landing on water." The pilot then had to get on the PA and calm everyone's nerves. This probably caused even more panic than the famous message on
BA Flight 9 in 1982, when the caption announced "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them under control. I trust you are not in too much distress."
posted by kaszeta
on Aug 27, 2010 -
51 comments
Known as
Black Box in the UK,
Survival in the Sky was a four-episode 1996 series about commercial aviation accidents and the investigation of their causes. (Two additional episodes were filmed in 1998.) Not currently available on DVD, five of the six episodes are available in their entirety on YouTube (links within).
[more inside]
posted by maxwelton
on Jan 17, 2009 -
12 comments
Mark takes us on the A380 (warning: image heavy) from Dubai to New York with meticulous photographic detail. For $7300 you can fly the
A380 with access to amenities like
showers and a full-service
bar, and stroll down to see the plebs in
steerage. Arguably the last time a flying hotel was tried in earnest was the post-WWII Boeing 377
Stratocruiser, a staple of Pacific routes until jet-powered 707s appeared on the scene.
posted by crapmatic
on Nov 20, 2008 -
90 comments
On Nov 22, 1968, exactly 39 years ago, on a reasonably clear, uneventful day, a new
JAL DC-8 descended toward the SFO airport. The landing was so well executed that no one was hurt when the pilot landed the plane
into the San Francisco Bay, several miles from the airport. What explanation did 15 year veteran pilot Captain Kohei Asoh give for his botched landing? It was so unusual (especially in this day and age), so refreshingly honest, that it came to be known as the
Asoh Defense. Amazingly, the plane was
recovered, refurbished, and was in service for another 35 years.
posted by eye of newt
on Nov 22, 2007 -
50 comments
Remember when air travel was viewed as glamorous and exciting? Of course you don't. So check out this collection of vintage flight attendant photos:
Part 1,
Part 2,
Part 3
posted by brain_drain
on Nov 13, 2007 -
37 comments
Kissing is terrorist behavior now? From the article: 'Shortly after takeoff, Varnier nodded off, leaning his head on Tsikhiseli. A stewardess came over to their row. “The purser wants you to stop that,” she said...The captain told Tsikhiseli that if they didn’t stop arguing with the crew he would divert the plane.'
posted by Poagao
on Sep 20, 2006 -
166 comments
Raed Jarrar was coming home from Jordan wearing a T-shirt with the phrase "We will not be silent" in Arabic script and English. Other JetBlue passengers who could not read the Arabic were "offended" and
she was apprehended by security and asked to replace it. She also had her seat changed to the back of the plane. Variations on T-shirt airline censorship have
happened before, but, taken to extremes, the fear of foreign language has
spawned some unpleasant nights. Where is the line drawn? And where is the path to multicultural reconciliation?
posted by ed
on Aug 21, 2006 -
70 comments
Upstart travel sites challenge the big three Catering to skinflints who can't be bothered to check multiple sites for the best fares, travel aggregator sites like
Mobissimo,
CheapFlights,
Qixo, or
Sidestep allow you to search
Expedia,
Orbitz, and
Travelocity with a single query, as well as bargain airlines like
JetBlue and
Southwest, which aren't covered by the big three. (note: Sidestep requires a download, and only works on Windows; the others are all just regular websites.) But maybe you'd be best off just heading straight to
an obscure Belgian travel site.
posted by yankeefog
on Dec 13, 2004 -
13 comments
A Boeing 727
went missing from Angola on May 25. Some people made immediate,
predictable noises about "terrorists", despite the fact that things are a lot less settled in Africa (from a paperwork and regulatory point of view). It was
spotted with a new paint job on June 28 in Conakry, the capital of Guinea. But, now it's gone again and nobody knows where it is.
posted by Irontom
on Aug 6, 2003 -
8 comments
Hooters Air Inc. With all of the discussion about airlines going bankrupt and our economy in jeopardy, some people are surely thinking ahead.
If it'll be 'Hooters Girls' flight attendants, it's too early," Cattell said. But she didn't dismiss the idea.
posted by aaronchristy
on Aug 15, 2002 -
16 comments
US Airways Bankrupt. It had to happen to one of the big airlines eventually, what with 9/11 and the hesitancy to fly following. But on top of everything else financially as of late... it just deepens that already sick feeling. Who's next?
posted by dopamine
on Aug 11, 2002 -
17 comments
you worry me This American Airlines pilot hits the nail on the head for me! Thus far the Muslim voices I hear in America--and they are precious few--always seem to get half way through condemniong this or that and then insert a "BUT" or "HOWEVER." This guy asks for a simple, straight-forward response.
posted by Postroad
on Jul 3, 2002 -
105 comments
Ever wonder if the airplane food sucks everywhere? Find out at
Airplane Meals, or add to this vastly underrepresented body of knowledge by sending him a pic of your next mile-high snack.
posted by Su
on May 20, 2002 -
12 comments
"Writer William Langewiesche, a pilot in his own right,
explains why a jet packed with 217 passengers plunged 33,000 feet into the Atlantic Ocean in the dead of night--and why it took so long for the U.S. and Egyptian governments to issue an explanation. Using
black-box transcripts and radar records, Langewiesche
meticulously reconstructs the last minutes of the so-called
suicide flight. In a feat of storytelling, he reveals the nasty
combination of politics and culture clashes that delayed the
official investigation."
posted by semmi
on May 3, 2002 -
25 comments
