Just as two flaked-out flyboys were getting their licenses yanked by the Federal Aviation Administration earlier this week, an unusual confab was taking place in a hangar at Newark Airport: the chief executives of 25 of the world’s top airlines were lining up to welcome Continental Airlines into their fold, the Star Alliance.
October 2009 Archives
NORDO: that’s the aviation acronym of the week. It means “no radio communications” and the circumstances that would render a flight NORDO for a full 75 minutes-like Northwest flight 188 was this week-range from just dumb (pilots napping) to terrifying (a hijacking, which controllers tracking Flight 188 were convinced was the likeliest scenario).
If it sticks, United Airlines' new premier baggage plan could lead to whole new onslaught of creative fees upon fees. And if you think the current system is maddeningly complex, watch out.
You can do it on Emirates. You can do it on British Air (well one plane, anyway). And as we learned this week you’ll be able to do it on all Lufthansa’s long-distance flights. The ‘it’ is use your phone-and increasingly, the taboo against cell calls aloft is coming down-at least overseas.
Captain Sully's back in the air this week--the airwaves, that is. His ballyhooed 'reunion' flight with Hudson Miracle copilot Jeff Skiles, for now, remains a rare excursion into the cockpit for the celebrated pilot.
Next time you fork over $7 for the privilege of sipping a flacon of cheap swill at 35,000 feet, forget about feeling ripped off over the 300% (or more) mark-up. Imagine what it would be like if liquor were removed from planes entirely.
Don't expect Capt. Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger and First Officer Jeff Skiles, heroes of US Airways Flight 1549, to fly much in the future. It's all part of a crisiz looming in the pilot profession
I spot Capt. Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger (right) and First Officer Jeff Skiles outside a food court at Charlotte Douglas International. Overheard on the jetway: "Oh no! I don't want to land in the Hudson!"
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