The airline experience has become miserable

[Captain Wiggles]

12 minutes ago, TradeTheBeal! said:

Hippies are terrible at flying.

 

People are terrible at flying. They're the worst. Each one has to bring at a minimum 4 carry on bags. Why? I have no ****ing clue.

 

Pack all your **** in one bag or here's a fantastic idea. Bring less ****. 

 

Seriously when every flight to the southern US is canceled there's nothing one can do. Oh butt hey feel free to share your genius flight hacks. I'm very much the interested. 😐

[purbeast]

1 hour ago, Captain Wiggles said:

 

How? If my delta flight from Laguardia to Greensboro is canceled due to weather da fuq am I sposta do? They offer like two flights a day to begin with. 

Well you said layover not "my flight got cancelled and i had to sit around waiting for the next flight".

 

A little bit different than what I thought was a regular layover.

[skinsmarydu]

4 hours ago, Captain Wiggles said:

 

Lol the flight may be 5 hours but all the security, layovers, n travel to and from the airport can add another 5 hours easy. 🙃

 

Usta fly from Denver to Dulles regularly. 4 hour flight sure but the total trip time was usually about 12 hours. 

Yep.  It takes 9 hours to drive from ATL to where my family is in VA and I can do what I want along the way.  Flying would be soooo much more stressful and knowing both Hartsfield and Dulles, would likely take longer.  

[purbeast]

21 minutes ago, skinsmarydu said:

Yep.  It takes 9 hours to drive from ATL to where my family is in VA and I can do what I want along the way.  Flying would be soooo much more stressful and knowing both Hartsfield and Dulles, would likely take longer.  

How can you do what you want while you are driving?  

 

My cousin got married in Savannah, GA a few years ago.  Most people drove from MD down to there but my wife and I flew out of Dulles to Savannah.  The flight was like 45 minutes and I got to drink and play video games during that 45 mins.  Definitely can't do that while driving for the 8 or so hours it took people to drive down there.

 

It was waaaaaaaaayyyy less stressful than worrying about driving 8 hours.

[skinsmarydu]

7 minutes ago, purbeast said:

How can you do what you want while you are driving?  

 

My cousin got married in Savannah, GA a few years ago.  Most people drove from MD down to there but my wife and I flew out of Dulles to Savannah.  The flight was like 45 minutes and I got to drink and play video games during that 45 mins.  Definitely can't do that while driving for the 8 or so hours it took people to drive down there.

 

It was waaaaaaaaayyyy less stressful than worrying about driving 8 hours.

I've lived in Savannah and made the drive several times from there too. 

I actually love flying, but there are things I travel with that provide a calming effect, but won't get through security anymore, so there's that. 

[China]

A toxic culture and ‘race to the bottom’: Pilots open up on why air travel is in chaos

 

Canceled flights. Long lines. Staff walkouts. Missing luggage. 

 

Sound familiar? The chaos engulfing many major airports in North America and Europe since summer hasn’t abated much, and news outlets and social media users continue to report on hordes of impatient travelers and mountains of misplaced suitcases.

 

Just this week, German carrier Lufthansa canceled nearly all its flights in Frankfurt and Munich, stranding some 130,000 travelers due to a one-day walkout by its ground staff who were on strike for better pay.  

 

London’s Heathrow Airport and Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport — two of the largest travel hubs in Europe —slashed their passenger capacity and demanded that airlines cut flights in and out of their airports, which angered both travelers and airline managers.

 

Carriers in the U.S. have also canceled and delayed tens of thousands of flights due to staffing shortages and weather issues. 

 

Airlines are vocally laying the blame on airports and governments. On Monday, the chief financial officer of low-cost European carrier Ryanair, Neil Sorahan, complained that airports “had one job to do.”

 

But many of those working in the industry say airlines are partly responsible for staff shortages as well, and the situation is becoming dire enough that it could threaten safety. 

 

CNBC spoke to several pilots flying for major airlines, all of whom described fatigue due to long hours and what they said was opportunism and a desire to cut costs as part of a toxic “race to the bottom” culture pervading the industry and worsening the messy situation that travelers are facing today.

 

All the airline staff spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak to the press.   

 

‘Absolute carnage’
“From a passenger point of view, it’s an absolute nightmare,” a pilot for European low-cost carrier easyJet told CNBC. 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Fergasun]

I hate driving.  So much.  I can't wait until driving is more like flying. 

 

Relaxing...

[China]

On 7/30/2022 at 1:48 PM, China said:

OK, this article is terrible in that it doesn't attempt to explain how or why the person jumped from the plane:

 

Pilot dies after exiting plane midair before emergency landing at RDU

 

A man jumped or fell from a plane Friday afternoon before it crashed at the Raleigh-Durham International Airport for an emergency landing after having trouble with its landing gear.

 

The 23-year-old co-pilot's body was found in the backyard of a Fuquay-Varina resident at around 7 p.m. during search efforts. Charles Hew Crooks did not survive the fall, authorities said.

 

The plane, which is owned by SPORE LTD LLC, is a small 10-person plane. Only two people were on board the plane when it took off and only one person, the pilot, was on the plane when it landed.

 

Crooks, who was not wearing a parachute, was found near Sunset Lake Road and Hilltop Needmore Road in a Fuquay-Varina neighborhood.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

 

“My Copilot Just Ran Out The Back Of The Plane”- Chilling Audio From Aerial Incident Near Fort Bragg

 

A recording of radio calls between an air traffic controller at Raleigh-Durham International Airport and the pilot of a stricken CASA C-212 twin-engine turboprop light cargo plane involved in a fatal incident on July 29 has now emerged online. The pilot can be heard explaining multiple times that his co-pilot got up and jumped out of the back of the aircraft, which was missing a main landing gear wheel and was about to attempt an emergency landing, without a parachute and was likely dead. The clip adds new, if still perplexing details to this already bizarre story, which you can get up to speed on first by reading The War Zone's initial reporting.

 

Publicly available air traffic control audio recordings had previously revealed details about the basic circumstances of the incident. N497CA, which was using the callsign Shady 02 at the time, had lost its right main landing gear wheel during a rough landing or touch-and-go and had diverted to Raleigh-Durham to make an emergency landing. That clip had also confirmed that two individuals were on board after the wheel broke off.

 

The exact circumstances surrounding Crooks' subsequent exit from the plane, which has a rear ramp, remain something of a mystery. In the new air traffic control recording of the conversation between the pilot and Raleigh-Durham's tower, which you can listen to here, both individuals, the remaining pilot and the air traffic controller, sound somewhat in shock.

 

A full transcript of the clip, which is only one minute and 15 seconds long, and appears to come right before the plane made its emergency landing, is as follows:

 

Quote

Pilot (P): "Raleigh Approach, Shady 02."

Raleigh Approach (RA): "Shady 02, Raleigh"

P: "My co-pilot just ran out the back of the plane."

RA: "Shady 02, what now?"

P: "He just ran out the back of the plane."

RA: "So you don't have a co-pilot on you, sir?"

P: "No, he just jumped out the back of the plane."

RA: "Uh, roger."

P: "Would you like me to circle where he leapt at?"

RA: "Uh, say that again?"

P: "Would you like me to circle where he got out at, or you got me on track?"

RA: "We've still got you on track, but did you need something else?"

P: "No, the dude literally jumped out the back of the plane without a parachute."

*Seven seconds of total silence*

RA: "Shady 02, did you need to do something else, circle or something, or-"

P: "No, I need to land. I'm just making you aware you're gonna have a dead body out where I just called you at. He just jumped out the back of the plane."

RA: "Roger, continue on your heading 0-5-0."

P: "Roger, 0-5-0, 0-2."

 

Click on the link for the full article

[BraveWarrior]

On 8/4/2022 at 7:54 AM, purbeast said:

Sounds like you have an irrational fear of flying, which many people have, so it's common, based on your fear of turbulence.  

 

I don't know that it's a real irrational "fear" of flying. I've been on flights where things went very smoothly from a mechanical standpoint, but the experience was still tainted by the experience as a whole. I also understand aerodynamics and the statistics that show airline travel is overwhelmingly safe. But when things aren't going so well, I do tend to focus on the potential negative outcomes of the situation. 

 

Bottom line for me is that my general uneasiness about flying, coupled with the airline experience, makes it something that I choose not to do if it's not necessary. And I really enjoy driving. I have much more control over things, and I just like the feel of getting out on the open road, as the old saying goes. I've gone on many long road trips to places where it would have been much easier to fly, but I didn't regret my decision to drive for any of them (though doing Austin, TX to NJ in 2 two days by myself was pushing it a bit, and it was 15 years ago; I'm sure I would have to take 3 days to do it now).  

[China]

Well this should help ease your fears (not):

 

Southwest Attendant Suffers Broken Back in Hard Landing

 

A Southwest Airlines flight attendant suffered a compression fracture to a vertebra in her upper back during a hard landing last month in California.
 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

 

[China]

Livid over flight cancellations and travel delays? Blame Florida

 

The rash of flight cancellations and delays nationwide have been exacerbated by the difficulties of flying to and from Florida, according to a report.

 

About a third of all flights from every major airline cross Florida airspace but pilots are at the mercy of elements beyond their control — from volatile weather to air traffic that is routinely crowded with military jets and rocket launches — airline officials say.

 

Staffing shortages — at airports and airlines — have also hampered the industry following the lifting of pandemic-related lockdown measures. All together, it creates a perfect storm of travel chaos that has left fliers frustrated.

 

“It’s been a cluster and a half,” Andrew Levy, the CEO of startup Avelo Airlines, told The Wall Street Journal.

 

Levy described the difficulty of expanding into Florida, where delays have at times forced pilots to wait hours on the ground before they are able to take off.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

 

[China]

Incident: Ethiopian B738 at Addis Ababa on Aug 15th 2022, pilots asleep

 

An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800, registration ET-AOB performing flight ET-343 from Khartoum (Sudan) to Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), was enroute at FL370 when the pilots fell asleep. The aircraft continued past the top of descent maintaining FL370 and continued along the FMC route set up for an approach to runway 25L without descending however. ATC tried to contact the crew numerous times without success. After overflying runway 25L at FL370 the autopilot disconnected, the disconnect wailer woke the crew up who then maneouvered the aircraft for a safe landing on runway 25L about 25 minutes after overflying the runway at FL370.
 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Alaska Airlines jet engine cover rips off during emergency landing

 

t started with an "unusual vibration" on the left side of a busy US commercial jet and ended with the plane's engine cover ripping right off during an emergency landing.

The Alaska Airlines flight from Seattle to San Diego, carrying 176 passengers and six crew, was forced to turn back yesterday because its engine cowling had broken free.

Dramatic video posted to social media, purportedly of the plane, showed a large piece of cowling flapping wildly during the flight and then completely tearing off on landing.

 

 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Plane forced to refuel after taxiing New York runway for six hours without flying anywhere

 

A United Airlines flight due to journey from Newark to Denver taxied for so long on a New York runway, it was forced to refuel.

 

The plane stayed on the runway for more than six hours, before returning to the terminal as it “no longer had enough fuel for the whole trip”, a United spokesperson told The Independent.

The flight was initially unable to take-off as planned due to poor weather conditions.

 

New York Times reporter Hiroko Tabuchi shared her experience of the distrastrous flight, which was eventually cancelled, on social media.

 

After the lengthy delay on the tarmac, passengers were told to disembark the plane when it returned to the gate so that it could be refuelled before reboarding, Ms Tabuchi reported.

 

However, once they had deplaned, passengers received an alert on the United app notifying them that the flight had been cancelled – but were then told by staff at Newark to reboard.

 

Cabin crew and pilots were left just as confused as passengers when Ms Tabuchi showed them the alert she had received from the airline, she claimed.

 

Despite the mixed messages, passengers were finally seated on the plane and ready for takeoff once again. However, they were met with further delays and remained on the tarmac for another two hours.

 

“Oh my god, after 8.5 hours on the tarmac at Newark, and disembarking/reembarking/refueling the plane, the flight is a no-go,” tweeted Ms Tabuchi.

 

“We are heading back to the gate a final time. This time, it’s the crew – they’ve clocked out. ‘I’ve run out of apologies,’ the pilot just told us.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

 

Look at them prices. 👀

[China]

1 hour ago, Cooked Crack said:

 

Look at them prices. 👀

 

Way back when you could walk on the plane and pay for your ticket on the plane in cash.  If you've ever watched the movie The Parallax View, Warren Beatty does it in that movie.

 

Here's an ad that also talks about it:

 

 

[China]

Notice the name of the store in the background:

 

 

[China]

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

[China]

‘Quit sending naked pictures’: Pilot says he’ll turn plane around after passenger AirDrops nudes

 

A viral video shows a Southwest Airlines pilot telling passengers that if they continue to AirDrop nude photos to each other, he will have to deplane them and get security involved.

 

Teighlor Marsalis captured the Southwest Airlines pilot’s announcement in a TikTok posted on Thursday. In the video, the pilot says that if passengers continue to AirDrop nude photos to other passengers while the plane is on the ground, he will “have to pull back into the gate, everybody’s going to have to get off. We’re going to have to get security involved.”

 

“Vacation is going to be ruined,” the pilot says over the plane’s intercom. “Whatever that AirDrop thing is, quit sending naked pictures, and let’s get yourselves to Cabo.”

 

In the video’s caption, Marsalis wrote that Southwest “takes airdropping nudes very seriously.” On Monday, her video had almost 2 million views.

 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

The Humiliating History of the TSA

 

all the time. So when Jai Cooper heard sobbing from the back of the security line, it didn’t really faze her. As an officer of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), she had gotten used to the strange behavior of passengers. Her job was to check people’s travel documents, not their emotional well-being.

 

But this particular group of tearful passengers presented her with a problem. One of them was in a wheelchair, bent over with her head between her knees, completely unresponsive. “Is she okay? Can she sit up?” Cooper asked, taking their boarding passes and IDs to check. “I need to see her face to identify her.”

 

“She can’t, she can’t, she can’t,” said the passenger who was pushing the wheelchair.

 

Soon, Cooper was joined at her station by a supervisor, followed by an assortment of EMTs and airport police officers. The passenger was dead. She and her family had arrived several hours prior, per the airport’s guidance for international flights, but she died sometime after check-in. Since they had her boarding pass in hand, the distraught family figured that they would still try to get her on the flight. Better that than leave her in a foreign country’s medical system, they figured. 

 

The family might not have known it, but they had run into one of air travel’s many gray areas. Without a formal death certificate, the passenger could not be considered legally dead. And US law obligates airlines to accommodate their ticketed and checked-in passengers, even if they have “a physical or mental impairment that, on a permanent or temporary basis, substantially limits one or more major life activities.” In short: she could still fly. But not before her body got checked for contraband, weapons, or explosives. And since the TSA’s body scanners can only be used on people who can stand up, the corpse would have to be manually patted down.

 

“We’re just following TSA protocol,” Cooper explained.

 

Her colleagues checked the corpse according to the official pat-down process. With gloves on, they ran the palms of their hands over the collar, the abdomen, the inside of the waistband, and the lower legs. Then, they checked the body’s “sensitive areas” — the breasts, inner thighs, and buttocks — with “sufficient pressure to ensure detection.” 

 

Only then was the corpse cleared to proceed into the secure part of the terminal. 

 

Not even death can exempt you from TSA screening.

 

Click on the link for more

[China]

Summer air travel hell could give way to an 'optimal' fall travel window

 

Summer air travel has been trying, to put it mildly. Hellacious, many travelers would say.

About 55,000 flights have been canceled in the US since the Friday before Memorial Day, according to data from flight tracking site FlightAware, and nearly a quarter of US flights have been delayed this summer.

A "huge problem with staffing shortages" has plagued air travel this season and all of 2022 so far, said Kathleen Bangs, a former airline pilot and a spokesperson for FlightAware.

Bangs is inclined to give the airlines the benefit of the doubt in their efforts to ramp up pre-pandemic flight schedules with 2022 staffing challenges.

"I think they truly thought they would have enough employees return, and hire enough new ones, to meet the demand, but as we've all seen, they did not," Bangs said.

Weather and air traffic controller staffing issues have added to the summer disruptions.

But some industry experts were cautiously optimistic about air travel this Labor Day holiday weekend, with predictions for a smoother fall and some better fares for travel in September and October.

 

Scott Keyes, the founder of flight deals and travel advice site Scott's Cheap Flights, told CNN Travel recently that he expected less chaos over Labor Day.

"Looking back on the summer, you've had a couple of big holiday travel periods. You had Memorial Day when air travel went terribly. ... And then you had July Fourth weekend, when there was minimal travel disruption," Keyes said.

He predicted that Labor Day weekend would be closer to July Fourth. He anticipated fewer air travelers than Memorial Day, translating to less strain on the system and lower chances of a domino effect if weather or staffing were less than ideal.

According to travel app Hopper, 12.6 million passengers were scheduled to fly from US airports over the holiday weekend. Hopper predicted that Thursday and Friday would be the busiest days, with more crowds on Monday as travelers head home.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Drunk Man on Plane Gives Epic Homophobic Rant, Pays the Price

 

A highly intoxicated man who used anti-gay slurs and racist language in the cabin of a passenger jet was booted off a scheduled flight on Tuesday. Viral video first posted to TMZ shows the man roaming the aisle and searching overhead bins for his luggage as crew and airport security personnel wait to escort him off the plane, which was due to fly from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Dallas, Texas.

 

The video opens showing the man arguing with a flight attendant and calling the passengers “f*gg*ts. Flight attendants can be seen continuously prompting the man to locate his bag so he can be escorted from the plane.

 

“It’s a f*cking Foley, a Swedish-made bag,” the intoxicated man said loudly, and he later in the video described the luggage as a “better bag than most y’all can afford.” 

The man also sarcastically claimed he was a racist due to the color of his luggage.

 

“Yeah obviously I’m a white guy who picked a black bag I’m a racist,” he can be heard saying to the flight attendant and the rest of the passengers.

 

When told he was being kicked off the plane, he demanded to know if the airline intended to “compliment him another flight.”

 

He also expressed the hope that the plane, filled with “liberal f*cking f*gg*ts” as he described them, would crash mid-flight.

 

When the man identified himself as a chemical engineer who works at Glaxo Smith Kline, several passengers can be heard saying “not anymore” in near unison. The drunk man also challenged passengers to contact the company, saying he was quitting the next week.

 

When contacted by TMZ, Glaxo Smith Kline released a statement saying the man was no longer an employee of the company.

 

Click on the link for the full article and video