China Airlines Gives Passengers on Exploded Plane $100August 21 2007
If you were wondering what kind of compensation you’d get if you narrowly escaped a burning 737, wonder no longer. China Airlines’ CEO flew to Okinawa to hand out envelopes with a crisp $100 in it to give to passengers who nearly died when their plane exploded. One. Hundred. Dollars.
China: No More New AirlinesAugust 21 2007
Citing safety concerns, China’s aviation authority has announced that they will not permit any additional airlines to launch before 2010. They are also cutting back on the number of flights into Beijing by about 5% (right before the Olympics — good luck getting a flight). While this seems very consumer unfriendly, it’s actually the opposite: Chinese airports have been overcapacity, causing significant delays across the system (sound familiar?). They hope to improve on-time performance and safety by getting flights down to a more reasonable level.
United: We’re Going to Clean Our PlanesAugust 21 2007
Good news if you’re a United flyer and you’ve had enough of filthy planes: The airline said that it’s going to use part of its capital improvement budget to "deep clean" their aircraft more frequently. They can spin that how they want, but that must mean their planes get extremely dirty. And that means you’ve been sitting on an extremely dirty plane. Ew.
On the plus side, they’re also going to upgrade their domestic in-flight entertainment systems over the course of 2008.
China Airlines Plane ExplodesAugust 20 2007
A China Airlines 737 exploded in Okinawa shortly after landing earlier today. All of the passengers and crew managed to escape without injury (you can see a photo here. Amazing anyone lived).
I’m the first person to say that all first-world airlines are safe. However, China Airlines likely has the sketchiest safety record of any carrier outside the developing world, including 4 fatal accidents since 1994, plus this non-fatal accident. (My six flights on the airline were uneventful). Sure, it could just be a streak of terrible luck that these incidents happened on the same airline. But still.
Hijacking Thwarted in TurkeyAugust 20 2007
Americans should consider ourselves lucky that hijacking, which was once a moderately common occurrence here, basically no longer happens here. The same cannot be said for other parts of the world. Case in point: An Atlas Air flight from Cyprus to Istanbul was hijacked over the weekend, with the hijackers demanding that they be flown to Iran. The pilots (somehow) convinced them that they needed to refuel in Antalya, Turkey. Once landed, the pilot, either in a brilliant or cowardly move (depending on whom you ask), jumped out of the plane after it landed, leaving the hijackers with the passengers.
The hijackers then decided to free the women and children, but as this was happening, passengers opened the rear doors and escaped, leaving only 4 behind. Several hours later the 4 hostages were freed and the hijackers arrested.
The plane was hijacked to protest something or other by the US. I know, that doesn’t make any sense.
I swear this is it: Midwest/AirTran Saga FinishedAugust 17 2007
I don’t even care about this anymore, but I feel like since I started mentioning it, I have to follow it through: Midwest accepted TPG’s buyout offer, and AirTran has said they’re not going to raise their offer anymore. Done and done.
First A380 Flight Is October 25thAugust 17 2007
If you’re a complete airplane nut, you should know that the first A380 flight will take off on October 25th. The Singapore Airlines flight will fly from Singapore to Sydney, and return the next day. Regular service on the plane has not yet been announced. The airline is auctioning all seats on the flight on eBay, with proceeds going to charity. The auction begins August 27th.
Northwest Flight 255 Crash, 20 Years LaterAugust 16 2007
This week marks the 20th anniversary of the crash of Northwest flight 255 outside of Detroit, an accident that killed all but 1 of the 155 people on board the flight to Phoenix. You may remember that, miraculously, a 4 year old girl named Cecelia Cichan was the sole survivor of the flight. The link to the story above offers a bit of a history of her remarkable life since that day.
She was adopted by an aunt and uncle who made it their mission to provide a normal childhood for their niece, who lost her parents and brother in the crash. They changed her last name, moved her from her Arizona hometown, and had court records sealed so media could not track her. Now, at 24, she has graduated from college and gotten married. By all accounts she has held up extremely well, though until recently she did not interact with the surviving families from the crash.
I lived outside of Detroit for 7 years, and this crash was burned into the collective memory of the city; certainly every time I drove by the crash site near the airport I thought of how unthinkable it was that 1 little girl could’ve survived when 154 others did not. It’s such a testament to her relatives that she was able to thrive, anonymously, for the past 20 years, despite the horror she saw when she was a child.
Check out the column in the link - I was pretty moved by it.
$799 Package to ChinaAugust 16 2007
Via Frommers:
SmarTours has a great deal on a 10 day package to China. $799 gets you a flight from San Francisco to Beijing, 5 nights hotel in Beijing, a flight to Shanghai, and 4 nights hotel in Shanghai. You can fly from New York for an extra $100. I’d say that’s a bargain. Prices are good for select trips November through February. Given the price of airfare alone, you basically get 9 hotel nights and an internal flight for $100. Nice.!
Travelocity Fined for Selling Airfare to CubaAugust 16 2007
It’s a crazy world out there…Imus makes a racist comment and is paid $20 million NOT to go to work anymore. It looks like Michael Vick will cut a deal so he can play football again, even though he was a dog fighting ring leader. But Travelocity has been fined more than $180,000 because they sold airfare to Cuba for a 6 year period (the article doesn’t say, but I think there was a time when you could book tickets to Cuba on Travelocity if you went to one of their non-US sites). The Cuba embargo laws are completely (completely!) insane, though, let’s be honest here, Travelocity should’ve known better. But also let’s be honest - there are plenty of ways to travel to Cuba, and the stupid travel embargo isn’t accomplishing anything.
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