American Airlines today announced that after reviewing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) policy on raft capacity (which mentions that the rafts on the plane should accommodate for all passengers, crew and lap children), they found that the Boeing 767 fleet was not following the policy. So, temporarily all flights using the plane will be restricted to 228 instead of earlier capacity of 236 (both number includes the crew of 11). The airline did add that it was never safety concern, since the the seat cushions could be used as flotation devices instead of the raft.
It seems that the Hudson river landing of flight 1549 had caused the self check.
The airline is going to add additional rafts to the planes for permanent solution.
What it means the passenger?
For long term, the airline might restrict the number of seats that it can sell and for the current flights, the flights which are sold between above capacity and capacity-8 might be looking for volunteers to fly some other flight, if all passengers show-up.
I am one of those people who would normally get on a flight, exchange the usual smile and hello and then go straight to my seat paying little or no attention to the announcements or safety briefings by the flight attendants and the crew. My only interaction with the flight attendants come when they ask for choice of beverage or food or if I get an exit seat and I say “yes” to whatever!
US Airways announced that it has sent a check of $5000 (for lost possessions) to each passenger that were on the flight 1549 that crash landed on the Hudson river. The airline also included the check for reimbursement of the ticket price. Though they did mention that the passenger’s possessions might not be returned for months (checked for weight and balance) till the investigation is complete.
Flight number 1549 that was scheduled to fly from New York’s LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte’s Charlotte-Douglas Airport at 3:20pm, had to crash land into the Hudson river after both its engines failed due to a run in with a flock of geese. There were around 150 people on flight. According to reports, the pilot maneuvered a soft landing on water after he told the passenger to “brace for impact”. Eye witness say that they saw a large splash in water. Five minutes after landing, passenger were seen on the wings of the aircraft while ferries dropped life jackets. Casualties (if any) are not known yet.
We have heard about different ways activists have tried to stop Heathrow’s expansion, but recently they came up with a novel idea – buy a piece of land (almost an acre is size) in the middle of the planned site for expansion. Celebrities like Emma Thompson, Alistair McGowan; millionaire Tory Zac Goldsmith and a lot of activists contributed to buy the piece of land now called “Airplot”.
Kingfisher Airlines recently announced the start of its new service between Mumbai and London (Heathrow Airport) starting January 5th 2009. The airline will use an Airbus A330-200 (28 seats in First and 169 seats in Kingfisher Class).
Airliner Blog 