Incident of the week #15

Sometimes it only takes one passenger to say something wrong and make an aircraft divert and land to the same place where it just took off. A lovely 35-minutes flight that ends in jail.

This happened this week to a PIA flight from Karachi to Bahawalpur (Pakistan). Everything was alright, until a passenger decided to discuss with a flight attendant shortly after departure. When the discussion started to escalate, the passenger used the magical words that will always make a pilot abort the flight and immediately land, no matter what: he stated he could hijack the aircraft. To comply with the safety procedure, the flight attendant immediately informed the captain who decided to  return to Karachi, landing there just 35 minutes after taking-off. The aircraft taxied to a remote taxiway, where police were already waiting. The passenger was arrested and later on told the police he was just joking. A security search was made after every single passenger had to disembark the aircraft, and as no suspicious items were found, the aircraft proceeded its way to Bahawalpur, but with a delay of 3 hours and one less passenger on board.

Because he "just" wanted to test it..

.. a 64 year-old passenger decided to activate the escape slide of a Boeing 757-300 emergency exit before departing from Stuttgart (Germany) as the cabin crew were performing the safety demonstration (at least someone´s paying attention, right?!). Thus, 234 passengers and 8 crew had to leave the plane and fly to Egypt with a replacement aircraft. The whole action caused a 5-hour delay and the passenger is now facing a 5-digit bill for the cost he has caused to the airline.

OMG!!

So, 4 hours into the flight, as I was gossiping with my captain in the galley (before you ask what a captain is doing outside the deck - he was just stretching his legs and waiting for the lavatory to become vacant), a very old and quite over weighted lady comes out the lavatory with some tears rolling down her face.

I immediately asked what was wrong. And then she started to tell about her cousin, who just had some kind of a stroke, and that she was so sad, and she´s so old and doesn´t know how to cop with it, and so on, so on.. I tried to comfort her and changed the subject. I told her she should just enjoy her holidays and not think much about her problems back home, I asked how long she was staying on the island, what she was up to, etc..

Then she says something about just turning 85 years-old. To make her feel happy I over-reacted saying:

-"Wow!! No way you´re 85.. How do you do that, you gotta tell me your secret!"

I was expecting her to tell me stuff like eating healthy, consuming no alcohol, being sporty... But what she replied, made my jaw fell off:

-"Did you notice my man? He´s sitting by the window just next to me".

I kinda nudged, but I had no idea who her man was. And she realised that. So she opened the galley curtain and pointed. Then left with a big smile.

And there he was, sitting at 4A. Me and the captain, had our heads sticking out the curtain, looked at the man, then looked at each other. Then looked again at 4A. And looked again at each other. The face expression my captain was doing must have been the same as mine. We were so chocked and were giggling so hard we had to run inside the cockpit.

The man sitting at 4A, was a very good looking young man, who was certainly in his mid-30´s, with an ebony ton colour and long dreadlocks. Her lover-boy.

Incident of the week #14

Sometimes, while birds are peacefully flying through the skies, a jet decides to cross their way and all the fun is over (well, at least for the small birdies, ´cause for the "big birdie" fun has just begun..)

This happened this week to a Delta Airlines Boeing 757 who was flying from New York to Los Angeles. Just a few seconds after take-off the flight crew aborted climbing due to a bird strike. After levelling at 1500 feet, the crew shut the right engine down and returned to New York for a safe landing, about 10 minutes after departure. After landing, the aircraft vacated the runway and stopped on the adjacent taxiway to have the engine checked which proved to be in a condition where an emergency evacuation wasn´t necessary. A replacement Boeing was needed and everyone arrived in Los Angeles with a 4-hour delay.

In this video, made by a passenger on that flight (naughty, naughty.. using an electronic device during take-off) you can clearly see a flock of birds on the right hand side. Astonishing are also the very loud bangs you hear due to the engine "blowing". Imagine yourself at the overwing-exit, hearing the uttering strong whangs. And if that wasn´t enough, seeing the several streaks of flames coming out from the engine until it was shut down. Not fun.

Have I missed something..

.. and no one told me we were having a live show of "Cirque du Soleil" performing on the hallway during the whole flight today???!! ´Cause It´s been a long time since I saw so much action and crazy entertaining passengers onboard!!

Princess Juliana International Airport

Maho Beach, on the Dutch Caribbean island of St. Maarten, is famous for its close proximity to Princess Juliana International Airport.

Because of the short runway (2,180 meters / 7.152 feet), aircraft have to touch down as close as possible to the beginning of the track to ensure a safe landing.

The beach is such a popular location for plane-spotters, that most bars and restaurants there have daily deprture and arrival boards.

Just came home from a flight..

.. it´s way too late and I have already set my alarm for tomorrow morning. But I have to write this down, so I can put my frustration away. Because today I felt sad. Sad and disappointed about mankind.

It all started in Rome, where we left with a short delay (what a surprise Italy...). That gave us a very short and stressful turnaround at out destination. When boarding began, a woman, who was traveling alone with her two sons (about 4 and 8 years old), came to me and asked if they could seat together. We were fully booked and, as she probably checked-in too late, they were all spread out: 3E, 8E and 14F. I politely explained her the situation and told her that as soon as everybody was on board, I would do my best to get a row for her.

And so I did. 3E and 3F were now free as I successfully managed to relocate those passengers. I sat the two kids down. Their mom was now seating at 4D. So I went to 3D and politely asked if he could move to the seat behind him, so the children could have their mother next to them. The answer he gave chocked me.

He said he would not change his seat because he was in a hurry and wanted to leave the aircraft as soon as possible. Now mind you, we did a very quick turnaround and were totally on time (later then, we even arrived ahead of schedule) and I was only asking him to seat one row, one single row behind the one he was now. I insisted again (because I really wasn´t getting his point) and then he said:

-"Stop bothering me now, I will not change my seat. And the mother is seating behind the kids, so I don´t get the problem".

You butthole, if you don´t get the problem seating just one row behind or ahead, then why the heck won´t you do that. He saw how I struggled the whole time trying to find a solution relocating passengers, it wasn´t fucking easy.

I never, ever discuss with a passenger, but this was just insane. We kept going on, because now I really just wanted to understand why. I was honestly flabbergasted. As we were going nowhere, the mother stopped me, thanked for my effort and said I should just leave it.

Even when I´m mad, I can put things away and act as they wouldn´t bother me. So when he asked me for a sparkling water during service, I could have just handed it to him  and go on. But no. I did what I always do when someone asks for sparkling water; I asked if he wanted a slice of lemon on it. And, as I do with everyone else, I asked if he wanted something else, perhaps a cup of coffee or a cuppa. I was polite, I smiled, I was considerate, even though I was dealing with a fucking idiot.

When the guy left the aircraft, I said "Goodbye". He despised me and didn´t even said a word. Even though that hurt, I was ok with that.

I don´t know how that man is sleeping tonight. How he doesn´t have a bad conscience for being the man he is. Because today he left a little 4-year old boy, that is sick with cancer, fly without his mother next to him.

One row. One single row..

Incident of the week #13

Sometimes an incident happens outside an aircraft. Ahm.... and outside an airport, and has no implications whatsoever with the passengers, crew or the actual aircraft.

This happened this week to a girl on a beach who, well, let´s put it this way, went airborne herself. The airport on one of the Caribbean's smallest islands, St Martin, backs directly on to a beach where some adventurous thrill seeking tourists hang on to a fence as jets take off.
However, in this case the girl was thrown headfirst into a concrete wall by the powerful engines of a plane. She suffered a deep gash in her head and another teen reportedly wound up with a broken leg.

Warning signs are clearly visible along the fence, but were obviously once again ignored. When bystanders at Malo Beach reached the girl she was fortunately still conscious.
The island is notorious for an extremely short runway next to the beach which incoming and outgoing planes skim just over the heads of sunbathers.

Here´s the video - jeez, ouch! it looks like it freakin´ hurt:

p.s for all the beach lovers: not such a good idea to blow-dry your locks with a jet, ei?!

Safety demonstration and men..

Sometimes I get a feeling the only word that any guy on the flight hears of the safety demonstration is "blow"..

You know you work for an airline when..

.. after waking up, you go to the grocery store to do some shopping and only then you realise it´s closed... Either it´s sunday or a holiday!

Incident of the week #12

Sometimes a flight tragically ends after only 40 seconds..

This happened this week on an UTAir ATR-72 flight from Tyumen to Surgut (Russia) with 39 passengers and 4 crew. After take-off, the aircraft had just climbed to a maximum altitude of 210 meters (688 feet), when it suddenly banked 35 degrees to the right, followed by a bank to the left, that reached more than 50 degrees at impact with the ground, first with the left wing followed by the left engine, breaking the aircraft into three parts - the plane crashed into snow covered ground and burst into flames just about 2,5 km (1,6 miles) from the runway. All 4 crew and 27 passengers died on the crash. 12 passengers survived and were taken to an hospital by helicopter, where three of them are still in critical conditions. An investigation has now been open. Both cockpit and flight data recorders were successfully recovered. The MAK (Russia´s Interstate Aviation Investigation) reported the black boxes have been successfully read out and first analysis showed that both engines were working until impact with the ground.

What´s now also known is that that due to environmental conditions the aircraft was to be de-iced before departure, ground staff however did not perform de-icing and the flight crew did not insist on de-icing being done to the aircraft.
Another factor that might have contributed for this incident, was the probably lack of experience from the flight crew - mind you: the captain was only 27 years old (with only 2,500 flight hours) and his first officer had just came out from flight school.
Nevertheless, I hope the investigation will be properly carried out in order to find out what really happened so we can all learn something about this tragedy that took so many lives away. And also hope that all the 12 survivors will recover soon.

I thought it was an April fool´s joke - but I was wrong..

.. and this is for real.

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has advised cabin crew to watch their weight – in a bid to save on rising fuel costs, with the motivation of appearing in the annual Ryanair calender. The controversial airline chief has also reduced the size of his in-flight magazine, cut the amount of ice served with drinks, and considered removing armrests.
The budget airline is also in favour of a fat-tax on heavier passengers who would be asked to pay more for their seats.
As fuel prices rise dramatically, the airline has admitted it is taking extraordinary measures to save costs.

I'm the type of girl who turns her head toward the sky every time she hears an airplane. Fascination, passion and enthusiasm fuels my love for aviation.

Incident of the week #11

Sometimes the crazy one in the nut shell ain´t the passenger - but the pilot.

This happened this week on a Jetblue flight from New York to Las Vegas (USA). Clayton O., the captain working JetBlue Flight 191, arrived at JFK later than he should have for the flight, and missed the crew briefing. As the plane was leaving JFK and climbing in altitude in its scheduled five-hour flight, the captain said something to the first officer about being evaluated by someone, but the first officer did not know what he meant. The captain then talked about his church and the need to "focus" and asked the first officer to take the controls and work the radios.
The captain began talking about religion, but according to the first officer, his statements were not coherent. He also said "things just don´t matter" wich made the first officer become concerned. The captain then yelled over the radio to air traffic control and instructed them to be quiet. After that, he turned off the radios in the aircraft, dimmed his monitors, and sternly admonished the first officer for trying to talk on the radio. When the captain said "we need to take a leap of faith", the first officer stated that he became very worried. The captain told him that "we´re not going to Vegas" and began giving what the first officer described as a sermon.
The first officer then suggested they invite the off-duty JetBlue captain who was on board the flight into the cockpit. However, the captain abruptly left the cockpit to go to the forward lavatory. That alarmed the rest of the flight crew, because he didn´t follow the company´s protocol for leaving the cockpit. When flight attendants met the captain and asked him what was wrong, he became aggressive and banged on the door of the occupied lavatory, saying he needed to get inside. While the captain was in the lavatory, at the request of the first officer, a flight attendant brought the off-duty captain to the cockpit, where he assisted the first officer with the remainder of the flight. When the captain exited the lavatory, he began talking to flight attendants, mentioning "150 souls on board". He walked to the rear of the aircraft but along the way stopped and asked a male passenger if he had a problem. The captain than sprinted back to the forward galley and tried to enter his code to re-enter the cockpit. Although, with no success, as the first officer had changed the code, locking him out. When the first officer announced over the public address system an order to restrain the captain, several passengers assisted and brought the captain down in the forward galley (as you can perfectly see in the video), where he continued to yell comments about Jesus, September 11, Iraq, Iran, and terrorists.
The first officer declared an emergency and diverted the aircraft to Amarillo, landing with passengers still restraining the captain in the galley. After landing, the captain was removed from the aircraft by the FBI and taken to a facility in the Northwest Texas Healthcare System in Amarillo where he is still being evaluated and  treated. Hes was immediately suspended from duty, and was filled charges by the Federal Authorities for interfering with flight crew. As for the 135 passengers, a replacement A320 was dispatched to Amarillo and they all arrived Las Vegas with a delay of 6.5 hours. They were reimbursed and received a credit for  twice the value of their tickets. And, ironically enough, most passengers were heading in to Vegas for an International Security Convention.
I guess, nobody wants to believe that pilots are just people with emotional and physical problems like the rest of the earthbound people. They are supposed to be better. Unfortunately the stress they work under and the fatigue they operate in can take hold with pilots just as it can with anyone.

And by the way, JetBlues reputation seems to be going down; last year the "crazy" flight attendant who shut a slide, grabbed a beer and went home while he was on duty after having a discussion with a passenger and now a captain going nuts mid-flight. What´s next?