Arrest Threatened If Pilot Of International Flight Lets Passengers Off Aircraft

HARTFORD, Conn. — The pilot on a Virgin Atlantic flight that spent several hours on the tarmac after being diverted to Connecticut had asked for permission to unload the stranded passengers, but a customs official threatened to have them arrested if they did, the airline said Thursday.

FYI! International flights are not included in the latest "3 hr delay" program that passed earlier this year. Also anytime an international flight that has not pre-cleared customs cannot let any passengers or crew members off of the aircraft for any reason with clearing customs and immigration. In the event of an emergency then Customs will clear passengers after they have been sequestered and cleared in a controlled area.

Customs officials denied the airline's allegation.

The trans-Atlantic flight's captain was told by a customs official at Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks that passengers couldn't get off the plane until more immigration officials arrived, Greg Dawson, an airline spokesman in London, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. It took more than two hours for the officials to arrive, he said.

The London-to-Newark, N.J., was diverted because of storms. Passengers sat on the tarmac in Connecticut for four hours late Tuesday and early Wednesday in rising heat and darkness. Travelers said they were offered water but no food; some fainted.

A federal rule limiting tarmac time to three hours does not apply to international flights.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not receive a call from the pilot, and no one from the agency refused a request to allow passengers off the plane, said Theodore Woo, an agency spokesman in Boston.

Customs officers headed for the airport "as soon as we got the call at 11 p.m.," Woo said. At that point, customs had enough officers to "escort passengers to a safe area," he said.

Airport officials have said there was only one customs official at the airport Tuesday night when the flight arrived in Connecticut.

The airport called for customs inspectors around 11 p.m. when it learned the Virgin flight was canceled, said John Wallace, a Bradley spokesman. Passengers were allowed off the plane about an hour and 15 minutes later, when customs officials arrived, he said.

Bradley's only regular international passenger flights are to Canada and it does not house many customs agents, Wallace said.

AA flight attendant helps deliver baby in 737

American Airlines flight attendant Patricia Sund holding the newborn boy she helped deliver minutes earlier in the back row of a 737 as it flew from Haiti to Florida.

by JASON WHITELY

Original Story: http://www.wfaa.com/news/AA-flight-attendant-helps-deliver-baby-in-737-96702679.html

FORT LAUDERDALE - "My new slogan is going to be, "Coffee? Tea? Deliver your baby?," quipped Patricia Sund, an American Airlines flight attendant.

Patricia Sund helped two doctors deliver a baby boy in the last row of seats, on Friday, June 11, as they flew from Port-au-Prince, Haiti to Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

A Boeing 737 is the stage for this performance yet being very much lacking for space to deliver a baby but anything is possible when the flight attendants are put to the test of their training and cool heads during a situation.

"It took quite a bit of improvisation to figure out a way to position the mother, the medical kit, two doctors, the equipment needed and a way to pass what was needed in-between and over the seats to the attending physicians in order to make this delivery a successful one," Sund said.

Flight 2288 was about 35 minutes from landing in (KFLL) Fort Lauderdale when an extra passenger was announced on the flight and added to the passenger manifest according to American Airlines.

"Watching that baby being born and having him placed in my arms 30 seconds after he was born was an incredibly raw and emotional moment for me," Sund reflected. "It will remain one of the highlights of my Flight Service career. It also most likely makes this crew the newest members of a very small club of flight attendants who have assisted with the birth of a child inflight."

American Airlines said the baby boy was born healthy.

This is a fine example of what flight attendants are trained to do and what so many passengers take for granted. So the next time a passenger thinks that flight attendants are "glorified sky waitresses" hopefully they will remember hearing about this beautiful incident over the skies of the Atlantic and know that the flight attendants are there for more important things than passing out peanuts and opening cans of Coke!

Delta Airlines Loses Dog In Mexico City And Tries To Compensate Passenger $200.00!

Hi, my name is Josiah and I recently traveled to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico with Delta Airlines, and I am so appalled by them I can't stand it. I booked my flights online, and that part went smoothly, but that's the only good part of my traveling with them. I flew out of Detroit Metro in the early morning of April 24th 2010, and flew to Atlanta to catch a transfer which would take me to Puerto Vallarta. After arriving about an hour late and having to run to catch my plane, they said that they weren't boarding any more passengers, but were taking an extra fifteen minutes to load all the baggage on the plane. When we arrived in Puerto Vallarta I was informed that, along with most people who were on the original flight from Detroit, my baggage never left the Atlanta airport, and I had to wait until the next day to receive all of my clothes and necessities for traveling.

Now, while I know that this isn't too out of the ordinary, and that airlines have baggage delayed quite commonly, the next issue is one that is completely unacceptable and should never happen regardless of circumstances. When in Mexico, my girlfriend and I rescued a stray dog which our hosts said had been seen all over the town. We took him to the vet's, got him all of his shots, an eye infection treated, two baths to clean him from hundreds of dog ticks that were covering his whole body, and gave him the name Paco. After this treatment at the vet clinic, we had to spend multiple additional hours picking more ticks from his body. We soon discovered that this dog was a very lucky find, and that it would be loyal and friendly to my girlfriend and I. It would walk by my side along the beach and along the sidewalks, went to the washroom outside, didn't bark at cars or other dogs, and would sleep on the bed next to us curled up in a ball quite contently. My girlfriend and I were both very excited to take him back home to Canada with us, and we quite readily paid for an airline approved pet carrier and the costs associated with checking a pet on an airplane to travel as baggage, as he was too big to be taken as carry-on.

Everything went smoothly traveling with AeroMéxico from Puerto Vallarta to Mexico City, where we had a five hour layover. We took the dog out so he could go to the bathroom and stretch his legs in-between our flights, and two hours before we departed from Mexico City to Detroit Metro we checked him with Delta for the flight. It took us a whole hour to check the dog because Delta said that the pet carrier we purchased was not big enough, despite the vet who treated the dog saying it was large enough, and it meeting all the criteria such as the dog being able to turn around and stand up. We spent the hour trying to convince the Delta employee that the carrier was large enough, and after seeing two separate supervisors, we had to sign a waiver saying that if my dog Paco received any injuries as a result of the size of the carrier, that Delta Airlines was not responsible.

After the fiasco of the size of the carrier being an issue, they assured us that Paco would be alright and transported safely to Detroit. However, when we arrived in Detroit and waited for twenty minutes at the pet claim, we began to suspect that something was wrong. We spent two hours in the Detroit Metro Airport trying to sort out what had happened to our dog, and we were told that it was never loaded on the plane in the first place, and that it was forgotten in Mexico City but would be cared for by Delta employees and walked, fed, watered, and would be sent on the next flight to Detroit, and then get delivered to my house in Ontario, Canada. When I called Delta the following day to ask if Paco had been flown to Detroit yet, no one seemed to have any answers or have any idea about the location of my dog. I was shocked. I had been told explicitly that my dog was being cared for in Mexico City by Delta until he could be flown and delivered to me, and now they were telling me that they didn't know where my dog was. I had my host in Mexico call the Mexico City Airport to get some answers, and she spent hours being transferred from person to person, each one having no idea what happened to my dog, she was finally told that my dog had somehow escaped from the carrier and disappeared. I do not believe for a second that Paco escaped from his carrier. It was a very secure hard plastic pet carrier with two locks and a metal wire door, and there is no way a small dog (he looked like a mix of a wiener dog and a Jack Russell) could scratch or break his way out of it.

If indeed he did somehow manage to escape from the carrier, why would I not have been informed of this in the first place? I was told that he was accounted for and being cared for in Mexico City, then that no one had any idea where he was, and then that he had escaped from the carrier.

There is no excuse for this kind of situation to take place, and I expect that when you pay to have a live animal flown with you to take him home, that Delta Airlines would take every precaution and action needed to make sure that is what happens. My dog is likely either still in his carrier in a corner, having not eaten or drank for over 48 hours, or he is lost in the Mexico City Airport terrified and starving. The only thing Delta has tried to do to rectify this situation is offering their apology and refunding the cost for transporting a pet ($200.00USD) in a credit to be used with Delta Airlines. I think that this is completely absurd as there is no chance of me flying with Delta Airlines again.

United Flight Attendant Refuses To Help Disabled Woman With Bags

Hello All BlkAv8tor2003 Checking In!!!

As if things in the airline industry seem to sound more strange everyday, here comes another incident where a passenger needed assistance and a flight attendant refused to assist the passenger. It sounds like a situation of a crew member giving a passenger a hard time and being very direct in her reasoning about it but if you read the whole story then the tables seem to turn the other way. I posted a link to the full story after the excerpt from the passengers blog. You really should read the passengers full story to get an idea of what happened.

As a former flight attendant and customer service manager, it's sad to hear such a response was given from a crew member! The airline should have had a better response to the situation than that...at least sound caring or concerned! I read the passengers story and it sounded like it was full of tiring situations!

The rest of my comments are after the passenger excerpt.

(Excerpt) I boarded the plane and made my way back to my aisle seat where I set down my special seat cushion and lumbar brace before looking around for a flight attendant to help me put my luggage in the overhead compartment. The attendant standing in the front section of economy was a blonde woman probably in her late 40s-50s and I called her over to explain that I needed her assistance because I wasn't capable of lifting my luggage due to my disability.

To my surprise, the attendant rejected my request while excusing it by saying: "If I helped everyone do that all day then MY back would be killing me by the end of the day!" I asked her how I was supposed to get my luggage stowed and her answer was: "You'll just have to wait for someone from your row to come back here and ask them to give you a hand." When I asked what would happen if no one would, her response to me was: "Well, normally a passenger is around to overhear something like this and they'll offer to help with it on their own. You'll just have to ask someone when they get back here." Then she turned back around and went up to the front seats where she waited to "assist" other passengers.

I was completely flabbergasted, but with no other option, I sat down to wait and pulled my carry-on suitcase as close as I could to try to get it out of the way of the aisle. As I'm sure you're aware, however, your aisles are considerably narrow and even my best efforts left half of even my small carry-on suitcase in the aisle. What's more, rather than help me, most of the passengers simply knocked into my suitcase and shoved past me on the way to their own seats. Every time they hit the suitcase, it in turn hit me and jarred my back more and more with each strike.

The plane wasn't even half boarded and it already felt like the pain medication I'd taken less than a half hour prior to entering the airport had worn off as though I hadn't taken it at all. Finally, it was too much and I dropped my suitcase down into the aisle to stop the flow and ask one of the men passing me for help before he went looking for his seat. As he was lifting it, he asked me if I was all right and I told him about my injury. He apologized profusely for my condition and tried to make me feel better by assuring me I would be okay eventually. I doubt either of us believed it, but at that point, it was nice to hear that, even from a total stranger. Full Story Here

("Evilpuppy", is the passenger's blog name) "Evilpuppy" was not exactly the perfect passenger.

This is the problem that passengers run into when they "assume" what the flight attendants, pilots, customer service agents or the airline can and cannot do for you. Flight attendants are truly not there to put your baggage in an overhead bin. It is up to you the passenger to load and unload your baggage in and out of the overhead bins. If you can't lift your own luggage above your head then what makes you think the airline provides someone to do that for you? This is what I mean when I say most passengers don't really know what the job or the duties of the flight attendant are.

"Evilpuppy" has a known disability or injury and you’re carrying on a roll-a-board suitcase? You knew before you left that you would not be able to lift your bag and you assumed it was the flight attendant job to put it in the overhead bin for you. Then when she refused you acted shocked! Now how she refused is wrong in all respects and is not excusable but you should have thought about your disability when packing your luggage. If your back disables you from lifting your own suitcase into the bins, then you should have checked your suitcase and not rolled it aboard and carry on a much smaller bag with your necessary essentials.

United's overall response was just crazy and unfortunately I do believe that a flight attendant and an agent would possibly respond to a passenger the way they responded to you! Your case is not singular and not the last one people will read about. I know as a flight attendant you have to be very careful when dealing with passengers regarding visual and non-visual disabilities. Passengers also must be proactive with their disabilities and give the people around them ample warning without assumptions that help will always be provided or assumed. Just because a passenger is in a wheelchair doesn't mean they want or need help to move about but the person able to offer assistance may not know that.

So I suggest that "Evilpuppy" you may need to be more proactive with your disability seeing how it's not visual. It will require you to change your thought process about the way you travel so that people that are available to help you know that you’re not exploiting their services with your disability and you actually need help. Again the experience you had was all the way wrong and it should have been handled much better.

The flight attendant was wrong to a point in her actions and what she said but you did get on the plane assuming that the flight attendant would do the lifting for you. So in the future you may want to find another way to get your baggage to your destination i.e.. Checking your baggage, ship your baggage ahead via UPS or FedEx and only carry-on your absolute necessities that you can manage without difficulty.

I'm not trying to bash you (the victim) but this situation can be avoided well before passengers get on the plane. Hopefully in your future travel plans you’re more proactive and the crew on your flights will be much more accommodating to you and your disability.

The airlines as a whole are having a tough time surviving in today's economy and finding good people to run the airline is easily found and also easily forgotten. The airlines need to go back to what use to work and passengers need to understand that flying on the airlines is a privilege and not a right even though they may have payed for a service. Things like this don't happen everyday and hopefully they will be few and far between but they will happen again and I hope whomever reads this will think ahead to lessen the chances of this happening to them.

As I always say: Be Proactive Not Reactive and Enjoy Your Flight!!!

BlkAv8tor2003

Carry-On and Checked Baggage Spirit Air Will Cost You!!!

Hello All BlkAv8tor2003 Checking In!!!

Well the time has come and I have said it since well before the baggage fees went up, that the airlines would ultimately start charging passengers a fee to carry-on baggage! No matter how juicy the details or how many perks you may get by joining different flier clubs with any particular airline, you may end up paying to fly with more than a coat, purse or briefcase.

Does anyone fly like that these days anymore??? The days of hats, coats and purses are going by the wayside. 1960's style of flying is coming back trust me! Remember the saying "History Repeats Itself!" Well history is starting to repeat itself and it's going to cost you! So be prepared as gasoline prices go up this summer, delays will never go away and tensions of people frustrated when they fly are higher than ever!

Here is Spirit Air based out of Miramar, Florida with 40 destinations has started charging for carry-on baggage. They are the first U.S. carrier to institute this policy and it starts in August. The fees are listed in the article below. It can cost you as much as $45 at the airport to carry on a bag.
(Carry-on Baggage: anything that you would have to put into an overhead bin)

Spirit Air is expecting this to make deplaning the aircraft a faster process and boarding to be a breeze too! If you don't know already, it's time to start checking your bag to your destination with FedEx or UPS if your traveling for pleasure. If your traveling for business you may need to carry-on your bags because destinations can change with short notice and getting a bag changed between flights can create potential baggage mishandlings.

So the time to be more prepared is really here. Be ahead of the ballgame and know what fees may pop up on you when you get to the airport!

I'll keep up on this and post any changes or differences that you need to know!!!

"Be Proactive Not Reactive And Enjoy Your Flight!!!"

BlkAv8tor2003

Fees for checked and carry-on baggage: Effective for flights booked today and on for flights after August 1, passengers on Spirit Airlines must also pay to bring on a carry-on above a personal item. This is a completely new fee for them, since carry-ons used to be free.


To take on any bag aside from a personal items like purse or briefcase, you'll be paying $20 online if you're a Spirit club member, $30 online for non-members and $45 at the airport. You will get "priority boarding," however. Along with this new fee, the checked rates have gone up to $15 online for members on domestic/$20 international, $25 online for non-members on domestic/$30 international and $45 for anyone checking their bag at the airport. And that's just the first bag!

Spirit Airlines, this is getting prohibitively complicated! Now for the sale information...
Airfares from 1 penny: Perhaps we should be happy that Spirit isn't having another of their bawdily-named airfare sales, but there is just so much fine print to this one that we're tempted to dismiss it straightaway.

It's for their $9 Fare Club members only, and to join that club you have to lay down $40 annually; never mind that whenever we search for Spirit flights, we never see $9 fares listed for the $9 Club.


So if you're a member of the club, there are currently a million seats on Spirit flights available from only a penny. But that penny can quickly become $72 no matter how hard you try.


For example, a one-way, one person "Penny" fare:
"Penny Plus" sale from Detroit—Las Vegas


Ticket: 1 cent


Carry-on baggage paid at airport: $45


Fuel: $54.22


Taxes & Fees: $18.70


Total: $117.93

Vince Neil? Airline CEO...Yes It's True!!!

Motley Crue rocker and hometown hero Vince Neil rolled out his new airline fleet this morning, and with its rock and roll-themed furnishings and painted flames fuselage, he’s all set to ensure that there are music flights in the friendly skies from now on. Vince showed off his first three jets: a Hawker 700, a Lear 35 and a Gulfstream.

Vince said “They are all now finished, all tricked out. We will base Vince Neil Aviation at McCarran Airport’s Signature Terminal. The Hawker will hold eight passengers and fly nonstop Las Vegas to New York. The Lear holds seven but will make one fuel stop en route to New York.

All three are perfect for short, fast hops from Las Vegas to Phoenix, Aspen, California cities, Mexico and Canada. In fact, I took the Gulfstream down to South America for our last tour, and we stopped in Aruba for a few days’ vacation on the way home to Vegas.”

Vince provides the pilots and flight attendants for the private charter trips, and although his wife Lia and best girlfriend Marley Taylor of Zowie Bowie fame appear in the brochures, they won’t be onboard as flight attendants!

Vegas DeLuxe will have the full behind-the-scenes photo shoot with Vince and his planes, cars and bikes next week during production of the new promo video and sales brochures for VinceNeilAviation.com, which will be fully operating in the next 10 days.

His new single from the upcoming album Tequilas & Tattoos hits radio stations April 6, but you can get a sample of the song and the video at VinceNeil.net.

Hackers broke into his Web site and stole the early unfinished song and video, so he’ll post the official completed versions next week.

Distracted Flight Crew Belly Lands CRJ200

Hello All BlkAv8tor2003 Checking In!!!

As a pilot you get very busy right before landing, usually the last 20 minutes before landing and many things are going on before you even touchdown at your destination. So missing critical parts of the checklist can happen along with different warning sounds, warning light to warn the flight crew that something isn't correct for the flight at that time.

Well here is a prime example of where the crew gets fixated on one problem and doesn't stick to the number 1 rule in flying...."Fly The Plane!" So hopefully other pilots will always remember to always fly the plane because there are two pilots up front in a commercial airline operation and one pilot can fly the plane and the other one can work the problem. CRM (Crew resource management) was developed to help among other things to delegate tasks, fly the plane and be able to discussion some solutions to a particular problem.

Read this article and understand where the pilots failed at doing what they have worked so hard to get the privilege to do. Flying planes as a pilot is the biggest rush you can get that is legal and it only gets more fun the more experienced you become. If you have questions about it, hit me up and I would love to discuss it with you!!!

Remember to Be Proactive Not Reactive and Enjoy your Flight!!!

BlkCigarCzar

Spanish investigators believe that the crew involved in a gear-up landing at Barcelona forgot to lower the undercarriage after becoming distracted by a problem with the jet's flaps.

As the Air Nostrum aircraft approached runway 25R, following a flight from Valladolid, the flaps failed to deploy to the 8° setting selected.

This failure was traced to actuator icing - a known problem on the type in cold weather - and on both previous sectors, with different crews, the jet had experienced flap problems.

The crew opted to conduct a flapless approach, requiring higher landing speeds, in crosswind conditions; a preceding aircraft had warned of the possibility of windshear.

Radio traffic was heavy and the crew was "focused" on the demanding approach, says Spanish investigation authority CIAIAC. It states that, crucially, there was "no indication" that the 'before landing' checklists were completed.

In the moments before touchdown several alarms in the cockpit sounded as a result of the aircraft's configuration, alerting the crew to minimums, terrain, and sink rate.

CIAIAC adds that these alarms included a 'too low, gear' warning which sounded 15 times. But it states that the crew "probably confused" this alert with the 'too low, flap' warning - even though this had been inhibited.

"It is obvious that, either from excessive concentration or from believing they were not relevant, the crew did not manage to identify the aircraft configuration properly," says the final report into the 24 January 2007 incident.

With its gear still retracted, the jet landed on its lower fuselage at 168kt. This high initial speed, and subsequent ground effect, resulted in the aircraft's skidding for 1,900m before coming to rest just 250m from the runway's far end.

None of the 44 passengers and crew received serious injuries during the incident.

Original story posted at link below

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2010/04/01/340195/stuck-flaps-distracted-crj-crew-before-gear-up-landing.html

First Female Pilot Selected For Red Arrows Display Team. Motto *ECLAT*

Flight Lieutenant Kirsty Moore, 32 yrs.,has joined the team, based at Raf Scampton- Lincs. home of the famous 617 squadron-The Dam Busters.

Flt Lt Moore is a local Lincolnshire girl, from Stamford, last station was Raf Marham in Norfolk, near Kings Lynn., joining the Royal Air Force in 1998. Raf Scampton is situated just north of Lincoln on the A15.

It is believed she will take up position RED THREE.




Her father Robbie is a retired Tornado navigator,she has been married for 4 years to husband Nicky who works as a flying instructor at Raf Valley,anglesey, Wales. Squadron motto is Eclat-meaning Excellence. Red Arrows was formed up in late 1964. The name is an amalgation of 2 aerobatic teams-the Black Arrows and the Red Pelicans. The RAFAT has 13 aircraft., 9 pilots, and a Support team of 91 called The Blues (they wear blue flying suits).

see Raf Scampton home page = http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafscampton/

see Red Arrows web page = http://www.raf.mod.uk/reds/

20 Hours To JFK From LA The Trip From Hell On Virgin America Airlines

Stuck for hours on a plane!

The Los Angeles to JFK flight was diverted in high winds due to Saturday's nor'easter, which led to the airport slowdown of JFK in New York, forcing the plane to divert 90 miles north at Stewart Airport in Newburgh, where it landed at 5:15 p.m. and that's where passengers sat stranded for four-and-a-half hours.

Virgin American flight 404 left from LAX heading to JFK at 7am Saturday morning, but for passengers on-board the total time, would not be 5 1/2 hours to their destination, it would take 16 hours and change and more delays.
you would think considering the past delays, Virgin America would have had an alternate plan. questions will be raised regarding why the Virgin America flight even departed in the first place considering that Departure Management procedures where active early in the morning from JFK and many of the major airports in the Northeast corridor.

"Because of 60-mph winds [in New York], the plane was forced to circle JFK until it was finally diverted to Stewart Airport in Newburgh — 90 miles north — for a 5:15 p.m. landing.There, the plane remained on the tarmac until close to midnight, passengers say. The airline said the wait was more like 4½ hours" as stated by a FAA spokes person.

"The problem started when the Stewart International Supervisor came on board and told the captain and the flight attendants that no one's getting off this plane," Martin said.
David Martin films a 16-hour Virgin America flight from LAX to JFK.

David Martin is back at the Tribeca's headquarters of his video social networking company, Kontain.com. (He supplied the video.) In fact, it was on his website where he posted the video of his horrible weekend experience aboard Virgin America flight 404.

Passengers became restless and hungry after they were forced to each just four Pringles each with half a cup of water, while one passenger suffering from a panic attack had to be escorted from the plane.

JetBlue, has facilities at Steward Airport heard about the problem flight and said they would take passengers for free on a 2 hour bus ride to JFK airport that would have them there about 3am.

Some passengers did eventually exit the plane. In a statement, the Port Authority said, "Port Authority Operations at Stewart Airport finally offered assistance directly to the pilot and crew and made all resources available to aid the delayed passengers."

Furthermore, we were told the pilot refused the staff's plea to leave the tarmac and pull up to a gate so passengers could come inside the terminal which makes no sense considering it sounds like the airport management gave in to let the passengers off the plane. I'll be interested to hear what the story behind this was considering the stories are flying from everywhere!

Virgin America, meantime, issued its own statement and accepted blame for what happened:

"We wish to further apologize for our handling of the delay. We pride ourselves on putting the well-being of our travelers first and making sure that, in stressful situations, we put our guests at ease. We clearly failed this on your flight."

The US Department of Transportation now wants more information from Virgin America as to why passengers were left stranded on the tarmac for so long.

That's because a new rule, which takes effect at the end of April, orders U.S. airlines to allow passengers off the plane after a wait of three hours.

Along with the apology, Virgin America offered its passengers a full refund.

Plane Makes Emergency Landing And Kills Jogger By Accident

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. – A 38-year-old father of two was jogging and listening to his iPod when he was hit from behind and killed by a small plane making an emergency landing on the beach, officials said Tuesday.

Robert Gary Jones of Woodstock, Ga., died instantly Monday evening when he was hit by the single-engine plane, which had lost its propeller, said Beaufort County Coroner Ed Allen. The pilot's vision was blocked by oil on the windshield.

Jones apparently did not see or hear the plane, which was "basically gliding," the coroner said.
FAA records show the Experimental Lancair IV-P plane was registered to Edward I. Smith of Chesapeake, Va.

Smith was on the beach with his plane Tuesday and confirmed he was the pilot. He said he didn't want to talk about the crash and offered few details.
"I've got a lot of issues going on right now. I've got a plane that's all torn up. And I've got a young man that I killed," he said.

Authorities said there was also a passenger on board but did not identify him or her.
The plane started leaking oil at about 13,000 feet and tried originally to make it to Hilton Head Airport, said fire and rescue spokeswoman Joheida Fister.

The oil on the windshield blocked Smith's vision and he told authorities the propeller came off. When he tried to land on the beach near the Hilton Head Marriott Resort and Spa, the plane hit Jones and came to rest a little farther down the beach, Fister said.

The plane was still on the beach Tuesday afternoon. Waves lapped against it and the tail was attached to an anchor with a rope so the tide wouldn't pull it out to sea. The waves had washed away any sign of it skidding across the sand.

Yellow crime scene tape stretched from the water to the dunes to keep people away. Tourists walked up to the tape, gawking and snapping pictures. Other than the missing propeller, the plane appeared undamaged.

The plane left Orlando, Fla., at 4:45 p.m. and was headed for Virginia, Fister said. The four-seater plane has a turbine engine, can be built from a kit and can fly up to 370 mph, according to the Lancair Web site. The IV-P model has a pressurized cabin.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were investigating, Fister said.
An FAA spokeswoman referred inquiries to the NTSB.

9 Passengers Fall Sick Due To Foul Odor On US Airways Flight To Jamaica

Flight from Charlotte, N.C., to Jamaica forced to return to gate

9 people on board a US Airways flight from Charlotte, North Carolina (KCLT) to Montego Bay Jamaica were taken to the hospital Tuesday after they became sick due to a "foul odor" on the plane, officials said.
The passengers were complaining of symptoms consistent with exposure to toxic fumes, the NBC-affiliated WCNC news channel reported, citing medics. One of the patients was a US Airways employee.

Flight 985 was scheduled to depart Charlotte Douglas Airport (KCLT) at 9:35 a.m. and was due to go to Montego Bay (MBJ/MKJS) on the Caribbean island.
The Federal Aviation Administration said that there were reports of a bad smell shortly after the Boeing 767 left the gate.

The plane pushed back from the gate and taxied out on to the ramp when several passengers on board complained of a foul-smelling odor. The flight attendants notified the pilots of the problem and the aircraft returned to the gate and those persons were checked out by medics.

The plane did not get airborne so declaring an in-flight emergency never happened. The pilots checked-in with ground control to taxi and then advised them of the problem and emergency services on the field were notified. Mecklenburg County ambulance spokesman Jeff Keith said nine people were taken to Carolinas Medical Center, but added their conditions did not appear to be life-threatening.

This is not the first time this has happened with US Airways. In January, 15 people were treated after complaining of sickness associated with a foul odor on a US Airways Boeing 767 flight, WCNC reported. It's possible that this was the same exact airplane. I haven't been able to confirm this as of yet but reports indicate that maintenance logs obtained by local WCNC showed that plane experienced a similar problem on Dec. 28 and Dec. 30 on flights to San Juan, Puerto Rico.

US Airways' Service Difficulty Report filed with the Federal Aviation Administration says "a very strong odor smelling like wet socks and/or dirty feet circulated through the passenger cabin and flight deck" during Flight 1568 on December 28 from Charlotte to San Juan, Puerto Rico and another flight on Dec 30 On Jan. 5, when it was cleared for flight everything seemed to operationg normally then it happened again.

After the January 16th incident, US Airways took its 767 out of service for maintenance work. When it returned to the air on January 21, US Airways reported to the FAA "a scorched odor...like a gym or locker room" filled the aircraft. Maintenance found no problems with the plane and it was cleared for flight.

On Jan. 16, Flight 1041 from St. Thomas was the next incident flight. The crew of Flight 1041 fell victim to a "fume event," the third time in three weeks that the aircraft, a Boeing 767-2B7, tail number 251, suffered contamination of its cabin air. The flight was going from from St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands (STT/TIST) where it was met by ambulances when it landed in Charlotte (KCLT) and passengers and crew members complained of headaches and nausea they attributed to a suspicious smell.

Crew members reported trouble breathing, itchy eyes and stomach cramps. Two days later on the same route a "foul odor" entered the cabin. "Passengers and flight attendants were feeling faint and nauseous," according to the Service Difficulty Report.
US Airways tells CNN hydraulic fluid was released into the ventilation system on the two December flights. That fluid – Skydrol – is a known irritant to the respiratory tract.

Eight passengers were treated on the scene. Seven crew members were taken to the hospital, where they were treated and released. One flight attendant has since returned to the air, while the other crew members remain out on disability.

Flight Attendant Falls From Plane

A Qantas flight attendant has fallen from a plane and hit the tarmac while shutting the doors before take-off at an airport near Uluru.

The flight attendant was trying to close the doors of the plane when she stumbled and fell at Yulara airport, Northern Territory Police Superintendent Bob Harrison told ABC Radio.

"All the passengers were seated in the plane," he said.

"The attendant was shutting the aircraft doors ready for take-off when the ground staff pulled the ramp out - the stairway ramp - and unfortunately the attendant lost her footing, falling head first from the aircraft around about three metres to the ground below."

The flight attendant was taken to the local medical centre and then flown to Alice Springs with minor injuries.

SOP at Quantas says that the flight attendants do not actually close the door and early reports say the flight attendant was closing the door in some fashion and may have not been following company policy.

Girl Shoots Video of Herself While Stuck in PIT Overnight!

Hello All BlkAv8tor2003 checking In!!!

See this is what I'm talking about! If your going to be stuck in an airport all night long then why not make it fun? This young lady in the video gets stuck in Pittsburghs International airport for the night. Must have been due to the previous weeks Eastcoast winter storms and she made the absolute best of it. She had the airport as props and also as a co-star.

All I can say is Bravo!!! Sometimes you can't change what has happened but you can make the best of it!

Remember to always Be Proactive Not Reactive and enjoy your flight!!!

BlkAv8tor2003

Making the best of being stuck in an airport overnight due to weather!

Pregnant Woman, Husband Kicked Off Spirit Airlines Flight For Asking For Water

Not just movie directors are getting kicked off planes for bizarre reasons.
A New York doctor claims that he was booted from a Spirit Airlines flight for asking for water for his pregnant wife on Sunday.

Mitchell Roslin, the Chief of Obesity Surgery at Manhattan's Lenox Hill Hospital, says that after being grounded at LaGuardia Airport for two hours in a hot plane his attempts to get water for his 7-month pregnant wife were repeatedly refused.

Roslin informed the New York Post that flight attendants told him that it was "against corporate policy" to give him water before the plane was in the air.
The doctor was asked to leave the plane after continuing to plead for water, and ultimately did so with his wife and family in tow.

Hello All, BlkAv8tor2003 Is Checking In!!!

WTH is going on when you can get kicked off for requesting a glass of water? Sounds like Spirit Airlines is stirring the pot with it's own publicity! Things are getting more sensitive and every little thing is setting people off everytime!

I only imagine what is next!!!

See Ya later!!!

Remember to Be Proactive And Not Reactive and enjoy your flight!

BlkAv8tor2003

Delta passengers receive luggage soaked in jet fuel

On Sunday, a group of friends were returning home from a vacation in Puerto Rico. Shortly after landing at Denver International Airport, they retrieved their bags to find out they had been drenched in jet fuel.
Delta Airlines Representatives had them fill out a complaint and sent them home with their bags smelling of fumes. They told them to wash everything they could and for everything else submit a reimbursement form within 24 hours.

"I'm not sure what to do with baggage that smells like jet fuel because to me that seems like a hazard and I should just dump it in my trash can. I don't really know how to handle it," Kathy Shoemaker, a Delta passenger, said.
9NEWS Aviation Expert, Greg Feith, says the contaminated luggage could be a serious fire hazard on the airplane, at the airport, and at the passengers' home.
A Delta representative told the passengers the soaking probably happened on the ground in Puerto Rico, meaning the bags flew with them all the way to Denver. That didn't sit well with Kathy.

"I don't think anyone wants luggage that's been soaked in fuel in the luggage compartment of their flight. I don't ever want to think that would ever happen again cause it seems to me there was enough luggage that was soaked that any kind of spark would have blown up our plane. "
Feith says the possibility of fuel leaking from an aircraft fuel tank into the cargo pit during flight is virtually impossible. But he says the airline should always try to find the source of any fuel contamination.

9NEWS tried to contact Delta representatives for comment but our messages weren't returned.

Man Allegedly Assaults Air Marshal on Houston-Bound Flight

HOUSTON - A 47-year-old Alabama man is in federal custody after he allegedly became belligerent and punched a federal air marshal on a Houston-bound flight.

Robert Wade Prince was arrested Saturday by federal officers at Bush Intercontinental Airport, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice. He faces charges of assault, interfering with flight crew members and attendant and assaulting an officer.

Prince was aboard a Continental Airlines flight heading to Houston from Amsterdam Saturday when he allegedly started becoming boisterous and yelling loudly, according to the statement. While crew members aboard the flight tried to calm him down, he allegedly grabbed the arm of a female attendant.

Then a woman sitting next to Prince accused him of inappropriately touching her and complained about his yelling, according to the statement.
That's when a flight attendant asked a federal air marshal aboard the flight to switch seats with the woman, according to the statement.

But as the air marshal tried to take his new seat, Prince allegedly blocked it, according to the statement.
After the air marshal identified himself as a federal officer, Prince allegedly punched him twice in the torso, according to the statement.
Prince was restrained and forced to sit in the crew's rest area, according to the statement.
During the rest of the flight, Prince allegedly kept verbally abusing the air marshal, according to the statement.

He was immediately arrested after the plane safely landed at Intercontinental Airport.
Prince is being held without bond until his detention hearing, which has been scheduled for Thursday.
A conviction on a charge of interfering with flight crew members and attendants carries a punishment range of up to 20 years, according to the statement.
A charge of assaulting an officer carries a maximum punishment of 8 years imprisonment upon conviction, according to the statement.

Both offenses are also punishable by fines of up to $250,000 each.
Assault carries a maximum punishment of six months incarceration and a $5,000 fine.

CSTPublished: Tuesday, 16 Feb 2010, 5:15 PM CSTM
http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/news/local/100216-mid-air-assault

US Airways Does It Again: Would You Sit Separated From Your 2 and 5 Year Old?

by Sierra on February 15, 2010
Childwild

US Airways!!! Straighten Up And Fly Right!!!!

Hello all BlkAv8tor2003 Checking In!!!

Just when you thought the airlines could do no worse, US Airways comes down and drops the ball in a big way! This is an absolute mistake on the grandest scale and US Airways and the front-line employees failed to do the one thing that is paramount and their primary job function....CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!

How does some many employees who are involved with the boarding process and flight screw things up so bad? Here is the story in brief and I will post a link to the actual blog story of the passenger involved!

US Airways Hates Families and Kids
A mother traveling with her 2 children and another family member who also was traveling with a child were to fly on US Airways from Boston (KBOS) to Tucson (KTUS) with a stop or layover in Phoenix (KPHX) US Airways Corporate home. The skinny of it is all 5 of these passengers were seated separately. A 2 year old, 5 year old, the mom and the other family member with a lap child.

From her story she said that not one of the agents, flight attendants or other passengers would help her get her seats changed, ask for volunteers to change seats so that the children were not seated alone for 5 hours worth of flying and the mother was terrified that if she made a big stink out of it that she would be arrested! I can't count how many times when I flew as a flight attendant, worked as a gate agent or customer service supervisor/manager that I have asked for volunteers to change there seats to accommodate a family in part or full when it came to seat assignments.

This is lazy agents and flight crew not doing what they can to come up with a solution. Give a passengers a free drink or two, free headset or a free meal for making the change...the agents or flight attendants could have done something....If they really wanted too! There was a flight attendant that tried to offer assistance to this passenger in her moments of need but the story was a little sketchy regarding her.

The passenger didn't know if she worked for US Airways or not because she was flying in plain clothes but she did say she was a flight attendant. Sounds like she was commuting or deadheading (deadheading: flying to or from a trip in plain clothing; On duty but not working this particular flight) She offered some assistance but then retreated and all but alienated the passenger. this is one of the weirdest series of events I ever heard of and it was just plain wrong!

This is what you get when people get complacent or just don't care about what they are doing. Being a flight attendant, means a 24 hr smile and you MUST help everyone at anytime and if it's repetitive then you must do things over and over. This incident just shows that the flight crew can be a helpful entity or a hindrance when a passenger is in need. The crew may have been following their company policies about seat assignment changes and things they do on the plane but the last time I checked to a point the company policies are a guide and employees need to use good judgement to solve problems. The crew on board and the agents obviously didn't do anything more than they were suppose to. Again this is why the airlines as a whole have a black eye right now and at the rate they are going the are working on a broken nose too!

Now I don't know if the passenger did her part about making sure her seating was in order before getting to the actual departure gate but there were many things she could have done to lessen the chance of this happening. I sent her a reply to her blog but as of my writing she has not posted it or replied to me regarding it. When this happens I will update this. This is all over Twitter and starting to pick up the national headlines too, so I know this story is far from over. As I hear of updates I will post them too!

The link to her full story is here! Would you sit separated from your 2-year-old?

I have also posted Reservation Tricks When Flying I hope travelers can use them to their advantage to make their travels a little less stressful.

The airline is only going to do so much but it is the responsibility of the airline passenger to be prepared and planning ahead for anything that might be out of the ordinary. When passengers start doing this they will have less stressful trips and when things go well they enjoy their trip just a little bit more!

Remember to Be Proactive And Not Reactive when you fly and enjoy your flight!!!

BlkAv8tor2003

Milestone In Diversity Continental Airlines Names Jetliner After Trailblazing Pilot

It took Marlon Green more than six years to battle Continental Airlines to become the first black hired as a pilot for a U.S. passenger airline.

And it took Continental nearly 50 years to publicly acknowledge Green's contribution to its success.

On Tuesday, that delayed expression of gratitude came in a Houston hangar during a ceremony to introduce Continental's newest Boeing 737 — emblazoned with Green's name. (See photos from the ceremony.)

“The fact that we did this shows how regretful we are about our history, and we took the opportunity to honor Capt. Green because it's important to us,” Jeff Smisek, Continental's chairman, president and CEO, said in an interview.

Green's brother, Jim Green, flew from his home near Seattle to attend the ceremony. He said the honor would have pleased his brother, who died in July at age 80. 

“He's looking down from heaven and saying well done — a little bit late, but well done,” Jim Green said.

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, called Tuesday a day of redemption for the Houston-based airline.

“If we do not remember our history, if we do not understand the pain, then we cannot enjoy the joy,” she said.
Marlon Green and his family suffered a great deal while waging the legal battle that led decades later to the honor Continental bestowed Tuesday at the suggestion of its black pilots.

And it took Continental nearly 50 years to publicly acknowledge Green's contribution to its success.
On Tuesday, that delayed expression of gratitude came in a Houston hangar during a ceremony to introduce Continental's newest Boeing 737 — emblazoned with Green's name. (See photos from the ceremony.)
“The fact that we did this shows how regretful we are about our history, and we took the opportunity to honor Capt. Green because it's important to us,” Jeff Smisek, Continental's chairman, president and CEO, said in an interview.

Green's brother, Jim Green, flew from his home near Seattle to attend the ceremony. He said the honor would have pleased his brother, who died in July at age 80. 

“He's looking down from heaven and saying well done — a little bit late, but well done,” Jim Green said.

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, called Tuesday a day of redemption for the Houston-based airline.
“If we do not remember our history, if we do not understand the pain, then we cannot enjoy the joy,” she said.
Marlon Green and his family suffered a great deal while waging the legal battle that led decades later to the honor Continental bestowed Tuesday at the suggestion of its black pilots.

And it took Continental nearly 50 years to publicly acknowledge Green's contribution to its success.

On Tuesday, that delayed expression of gratitude came in a Houston hangar during a ceremony to introduce Continental's newest Boeing 737 — emblazoned with Green's name. (See photos from the ceremony.)

“The fact that we did this shows how regretful we are about our history, and we took the opportunity to honor Capt. Green because it's important to us,” Jeff Smisek, Continental's chairman, president and CEO, said in an interview.

Green's brother, Jim Green, flew from his home near Seattle to attend the ceremony. He said the honor would have pleased his brother, who died in July at age 80. 

“He's looking down from heaven and saying well done — a little bit late, but well done,” Jim Green said.

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, called Tuesday a day of redemption for the Houston-based airline.

“If we do not remember our history, if we do not understand the pain, then we cannot enjoy the joy,” she said.

Marlon Green and his family suffered a great deal while waging the legal battle that led decades later to the honor Continental bestowed Tuesday at the suggestion of its black pilots.