United Airlines pilot, Erwin Washington, (51 years old from Lakewood, Colorado) was charged and arrested at London’s Heathrow Airport as he was about to fly a a Boeing 767 with 124 passengers and 11 crew to Chicago.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “At 12.30pm on 9 November we attended a flight at Heathrow Airport and arrested a 51-year-old man.
“He was arrested on suspicion of being aviation staff performing an aviation function while exceeding the prescribed alcohol limit.”
Police are awaiting the outcome of further tests on the man.
“He was reported to police by United Airlines staff, said a BAA Heathrow spokesman.
A United Airlines spokeswoman said: “Safety is our highest priority and the pilot has been removed from service while we are cooperating with authorities and conducting a full investigation.
“United Airlines’ alcohol policy is amongst the strictest in the industry and we have no tolerance for violation of this well-established policy.”
Pilots legal limit is 0.02 percent and that is equivalent to half a glass of beer. Erwin Vermont Washington, 51, is the third U.S. pilot in 13 months to be arrested for being over the strict alcohol limits imposed on airline staff.
A mysterious ice chunk fell on a Chicago home around 7:52pm. The house happens to be in the flight plan for one of O’Hare’s runway. So, the obvious culprit – a leaking plane? There are other possible theories like meteorite, alien space ship, etc. but obviously a leaking plane makes the most sense.
My first question – did the ice come from the lavatory wastes? Since it doesn’t have the blue color, I would assume no!
“The whole house shook,” she said outside the North Wolcott Avenue home, while her son held up baseball-size ice chunks in a plastic bag. The falling object caved in the corner of their 5-year-old roof dormer and showered ice through their front yard as they watched TV a few feet away. “I thought the chimney fell. My husband thought maybe the ‘L’ fell off the tracks.”
A Best Buy executive, Armando Alvarez, was denied first class upgrade at Washington DC’s Dulles Airport because he was too casually dressed for it. He was wearing a track suit.
Best Buy’s corporate vice president Armando Alvarez was flying from Washington DC Dulles Airport to Connecticut on a October 26th 2009 on a United Airlines flight, when he was denied an upgrade request because he was wearing a track suit. He was using his miles to get the upgrade. When he arrived at the gate and walked up to the counter, the agent told him he couldn’t fly first class because he was dressed too casually. He was wearing a tracksuit. And let’s be clear here: It was a Puma track suit. He says he packs his suits so they don’t get wrinkled during the flight.
Alvarez says he isn’t looking for compensation, but wants to call out United for his embarrassment.
“If this happened to me and I’m a United Airlines Red Carpet Club member then I believe it’s happening to other people and this must stop,” Alvarez said on Fox.
A day after the story made national headlines, a United Airlines spokesperson returned repeated calls from FOX 5. A spokesperson says they’ve identified the gate agent and he is a contract employee who works for Air Wisconsin.
The spokesperson says the employee was interviewed and security footage from the terminal is being reviewed as officials for both airlines investigate the incident.
United says there is no passenger dress code, but they cited two rules. Ticketed passengers can not be barefoot and must be clothed.
Aren’t airlines already losing enough money to get bad rep? Maybe next time I will have to wear a suit and tie while flying to Hawaii?
Three weeks back Keith Wilson King, 61,was noticed by an officer picking up a random bag at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor Airport. He was given a citation but then he returned back. He was arrested and a search at his home found 1000+ bags with identification tags, the owners’ names erased from the bag.
Keith Wilson and his wife, Stacy Lynne Legg-King, 38, were arrested Monday, and each was booked into jail on charges of theft of property and possession of stolen property.
Detectives uncovered nearly 1,000 pieces of stolen luggage Tuesday while serving a search warrant at a home in the northwest Valley, linking the items to Keith King, who’s accused of plucking the bags off airport
baggage carousels. Police officers arrested King three weeks ago at the airport after an officer noticed him grabbing a random bag off one of the carousels. He was given a misdemeanor-theft citation and released, though police said he returned to the airport days later.
King, 61, was shown on a surveillance video parking in an airport garage and walking to the baggage-claim area to steal luggage, said Officer James Holmes, a Phoenix police spokesman.
King and his wife, Stacy Legg King, 38, were arrested Monday at their home near Northern and 175th avenues. They were booked on suspicion of theft and possession of stolen property – leaving detectives to try and track the missing items, which could include electronics and clothes, among other things.
Northwest Airlines flight 188 went “no radio contact” for sometime. Military planes were ready to intercept the flight as a possible hijacking was assumed as the flight missed the airport by 150 miles. It is reported that “the pilots were arguing over airline policy” and hence the distraction. The argument could sound ridiculous but given the state of pilot contracts between Northwest and Delta at the new Delta, I would imagine, it is possible.
But I personally think that the pilots might be napping and covering for it? There are other possibilities for distractions – they were playing each other on their iPhone, gossiping about co-workers, trying to go for another round, wanted to fly over their favorite spot, wanted the plane to be late, wanted the passengers to miss all their connections, wanted to look over their house roofs for damage, checking out on ex-wife or wife, etc. I wonder!
Northwest Airlines flight 188 flew 150 miles off course when the crew got into a heated argument over airline policy. The flight was carrying 147 passengers and was supposed to land at Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain Airport.
When the pilots got their “situational awareness” back they turned the Airbus A320 around and landed it safely on Wednesday evening, apparently without any of the 144 passengers realising they had taken a roundabout route.
Ground controllers lost contact with the pilots just before 7pm and radio contact was not re-established for more than an hour. The Federal Aviation Administration notified the military, which put fighter jets on alert at two locations.
The flight was scheduled to land at 8.01pm local time but eventually arrived at 9.15pm, according to Ed Stewart, a spokesman for Delta Air Lines, which owns Northwest. Delta has suspended the pilots while it carries out an internal investigation, and the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder were being sent to Washington for analysis.
Federal officials are investigating whether pilot fatigue might have played a role, but an NTSB spokesman, Keith Holloway, said the idea that the crew may have fallen asleep was “speculative”.
There was “no radio contact” as it travelled at 37,000 feet (11,300 meters) from San Diego, California, prompting fears it had been hijacked. Four military fighter jets were readied to chase down the plane before contact was reestablished.
Delta Airlines merged with Northwest Airlines last year and the company is going through changes with regards to pilot unions contracts, etc. Seniority is always a big deal for the pilots of a merged union since the number in the list decides on which trip they can pick and which aircraft they can fly.
Makes you wonder what happened to Auto pilot, radars, etc.
Air France flight AF447 that took off with 228 (216 passengers and 12 crew members) from Brazil’s Rio de Janerio to Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport went missing after around 3.5 hours of flight time.
The flight lost contact at around 10:30 pm local time after being in flight for around 3.5 hours.
Update – This flight is supposed to have “crossed through a thunderous zone with strong turbulence” And the last message recieved was “signalling electrical circuit malfunction“
French minister Jean-Louis Borloo said the plane had probably had an
accident and ruled out hijacking. He said: “By now it would be beyond
its kerosene reserves so unfortunately we must now envisage the most
tragic scenario.”
With French president Nicolas Sarkozy
expressing his concern at the incident, Air France spokeswoman Brigitte
Barrand said: “We share the emotion and worry of the families
concerned.”
The airplane is an Airbus A330. Brazil has launched two rescue planes to look for the airplane but the search site is close to three times the size of Europe.
Starting June 1st 2009, American Airlines will go cashless for all its domestic flights and flight to/from Hawaii, Alaska and Canada.
American Airlines (like other airlines) offers the following for sale -
headsets
meals
snacks
alcoholic beverages
“We believe that, by moving to a cashless
cabin, the transaction process is more convenient for both our
customers and flight attendants,” said Lauri Curtis, American’s Vice
President – Onboard Service.
Flight attendants utilize a hand-held Onboard Sales Recorder to
charge credit and debit cards, eliminating the need to search for small
bills or change. American, a founding member of the global oneworld(R) Alliance, has used these hand-held devices since May 2006. Receipts will be provided to passengers upon request.
Cashless cabins will not be implemented onboard American Eagle and
AmericanConnection flights – only cash will continue to be accepted
onboard those flights, just as it is today. (from here)
I personally think that it is a BAD decision on American Airlines’ part. The biggest gripe is for international travelers traveling on domestic flights (after arriving to US) – what if they don’t have a credit card that works?
How about selling coupons on the counters for cash as well?
sued American Airlines for $7 million today, claiming that the airlines illegally revoked his lifetime passes. The airlines seemed to have revoked the passes in December 2008 claiming that he was fraudulently using them.
Steven Rothstein paid American Airlines $250,000 to be able to fly first class anywhere for the rest of his life. Two years later he paid an addition $150,000 to take a companion with him.
It might be possible that he used his pass for speculative bookings and would cancel it at the last moment which is a nightmare of an airline.
There are lot of problems with airlines with regards to speculative booking. American Airlines has the following policies on its website -
Policies
Duplicate Bookings – AA will monitor booking activity at the travel agent level in order to identify duplicate bookings. American Airlines definition of a duplicate booking is the use of the same passenger name for an additional flight for the same market, date, IATA number, regardless of flight number, class of service or status code. You should never book duplicate space, as this is a waste of your time and a loss to us.
Fictitious Bookings – Fictitious bookings could include those with name field items that read test / traveler / tourist or a surname with fictitious initials, i.e. A / B / C / D / E. Please avoid the practice of holding space under speculative passenger names. We will monitor booking activity at the travel agent level in order to identify fictitious bookings.
Southwest Airlines recently unveiled a new paint job on some of its Boeing 737 aircrafts. The new paint has a bikni-clad model painted on the fuselage. The temporary paint job is a promotional deal with Sports Illustrated for their annual swimsuit issue.
A lot of customers are fuming, claiming that the company putting soft pornography on its planes which is very inappropriate.
Double Standards?
In 2007, the airline’s flight attendant had scolded Kyla Ebbert for wearing an outfit that was inappropriate. The airline supported the flight attendant’s actions.
After the incidence, Ebbert went on talk shows, posed nude of Playboy and photographed with Richard Branson. The airline did apologize to her about the incidence.
That is great. Looks awesome, but the woman plastered all over your airplane makes the girl you kicked off your flight look like a nun!
Does anyone else find this kind of trashy for Southwest? Having a woman in a bikini on the side of the plane hardly seems like the epitome of the friendly, down-home airline I’ve grown accustomed to. This seems like something Spirit Airlines would do.
I agree with some posters, that i find this tacky and somewhat offensive. I am a twenty-something male, and I would not want to have to watch this plane pull up to the gate traveling with my young child, or mother, grandmother, etc. I know Southwest is known for its fun, laid back qualities but this is just completely inappropriate to plaster all over the side of the plane.
The whole thing is in poor taste, and I’m acutally sort of let down that Southwest, a company I really admire, would stoop this low.And the great irony, as mentioned, is that Southwest would (rightfully) not permit anyone dressed this way to fly in their aircraft so as to not offend other customers. But somehow they don’t seem to mind offending their passengers from the outside of the aircraft.
What a stupid decision? I am extremely disappointed that Southwest would choose to have such a near pornographic picture so publicly displayed. It will likely damage the good reputation of Southwest for many people, as it has for me. What did they gain? Questionable publicity and some amount of revenue in exchange for less respect.
poor taste… try to explain that to kids. I am an often traveler with SW, even earned a companion pass for my wife. She won’t fly with you anymore. How many people buy tickets for the pic on the plane? Fun is great… edgy is controversial.
Northwest Airlines flight 188 went “no radio contact” for sometime. Military planes were ready to intercept the flight as a possible hijacking was assumed as the flight missed the airport by 150 miles. It is reported that “the pilots were arguing over airline policy” and hence the distraction. The argument could sound ridiculous but given the state of pilot contracts between Northwest and Delta at the new Delta, I would imagine, it is possible. 
Air France flight AF447 that took off with 228 (216 passengers and 12 crew members) from Brazil’s Rio de Janerio to Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport went missing after around 3.5 hours of flight time. 
Starting June 1st 2009, American Airlines will go cashless for all its domestic flights and flight to/from Hawaii, Alaska and Canada. 
sued American Airlines for $7 million today, claiming that the airlines illegally revoked his lifetime passes. The airlines seemed to have revoked the passes in December 2008 claiming that he was fraudulently using them.
Southwest Airlines recently unveiled a new paint job on some of its Boeing 737 aircrafts. The new paint has a bikni-clad model painted on the fuselage. The temporary paint job is a promotional deal with Sports Illustrated for their annual swimsuit issue.
