More than 700k passengers were delayed when engineer was allowed to work remotely and his password didn't work.  A bank holiday air traffic control meltdown that left more than 700,000 passengers stranded was made worse because a work-from-home engineer's password wouldn't work.  Chaos erupted at airports across the UK last August when a flight-plan glitch caused the National Air Traffic Services (NATS) computer system to collapse.  With the system down, flights could not take off or land at any airport, causing hellish delays that lasted for days and cost airlines £100 million in compensation.

Could be a problem.
Flight From Seattle to Istanbul Makes Emergency Landing in New York After Pilot Dies Mid-Flight.  A flight from Seattle to Istanbul, Turkey made an emergency landing in New York on Wednesday morning after one of its pilots died mid-flight.  A Turkish Airlines pilot "lost consciousness" mid-flight forcing the co-pilot to reroute to JFK in New York.  Turkish Airlines confirmed Capt. Ílçehin Pehlivan, 59, died before the plane landed after medical intervention failed to resuscitate him.  The pilot was in perfect health and had his last health examination in August.

Boeing Under Fire After Report Found That Employees Were Told to Prioritize Speed Over Quality.  A special investigation spearheaded by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) found that Boeing prioritized production speed over quality and failed to train its employees accurately.  According to the "troubling" findings of the FAA's 2024 special audit[,] published on Wednesday[,] Boeing allegedly took "shortcuts" on production and failed to provide its mechanics with the appropriate tools and resources to complete their work.  [Paywall]

Electronic Warfare Spooks Airlines, Pilots and Air-Safety Officials.  American Airlines Capt. Dan Carey knew his cockpit equipment was lying to him when an alert began blaring "pull up!" as his Boeing 777 passed over Pakistan in March — at an altitude of 32,000 feet, far above any terrain.  The warning stemmed from a kind of electronic warfare that hundreds of civilian pilots encounter each day:  GPS spoofing.  The alert turned out to be false but illustrated how fake signals that militaries use to ward off drones and missiles are also permeating growing numbers of commercial aircraft, including U.S. airlines' international flights.  "It was concerning, but it wasn't startling, because we were at cruise altitude," Carey said.  Had an engine failure or other in-flight emergency struck at the same time, though, the situation "could be extremely dangerous."

NASA Report Reveals Boeing's Use of Underqualified Workers Contribute To Flurry Of Problems.  A new NASA report has uncovered that Boeing's reliance on underqualified workers for its Space Launch System (SLS) project has led to significant quality control issues, contributing to delays and increased costs.  The SLS, designed to return astronauts to the moon, is now projected to cost $5.7 billion, exceeding its allocated budget by $700 million, and its upper stage is six years behind schedule.  NASA's Office of Inspector General report highlighted the lack of "trained and experienced aerospace workers" as a major factor in construction delays.  It also pointed out "significant quality control deficiencies" at Boeing's Michoud Assembly Facility, despite its attempts to provide in-house training.

Woman Dies at Chicago's O'Hare Airport in Tragic Baggage Machine Incident.  An unidentified woman was found dead Thursday at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport when police discovered her tangled in baggage processing machinery.  The Chicago Fire Department responded at about 7:45 a.m. after a woman was reported to be "pinned in machinery" in the Terminal 5 baggage area, according to WLS-TV.  The woman was tangled up in a conveyor belt system that moves baggage.

Flight 'Chaos' as Air Marshals Redeployed to U.S.-Mexico Border.  A passenger who confronted an aggressive man on a flight left without an air marshal, due to redeployments to the U.S.-Mexico border, has told Newsweek it was "complete chaos" that could have ended very differently.  Gretchün Ciluzzi was on a United flight with her mother in March 2023 when a man allegedly tried to open an emergency door, before becoming aggressive towards the crew and passengers in a terrifying incident lasting well over an hour.  The Air Marshal National Council claims that airline passengers are being left unprotected while its members are sent to work on a mission for which they are not trained — immigration enforcement along the southwest border.

Here's what to know about Boeing agreeing to plead guilty to fraud in 737 Max crashes.  Boeing will have a felony conviction if it follows through on an agreement with prosecutors to plead guilty to fraud in connection with approval of its 737 Max before two of the planes crashed, killing 346 people off the coast of Indonesia and in Ethiopia.  The American aerospace giant has apparently made the calculation that admitting to a crime is better than fighting the charge and enduring a long public trial.  The plea deal is not yet a sure thing, however.

United Airlines Boeing Jet Loses Wheel Seconds After Takeoff From LAX.  A wheel has fallen off a United Airlines Boeing 757-200 just moments after takeoff.  On Monday [7/8/2024], United confirmed in a statement that a wheel fell off the jet as Flight 1001 departed Los Angeles International Airport around 7 a.m. local time on its way to Denver.  [Tweet with video clip]

Mass brawl breaks out 30,000 feet in the sky on Ryanair, prompting emergency landing: 'flight from hell'.  A "mass brawl" between passengers onboard a Ryanair "flight from hell" caused the pilot to make an emergency landing after taking off in a seemingly never-ending chaotic scene ignited by a man asking to switch his seat.  The London Stansted Airport-bound flight departed from Agadir, Morocco, on Wednesday when the chaos erupted at 30,000 feet in the air, the Sun reported.  Startling video obtained by the outlet shows passengers screaming at each other from across the plane as panic-stricken airline staff try their best to calm the unhinged travelers.

Former Boeing inspector alleges 'scrap' parts ended up on assembly lines.  A former Boeing quality-control manager alleges that for years workers at its 787 Dreamliner factory in Everett, Washington, routinely took parts that were deemed unsuitable to fly out of an internal scrap yard and put them back on factory assembly lines.  In his first network TV interview, Merle Meyers, a 30-year veteran of Boeing, described to CNN what he says was an elaborate off-the-books practice that Boeing managers at the Everett factory used to meet production deadlines, including taking damaged and improper parts from the company's scrapyard, storehouses and loading docks.

New Boeing Whistleblower Warns About Substandard Manufacturing On 787 Jets.  In 2023, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) faced a surge in whistleblower complaints against Boeing, primarily triggered by issues with the 787 Dreamliner.  Richard Cuevas, an airplane mechanic, raised alarm bells after witnessing substandard manufacturing practices at Spirit Aerosystems, a Boeing partner.  He reported critical drilling and sealant problems on the 787's forward bulkheads, which could compromise flight safety by affecting power and air pressure.  Despite Cuevas's efforts to raise concerns through proper channels, he was fired, sparking further controversy.

Woman And Her Toddler Are Booted Off A United Airlines Flight For Using The Wrong Pronouns Of A Flight Attendant.  A mom has claimed she was booted off a United Airlines flight with her distressed 16-month-old son over using the wrong pronoun for a flight attendant.  Jenna Longoria was expecting to fly to Austin from San Francisco on Wednesday with her mom and son when United stopped them from traveling.  She alleges she was denied boarding after an 'accidental' mix-up when addressing a United staff member, who she says refused to accept her apology.  [Video clip]

The Editor says...
This is what civil litigation is for.

NTSB sanctions Boeing for releasing non-public details on 737 Max investigation.  The National Transportation Safety Board Thursday sanctioned Boeing for sharing investigative information with the media about the 737 Max 9 door plug incident in violation of NTSB investigation regulations.  The NTSB said Boeing provided non-public investigative information to the media that NTSB had not verified for release and also "offered opinions and analysis on factors it suggested were causal to the accident."

Another Packed Boeing Passenger Plane Malfunctions and Plunges Mid-Flight, Hospitalizing 13.  Another packed Boeing passenger plane has taken a terrifying 25,000-foot plunge after suffering a malfunction mid-flight.  Thirteen passengers onboard a Korea Airlines flight to Taiwan have been taken to hospital following the incident.  The Boeing aircraft plummeted more than 25,000 feet following a fault in the cabin pressurization system.  Korean Airlines Flight KE189 was forced to make an emergency landing in Incheon, South Korea on Saturday following the incident.

That Southwest Airlines Flight Was Coming in Hot.  Something went seriously wrong this week when Southwest Airlines Flight 4069 was en route from Las Vegas to Oklahoma City.  Shortly after midnight, the plane was approaching its destination when it began sharply descending far sooner than it should have.  It quickly dropped to barely 500 feet above a residential neighborhood, setting off low altitude alarms and putting a scare into both passengers and local residents.  The air traffic control tower began contacting the pilots to make inquiries.  The pilots were able to climb back up to a higher altitude and eventually landed safely, but they missed their first attempt at the runway.  Now, several days later, the FAA still can't explain what, if anything went wrong.  Just for the record, the plane was yet another Boeing 737.

New Boeing whistleblower alleges faulty parts 'likely installed' on planes, risking 'catastrophic event'.  A new Boeing whistleblower has emerged alleging that parts determined to be "damaged or otherwise out of specification" are "likely being installed" on the company's airplanes, raising the possibility of a "catastrophic event," a Senate subcommittee says.  [Advertisement]  The revelations from current Boeing employee Sam Mohawk, a quality assurance investigator at a production facility in Renton, Washington, come as the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations is set to question Boeing CEO David Calhoun Tuesday afternoon on alleged safety concerns linked to the aircraft maker's manufacturing practices.  "New whistleblower and current Boeing employee, Sam Mohawk alleges that Boeing is improperly documenting, tracking, and storing parts that are damaged or otherwise out of specification, and that those parts are likely being installed on airplanes," the subcommittee said in a statement Tuesday.

Passengers On A Qatar Airlines [flight were] Stuck On The Tarmac For 3 Hours In Athens Without Air Conditioning.  Passengers on a Qatar Airways flight had to endure being stuck for hours in stifling cabin heat as the aircraft sat on the tarmac without air conditioning.  On June 10, 2024, flight QR 204 was scheduled to depart Athens International Airport (ATH) in the early afternoon, bound for Hamad International Airport (DOH) in Doha.  [Video clip]

Titanium, zinc, tin... what's the difference?
Boeing and Airbus Planes Unwittingly Used Fake Titanium.  The FAA is deeply concerned that Boeing and Airbus planes were constructed with "fake" Chinese titanium.  It could cause their jets to break apart in mid-air.  On Friday, the Financial Times reported that Boeing acknowledged some parts of their jets contain counterfeit titanium from China.  The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported that Boeing told officials they received titanium parts containing counterfeit documentation.  Boeing bought the counterfeit components from Spirit AeroSystems, a Kansas-based aerostructure manufacturer.  The New York Times reported Spirit AeroSystems received the titanium from China, where its documentation was reportedly falsified.

Southwest Airlines Flight Plunges Within 400 Feet of Ocean; FAA Investigating.  The FAA is currently investigating a hair-raising incident involving a Southwest Airlines flight that nearly plunged into the ocean off the coast of Hawaii.  This alarming event, which took place on April 11, was brought to light through a memo sent to pilots.  The memo disclosed that a "newer" first officer on the flight mistakenly pushed forward the control column, causing the Boeing 737 Max 8 jet to plummet at an alarming rate of over 4,000 feet per minute.  The aircraft came perilously close to disaster, dipping to within 400 feet of the ocean's surface.  Fortunately, there were no injuries reported on the flight.

The Editor says...
Even on Southwest, you're paying enough to expect competent pilots will fly the plane.

Another Boeing Wild Ride and New Production Safety Issues.  It seems like we can't finish out a week here without at least one story of something going wrong with a Boeing 737 Max flight somewhere in the world.  The latest incident probably isn't the manufacturer's fault, however, though it was no doubt distressing for some of the 175 passengers traveling from Phoenix to Oakland, California back on May 25.  Traveling at more than 30.000 feet in the air, the Southwest Airlines flight suddenly began to dip and slide to the side, followed by a series of left-to-right "waggles" of the tail of the aircraft.  This unintentional maneuver is known as a "Dutch roll" in the aeronautics community.  The motion was severe enough that the aircraft suffered significant structural damage, but the pilots were still able to land the plane safely in Oakland.

Packed Boeing Passenger Jet Malfunctions Mid-Flight, Suffers Terrifying 'Dutch Roll'.  Federal aviation authorities have launched an investigation after a packed Boeing 737 passenger jet suffered a malfunction and entered into a terrifying "Dutch Roll" mid-flight.  Officials with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are investigating the atypical rolling maneuver that occurred during a Southwest flight.  Southwest Flight N8825Q, a Boeing 737 carrying 175 passengers, experienced a rare "Dutch Roll" at 32,000 feet in the air.  The incident resulted in significant damage to the aircraft that left it out of service, officials said.  The two-year-old plane was traveling from Phoenix to Oakland on May 25 when its tail began to wag left and right.

Counterfeit Titanium Found in Boeing and Airbus Jets.  Boeing is no longer the pride of American aviation.  The plane manufacturer is riddled with so many problems it's impossible to keep track.  Yesterday [6/13/2024], the FAA announced an investigation (yet another...) into a 737 Max 8 jet that encountered a dangerous mid-flight 'Dutch roll' several weeks ago.  Now, a report from the New York Times reveals that some Boeing jets are built with 'counterfeit titanium.' [...] The big question is if the metal used in critical parts of the airframe is structurally sound enough to last the projected life spans of the jets.  If the metal is tested and found to be below aviation specs, the parts must be removed and replaced.

Two More Boeing Whistleblowers Come Forward.  This morning, Boeing launched the first flight of its Starliner into space carrying a two-person crew bound for the International Space Station. [...] Back on the planet, the news for Boeing didn't get any better.  Two more whistleblowers have come forward to express their concerns about safety issues and production problems at the company's manufacturing plants.  One worked directly for Boeing while the other worked at its subsidiary Spirit AeroSystems.  The concerns they are raising are similar to the ones we've heard from previous whistleblowers, including the two who died under questionable circumstances this year.

Transatlantic air fares to jump under net zero fuel rules.  The cost of a return trip to New York is on track to rise by £40 as a result of incoming net zero regulations, according to figures from Virgin Atlantic.  The extra burden on travellers is expected if the cost of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is passed on directly.  Calculations by Virgin Atlantic, a pioneer in using the greener jet fuel, show that ticket prices would have to rise 6 [percent].  For a return flight to New York that would amount to a £40 increase at current prices, based on two one-way fares costing about £350 each.  SAF is a refined blend of waste oils, animal fats and ethanol from corn.  The fuel is viewed as the most practical route towards reducing aviation's net CO2 emission before completely new technologies, such as hydrogen propulsion, become available next decade or beyond.

Boeing 747 Engine Erupts in Fireball During Takeoff.  Another week, another mid-air mishap for a Boeing plane.  This time, a 747-400 carrying 468 passengers from Indonesia to Saudi Arabia had to make an emergency landing immediately after takeoff when one of the plane's four engines erupted in a fireball. [...] Garuda-1105 flight to Madinah, a city in western Saudi Arabia, was departing from the Indonesian city of Makassar on Wednesday when, as soon as the plane achieved rotation speed and lifted off the runway, a giant fireball erupted from one of the plane's engines.

Boeing Whistleblower Cause of Death Posted.  Ever since Boeing Whistleblower John Barnett was found dead in his Dodge pickup truck in the parking lot of the North Carolina hotel where he was staying, obvious questions have lingered over what happened to him.  Yesterday, the coroner who handled the case finally revealed the results of the investigation.  The cause of death was determined to be a "gunshot wound of the head."  That much seemed to be obvious from the beginning.  But the coroner then goes on to state somewhat vaguely that the death was "best deemed 'suicide.'"  However, the additional details regarding the scene will likely do little to quell the controversy surrounding the incident. [...] But the entire thing still seems far too convenient and the family is requesting further information.  It's hard to blame them.  The entire matter still seems dubious.

Two Men Exchange Blows Over The Air Vents During Flight.  The guy closer to the camera started the incident by turning off the other man's air and then slapping him.  This must be his first flight.  Might be his last after this incident.  [Video clip]

Spirit Airlines:  Two Brain Surgeons Get Into Wild Brawl.  Shocking video shows a Spirit Airlines flight attendant nearly getting pummeled while desperately trying to break up a fight between two men who had been constantly arguing on a Boston-bound flight.  The wild video from aboard Flight 3907 shows two men lunging at each other as soon as the plane touched down at Logan Airport late Tuesday, Boston 25 News reports.  [Video clip]

Friendly Skies?  Three Boeing Planes Crash in Two Days.  Boeing, a master blaster of the military-industrial complex, has more issues than National Geographic. [...] The last 48 hours haven't been kind to Boeing as three planes have either crashed or had technical problems.  A Boeing 737 based in Turkey blew out a tire as it landed in the Turkish town of Alanya.  The front landing gear warped and buckled as the plane skidded to a stop.  The 190 crew and passengers were uninjured.  Another Boeing 737 crashed Thursday in Senegal as it attempted to take off, leaving eleven people injured, four of them seriously, with no deaths recorded at this time.  Emergency crews rushed to the scene as the left engine burst into flames and terrified passengers fled to safety.  A Boeing cargo plane operated by FedEx made an emergency landing after a landing gear failed to operate.  Dramatic video shows the nose of the plane grinding against the runway in Istanbul, throwing sparks from the nose as it screeches to a halt.

Boeing 737 Catches Fire During Failed Takeoff Attempt.  A Boeing airplane left a runway and ended up in flames in a field during a failed takeoff attempt on Thursday at an airport in West Africa.  The 737 skid injured at least 11 people, four of whom were sent to a hospital in the country of Senegal, the U.K.'s Independent reported.  According to multiple reports, the jet was owned by the Senegal-based airliner TransAir and Thursday's incident shut down all operations at Blaise Diagne airport near the city of Dakar.

FedEx Boeing Cargo Plane Has A Rough Landing Without Its Front Wheel.  A FedEx Airlines cargo plane was forced to land in Turkey without the use of its front landing gear on Wednesday morning, the Turkish transport ministry said.  Fedex Express Flight 6268, a Boeing 767, was flying from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport to Istanbul Airport when it informed the Turkish traffic control tower that its landing gear failed to open.  Airport rescue and fire teams prepared the runway and the tower instructed the plane's crew to proceed with landing.  [Video clip]

Boeing Faces 10 New Whistleblowers After Tragic Deaths of Two Colleagues.  The aviation giant Boeing is facing a growing number of whistleblowers coming forward with safety concerns following the recent deaths of two previous whistleblowers, the New York Post reported.  The first whistleblower, John Barnett, a 62-year-old former Boeing quality control manager, was found dead in March in an apparent suicide.  Barnett had been in the midst of giving depositions, alleging Boeing retaliated against him for complaints about quality lapses.  Barnett was found in his truck "suffering from a gunshot wound to the head."  A suicide note was reportedly found next to Boeing whistleblower John Barnett.  However, his lawyers are questioning whether he took his own life.

Another Boeing whistleblower dies — Josh Dean, 45, succumbs to 'sudden illness'.  Another Boeing whistleblower has died, this time after contracting a fast-spreading infection.  [Advertisement]  According to the Seattle Times, one of the aerospace giant's former quality control auditors Joshua Dean (45) passed away Tuesday after "a struggle with a sudden, fast-spreading infection."  Dean worked at Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems and was one of the first whistleblowers to allege Spirit's top brass ignored manufacturing defects on the 737 MAX.  [Advertisement]  According to the outlet, Dean who lived in Wichita, Kansas, where Spirit is based, was in good health and lived a healthy and active lifestyle, but died after suffering for two weeks in critical condition.  Previously, Dean had filed a complaint with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) alleging "serious and gross misconduct by senior quality management of the 737 production line" at the supplier and gave a deposition in a Spirit shareholder lawsuit.

Boeing posts $355 million loss in Q1 after series of company crises.  "We are in a tough moment," Boeing CEO David Calhoun said as the company announced a $355 million loss in the first quarter of 2024 as the ongoing saga regarding the aircraft manufacturer and its practices regarding safety continues to face increasing scrutiny.  Calhoun stated the company is focusing on fixing its manufacturing issues instead of prioritizing the financial results.  "Although we reported first-quarter financial results today, our focus remains on the sweeping actions we are taking following the Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 accident," Calhoun told employees in a memo Wednesday, according to The Associated Press.

Boeing engineers allege retaliation over safety concerns.  Two engineers from Boeing's Everett facility have alleged retaliation by the company's management after they insisted on a re-evaluation of work on the 787 and 777 airliners in 2022, according to a claim from the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) union.  The engineers argued that the work needed to be reviewed under a new Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) advisory.  However, Boeing resisted, citing increased costs and potential delays.  Despite the pushback, the analysis was eventually carried out.

Two catastrophic airline disasters in the space of 3 days narrowly averted as controllers apparently not up to the job.  Are you aware that there have been two near-catastrophes at major American airports (DC Reagan and NY JFK) where airplanes were cleared to cross runways as another airplane was taking off?  A runway collision on takeoff is almost by definition the deadliest form of airline disaster, since two or more airplanes, at least one fueled up for the coming journey, collide at takeoff speed, likely engulfing them in fireballs.  That is how the deadliest airline disaster in history, happened in Tenerife, killing 583 people.  The first incident took place last Thursday, April 18, at Reagan National Airport when the tower controller ordered a Southwest jet to cross a runway as a Jet Blue plane was taking off.

Rockies staff member allegedly sat inside cockpit on flight, triggering FAA, United Airlines investigation.  An investigation is underway by the Federal Aviation Administration and United Airlines after a member of the Colorado Rockies' traveling party was allegedly seen on video sitting in the captain's chair in the plane's cockpit during the team's flight on April 10, the Wall Street Journal reported.  The Rockies were en route to Toronto on a charter flight operated by United when the video was taken, according to the report.  Following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, federal regulations tightened around who is allowed to be on the flight deck, and United's own flight operations manual requires the cockpit door to remain closed the way it would be on a normal commercial flight.

Boeing Whistleblower Claims 787 Could Fall Apart and 'Drop to the Ground,' Wouldn't Put His Family on One.  Boeing engineer turned whistleblower Sam Salehpour appeared on NBC News Tuesday evening and said the company's 787 Dreamliner could literally fall apart and "drop to the ground" due to assembly flaws and that he wouldn't feel safe putting his family on one.  He is expected to testify before a U.S. Senate subcommittee Wednesday about what he sees as devastating safety issues at the aircraft industry company.  The problem is so dangerous he thinks the entire fleet should be grounded:  ["]The entire fleet worldwide, as far as I'm concerned right now, needs attention.  And the attention is, you need to check your gaps and make sure that you don't have potential for premature failure.["]

Video shows engine of Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 ripping apart during takeoff.  Passengers on a Houston-bound Southwest Airlines flight watched in horror Sunday as an engine on the Boeing 737-800 appeared to come apart mid-flight.  The flight immediately returned to Denver after crew members noticed a removable sheet of metal covering one of the plane's engines sheared off during takeoff.  In a terrifying video posted on X by ABC's chief transportation reporter Sam Sweeney, the metal engine cover can be seen whipping in the breeze like paper as it tore loose.

The Editor says...
That headline was a little exaggeration, perhaps:  Some of the outer streamlining enclosure of the engine fell off.  The engine itself did not "rip apart."

Another video angle:
A Southwest Airlines Engine Ripped Apart Like A Banana During Takeoff.  A Southwest Airlines flight had to make an emergency stop after an engine part fell off during takeoff from Denver International Airport on Sunday morning [4/7/2024].  The Boeing 737-800 plane was headed for William P. Hobby Airport in Houston when the engine cowling fell off and struck the wing flap during takeoff, according to The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).  [Video clip]

Southwest Airlines flight in near miss with LaGuardia Airport's control tower.  A Southwest plane came perilously close to hitting LaGuardia Airport's air traffic control tower.  Southwest Flight 147 from Nashville to New York veered off course when coming in for a landing on March 23 around 1 pm because of inclement weather.  The Boeing 737 plane, which had 150 people on board, came within 67 feet of the control tower.

United Airlines plane diverted to Denver due to engine problems during international flight to Paris.  A United Airlines flight travelling from San Francisco to Paris had to be diverted after the Boeing jet suffered engine problems.  Flight 990, a Boeing 777-200, had to touchdown at Denver International Airport after the crew reported an issue with one engine.  The plane's journey, seen on Flightradar24, showed it heading north towards the Canadian border before it turned south towards the Colorado city.

Boeing CEO will walk away with tens of millions despite failing to solve key safety issues.  Boeing's CEO, Dave Calhoun, has already been paid tens of millions by the company and could be paid even more upon his exit despite failing to solve a series of safety issues that have plagued the jet manufacturer.  In Calhoun's first three years, starting in 2020, the CEO was given over $64.6 million in compensation, including significant stock awards and option awards that could generate even more gains depending on stock fluctuations, according to Boeing's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  Recent safety concerns have led Calhoun to step down, with recent issues stemming from an incident on Alaska Airlines in early January where a door plug flew off of a Boeing 737 Max 9 mid-flight, resulting in numerous injuries and an emergency landing.

Boeing's Dead Whistleblower Told the Truth.  In the days before his death, John Barnett was in Charleston, giving a deposition for the whistleblower suit he had filed against Boeing.  According to one of his lawyers, Rob Turkewitz, he was upbeat about his testimony, feeling he was finally able to tell the story of his efforts to get the company to take safety more seriously — and the rejection of those efforts by his bosses, who, according to Barnett, simply didn't want to hear about it.  The last day of the deposition was scheduled for Saturday, March 9. But that morning, he was found in his truck, a bullet in his head and a gun in his hand.  The police said it was "a self-inflicted wound."  The reaction from people who knew Barnett was utter disbelief.  On that last day, his lawyers told Time magazine, "he was in very good spirits and really looking forward to putting this phase of his life behind him and moving on.  We didn't see any indication he would take his own life.  No one can believe it."  A family friend told ABC News that he had told her, "I ain't scared, but if anything happens to me, it's not suicide."  The internet lit up.

Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun to step down at year's end.  Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun is stepping down at the end of 2024 as the aerospace giant grapples with fallout stemming from the 737 Max crisis.  Calhoun, who was tapped to turn around the company in 2020, will "lead Boeing through the year to complete the critical work underway to stabilize and position the company for the future," the company said in a statement Monday.  Aside from Calhoun's departure, Boeing announced an overhaul of its management team as it tries to turn around its reputation.

FAA to step up scrutiny of United Airlines after recent incidents.  United Airlines said late Friday that U.S. safety regulators will boost scrutiny of the airline after a series of recent safety incidents.  United's corporate safety vice president, Sasha Johnson, said in a memo that over the next several weeks employees will see more of a presence by the Federal Aviation Administration "in our operation as they begin to review some of our work processes, manuals and facilities."

The real reason Boeing is in the news.  In short, China wants Boeing out.  China's new knock-off passenger jet is waiting for approval as a replacement for the Boeing 737, and the Biden administration is only too willing to help the Chinese by demonizing an American manufacturer, with national security implications.  As major media report, "Boeing's crisis may open a gap for Chinese jets to fly through."  With a Trump presidency, this would not have happened, and it's another reason why the DNC and its China-first allies want Trump permanently sidelined.  To an unusual extent, the major media are reporting what seem to be a nearly unending series of mishaps involving U.S. commercial airline aircraft made by the Boeing company.  Whether it's a window blowing out in flight, a tire falling to the ground after takeoff, or a sudden "nosedive" in cruising flight, it seems the Boeing jet, especially the 737, can't be trusted anymore, and the public is being conditioned to think so. [...] But statistically, it is hard to explain the sudden cluster of reported issues with Boeing aircraft, and based on random occurrence, while China is aggressively lobbying to have its copycat model replace it.

Alaska Airlines Boeing 737's inner windshield cracks while landing at Portland International Airport.  The windshield on an Alaska Airlines flight from Washington D.C. cracked as it made its descent into Portland International Airport on Sunday night.  The plane, a Boeing 737-800, was carrying 159 passengers and 6 crew members across the country when it suffered a small crack on the inner windshield.  'The crew followed their checklists and the aircraft continued safely to its destination as scheduled.  Alaska Airlines' 737 fleet are outfitted with five-layer windscreens that have an outer pane, three inner layers and an inner pane.

Another day, another suspicious 'suicide'.  It's always the same basic story:  obvious murder motive; hard-to-believe coincidences; a revisionist coroner who says it was suicide despite evidence to the contrary; the police who say they will leave no stone unturned but after the attention dies down say it was indeed a suicide; relatives and friends say the deceased had a zest for life and told them shortly before his untimely demise that if anything happens to him, it was not suicide.  The latest is Boeing whistleblower John Barnett, who, seven years after retiring from Boeing, where he had worked for 32 years as a quality control manager, was in the middle of giving a deposition in a retaliation lawsuit exposing serious safety problems with the 787 Dreamliner.

Inside Boeing's shocking personnel scandals.  Boeing whistleblower John Barnett was found dead in his car with a gunshot wound to his head on the same day he was due to testify against the aircraft manufacturer.  The mysterious incident happened as the company's stock has nosedived, fueled by a series of incidents including a door plug which flew off a 737 MAX 9 operated by Alaska Airlines at 16,000 feet on Jan. 5 and a wheel falling off a 777 jet a few weeks later.  This led the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) to investigate and discover "unacceptable" quality control issues.

American Work Ethic:  Missing in Action?  We can't continue to be passive as our systems crumble around our feet.  Bad things happen when the canaries in the mine start chirping.  Boeing, Airbus, and other worldwide aviation companies have execution issues at all levels. [...] Problems can be seen everywhere:  Dozens are injured after a Boeing jet has a mechanical problem.  A tire falls off a Boeing 777.  The door plug comes off in flight on a Boeing 737-9 Max.  A Boeing 737 Max 8 runs off the runway in Texas.  A United flight en route to Florida from Houston made an emergency landing after flames erupted from its left engine.  Other examples occur on a near-daily basis.  The issue is systemic.

Boeing Whistleblower: 'If Anything Happens To Me, It's Not Suicide'.  A former Boeing manager and whistleblower, John Barnett, had told a close friend days before his untimely death that if anything happened to him, it would not be suicide.  The Gateway Pundit previously reported that Barnett was found dead from what appeared to be a self-inflicted wound inside his car in a hotel parking lot shortly after testifying against the aerospace company.  Barnett had accused Boeing of neglecting safety concerns and retaliating against him for his disclosures.  The 62-year-old, who had a 32-year tenure with the company until his retirement in 2017, died on March 9 during a break from depositions in a whistleblower retaliation lawsuit.

Fifty injured after pilot 'lost instrumentation' on LATAM flight from Sydney to Auckland.  The pilot of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner that plunged suddenly en route from Sydney to Auckland on Monday, injuring 50 people, reportedly told passengers after the terrifying incident that his "gauges just blanked out" and he "lost all ability to fly the plane".  Twelve passengers were hospitalised and dozens injured after a "major incident" on board LATAM flight LA800 caused the plane to dip violently, with ambulances rushing to Auckland Aiport just before 4 pm local time.  The Chilean airline said an unspecified "technical problem" caused "strong movement" in the air.  Unrestrained passengers were sent flying through the cabin and into the ceiling, with some left covered in blood.

Update:
Cockpit accident believed to be cause of nose dive on LATAM Boeing 787: WSJ.  A cockpit accident was the likely cause of a sudden drop that sent passengers on a LATAM Airlines Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner bouncing 'off the roof' during a flight to New Zealand, according to The Wall Street Journal.  U.S. industry officials briefed on preliminary evidence from an investigation of the incident told the paper that a cockpit mishap may have pushed a pilot into the controls of the plane.  According to the report, a LATAM Airlines flight attendant hit a switch on the pilot's seat while serving a meal, activating a motorized feature that pushed the pilot into the controls and sent the plane into a nose dive, the officials said.  The switch has a cover and is not supposed to be used when a pilot is in the seat.

The Editor says...
Sorry, I'm not buying it.  Would that action by the flight attendant cause the pilot to lose "all ability to fly the plane" and send the plane into a steep dive?  Stuff like that only happens in cartoons.  What about the display going blank?  This story in the WSJ sounds like a whitewash, and I suspect we won't hear about this again, because the Powers That Be want to protect Boeing as long as they can.

Note the source:  Al Jazeera.
Boeing Workers At A South Carolina Plant Say They Wouldn't Fly On Their Own Planes They Build!  [Apparently this synopsis is from a poorly translated transcript:]  The journalist asked the employees whether they were ready to fly on the planes they were assembling themselves?  Many employees are addicted to drugs and no one cares.  How many Boeing plane issues this year alone?  We can blame the company, but it is humans putting it together.  Going out on lunch a smoking weed...  Boeing[']s fault or the employee...  Why is it even allowed, that the working and labor force in one of the most responsible, accountable departments.  [Video clip]

Jeffrey Epstein didn't kill himself, and neither did this guy.
Lawyers for Boeing Whistleblower and RFK Jr.  Dubious About Suicide Narrative, 'No One Can Believe It'.  Lawyers for the Boeing whistleblower who was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head Saturday are questioning the narrative that this demise was a suicide and are demanding a full investigation.  As we reported, 62-year-old former Boeing quality control engineer John Barnett was slated to give testimony about his safety concerns but failed to show up for a scheduled appearance and was later discovered in his orange pickup truck with a silver handgun in his hand and finger still on the trigger.  There was also reportedly a suicide note, but the contents of that have not been released.  Although the Charleston County, South Carolina coroner ruled the cause as a "self-inflicted" wound, Barnett's attorneys aren't buying that narrative: [...] Barnett, a 32-year veteran of the aircraft company who worked at Boeing's North Charleston plant, had been sounding the alarm since his 2017 retirement about some scary safety issues: [...]

People Aren't Buying the Boeing Whistleblower 'Suicide'.  It's been almost a month since Boeing whistleblower John Barnett was found dead in a car outside of his hotel in Charlotte, South Carolina.  He died of a single gunshot wound to the head and was found with a pistol in his hand.  Authorities tentatively attributed the death to suicide.  But friends and family members, along with some investigators are raising doubts about that explanation.  Barnett had been in the midst of testifying as part of a lawsuit against Boeing over safety shortcomings at their production facilities.  A close friend recounted a disturbing conversation earlier this year when he said that he could potentially wind up dead because of his whistleblowing activities and that if anything happened to him it would not be suicide.

Whistleblower From Boeing Is Found Dead With A Supposed Self-Inflicted Gunshot Wound.  62-year-old Boeing whistleblower John Barnett found dead in his truck after he didn't show up for a legal interview linked to a case against Boeing.  Barnett worked for Boeing for 32 years and retired in 2017.  After retiring, Barnett spoke out about how Boeing was cutting corners on their airplanes.  Just days before his death, Barnett gave evidence in a lawsuit against Boeing.  Barnett accused Boeing of "deliberately fitting sub-standard parts" on their aircraft.  He also accused Boeing of having faulty oxygen systems, saying one in four breathing masks would not work in an emergency situation.  Barnett said new plane builds were rushed.  When he brought his concerns forward, they were allegedly ignored by the company.  When he died, Barnett was in Charleston for interviews linked to a case against Boeing.  [Video clip]

United Airlines diversity quotas finally begin paying off in disaster.  In the past week there have been four serious airplane incidents involving United Airlines.  Though most of the media focus has been aimed at Boeing — which clearly has demonstrated significant management and design issues with almost all its new products in the past few years — the real culprit of these recent failures is not Boeing.  All of the following potentially deadly incidents occurred on United flights, and all suggest major problems within its maintenance and hiring departments. [...] In 2020, shortly after George Floyd's death, United officials made a very public commitment to instituting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) quotas in hiring, from maintenance to pilots. [...] For half of all promotions to go to minorities means United has to be discriminating against whites, and choosing new senior employees (including pilots) based merely on their race, not on their ability to do the job.  Nor should anyone doubt the reality of these bigoted policies, as the company's CEO, Scott Kirby, has endorsed them publicly, and underlined his commitment to them by appearing himself as a drag queen.  We are now seeing the consequences of this insane policy.  United mechanics apparently do not know how to properly install an airplane wheel, at least one pilot does not know how to steer an airplane properly, and maintenance departments appear to routinely allow planes to take off with faulty engines and hydraulic systems.  And as all this goes on, the managers do nothing, because they no longer have the right skills for demanding high standards of work.

American Airlines Flight's Hard Landing in Hawaii Results in Six Injuries, Raises Safety Concerns.  In a concerning turn of events, an American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Hawaii was forced to make a hard landing, resulting in injuries to six individuals on board.  The incident, which occurred on January 27th, has prompted serious questions about the safety protocols and mechanical integrity of commercial aircraft.  The flight, numbered 271, experienced an unspecified issue upon its approach to Kahului Airport in Maui, leading to a hard landing just after 2 p.m. local time.  Among those injured were one passenger and five flight attendants, all of whom sustained minor injuries and were subsequently taken to the hospital for evaluation and treatment.  [Tweet]  This unsettling occurrence comes on the heels of another American Airlines mishap just a week prior, where a plane skidded off the runway at Rochester Airport in New York due to snowy conditions.  Although no injuries were reported in that instance, the back-to-back nature of these events casts a shadow over the airline's operational safety measures.

Dems letting migrants fly without ID are playing Russian roulette with our safety.  If you're rushing to the airport and forget your photo ID, good luck being allowed on the plane.  But many migrants without "an acceptable form of identification," according to airport signs, don't need a photo.  They get special treatment.  Migrants who have entered the country using President Biden's new CBP (Customs and Border Protection) One app — at least 422,000 — can fly domestically without photo ID.  A sign posted in Miami International Airport tells migrants, "1. Notify the TSA officer that you are a migrant.  2. The TSA officer will take a photo (optional).  3. If requested, provide your alien identification number or biographic information."  Taking a photo would allow the Transportation Security Administration officer to confirm the person boarding matches the person pictured in the CBP app.  But the airport sign repeats, "Photo capture is voluntary."  The migrant trying to board could be anybody.

Is It Safe To Fly?  The government heavily regulates aviation.  We used to understand that every piece of knowledge gained was written in blood after something went wrong.  We are losing that understanding.  See if you agree with me as you read along.  On January 5, 2024, an Alaskan Airlines Boeing 737-9 had an explosive decompression when a door plug panel blew out shortly after takeoff.  On January 2, 2024, a Japan Airlines Airbus A350 collided with another plane in a runway incursion accident.  In 2019, there were two Boeing Max crashes; the first was Lion Air in Jakarta, Indonesia, and the second, within weeks, downed an Ethiopian Airplane.  Both suffered the same software glitch/feature.  In 2013, an Asiana flight crashed just short of the runway while landing in San Francisco.  In April of 2021, United Airlines announced that "Racial Quotas will be prioritized over Qualifications in Pilot Hiring."  Today, the FAA says we lack nearly 3,000 air traffic controllers.  And 30% of each class of controllers washes out.

What We Don't Know About the Danger of DEI in the Airline Industry is Scarier than What We Know.  As many Americans are only now discovering as a sidenote to other outrageous DEI news, such as the FAA being decidedly hellbent on taking DEI to its most ludicrous extent by "actively recruiting" people who suffer from "severe intellectual abilities," Boeing has also long been suicidally devoted to woke DEI initiatives.  They now claim, for example, that they want their employees to "look like America," but are looking to have 92.5% of interview slates be "diverse," i.e., non-white males.  This, of course, means that they are quite illegally prioritizing non-white male applicants for employment, and I am very much looking forward to the forthcoming lawsuits on these grounds.

WTH? Delta CEO Says Race And Gender Play A Key Role When Hiring Pilots.  Scott Kirby, the CEO of United Airlines wants to emphasize that Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) guided racial and gender quotas are the key considerations when determining who will be piloting your upcoming flight.  [Video clip]

Air Traffic Control Diversity Hire Tells 15 Year Pilot He's Wrong About Landing Because She Asked Google.  A female air traffic controller argues with a pilot who's been flying for 15 years about a landing and says she "googled it" so she's right and knows best.  This happened at DTO, a small airport in Texas.  Controller:  "You should have turned your base before you hit the approach end of the runway.  You're outside the airport traffic area."  Pilot:  "We're on about a quarter mile base, ma'am."  [Audio clip with captions.]

America's safety at risk as FAA's latest diversity push puts the woke mob at the controls.  The FAA has gone all-in on DEI.  The agency charged with overseeing airlines, plane makers, airports and every other aspect of civil aviation in America has undertaken a diversity push meant to bring in workers whose inborn limitations make them plainly unsuitable for high-stakes, high-pressure roles.  The full list of disabilities targeted "for special emphasis in recruitment and hiring" includes "severe intellectual disability," "psychiatric disability" and a whole host of other ailments.  You read that right:  The severely intellectually disabled and the psychiatrically disabled (that's a euphemism for crazy) will now be involved in making sure that planes don't hit the ground or each other.  Worse still, the agency won't even say which jobs these targeted hires will be doing, responding with opaque babble when pressed for comment on just where a severely intellectually disabled person fits into the overall org chart.  Given the recent Alaska Airlines almost-disaster due to a faulty plane from full-bore-woke Boeing and the troubling string of near-misses at US airports — to say nothing of the other issues plaguing air travel, from unruly passengers to cascading delays — the FAA needs to be pushing to hire only the best and brightest.

FAA Seeks to Hire the Deaf, Blind, and Insane as a Door Blows off a Jet Owned by Airline Obsessed With Sex Perversion.  As doors fall off Boeing jets in mid-flight, and the airline that owns the jet focuses on convincing customers that it's one big bathhouse of homosexual fun, it's worth looking at the Federal Aviation Administration website to see what that regulatory agency's priorities are for hiring.  If you're deaf, blind, or just plain nuts, the FAA has a job for you.  And the deafer, blinder, and nuttier you are, the faster you'll get hired — "on the spot."

FAA Promotes Diversity Over Safety-Wants to Hire People With "Severe Intellectual" and "Psychiatric" Disabilities.  Safety does not appear to be a concern for the Federal Government these days.  They seem more interested in feel good tactics than in the well being of Americans.  The Federal Aviation Administration is currently recruiting applicants who struggle with "severe intellectual" disabilities as well as other serious problems.  Their "Diversity and Inclusion" plan claims that diversity contributes to safe travel.  But does it really?

If You're a Psychopath, There Is a Job for You at the Clown World FAA.  This is one way to destroy the airline industry or perhaps reduce the population by one fully occupied plane at a time.  Hire psychopaths and people with low IQs.  The FAA wants to hire the most handicapped people imaginable.  The FAA is looking to hire psychos and people who severely lack intelligence, and they are willing to lower the standards to do it.  The Federal Aviation Administration is actively recruiting workers who suffer "severe intellectual" disabilities, psychiatric problems, and other mental and physical conditions.  Fox News reported Pete Buttigieg's handiwork a few hours ago.

Commercial flights becoming insanely dangerous as virtue-signaling airlines hire based on diversity rather than merit.  Close calls involving commercial flights have been happening with greater frequency recently, and many of them are being attributed to human error.  From air traffic controller mistakes to pilot errors, the number of close calls has reached a level so concerning that the New York Times launched an investigation into it this summer.  As the incidents continue to pile up, many people are asking what is behind the phenomenon, and one big part of the answer is Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) hires.  Journalist Ashley St. Clair shared some disturbing information about an incident that took place on July 29 in which a United Airlines plane suffered from a hard landing and was nearly totaled.  The info she obtained indicated that the copilot of the plane was a former flight attendant who had been fired from their post and then rehired as part of United Airlines' DEI program, even though their name appeared on a list of employees who could not return to the company.  Moreover, the individual reportedly failed numerous trainings, including the crucial simulator training that pilots must undergo.  St. Clair implied that it's not the first time something like this had happened and that United has a history of covering up disasters involving DEI hires.

Ashley Exposes United Airlines For Hiring Unqualified Pilot:  This Is Dangerous.  Several issues are discussed here, including an unqualified pilot landing an airplane badly, and multiple passengers with boarding passes that say, "No name given."  It is as if the airlines have chosen to forget 9/11/2001.  [Thirteen-minute video clip.]

United Airlines questioned about DEI impact on hard landing in Houston.  A conservative activist is raising questions about whether a relatively recent United Airlines hard landing was attributable to the company's DEI agenda.  The hard landed occurred on July 29th as a previously uneventful United Airlines Boeing 767-300ER flight from the Newark Liberty International Airport to the George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) in Houston turned awfully dramatic.  "According to the [National Transportation Safety Board's] preliminary report, while landing at IAH, the First Officer was flying and, despite best efforts to keep the nose wheel from bouncing, the nose wheel made contact with abnormal force," as reported by Simple Flying, an aviation news source.

JFK Airport Protesters Show That They've Learned the Lesson of the George Floyd Riots.  The George Floyd riots of 2020 showed leftists that they can do virtually anything in America today and suffer at worst only token consequences.  On Monday, pro-Palestinian protesters in New York City showed that they have taken that lesson to heart.  The New York Post reported that "hateful anti-Israel protesters yelling inflammatory chants snarled traffic and caused chaos as they descended upon John F. Kennedy International Airport Monday — creating a nightmare on one of the busiest travel days of the year."  Among the "inflammatory chants" was "NYPD, KKK, IDF you're all the same," which was as absurd as it was portentous:  it was a clear indication that New York City hasn't seen the last of these pro-Hamas thugs.

Anti-Israel rally at JFK Airport causes New Year's Day nightmare on one of the busiest travel days of the year.  Hateful anti-Israel protesters yelling inflammatory chants snarled traffic and caused chaos as they descended upon John F. Kennedy International Airport Monday — creating a nightmare on one of the busiest travel days of the year.  The Belt Parkway — a major thoroughfare used by vehicles to travel to the airport — was temporarily blocked off by police near Exit 20 as they tried to stem the flow of the "Flood JFK For Gaza" protest, which was planned by Within Our Lifetime, a Palestinian-led activist group.

Airlines delay take-off for hours as Iceland's volcano erupts.  British holidaymakers are waiting anxiously to see if their flights to Iceland will be cancelled or delayed after the nation's volcano erupted last night, with local experts warning 'this is a very different creature to anything we've seen before'.  The eruption on the Reykjanes peninsula just north of the evacuated town of Grindavik began last night at around 10.17 pm after an earthquake swarm, the Icelandic Meteorological Office said, referring to a series of small shakes.  Live-streamed footage of the eruption showed molten lava spewing into the sky from fissures in the ground, surrounded by billowing clouds of red smoke.

Free Seat Privilege for the Morbidly Obese.  The reason so many people are willing to sacrifice all claim to self-respect by becoming sniveling victims is the privilege that can be attained through membership in the Cultural Marxist coalition.  Consider the newest group of oppressed persons to be played off against the hated core population.  The morbidly obese have only just begun to whine, and already they get free seats on airplanes:  ["]Customers whose bodies 'encroach' past the armrest are entitled to an extra seat, according to Southwest's inclusion policy.["]  Those who are extra obese get extra privilege:  two free seats.  As for the rest of us, ["]The flight team will then try to [...] make the seating arrangements, potentially moving other passengers around for the 'unplanned accommodation.'["]

The Editor says...
The only equitable long-term solution to this problem is to charge airline passengers by the pound, or at least apply a surcharge for every pound over, say, 200.  That way, the "extra" seats will be paid for, without passing to cost to the other passengers.  The airplane uses fuel in proportion to the payload, so it's as fair as it can be.  It would be embarrassing and stigmatizing, perhaps, but maybe that's what some people need.  Naturally, somebody will file a lawsuit, but let's see what happens.

Off-duty pilot charged with 83 counts of attempted murder for allegedly trying to shut off engines on Alaska Airlines flight.  The plane was scheduled to fly from Everett, Washington, to San Francisco before it diverted late Sunday to Portland after a "credible security threat related to an authorized occupant in the flight deck jump seat," the airline confirmed to ABC News.  The suspect allegedly tried to pull the fire extinguisher handles on the engines, preliminary information obtained by investigators indicated, according to a federal official briefed on the probe.  The suspect was overwhelmed by flight crew and subdued and then handcuffed to a seat, the federal official told ABC News.  The suspect, Joseph David Emerson, was taken into custody, the Port of Portland confirmed.  Emerson is charged with 83 counts of attempted murder, according to the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office.  He is also facing 83 counts of reckless endangerment, a misdemeanor, and one felony count of endangering an aircraft.

America's biggest airlines search for jet engine parts sold with fake safety certificates.  The aviation industry has been rocked by reports thousands of jet-engine parts with fraudulent safety certificates have been installed onto passenger planes.  Major airlines including American Airlines, United Airlines and Southwest Airlines have pulled jets from their fleets as investigations into the potentially catastrophic faults are ongoing.  The scandal has zeroed in on a dubious airplane parts supplier named AOG Technics, which allegedly mass-produced fake safety certificates in order to sell its engine parts to airlines.

Man faces life sentence after allegedly trying to stab flight attendant, open emergency door mid-flight.  A federal jury has reportedly indicted a man from Massachusetts on charges related to an incident that took place on a United Airlines flight in March.  The man has been accused of attempting to stab a flight attendant with a broken spoon.  Francisco Severo Torres, 33, was indicted in a Boston federal court on Wednesday.  He faces a single count of interference and attempted interference with flight crew members and attendants by using a dangerous weapon, according to WNCT.

Exploiting Transgender Kids as Emotional Support Animals.  Do y'all remember the time an emotional support animal was kicked off a United flight for being disruptive?  In this instance, "being disruptive" included a pig defecating and screaming in the cabin.  Passengers were quick to complain about the stink, noise, and awkwardness of it all because, when you pay good money to fly, doing so without a barnyard experience is a reasonable expectation.  Thankfully, over the last decade, emotional support animals have been kept on a tighter leash since they are not now, nor were they ever service dogs.  Airlines have reeled in their restrictions and put a muzzle on the idea any animal can fly under the "if it fits, it sits" mantra.  Everybody knows that the owner of that peacock, hamster, boa constrictor, cat, or hedgehog does not rely on the animal to aid in the performance of specific tasks.  Rather, they don't want to leave their beloved animal behind.  Levity, affection, companionship — that's why we have pets!  We also have therapists.

Miami International Airport Brawl #1.  A man was assaulted at the American Airlines ticket counter at Miami International Airport.  The man was punched several times and pushed onto the luggage conveyor belt.  [Video clip]

Miami International Airport Brawl #2.  A second video of people brawling has been uploaded to social media at Miami International Airport.  This one occurred outside the terminal as two groups of people traded blows.  [Video clip]

J6 Flight Attendant Goes on the Offense After Colleagues Attempt to Put Her on 'No-Fly' List for Attending Trump Speech.  On January 6th, 2021, Alaina Trocano joined hundreds of thousands of peaceful Americans to hear President Donald Trump in Washington, DC and exercise her First Amendment rights.  "When I saw that it was a protest and not a rally and I saw the protest permit I thought I would be protected by the first amendment," Alaina shared.  "I thought the First Amendment was supposed to be without fear of retaliation."  On January 7, Alaina made her way back to the airport to catch a flight home and shared a few clips of the day on social media.  She shared a video being underneath the big flag during the speech, a video of everyone singing the national anthem then a video back at her hotel room letting people know she was okay.

Delta flight forced into emergency landing by passenger's diarrhea: 'This is a biohazard'.  A Delta flight from Atlanta to Barcelona was forced to turn around and make an emergency landing after a passenger "had diarrhea all the way through the plane."  The Airbus A350 aircraft was two hours into a trans-Atlantic flight from Georgia to Spain on Friday when the pilot asked to come back because of the fecal fiasco.  "This is a biohazard issue," the pilot said to air traffic control, recorded from LiveATC.com and shared on X.  "We've had a passenger who's had diarrhea all the way through the airplane, so they want us to come back to Atlanta."

11 people hospitalized after Delta flight to Atlanta hits extreme turbulence.  Eleven people were rushed to the hospital Tuesday after their Delta flight hit intense turbulence as it neared Atlanta, according to officials.  Delta Air Lines Flight 175 from Milan, Italy, to Atlanta "experienced severe turbulence" before landing safely at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Delta said in a statement.  The eleven injured passengers and crew members were taken to a hospital and are expected to make a full recovery, a Delta spokesperson said.

'Near Collisions' of Commercial Jets Happen All the Time, Horrifying FAA Records Show.  A terrifying new report from the New York Times claims that "near collisions" involving commercial airliners are basically a weekly occurrence in America.  The Times report draws on extensive records sourced from the Federal Aviation Administration, as well as a little known NASA database that holds "safety reports" filed by pilots and air traffic controllers.  Altogether, the documents reveal that planes from "all major U.S. airlines" suffer "near misses" — i.e., they almost crash into each other — pretty much all the [expletive] time.  The Times analysis shows that such "close calls" are happening multiple times a week — and that there were 46 such incidents reported last month alone.  During the most recent 12-month period where data was available, reporters found that there were roughly 300 reported "near collision" incidents involving major airlines, some of which were avoided only via last second maneuvering.

France calls for an end to cheap flights in Europe.  France wants to scrap €10 (£8.50) airfares and establish minimum ticket prices within the European Union as part of a strategy to reduce air travel and curb emissions.  Clément Beaune, the French transport minister, said the era of rock-bottom airfares has come to an end and that he will be presenting his proposal on regulating prices among low-cost carriers to his colleagues at the EU in the coming days.

"Plane tickets at €10, at a time of ecological transition, this is no longer possible," Mr Beaune said in an interview with the French news magazine L'Obs.  "This does not reflect the price for the planet."

The Editor says...
[#1] The plane is gonna fly, whether you are on it or not.  [#2] A million airplane flights are not going to measurably affect the atmosphere or the weather.  The atmosphere can be sabotaged, I suppose, but normal day-to-day human activity has no harmful effect on the planet.

Three Pilots "Died Suddenly" In A Week.  FAA: Nothing To See, Move Along.  An IndiGo airline pilot Thursday collapsed at the boarding gate in Nagpur airport and was pronounced dead at the hospital, according to Hindustan Times[.]  According to preliminary reports, 40-year-old Captain Manoj Subramanyam suffered a "sudden cardiac arrest."  The day before, a Qatar Airlines pilot on flight QR 579 from Delhi to Doha died suddenly on board.  The 51-year-old was reportedly traveling as a passenger.  "He was very fit and his untimely demise has come as a big shock for everyone who knew him," said a colleague, reports the Times of India.  Three days before, a LATAM flight from Miami to Santiago, Chile Monday was forced to divert to Panama City after its pilot died suddenly in the lavatory.

In the Name of Climate Change:  Travel Restrictions and the Great Reset.  If you experienced unprecedented delays during air travel this summer, the airlines likely blamed it on the weather.  You might have been surprised, for bad weather wasn't reported in the news.  But here is what should surprise and shock you even more.  The real reason — a shortage of pilots and air traffic controllers (ATCs) — is linked to the Great Reset, the agenda to control people and restrict freedom conceived by the global elite and being implemented through leftist groups and their sympathizers.  It is now well known that Klaus Schwab, chief of the elitist World Economic Forum (WEF), set the Great Reset in motion during the pandemic, calling it an opportunity to "reflect, reimagine, and reset the world." The COVID lockdown also connects to the story of the recent flight delays, because it was during the pandemic that travel restrictions were imposed worldwide and pilots and ATCs were laid off.

Frontier Airlines Forced to Divert After two [women had a heated verbal altercation].  A planeful of Las Vegas-bound passengers ended up being diverted to Denver International Airport Tuesday night after an apparent fight broke out involving some passengers.  Frontier Airlines flight 2143 left Philadephia around 10:30 p.m. ET Tuesday and was scheduled to arrive in Las Vegas around 8:40 p.m. PT.  The flight ended up being about an hour late because the plane had to reroute to Denver where two passengers traveling together were deplaned and met at the gate by police, said Michael Konopasek, Frontier Airlines corporate communications manager.  [Video clip]

Fighting back against Smart Cities.  So-called "smart city" technology includes ultra-high resolution, internet-connected cameras, license-plate readers, facial-recognition scanners and speakers.  It will set the framework for digital eyes and ears to spy on citizens 24/7, uploading personal data in real time to be perused and analyzed by law enforcement, financial decision-makers and other third-party stakeholders. [...] The tools of the surveillance state, however, are not just being installed in major cities and international airports.  Kootenai County in North Idaho is also up against a smart city plan.  And the city of Jackson, Wyoming, last week became the latest to install AI-powered mass surveillance cameras. [...] The purpose is not to save lives but to control behavior and effectively cripple Americans' longstanding freedom of movement.  The long-term plan is to entirely automate all transportation, using driverless cars, kill switches and social-credit scoring systems to define and limit the extent to which individuals are allowed to travel.  Essentially, all transportation will be public transportation.

Feds: Biden's DHS Let Illegal Alien on 'Terror Watch List' Board Domestic Flight After Freeing Him into U.S..  President Joe Biden's Department of Homeland Security (DHS) allowed an illegal alien on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) "Terrorist Watch List" to board a domestic flight after releasing him into the United States, a federal probe reveals.  A report issued by DHS Inspector General (IG) Joseph Cuffari details how DHS, on April 19, 2022, released an illegal alien into the surrounding community near Blythe, California, after he first arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border near Yuma, Arizona, on April 17, 2022 as a result of multiple data sharing and communication failures internally at the agency.

Get ready for the war on travel.  This story emerged from an unlikely source involving Glenn Beck's recent vacation to Europe.  As reported at The Blaze, while Beck was overseas he had a disturbing conversation with his travel agent.  He was told, "You should see Europe now while you can."  The reason is that the United Nations has been rolling out "sustainability goals" for the travel industry, particularly when it comes to air travel.  They are trying to force airlines to get to "net zero" in terms of emissions.  As we recently discussed here, the technology doesn't currently exist to achieve net zero for commercial airlines without vastly increasing the cost for travelers.  So the alternative will be to simply shut down air travel for "nonessential" purposes such as tourism, at least for "the little people."

Senate Democrats Say Modernizing Airline Pilot Training Requirements Will Kill People.  Republicans in Congress are trying to slightly pare back America's uniquely high flight-hour requirements for pilots, over the objections of some Democrats and unionized pilots who argue it'll see commercial airliners falling from the sky.  Working its way through both the Senate and House right now is legislation that would reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for the next five years.  Included in the House's reauthorization bill is a provision that would let aspiring airline pilots count up to 250 hours of simulator time toward the 1,500 flight hours they need to get certified.  Currently, they can only count 100 simulated hours toward that requirement.

INSANE Brawl Breaks Out At Baggage Claim At O'Hare International Airport.  Shocking video captures the moment a mass brawl broke at O'Hare International Airport's baggage carousel which ended with a man and woman being charged.  The footage, which has gone viral on social media, shows the moment the huge fistfight broke out late Monday night in the baggage hall of the Chicago airport's Terminal 3.  [Video clip]

Meanwhile, At Chicago's O'Hare Airport....  Even if you try and escape the violence in Chicago, it follows you to the airport.  [Video clip]

Clogged toilets force Austrian Airlines flight return.  An Austrian Airlines plane had to return two hours into a flight from Vienna to New York — after five of eight toilets broke down.  Some 300 people were on board Monday's Boeing 777 flight, which was to set to last eight hours.  The crew decided to turn around after finding the toilets could not be flushed properly due to a technical problem, a spokeswoman for the airline told AFP on Tuesday.  She said, to her knowledge, such a problem had not occurred on an Austrian Airlines flight before.  The plane has already been fixed and is back in service, the spokeswoman added.

Nasty Hood Rat Threatens To Beat Up 'White' Flight Attendant After Being Booted From Chicago Flight.  This incident occurred at Midway Airport in Chicago.  A loud, aggressive woman was asked to leave the flight before takeoff and proceeded to threaten the flight attendant while hurling homophobic and racial slurs at her.  The nasty woman even threatened her with violence before finally deboarding.  [Video clip]

Another pilot emergency.  A Southwest flight from Las Vegas to Columbus, Ohio, had to turn back yesterday after one of its pilots became "incapacitated."  Details of both the incident and the pilot's current condition are scarce.  But whatever happened was serious enough that the pilot had to be removed from the cockpit.  An off-duty non-Southwest pilot replaced him and helped land the plane.

Pilot from another airline helps land Southwest flight after captain falls ill.  A pilot from another airline helped land a Southwest Airlines flight that left early Wednesday from Las Vegas after its captain became "incapacitated" and required medical attention, according to the airline and radio traffic data, in an episode that surprised some passengers who had no clue a pilot had fallen ill.  Southwest Flight 6013 had taken off just after 6:30 a.m. bound for Columbus, Ohio, according to the flight-tracking site FlightAware.  While it was airborne, one of its pilots "needed medical attention," a spokesperson for the airline said, without giving details about the health issue.  In radio traffic archived by the website LiveATC, a person says the captain had started to feel stomach pain and then "fainted or became incapacitated" around five minutes later.

Virgin Australia First Officer Suffered Heart Attack 30 Minutes after Departure.  Two days ago I wrote about pilots and fight attendants suffering cardiac arrests in-flight and then dying suddenly.  One of my readers kindly wrote in the comments section about a very recent incident on a Virgin Australia flight.  This is that incident and now we have more information.  "Virgin Australia flight from Adelaide to Perth was forced to make an emergency landing after the First Officer reportedly suffered a heart attack just 30 minutes after departure.  The incident occurred on March 3, 2023, and resulted in the Airbus A320 being forced to return to Adelaide, where emergency responders were waiting to transport the sick pilot to the hospital.  The First Officer became incapacitated after suffering a heart attack.  The Captain of the flight declared an emergency and successfully landed the aircraft around 70 minutes later."

What Is Going on at Our Airports?  Is Pete going to fix this?  Because ever since he took over the Department of Transportation, it seems as if every method of travel is crashing or derailing.  It goes beyond the catastrophic crash in East Palestine, Ohio, that's rapidly becoming an environmental crisis.  Buttigieg finally arrived two weeks later, but it was clear, given the town's political leanings, that the Biden folks had no intention of assisting in any meaningful way.  Before this Ohio catastrophe, air travel collapsed over the holidays over a software glitch that Mayor Pete was abreast of but did nothing.  Now, I'm not that insane to blame Buttigieg for everything, but the default maneuver for this administration is to put everything in cruise control, which has led to disastrous consequences that started when Kabul fell, and we had to flee in humiliating fashion.  Since then, many domestic crises have been rolling by with tumbleweed-like frequency.  One flying under the radar revolves around our airports.  There could have been a Tenerife-like situation at JFK airport, and there was just another close call at Logan in Boston.

America — We Have a Problem: A Cover-Up of Vast Proportions and Implications.  The whole of America needs to know what's happening to our National Airspace System. [...] The first part of the problem with our NAS is the drawdown in the nation's commercial pilot force.  These are the folks that earn their living flying, many of whom are your airline pilots.  You've all most likely heard of or personally experienced turmoil in flight schedules.  And you think it's what you're told that weather or Air Traffic Control is to blame for this mess!  That's partially true, but you may have heard that crew availability is also to blame.  The airlines will tell you that crews are just out of position and can't get to where they need to be in a timely manner.  What they are not telling you is that they just don't have enough crews.  So, what's wrong with that?  Just fess up and fix it.  Right?

How Pete Buttigieg and Washington lobbyists are fueling the US airline crisis.  Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is coming under fire over disasters ranging from the airlines' holiday meltdown to the train wreck that has spilled chemicals in Ohio — and critics are blaming his cozy ties with the industries he's supposed to regulate.  Outrage over US air chaos spilled into President Biden's State of the Union Address earlier this month.  The commander-in-chief vowed to crack down on excessive fees, saying "airlines can't treat your child like a piece of baggage" and demanded that "airlines show you the full ticket price upfront and refund your money if your flight is canceled or delayed."  Less than a month earlier, however, Southwest Airlines — which had canceled 17,000 flights over the holiday season, blaming the weather amid a breakdown in its systems — promoted five top executives under the budget carrier's new CEO, Bob Jordan.

Oakland goes dark as fire rips through California power substation.  A major power outage caused by a fire at an electrical substation shut down the Oakland Airport in Northern California Sunday evening.  More than 9,000 customers in the Bay Area are still impacted and flights out of the area were halted after a fire broke out at a Pacific Gas and Electric substation around 1pm.  Photos and videos posted on social media show stranded passengers at the airport waiting at their gates and to get through security which was shut down for hours.

The Editor says...
If the airport doesn't have a massive backup generator (and a UPS on every computer terminal), that's a sign of gross mismanagement.  Every airport, government office, and grocery store should have a robust backup power system, if all their transactions depend on computers.  Radio and television stations — I think it's safe to say MOST of them — have such equipment already.

Destroying Meritocracy Is Deadly.  After Christmas, Southwest Airlines simply canceled 71 percent of its flights.  It blamed staff shortages due to storms.  The airline seemed incapable of ensuring enough of their pilots, attendants, crews, and airport staff could get to work.  The Federal Aviation Administration in January canceled all flight departures from the United States for two hours due a computer safety system collapse.  Thousands of additional flights were canceled, many for over 24 hours.  Something has gone terribly wrong.  Either the Department of Transportation and its Secretary Pete Buttigieg, or the head of the FAA, or the quality of either ground crews, pilots, or air traffic controllers — or all combined — are putting American travelers at mortal risk.  If not corrected, these near-death airline experiences and the near collapse of the U.S. commercial aviation system presage catastrophes to come. [...] Many of the major airlines have established racial and gender quotes for government pilot training programs.  United Airlines has set quotas to ensure half of its trainees will be minorities or women.  Since 2013, the FAA has been lowering standards for air traffic control qualifications to achieve de facto race and gender quotas.

Employees At Chicago's O'Hare Airport Say Homeless People Are Taking Over.  Almost every major city in America is experiencing a homeless problem right now.  In Chicago, where it can get pretty cold in winter, employees at O'Hare Airport claim that homeless people are taking over the place, making a mess and even making workers feel unsafe.

Homeless community growing at O'Hare International Airport, prompting concerns.  The number of Chicago's homeless community seeking shelter at O'Hare International Airport is up.  As CBS 2's Marissa Perlman reported Thursday night, two employees at the airport say they are concerned for their safety.  They shared what they see in the overnight hours.  Thousands of Chicago homeless people seek refuge from the cold inside O'Hare.  Employees sent us photos of people sleeping on heater vents, using the terminal to dry their clothes, and trashing airport bathrooms.  "It's out of control," Chatman said.

U.S. investigates aborted FedEx landing in Texas, two planes cleared for same runway.  The Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board are investigating an aborted landing in Austin, Texas, on Saturday morning by a FedEx cargo plane that had been set to land on a runway on which a Southwest Airlines jet was also cleared to depart from, the agencies said.  The two planes came close to colliding when the FedEx plane was forced to overfly the Southwest plane to avoid a crash, two sources briefed on the matter told Reuters.  "Shortly before the FedEx aircraft was due to land, the controller cleared Southwest Flight 708 to depart from the same runway," the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said.

Passengers Applaud as American Airlines Removes Wanna-Be Olympian Who Wouldn't Put Her Phone Away.  Alec Baldwin is one of America's best-known jerks.  In 2011, he was booted from an American Airline flight because he wouldn't turn off his phone. [...] If you fly enough, you've seen plenty of "Alec Baldwins" who refuse to follow rules.  It's usually in first class but sometimes it's back with us commoners.  People who have to be told to put their toys away are usually people who think they don't have to comply with rules either because they don't like the rules or because they think they are above the rules — like Alec Baldwin or, in today's case, a woman named Sha'Carri Richardson — a wannabe Olympian.  Richardson was on track to run in the Summer Olympics but, because she can't follow rules, she was banned for a failed drug test.

American Airlines cuts flights due to covid jab-induced pilot shortage.  Numerous flight routes will be canceled this spring at American Airlines (AA) due to a major shortage of pilots, all of whom were required to get "vaccinated" for covid.  In a statement to Fox Business, AA revealed that "in response to the pilot shortage affecting the airline industry, American Airlines has made the difficult decision to end service in Columbus, Georgia (CSG), Del Rio, Texas (DRT) and Long Beach, California (LGB) this spring."  The announcement comes on the heels of continued reports about pilots suffering fatal heart attacks, oftentimes mid-flight, resulting in their no longer being available to fly the company's airplanes.  Many suspect, based on a growing body of evidence, that all these pilot deaths are a direct result of Operation Warp Speed, which was foisted on the world at the end of 2020.

We Now Know What Caused the FAA Outage.  After all flights in the U.S. were grounded early Wednesday morning over a system failure, the Federal Aviation Administration said it traced the issue back to a "damaged database file."  "The FAA is continuing a thorough review to determine the root cause of the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system outage," the FAA said in a statement Wednesday night. "Our preliminary work has traced the outage to a damaged database file."  The Notice to Air Missions system provides safety information to flight crews.  "At this time, there is no evidence of a cyber attack," the statement continued.  "The FAA is working diligently to further pinpoint the causes of this issue and take all needed steps to prevent this kind of disruption from happening again."

Bumbling FAA [is] Focused on 'LGBTQI+' Inclusivity, 'Herstory,' 'Gender-Neutral' Language.  The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been focused on "LGBTQI+" inclusivity and "gender-neutral" language under President Joe Biden — even as it has struggled to manage the nation's commercial air traffic.  On Wednesday [1/11/2023], the FAA ordered the first nationwide "ground stop" since Sep. 11, 2001, after a computer system failed overnight, grounding thousands of flights and throwing the country's air traffic into chaos.  It was the second crisis in as many months, after a winter storm snarled air travel during the holiday season.

Southwest Airlines puts $725 million to $825 million price tag on cancellation meltdown.  Dallas-based Southwest Airlines says its holiday cancellation meltdown will cost the company between $725 million and $825 million before taxes.  Southwest said the disruptions will swing the company to a net loss for the fourth quarter, the company said Friday in a regulatory filing.  After canceling more than 16,700 flights during the last 11 days of 2022 and ruining holiday travel plans for thousands of customers, it will take a pre-tax hit that's about ten times as high as the $75 million its last meltdown in October of 2021 cost.

With Passenger Mask Mandate Gone, Flight Turbulence Stats Improve Markedly.  The friendly skies too often resembled "season's beatings" shopping brawls during the pandemic, as the number of arguments and even fistfights surged on-board.  Viral videos of the flight-and-fight mayhem frequently had a common denominator — the federal government's mask requirement.  So it may come as little surprise that disruptions on commercial domestic flights have plummeted by 74% since the Biden administration's mask mandate was overturned by a federal judge in April.  The current rate is 1.7 unruly passengers per 10,000 flights, down from 6.4 per 10,000 in February.  But laws and rules created during the pandemic continue to spur federal investigations of passengers, while the federal government has spent untold sums in a legal battle to re-establish its authority, including the power to once again impose mask mandates.

After Cancelling Thousands Of Flights, Southwest Airlines Calls The Cops On Stranded Passengers Waiting To Rebook.  This is the bizarre moment a Nashville airport cop threatens to arrest Southwest passengers after the airline called the police on those waiting to rebook their tickets.  The officer, who has not been named, marshaled stranded customers away from the gate in Tennessee after their flights were canceled.  He accused them of trespassing and said they had no right to be there because they no longer had a valid ticket.  [Video clip]

Workers, Internal Memos Reveal Why Southwest Melted Down During Cold Snap.  Longtime employees of Southwest Airlines are saying: "We told you so."  In the wake of a brutal pre-Christmas winter storm, Southwest's competitors quickly rebounded.  But as of Dec. 29, the Dallas-based airline was continuing to struggle mightily.  The airline has been buried beneath the burden of thousands of canceled flights, mountains of misplaced luggage, and torrents of complaints from stranded passengers whose holiday plans were ruined.  Adding to the mess:  Southwest's systems have had difficulty locating flight personnel and pairing them with aircraft; airport photos posted online show Southwest planes lined up on the tarmac, sitting empty, while competitors take to the skies.  The situation became so bad, two federal investigations were planned.

Southwest Airlines Under Fire After Thousands of Canceled Flights.  On Christmas Day, Southwest had 1,635 canceled flights, and as of 2 p.m.  Monday, that figure stood at 2,163 canceled flights.  This makes it one of the worst airlines in terms of cancellations and delays this holiday weekend.  On Christmas, for instance, 20 percent of Southwest flights from Dallas Love Field Airport alone were canceled.  The figure stood around 30 percent the two days prior.  According to reports, thousands were also stranded at the San Diego International Airport over the weekend, and most of those passengers were flying with Southwest.

The Commercial Impacts of COVID Will Last for Years.  Everybody's familiar with the problems the airline industry experienced in 2022.  Flight cancelations and delays have been commonplace — not because of weather or mechanical issues, but due to a lack of flight crews.  When everything was shut down in 2020 to "flatten the curve," many pilots and flight attendants decided to take early retirement.  Others refused to take the mandatory vaccines and lost their jobs.  Some unknown number took the jab but could no longer pass their physicals because of vaccine complications.  It wasn't a huge number of people who left the industry.  But it was enough to cause major disruptions — that will likely take years to recover from.  Now the airlines are cutting routes and flights, even though customers are offering them money for tickets — that the airlines can no longer sell.

Testimony: Biden Takes Air Marshals Off Flights, Deploys them to Conduct Welfare Checks on Illegal Aliens.  President Joe Biden's Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is taking Federal Air Marshals off domestic commercial flights to have them conduct welfare checks on border crossers and illegal aliens, Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) said in congressional testimony on Tuesday.  In July, Breitbart News exclusively reported that Biden's DHS had deployed Air Marshals to the southern border to escort border crossers and illegal aliens from processing facilities to Border Patrol custody before their release into American communities.

The Editor says...
There's no good reason to tell everybody in the world that there are no more Air Marshals.

You'd Better Be Prepared for the Perfect Transportation Storm.  Pete (Buttigieg) is nowhere to be found — at least not anywhere near the problems he's supposed to prevent. [...] The airline industry is plagued with cancelations and late flights.  And it's not because of climate change (bad weather) or mechanical failures.  It's because they don't have enough pilots.  When we tried to control a virus by closing the country, pilots retired, others refused to comply with the vaccine mandate and were fired, and some unknown number took the vax and found they could no longer pass their physicals.  But this time, Pete is on the case.  He's told the airlines that the Department of Transportation will fine them if they don't hire more of the pilots that don't exist.  That should light a fire under their executive tails.

American Airlines breach was gold mine for identity thieves.  A recent data breach at American Airlines was relatively small, but the customer information stolen appears to be a jackpot for criminals engaged in identity theft.  The breach, announced on Sept. 20, affected a "very small number" of customers and employees, the airline said in a statement, with reports of about 1,700 people affected.  However, the breach reportedly included Social Security and driver's license numbers, data that can be used to steal victims' identities.  American Airlines is among several airlines and travel-related companies that have been the victims of such breaches in recent years.  India-based Akasa Air reported one in August, and Philippine Airlines reported its own in mid-September.  However, these recent thefts may say more about the security of the individual companies than about the industry at large, some cybersecurity experts said.

Australian airport throws massive fine at man who flew with McDonald's sandwiches.  A man returning from Indonesia to Australia was fined thousands of Australian dollars after airport security found several McDonald's food items in the man's luggage after he touched down.  The Australian government said in a statement that the man was singled out by a "biosecurity detector dog" trained to sniff out meat.  When security inspected his backpack, they found two egg and beef sausage McMuffins from a Mcdonald's restaurant in Bali and a ham croissant.

The Editor says...
Is that really the intended purpose of the meat-sniffing dog?  Is a McMuffin such a great threat to Australia?  Or is the whole program just an excuse to shake down air travelers for an occasional thousand-dollar fine?

A woman fired a gun at Dallas Love Field airport.  A police officer with a gun stopped her.  A police officer shot and wounded an armed woman who fired a handgun inside Dallas Love Field airport on Monday morning.  Flights in Dallas, Texas, were put on hold after a woman identified as 37-year-old Portia Odufuwa opened fire at the ceiling, according to the Dallas Morning News.  The suspected shooter was dropped off at the airport at about 11 a.m., proceeded inside near the ticketing counters and went into a bathroom, Dallas police Chief Eddie Garcia said at a news conference.  The woman then emerged wearing a hooded sweatshirt, pulled out a handgun, aimed the weapon at the ceiling, and fired several times, Garcia told reporters.

2022 flight cancellations have already surpassed last year's total.  The number of flight cancellations over the last six months has already surpassed last year's totals, positioning 2022 to become one of the worst years on record.  Thousands of flights were canceled in the days leading up to the Fourth of July holiday weekend, with airlines reporting 121,918 cancellations between Jan. 1 and the end of June — compared to 121,552 for all of 2021, according to data from FlightAware.  A large portion of those was canceled over the last month, with more flights being canceled in June 2022 than any June in previous years.

Biden and Mayor Pete have found the solution to flight delays and cancellations.  Flight delays are happening all over, but fear not:  Joe Biden and his transportation secretary, former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, have found a solution:  To destroy the fossil fuel industry as fast as they can.  That will solve the problem of cancelled and delayed flights.  Once that agenda is finished, we will not have cancellations or delays.  We won't have a shortage of pilots or flight attendants.  We will not have to worry about TSA workers or air traffic controllers.  We won't have flights at all.

Buttigieg faces criticism from Democrats over flight cancellations, delays.  Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is under fire from fellow Democrats for flight delays and cancellations that have paralyzed the nation's airports, wrecked holiday travel plans and caused Americans undue financial stress.  Progressive lawmakers, in particular, say Mr. Buttigieg needs to do more to rein in airline companies that have taken billions in public subsidies since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.  "It's time for the Transportation Department to impose massive fines on poor-performing airlines," said Sen. Bernard Sanders, a self-described socialist from Vermont.

Is the world's air travel industry deliberately being driven to collapse?  In America, Pete Buttigieg is proving to be the most incompetent Secretary of Transportation in American history.  Confronted with thousands of canceled flights, he offers tips about how to value cash refunds compared to refunds in the form of miles.  That's bad.  What's worse is that a writer for a trend site claims to have talked with European insiders and learned that the problem with flights is not limited to America; it's worldwide and deliberate.

More than 1,000 Delta pilots picket at airports and 75,000 AA passengers have had flights canceled in the past 48 hours.  The crisis in the airline industry will continue over the July 4 holiday as thousands face delays and cancelations amid a staff shortage and picketing pilots.  On Thursday [6/30/2022] alone, 5,827 flights within, in or out of the United States have been delayed, while another 639 were canceled.  This comes ahead of a holiday weekend, which is expected to see 3.55 million Americans fly according to AAA, with Friday expected to be the peak day for air travel.  Not only are airports likely to be jammed, the roads will be back to normal despite sustained high gas prices, with a record 42 million motorist predicted to travel at least 50 miles by road this weekend.

What's going on with our commercial airlines?  We've never had a pilot shortage before.  We may currently have more air travelers needing flights than a year ago, but not more than before COVID — and yet, here we are, facing an entirely new problem.  It's so bad that American Airlines is offering pilots on its regional carriers double and triple pay for the month of July if they'll take extra flights.  It's not hard to figure out what's happening — despite the seeming prohibition on our pilots saying anything about it.  We rarely hear a peep from them, at least on mainstream news outlets. [...] Let's put the blame for this shortage squarely where it belongs:  On COVID "vaccination" policy.  Many pilots who got the jabs are suffering injuries and have been unable to pass their required 6-month comprehensive physicals.  None of us want a pilot who has a heart attack mid-flight.  If you search the net, you come up with reports like this one from last week that pretty much says it all but they're not from mainstream sources, of course.  Such reports are forbidden fruit for widely heard reporters.

Former LAX Cargo Handler Sentenced to Federal Prison for Stealing Four Gold Bars.  A former cargo handling company employee at Los Angeles International Airport was sentenced Monday to 12 months in federal prison for stealing four gold bars that were part of a larger shipment headed from Australia to New York.  Marlon Moody, 39, of South Los Angeles, was sentenced by United States District Judge Dale S. Fischer, who also ordered him to pay a fine of $7,500.  Moody pleaded guilty in July 2021 to one count of conspiracy to commit theft of an interstate or foreign shipment.

Over 1,000 Southwest Airlines Pilots Protest Outside Dallas Airport.  Over 1,000 Southwest Airlines pilots protested together outside Dallas Love Field Airport on Tuesday morning.  The Southwest Pilots Association (SWAPA) said the picketing was carried out in a protest over poor working conditions.

Aviation Industry Calls Out 'HOSTILE' Environment Vaccine-Injured Pilots Must Endure.  One of the biggest industries that fought against Covid-19 vaccine mandates was the aviation industry — more specifically pilots.  According to a report from Natural News, commercial airline pilots were routinely "disrespected, grounded, and forced to comply with destructive medical experiments" throughout the whole duration of the vaccination requirements controversy.  Which forced many pilots into early retirement.

Airlines triple [the] number of daily cancellations: 900 flights across the US [were] axed today.  The ongoing summer travel chaos seems to only be getting worse, with airlines reporting over 1,000 cancelations across the United States by Wednesday afternoon as pilots continue to complain of fatigue amid staff shortages and increasing demand.  As of 3.45 pm EST there were 910 flights within, coming into or leaving the United States that were canceled, and more than 2,454 flights across the country were delayed.  That is more than triple the number of cancelations reported on Tuesday, when the United States only saw 272 cancelations, while the number of delays is more than half of the 4,017 total delays reported on Tuesday.

Air Travel in the US Descends Into Chaos.  Over ten thousand flights were canceled across the nation this weekend, leaving frustrated, desperate passengers stranded in airports thousands of miles from their homes.  Ten thousand flights.  It's almost too many to comprehend.  If you read my [...] story from Thursday night, you'll know that I was one of those passengers, and that after my flight was canceled, I was forced to get a rental car (at my expense) and drive 12 hours through the night to get my minor children, who were being let out of camp.  My kids could go get a COVID vaccine, a tattoo, and probably an abortion too, but the one thing they would not be allowed to do is check into a hotel room without an adult present.  Today (Sunday), it would seem that we're victims of double jeopardy: our flight to Los Angeles was summarily canceled, and we have no way of getting back today.  The airline's best offer is two days hence.

American Airline drops some New York flights due to pilot shortage.  Texas-based American Airlines will be cancelling flights to Ithaca and Islip, New York, as well as Toledo, Ohio, in September, blaming a lack of pilots, according to local reports.  "In response to the regional pilot shortage affecting the airline industry, American Airlines has made the difficult decision to end service," American Airlines spokeswoman Andrea Koos told the Dallas Morning News.  "We're extremely grateful for the care and service our team members provided to our customers in Islip, Ithaca and Toledo, and are working closely with them during this time."  Service to those cities will end Sept. 7.  American Airlines said it was reaching out to customers scheduled to fly to or from those cities after that date.

856 Delta flights canceled on Saturday and 5,997 delayed.  A disabled veteran on his honeymoon and new mother with a hungry baby and no formula were among passengers left stranded by canceled Delta flights Saturday.  On Saturday, Delta canceled 219 flights, among the 2,709 called off nationwide, according to Flight Aware, leaving customers with the short-end of the stick as the airline also delayed 672 flights.  Saturday saw a total of 856 flights canceled across the US, with 5,997 flights within, into or out of the US delayed, according to FlightAware.

Some strings attached:  They must all be black and gay and vaccinated.
Buttigieg says feds have power to force airlines to hire more workers amid travel delays.  The federal government could take action against U.S. airlines on behalf of customers, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Saturday [6/18/2022].  Many Americans have endured delays, cancelations, and other travel complications during the coronavirus pandemic, and in recent months, after many pandemic-related travel restrictions were lifted.  Following Buttigieg's own flight being canceled, forcing him to drive from Washington to New York, he said his department has authority to enforce action against airlines that do not sufficiently maintain consumer-protection standards, potentially requiring them to hire more staff.  "To reduce gas consumption, less gas must be used to generate electricity.  Coal-fired power plants will have to be used more instead," the Economy Ministry said in a statement.

Why Are Thousands of Flights Being Canceled at America's Airports?  The summer travel season is off to a rocky start for America's largest air carriers.  Over the five-day Memorial Day weekend, more than 2,800 flights were canceled for one reason or another, with severe weather playing only a small part.  More than one-third of all flights at LaGuardia Airport and over a quarter of flights at Newark Airport were canceled Thursday in one of the worst travel days yet this summer.  The problem is partially attributed to a lack of pilots.  Retirements and losses during the pandemic have yet to be filled.  And the staffing shortage isn't limited to pilots.  Flight crews, ground personnel, airport security people — all are in short supply.

Airlines cancel more than 1,000 flights ahead of Memorial Day as staffing shortages disrupt travel.  More than 1,000 flights across the United States have been canceled as approximately 39 million people prepare to travel over Memorial Day Weekend.  Airlines reported 355 canceled flights within, into or out of the U.S. Saturday morning and nearly 900 delays, according to tracking service Flight Aware.  Saturday's early morning cancellations seem to mirror that of Friday which saw more than 1,200 cancellations and over 7,000 delays nationwide.  Globally, airlines reported over 2,300 cancellations and 17,500 delays.

Desperate airlines are swapping planes for buses to tackle pilot shortages on short-haul routes.  Multiple US airlines are now so desperate for staff that they've swapped planes for buses on some shorter routes.  Several carriers, including American Airlines have hired coach companies to carry passengers when the distances are small.  American will bus people between Philadelphia and between multiple other airports that would only be a short hop away by air.

The Editor says...
Not that I really care all that much, but I presume that American Airlines is charging bus-ticket prices for bus rides, and not the usual airline rate.

L.A. County to keep mask mandate at airports, on public transit.  Los Angeles County is issuing a new health officer order that continues to require masks at airports, on all public transit and in other indoor transportation hubs.  The new order comes after a federal judge on Monday overturned a federal mandate that required masks on trains, planes, buses and at travel hubs.  Then on Wednesday, the Department of Justice filed a notice of appeal seeking to reverse the decision at the request of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Also Wednesday, the California Department of Public Health updated its state guidance to recommend — but no longer require — masks on public transit.

Mask Mandate Is History - What Will the Flight Attendant MaskNazis Do?  Ten days ago, I was on another airplane flying home.  The woman seated directly across from me was a flight attendant.  Her flight had been canceled the day before and she was hitching a ride home.  Her mask dangled around her chin for 90 percent of the flight.  We struck up a conversation about masks.  You might have already guessed, she was not a proponent.  She called them unscientific and stupid.  She was in stark contrast to a flight a few months before when a male flight attendant stopped and stared at me.  I looked up and he told me, loudly, to "Get your mask up." Mind you, my mask was on and was covering my nose.  I inched it up and he exploded.  "ARE WE GOING TO HAVE A PROBLEM?!" I didn't want to be sent to the airline gulag and I pulled my mask over my entire nose.  He stared at me for a couple more seconds and then left to inspect the rest of the inmates.

Federal Judge:  Biden Airplane Mask Mandate Illegal.  President Joe Biden's "Mask Mandate" on federal airplanes is illegal, a federal judge ruled on Monday [4/18/2022] in a setback to Biden's COVID-19 agenda.  One day after taking office, Biden issued Executive Order (EO) 13998, ordering the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to develop the Mask Mandate, and for various other federal agencies like the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to implement the CDC's decisions.  EO 13998 also covered airports and other public transportation, such as buses.

Dallas Airport Now Has A Gay Robot Checking To Make Sure Your Mask Is On, Informs Police For Violations.  Yes, those 7-foot-tall machines at Dallas Love Field are watching you.  They want to make sure you're wearing a mask if you're boarding a flight or not parking too long at the curb if you're picking up a returning traveler.  Love Field is testing out two Security Control Observation Towers at the airport, one near baggage claim and another near security checkpoints, to figure out whether robotic assistants can both help customers get around and warn passengers who are breaking rules.  The robots can also airport security and operations in case more help is needed.  The robotic SCOT kiosks can detect passengers and behavior based on rules set by each user, such as the airport.  For instance, people driving up to the curbside drop-off area late at night might get a series of verbal warnings that escalate in volume and severity.  [Video clip]

'It Makes No Sense': American, United, Delta, Southwest Airline CEOs Demand Biden Drops Mask Mandate.  The CEOs of several major airline and logistics companies issued a joint statement Wednesday asking the Biden administration to end federal mask mandates.  Noting how "much has changed" since Covid measures were implemented, the CEOs argued that, given the high rate of vaccination and declining infection and death rates, the administration should consider dropping the mask rule.  "Now is the time for the Administration to sunset federal transportation travel restrictions — including the international pre-departure testing requirement and the federal mask mandate — that are no longer aligned with the realities of the current epidemiological environment," the corporate execs wrote in a letter disseminated by the Airlines for America trade association.

Airline CEOs Call on Biden to Lift Mask Mandate, Covid-Test Requirement for Air Travel.  The Biden administration should lift its mask mandate and Covid-testing requirements for air travelers, ten CEOs of U.S. passenger and cargo airlines said in a letter released on Wednesday [3/23/2022].  The administration currently requires travelers flying into the U.S. from abroad to present a negative Covid test prior to takeoff.  Additionally, the Transportation Security Administration extended a mask mandate for all public transportation, including air travel, on March 18.  The mask mandate is set to expire on April 18.

British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Embrace Freedom, Remove Mask Mandates on Flights.  British Airways has become the world's first major airline to remove mask mandates onboard the aircraft for passengers from Wednesday, in a move shortly followed by Virgin Atlantic.  Britain's second-largest airline firm announced on Tuesday that they will no longer require passengers to wear masks on board their planes and will instead allow people to "make a personal choice" on the matter.

Biden Will Extend Mask Mandate on Planes and Trains to April 18.  There's stupid.  There's silly.  And then there's the federal government's mask requirement on public transit.  Masks have contributed in no small way to the spike in "unruly" passenger complaints from airlines.  It's usually started by some busybody who claims someone isn't wearing their mask correctly or took it off.  What follows usually isn't very pretty.  Why is this even an issue after the CDC said that cloth masks are not effective in stopping the spread of the coronavirus?  Unless United Airlines and other carriers are going to hand out the more effective N-95 masks to passengers and flight personnel, there is no purpose whatsoever to forcing passengers to mask up.

As TSA Extends Mask Mandate, Rand Paul Vows To Force Vote To Scrap It.  After the TSA announced Thursday that it will extend the mask mandate on public transportation and inside transportation hubs, Senator Rand Paul promised to force a vote to end it urging "we're about two years past anyone believing the masks work."  A TSA official told the media that it is leaving the mask mandate in place until at least April 18th, saying it is "at CDC's recommendation."  "CDC will work with government agencies to help inform a revised policy framework for when, and under what circumstances, masks should be required in the public transportation corridor," the official also noted, adding "This revised framework will be based on the COVID-19 community levels, risk of new variants, national data, and the latest science."  All U.S. states apart from Hawaii, which will end theirs later this month, have already ended mask mandates, yet the Biden administration wants to extend federal mandates for planes and trains.

Mask mandates don't work, so they will be extended.  Mask mandates on public transport have been extended for another month even though they don't work[.]  The CDC has directed the TSA to extend the public transportation mask mandate for another 30 days until April 18 according to this CNN article. [...] Here is the science behind this decision, a list of studies showing that transmission on public transportation is a major component of viral spread and showing that face masks effectively mediate that risk:
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In fact, if you have to be indoors, being on board a commercial jet is probably one of the safest places you can be because the recycled air is filtered with HEPA filters, the cabin air is recycled every 3 minutes, and there is a high portion of outside air mixed in the filtered inside air.

JetBlue pilot removed from cockpit had a BAC level four times over legal limit.  Authorities removed a JetBlue pilot from the cockpit on Wednesday who had a blood alcohol level four times over the legal limit.  The Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority said that a Transportation Security Administration officer noticed that James Clifton, 54, appeared to be intoxicated when passing through security at Buffalo Niagara International Airport, according to a statement obtained by CBS News.  Clifton was later removed from the cockpit by airport police and administered a breathalyzer test which registered as a 0.17 blood alcohol level, over four times the legal limit to fly of 0.04 set by the Federal Aviation Administration.

GOP Senators Object To Proposal To Label Mask Objectors 'Terrorists'.  More than half a dozen Republican senators penned a letter last week demanding the Department of Justice (DOJ) reject a request to stamp those who protest airplane mask mandates as "terrorists."  Earlier this month, Delta Air Lines' CEO Ed Bastian asked the DOJ to add travelers convicted of "unruly" conduct to a new "no-fly" list barring access to commercial air transport.  Such conduct warranting the same expulsion granted to suspected terrorists include those who've resisted compliance with mask requirements, which made up nearly three-quarters of airplane disputes last year, according to data from the Federal Aviation Administration published by CNBC.  "Like other airlines, Delta maintains its own no-fly list for anyone who disrupts onboard safety or refuses to comply with crew instructions," Bastian wrote in a Washington Post op-ed Tuesday doubling down on his request.

The empire of compliance is, at last, falling apart.  [Scroll down]  Examples are everywhere.  Some are so trivial as to be absurd and thus inflict damage by humiliation, obliging sensible, high-functioning grown-ups to jump through hoops uselessly.  Empty performance displaces substance.  We've all gotten used to the tedious, performative security of taking our shoes off at airports, even though other countries don't require it.  Another air travel regulation limits passengers to two carry-on bags.  The result is that airport staff tell us to cram surplus bags into the permitted two.  It doesn't reduce the mass of luggage by an ounce but checks a useless box.  The compliance cost is reduced self-respect as autonomous adults obey pointless diktats.

Regulators won't let Boeing certify new 787 jets for flight.  Federal safety regulators say they will retain power to approve Boeing 787 airliners for flight rather than return that authority to the aircraft maker, which hasn't been able to deliver any new Dreamliner planes since last May because of production flaws.  The Federal Aviation Administration said it told Boeing of its decision Tuesday [2/15/2022].

Half-empty United Airlines flight from Newark to Tel Aviv returns to US after 90 minutes due to a 'riot'.  An Israel-bound United Airlines plane that departed from Newark, New Jersey reversed course 90 minutes after takeoff after two economy-level passengers who moved into business class started a riot, reports say.  The half-empty flight had not yet reached the Canadian border January 20 when the unidentified Israeli nationals upgraded their seats and refused to show flight attendants their tickets, according to the The Jerusalem Post.  Fellow passenger Roi Lotan said a 'riot' started when the duo refused to comply with the flight crew's directive en route to Tel Aviv.  'The flight was half empty and there was room, so they probably just said to themselves "why not?" Lotan told Israeli outlet Channel 12.

Passenger Keeps A Single French Fry In His Mouth Like A Cigarette Aboard Flight So He Doesn't Have To Wear A Mask.  It's not bad enough you have to wear a chin diaper in the airport for 2 to 3 hours, then you have to wear it aboard the already oxygen-depleted airplane for hours, just to land and keep it on at the next airport until you finally get out.  Well, not all heroes wear capes, some dangle french fries from their lips, exposing a nice loophole to the entire mask madness during travel.  This guy kept a lone fry in his mouth for over an hour and a half until the plane landed.  [Video clip]

Passenger Storms an American Airlines Cockpit During Boarding, Smashes Dash, Tries to Jump Out the Window.  An American Airlines passenger who stormed the cockpit during boarding, broke the flight controls, and then tried to jump out the window was stopped by the pilot and eventually arrested by police.  [Video clip]

Airlines warn 5G could jam their systems and lead to 350K delays a year.  Airline executives are sounding louder alarms about the impending rollout of 5G service, warning that the cellphone frequencies could lead to 350,000 delays each year by jamming their in-flight systems.  The ultra-fast so-called C-Band service is set to roll out nationally in big cities on Jan. 5, meaning any rules to limit its strength to address airline safety concerns need to happen soon.  Southwest Airlines CEO Greg Kelly has said 5G is his company's "No. 1 concern" and an industry group said the new ultra-fast cellphone service could lead to more than $2 billion in flight delays each year.

Biden Says He Is Ready to Trigger Mandatory Vaccine Requirement for Air Travel as Soon as Fauci Tells Him.  If you listen to most champagne socialists, they will tell you they believe airline travel has become too affordable and just about anyone is able to fly now.  For a few decades this has been a source of consternation amid the Democrat cocktail party class, whenever the subject is approached.  It stands to reason the people behind Joe Biden will eventually concede the issue of mandatory vaccine passports for domestic air travel to the administrative state and their donors amid the Branch Covidians.  They're in the same group circles where Anthony Fauci is venerated and appreciated.  However, I doubt it will happen until after the U.S. universal passport system, the vaccination ID, is put into place — because currently, the airline companies would stand to lose too much revenue.

Walking in a Fauci Wonderland.  Instead of introspection and a change in course, we have Dr Fauci constantly on television, suggesting new and even more draconian measures including masks on airplanes as a permanent feature of flying the friendly skies.  Or vaccine mandates for air travel, another nail in the coffin of an already oppressively unpleasant form of transportation.  President Biden will recommend a domestic travel vaccine mandate as soon as Dr Fauci tells him to.

Now FAA says it could cancel flights too as Omicron hits its 14,000 air traffic controllers.  The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday warned that even more flights could be canceled as its air traffic control staff are hit by COVID, even as airlines themselves nix thousands of flights because of staff felled by the Omicron variant.  In a statement, the FAA said an increasing number of its employees are testing positive for the virus, CNN reports, which could force it to implement health and cleaning procedures that will reduce the number of available flights.  'To maintain safety, traffic and volume at some facilities could be reduced, which might result in delays during busy periods,' the administration warned.

The Friendly Skies are Long Gone.  Through December 21, 2021, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported a total of 5,779 unruly passenger incidents this year.  Of these incidents, the FAA has launched 1,054 investigations, which is approximately a 600% increase from the annual average of the previous twenty-five years.  Historically, factors such as overcrowding, cancellations, and narrow seats cause in-flight incidents.  However, this year, the mask mandate, which the FAA instituted on February 1, has been the major factor causing the massive increase in incidents.  Despite a multitude of studies showing the ineffectiveness of masks and the potential negative health effects, some airlines are now increasing their restrictions and forcing passengers to wear masks while eating and drinking.  This is almost identical to the requirements placed on restaurant patrons in California.  It is particularly worrisome that the airline industry is following the lead of the most left-wing governor in the country.  It does not make sense to Gary Kelly, the CEO of Southwest Airlines.

Omicron variant causes Christmas flight cancellations and holiday travel headaches.  Travelers are having a rough Christmas Eve at the airport due in part to the coronavirus omicron variant.  According to Flight Aware, United Airlines canceled at least 185 flights for Friday, about 9% of its planned schedule, and another 167 that were slated for Saturday [12/25/2021].  FOX Business has identified 21 instances where United Airlines cancellations on Christmas Eve are directly attributed to the coronavirus, stating that staffing issues have caused the cancellation.

Airlines cancel nearly 500 flights and delay another 750 on Christmas Eve because of crew shortages.  Thousands of Americans will be forced to spend Christmas alone after airlines canceled more than 600 flights and delayed more nearly 2,500 on Christmas eve due to staffing shortages caused by surge in Omicron infections.  Short staffing due to the breakthrough infections has led United Airlines to cancel at least 187 flights for Friday, while Atlanta-based Delta said it has canceled 167 and Alaska Airlines said it had canceled 11.  More flight cancellations are expected during the day.  Airlines have also cancelled flights scheduled for Christmas Day, usually one of the lighter travel days of the holiday seasons, with Delta Airlines already listing 174 cancellations and United cancelling 136 so far.

Wild Miami Airport Fight Shows Cop Getting Grabbed, Punching Passenger.  Two people are in custody after a brawl broke out at Miami International Airport Monday evening [12/20/2021].  According to the Miami-Dade Police Department, officers were called out to gate H8 at around 6:35 p.m. after an airport employee reported a disturbance stemming from a delayed charter flight.  Responding officers then found an unruly passenger had allegedly taken the keys to an airport transport golf cart, refusing to let the employee to leave.  [Video clip]

Brawl Breaks Out At Miami Airport, Cop Attacked.  Two people are in custody after a brawl broke out at Miami International Airport Monday night [12/20/2021].  Miami-Dade police officers were called to gate H8 shortly after 6:30 p.m. after an airport employee reported a disturbance due to a delayed charter flight.  Upon arriving at the gate, officers then found an "unruly passenger" had taken the keys to an airport transport golf cart, and refused to let the employee leave, police said.  Video footage by Only in Dade shows a large crowd surrounding one of the officers, who had someone in a hold.  The officer appears to be grabbed and pushed by the crowd when he then let go of his hold.  He could then be seen holding what appears to be a weapon while radioing for help with his other hand.  [Video clip]

Major Airline CEOs Call Out Nonsense Behind Mandatory Mask Wearing.  With airlines receiving some of the hardest hits dealt by the COVID-19 pandemic, a pair of CEOs from major airlines are taking off their N-95 blindfolds and calling out the hysteria behind wearing masks.  During a Senate committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS.) inquired with various airline CEOs regarding the masking policies ailing several of their companies.  Two of the CEOs were honest about the lack of data behind mask mandates.  "I think the case is very strong that masks don't add much, if anything, in the air cabin environment.  It is very safe and very high quality compared to any other indoor setting," answered Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly.  "I concur," added American Airlines CEO Doug Parker.  "An aircraft is the safest place you can be.  It's true of all of our aircraft — they all have the same HEPA filters and airflow."  [Video clip]

Bailed-out airline chiefs face lawmakers amid rising cancellations, soaring complaints.  The top executives of three airlines will tell Congress on Wednesday how the carriers spent $54 billion in COVID-19 government aid, and why they are still grappling with thousands of canceled flights, staffing shortages and frustrated customers who can't get refunds.  American Airlines CEO Doug Parker will tell the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee that the taxpayer aid "saved the airline industry" at the start of the pandemic, according to a copy of his advanced testimony seen by Reuters.  He'll say that if Congress had structured the aid as government loans, the airlines "would have survived by shutting down flying in April 2020, furloughing almost all of our teams, and waiting for demand to return to levels strong enough to justify restoring flying."

BLM Activist Snaps on a Plane forced Emergency Landing, Claims White People Enslaved him, Fights the Air Marshall.  [T]his just happened on our plane from D.C. to LAX two seats in front of me.  He was yelling about BLM and being enslaved by the white man.  We had to emergency land in Oklahoma so the federal police could come take him off.  Our five hour flights turned into 8 hours.  [Video clip]

Fights break out at MSP Airport, are quickly subdued.  Police are investigating a series of fights that broke out at Terminal 2 of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport just before midnight Friday.  The fights erupted among a dozen or so male and female passengers after two large groups deplaned from a Frontier Airlines flight, according to Patrick Hogan, spokesman for the Metropolitan Airports Commission, which operates MSP.  A video of the incident, which lasted just over a minute, was posted on social media and shared by more than 7,000 people by midday Monday.

Wild Fight Breaks Out Between A Dozen People In Minnesota Airport.  Social media posts show a violent brawl involving at least seven people that erupted inside the Minneapolis St.  Paul International Airport (MSP).  Footage of the incident was uploaded to Facebook and Instagram and seems to have occurred over the Thanksgiving holiday.  The footage posted to Facebook shows a group of men and women striking each other.  One woman is pushed to the ground by two attackers who continue to assault her as she struggles to stand.  Another woman appears to use a trash can lid as a weapon.  A third wields a metal post as the fight spills into a closed security checkpoint.  [Video clip]

UK Man Paid $12,000 by Airline Which Forced Him to Wear a Mask.  Someone I'll call Frank, shared a personal example of when it literally paid for him to know the law.  Frank is from the UK, and for the better part of the last two years has had to deal with mask mandates in public, and when traveling.  Most people take what they are told by the news or government propaganda posters at face value:  you must wear a mask.  Obey.  But Frank makes it a habit to read the actual rules, and he found that in the UK, there were exemptions to the mask mandate.

American Airlines cancels hundreds of weekend flights.  American Airlines canceled hundreds of flights Sunday [10/31/2021] for a third straight day as it struggled with staffing shortages and upended weekend plans for tens of thousands of travelers.  By late afternoon Sunday, American had canceled more than 900 flights — one-third of its schedule for the day — after scrapping nearly 900 flights over the previous two days, according to tracking service FlightAware.

American Airlines cancels nearly 250 more flights amid staffing woes.  American Airlines canceled over 250 more flights — about 9 percent of its scheduled trips — on Monday morning [11/1/2021] after canceling over 1,500 flights through the weekend, blaming the travel disruptions on weather woes and staffing issues.  By 8 a.m. ET Monday [11/1/2021], American had canceled 269 flights for the day and delayed another 117, according to data from aviation tracking site FlightAware.  The recent bout of cancellations comes as the airline scrambles to recover from a messy Halloween weekend that saw the airline cancel as much as 30 percent of its scheduled flights on some days.  In a note to staff on Saturday, American COO David Seymour blamed the delays on poor weather conditions around the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, the airline's base of operations, that had displaced staff around the country, according to CNBC.

American Airlines cancels more flights; total tops 2,300.  Weather and staffing-led turbulence stretched into a fourth day for American Airlines, with the top US carrier canceling more flights on Monday [11/1/2021] to push the total number to nearly 2,300.  The airline said it canceled 340 flights, or 6% of its total planned flights on Monday, as of 11 a.m. ET.  Staffing shortages have hit American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and Spirit Airlines in particular as they ramp up flights ahead of the holiday season but face problems finding enough pilots and flight attendants.  "Flight Attendant staffing at American is strained and reflects what is happening across the industry as we continue to deal with pandemic-related issues," flight attendants' union APFA said.

Fully vaccinated air passenger infected with coronavirus is found dead in his seat at German airport after flight from Turkey.  A fully vaccinated air passenger infected with coronavirus was found dead in his seat after a flight.  The Pegasus Airlines crew found the 51-year-old man lifeless in his seat after Flight 1043 from Istanbul, Turkey, to Hamburg, Germany, on October 25.  The man, who was born in Russia and lived in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, was travelling on an Airbus 320 when he passed away during the flight, which took off from Istanbul at around 7am GMT (10 am local time).

Self-inflicted wounds causing transportation and supply chain woes to cascade, crippling travel and commerce.  Another airline has experienced massive disruption, inconveniencing and alienating customers, as staffing shortages create havoc. [...] While establishment outlets like Reuters studiously avoid any mention of vaccine mandates as a factor in the staffing issues, some companies in transportation as well as other industries are not so shy.  With labor force participation rates down, in part due to tax-free payments to people to stay home, and with millions of job vacancies, hiring adequate staff levels is a challenge in many industries.  But airlines can be particularly badly hit when inclement weather arises in a hub because delays on one place tend to cascade across the system.

American Airlines cancels more than 700 flights, citing weather and staffing issues.  American Airlines has canceled more than 1,000 flights since Friday [10/29/2021], disruptions it blamed on staffing problems and high winds at its busiest hub.  On Saturday, American canceled nearly 460 flights, or 17% of its mainline schedule, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware.  Dallas-based Southwest Airlines cut 86 flights, or 2% of its Saturday operation.  American canceled another 285 flights, or 10% of its schedule planned for Sunday, on top of 340 cancellations on Friday.  American's COO David Seymour said in a staff note on Saturday that the problems started with high wind gusts on Thursday that cut capacity at its Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport hub and that crew members ended up out of position for their next flights.

It was quite windy on Friday, but all that was gone by Saturday morning.
American Airlines cancels a quarter of its entire Sunday schedule — 634 flights — and blames strong wind in Dallas and staff shortages.  American Airlines has continued its streak cancellation over the course of Halloween weekend as a quarter of its scheduled flights — more than 800 of them — were cancelled on Sunday.  The airline has blamed weather control issues, such as strong winds from Dallas, and ongoing staff shortages due to lay-offs made when travel cratered at the start of the COVID outbreak.  In total, more than 1,500 flights have been axed by the airline since Friday with 738 delays and 342 cancellations, according to FlightAware.

People Left Stranded as American Airlines Cancels Over 1,500 Flights.  American Airlines was pointing at the weather as the main reason for canceling more than 1,500 flights over the weekend.  On Sunday [10/31/2021], American canceled about 667 mainline flights, nearly a quarter of its schedule, according to the flight-tracking site FlightAware, CNBC reported.  American canceled 340 flights on Friday and 543 flights Saturday.  Saturday's cancellations amounted to about 20 percent of its scheduled flights.

The Editor says...
Once again, the weather on Sunday (afternoon) [10/31/2021] is ideal for flying:  80 degrees, very light wind.  There has been a vintage B-25 bomber flying around southwest Dallas yesterday and today.  The weather is great.  Please select another excuse.

Southwest Whistleblower:  Canceled Flights [are] the Result of a 'Coordinated Protest' Against Vaccine Mandate.  In the wake of massive Southwest Airlines cancelations and disruptions, a whistleblower within the company reached out to PJ Media to confirm that employees, including pilots, gate agents, flight attendants, and others, are fighting back against the mandatory vaccines ordered by the federal government.  "It's a coordinated protest," said the source, on the condition of anonymity.  The employees have coordinated on social media platforms and are standing up at what they believe is a pivotal moment in America that will determine whether the country remains free or slides into despotism.  "We know we can stop this," the whistleblower said.  "And if we don't do it now, it will be too late.  Everyone is very excited!"  Southwest Airlines has denied that there is a "sick-out" and has had the mainstream media running cover for them all week.

It's Not Just Southwest Airlines — Air Traffic Controllers in Jacksonville Reportedly Walked Out Friday Night Protesting Mandatory COVID Vaccinations Too.  Big Media blacked out the news on Friday night that hundreds of flights out of Jacksonville were cancelled due to walkouts in response to vaccine mandates.  We've reported already on the Southwest Airlines flights canceled this weekend.  In addition, according to one source air traffic controllers staged a walkout in Jacksonville in response to the vaccine mandate being forced on them.

First Southwest Cancellations, Are American and Amtrak Next?  We saw a huge problem with Southwest Airlines this weekend, with over 800 flights canceled on Saturday and a thousand more on Sunday.  As we reported, the initial claims as to the problem were utter nonsense — "bad weather" — while other carriers weren't having that significant an issue.  Southwest canceled 28% of its schedule, according to ABC.  The sheer scale of the cancellations showed there were obviously internal issues. [...] On top of that, now there are questions being raised about Amtrak after two trains were cancelled by them as well for "unforeseen crew issues."  [Tweet]  Now, because they're not explaining what's going on there, we don't know what the rationale is behind those cancelations but the "unforeseen crew issues" are causing a lot of people to conclude that it's related to vaccine mandate issues as well.

Southwest Airlines Cancels 1,000 More Flights as Disruptions Increase.  Southwest Airlines has canceled at least 1,000 Sunday flights as of 12 p.m. ET, according to flight tracker FlightAware, coming after numerous cancelations were reported Saturday [10/9/2021].  "We experienced significant impact in the Florida airports [Friday] evening after an FAA-imposed air traffic management program was implemented due to weather and resulted in a large number of cancellations," Alan Kasher, who oversees Southwest's flight operations, in a statement obtained by several news outlets on Saturday.  About 800 Southwest flights were canceled on Saturday, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware.  Other major carriers, including American Airlines and Spirit Airlines, appeared to have significantly fewer disruptions.  The Epoch Times has contacted Southwest for comment, including regarding whether the cancelations were due to staffing shortages related to the firm's recently announced COVID-19 vaccine mandate for employees.

Reports: Mass Flight Cancellations After Federal Workers Protest Biden's Vaccine Mandate.  Thousands of people experienced flight cancellations and delays out of Jacksonville International Airport this weekend after a number of federal workers reportedly staged a sickout in protest of President Joe Biden's Wuhan coronavirus vaccine mandate.  [Numerous tweets]  But the Federal Aviation Administration is denying the reports of a vaccine mandate protest, while also admitting limited staffing was "unexpected." [...] Meanwhile, a number of Southwest pilots are working to block the [vaccination] mandate and have filed a lawsuit against the airline.

Southwest Airlines cancels 1,000 flights and blames it on air traffic control issues and the weather.  Southwest Airlines has been hit by a second day of mass-flight cancellations, two days after the firm's pilots' union asked a court to block a COVID vaccine mandate.  The Dallas-based carrier canceled over 1,000 flights Sunday, equivalent to 27 percent of its entire schedule for the day.  That came hot on the heels of 808 flights canceled on Saturday.  Southwest has blamed a combination of inclement weather and staffing shortages at Jacksonville Air Traffic Control Center in Florida for the disruption.

Southwest Airlines' Reputation Crumbles After Fallout From COVID Policies.  Yesterday [10/9/2021], mass chaos ensued for Southwest Airlines, with thousands of flights being canceled across the country.  Passengers were left scrambling as refunds were denied and nonsensical excuses were presented.  The official story was that ATC "issues" and bad weather caused the meltdown, which hit Jacksonville, FL especially hard.  That rippled through flights elsewhere as planes were not able to make their connecting legs.  One look at the radar and airport delays, though, shows there was absolutely nothing weather-related anywhere in the country (where Southwest Airlines operates) that caused this, much less in sunny Jacksonville.  Rather, it was some mix of an air traffic controller and pilot shortage due to pointless vaccine mandates driving the cancellations.  That's made obvious by the fact that other major US airlines saw cancellation rates over 10x lower during the same period.

The Editor says...
It's bad enough to be stuck in an airport somewhere, but it's far more aggravating if the delay is due to a completely avoidable problem.  And by that, I mean the vaccine mandate.  It is entirely unnecessary, an affront to personal freedom.  And the vaccine itself has been shown to be lethal in many cases.

Man Gets Kicked Off Flight Because His Mask Was Low Even Though He Pleaded And Apologized.  This pathetic scene is making its rounds on social media showing a poor guy trying to fly to Denver and a nasty little, power-hungry airline waitress forces him off the flight for having his mask too low.  It is not known which airline this was but it reflected the sad state of affairs when it comes to traveling via airlines.  The man is seen begging the steward to stay on board and promised not to wear his mask low.  You can clearly see his mask is pulled up to his eyes.  The steward doesn't care, he tells him to grab his bags and get off the flight and he can have his 500 dollars refunded.  When the passenger asks how is he going to get to Denver, the heartless steward tells him to get the 500 dollars and figure it out.  [Video clip]

Black Woman Loses It After Jetblue Cancelation, Calls White Man Racial Slurs, Another Black Woman Swoops In To Defend Him.  Earlier this week, JetBlue fell victim to extreme weather cancellations leaving thousands of passengers stranded and angry.  At this NYC airport, things boiled over when passengers who'd been standing in line for 5 hours engaged in a racist tinged verbal altercation that eventually became physical.  The video picks up with an African American woman apparently defending a white male who is in line near her (although it would seem they were not together). Another female, standing outside of the main customer service line, slings a few racist slurs at the man which doesn't seem to set right with the aforementioned black woman who seems to defend the man.  Chaos unfolds after that.  [Video clip]

Zombie Passenger Eats His Mask, Growls On Flght From Los Anageles Before Cops Grab Him.  A passenger is giving an American Airlines flight crew praise for the way they handled a belligerent passenger on the flight from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City.  The hostile behavior was documented by one of the passengers and was posted to social media on Monday [9/6/2021].  The flight typically lasts an hour and a half, but for passengers on American Airlines flight 1802, it likely seemed much longer.  [Video clip]

Dems Intro Bill Banning Unvaxxed Americans From Flying.  Democratic Congressman Ritchie Torres unveiled a legislative effort to ban Americans opting to not get vaccinated against COVID-19 from taking domestic and international flights.  The New York Congressman sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) lobbying the agencies to only allow Americans vaccinated against COVID-19 on domestic and international flights.  He introduced a complementary bill in the House necessitating that "any individual traveling on a flight that departs from or arrives to an airport inside the United States or a territory of the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19."  It has since been referred to the Committee on Homeland Security, where he serves as the Vice-Chair.  "The TSA never allows people to enter planes or airports with a weapon, and the delta variant is a weapon," Torres remarked.  "It is a threat to everyone in an airport and everyone on a plane," he added in defense of the bill.

The Editor says...
Why would he say, "the delta variant is a weapon?"  Who is using it as a weapon?  As recently as a year ago, if you had said Covid-19 was a weapon, you would have been ostracized, or worse.

Biden administration wants airport bars to 'police' drink sales to try and control the surge in disruptive passengers.  The Federal Aviation Administration is urging airports to monitor sales of alcohol in terminal bars and wants to ban 'to-go' drinks to try and curb the surge in unruly passengers on flights.  The FAA has initiated a crackdown with airlines encountering a rising number of violent and disruptive passengers as more Americans start flying again.  FAA Administrator Steve Dickson said:  'Our investigations show that alcohol often contributes to this unsafe behavior.'

Spirit Airlines expects flight cancellations to continue.  Roughly half of Spirit Airlines flights were canceled on Thursday [8/5/2021] — and will be again on Friday for a fifth straight day — as the airline continues to cancel hundreds of flights throughout the week due to "operational challenges" and staffing issues that have thrown the budget airline out of sync.  The airline canceled 446 flights, or 56 percent of its flights on Thursday, according to FlightAware.  Spirit Airlines President and CEO Ted Christie said the cancelations come as the airline tries to reset itself after widespread "disruption," he said in an interview with ABC News.

Spirit Airlines passengers reportedly stranded for over 30 hours with 'no sort of resolve'.  Spirit Airlines passengers were reportedly still stranded at multiple airports Monday night, forced to sleep in terminals for another night after weather and some "operational challenges" resulted in hundreds of delays and cancellations over the weekend.  Passenger Emma Wareus was one of many others who were left with very few options.  Wareus had been stranded in Puerto Rico for over 30 hours after her flight was delayed on Sunday [8/1/2021], she said, and landed in Washington, D.C., at 1 a.m. Tuesday after paying $1,300 for an American Airlines ticket.

Man duct-taped to seat after allegedly groping flight attendants.  An "aggressive" passenger on a Frontier Airlines flight was duct-taped to his seat after allegedly groping two flight attendants and assaulting another, video shows.  Cellphone footage obtained by WPLG shows the flier, Maxwell Berry, 22, being duct-taped to the back of a seat on Saturday's Frontier flight from Philadelphia to Miami, where he was arrested by waiting cops on three counts of battery.  The video also shows Berry scuffling with a male flight attendant and yelling profanities while sitting in a window seat.  An arrest report alleges Berry ordered two drinks and then asked for another before brushing his empty cup against the backside of a female flight attendant.

Or maybe it was Russian hackers, global warming, or racism.  But in any case, it must be Trump's fault!
American Airlines, Spirit cancel hundreds more flights due to storms, staffing.  American Airlines and Spirit Airlines canceled hundreds more flights on Tuesday [8/3/2021] as cancelations and delays that began on Sunday due to thunderstorms spilled into their third day.  More than 280 flights, some 9 percent of all of American scheduled trips, had been canceled as of 11 a.m. ET Tuesday, according to FlightAware.com.  Another 190, or 6 percent of American's flights, were delayed on Tuesday.  The latest disruptions come on top of the roughly 850 flights that American canceled on Sunday and Monday, as well as the nearly 2,000 that were delayed, according to CNBC.

Fist fight breaks out between passengers on flight to Austin from New Orleans.  A video captured on an American Airlines flight from New Orleans to Austin shows a fist fight that broke out between passengers on Sunday [8/1/2021].  A passenger on the flight sent KXAN video of what happened, and said two were detained shortly after the incident[,] but Austin Police said they didn't arrest anyone.  A statement from the airline confirmed "law enforcement were requested" after the plane arrived to Austin "due to an altercation between passengers," but gave no other information.

Spirit Airlines cancels more than 200 flights in a single day.  Thousands of Spirit Airlines passengers have been stranded in airports for hours after the budget carrier canceled 30 percent of its scheduled flights nationwide.  On Monday [8/2/2021], the Florida-based airline canceled over 200 flights throughout the US, in addition to 165 canceled flights on Sunday, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware.com.  Travelers took to social media to share vent their frustrations from airports in cities such as San Juan, Miami, Orlando and Fort Lauderdale while they waited for updates from the airline.

The jet fuel shortage is upon us.  If you've found yourself waiting a very long time at the airport while attempting to fly out of town, there are a number of reasons for that.  Most of the airlines remain severely understaffed due to a lack of planning and foresight.  It's also possible that your flight was delayed because someone decided to punch out a flight attendant after being ordered to wear a mask.  But now you can add one more issue to the list, particularly at airports in the western part of the country.  Even if everything else is going smoothly, most of the airlines are running into a shortage of jet fuel, leading to delays while they wait to get enough juice in the tanks to get off the ground.

CDC monitoring 200 people in 27 states for monkeypox.  The CDC is monitoring more than 200 people in 27 states for possible exposure to monkeypox, after they were in contact with a Texan who contracted the rare disease in Nigeria earlier this month.  No additional cases of the smallpox-related disease have been detected in the US, according to Stat. [...] The patient traveled from Lagos to Dallas with a layover in Atlanta on July 8 and 9, nearly a week before being diagnosed with the rare bug, which can be transmitted through respiratory droplets and body fluids, the CDC said.  The people being monitored include fliers who sat within six feet of the patient or used the mid-cabin bathroom on the overseas flight, according to the article.

Why Were American Airlines Passengers Told to Put Their Hands on Their Heads for the Remainder of This Flight?  American Airlines passengers were filmed with their hands on their heads on a flight from Los Angeles to Miami on Wednesday.  All passengers aboard the flight 2289 "were ordered to put their hands on their heads for 45-60 minutes before landing," according to passenger Chris Nguyen, who filmed part of the bizarre incident:  [Tweet with video clip]  The unusual order also came with the warning for passengers like Nguyen not to film what was occurring on the plane.  After landing in Miami, heavily armed law enforcement officers reportedly boarded the plane and appeared to arrest and remove one male passenger.  All remaining passengers were then permitted to deplane without their personal belongings.  They were then transported by bus to the terminal, but for some unexplained reason, passengers were not permitted to immediately leave the terminal.

Police Force Entire Airplane To Deplane After Passenger Refuses To Put Phone In Airplane Mode.  This is a TikTok video gone viral showing police forcing an entire cabin full of passengers to deplane after a woman refused to stop Facetiming and put her phone into airplane mode.  You can hear all the other passengers groan as the police inform everyone that they must get off the flight and gather back in the terminal.  [Video clip]

FAA Deals $10,000 Fine to Airline Passenger over Mask Refusal.  The Federal Aviation Authority announced on Tuesday [7/6/2021] that it dealt an airline passenger a $10,500 fine for refusing to cover his nose with his mask and allegedly intimidating a flight attendant.  The FAA said in a press release that flight attendants on an Allegiant Air flight from Utah to Arizona repeatedly told the passenger to cover his nose and mouth with a mask, however the passenger immediately "moved it off of his nose after the flight attendant walked away."  Flight attendants then told him they would have to file a disturbance complaint, however the passenger "argued" and "claimed that it was fine just over his mouth."  When the flight landed the passenger "approached a flight attendant from behind as she prepared to open the cabin door and touched her," getting close to her saying she was "being aggressive" about the mask policy.

Woman Attacks Ticket Agent At Airport As Her Little Daughter Begs Her To Stop.  This is a video going viral on social media showing a woman losing her marbles at a ticket agent counter at an airport.  The airport is said to be in Orlando but it's not confirmed.  The irate flyer is seen berating the agent before jumping behind the counter and assaulting her, throwing a computer keyboard at the woman.  [Video clip]

Southwest Airlines grounds its entire fleet amid giant computer outage.  Southwest Airlines grounded flights across the country Tuesday for the second time in less than 24 hours, amid reports of nationwide computer issues.  Air travelers took to Twitter by the thousands with reports of what airline staff reportedly told them was a computer system outage — hours after "intermittent performance issues" with a third-party weather app forced a similar group stop Monday night.  "We are aware of system issues and are working quickly to resolve.  We will share more info soon," Southwest posted on its official Twitter account at 2 p.m. Tuesday [6/15/2021].

Off Duty Flight Attendant Tells Passengers To Prepair For A Crash, Tries To Open Door, Starts Fight.  A cross-country flight from California to Georgia had to be diverted to Oklahoma after a man became unruly and had to be detained by fellow passengers and the flight crew Friday night [6/11/2021].  Delta Flight 1730, going from Los Angeles to Atlanta, was forced to divert when a man became unruly mid-flight.  The aircraft landed in Oklahoma City where the man was removed by law enforcement officials.  [Video clip]

Delta Airlines Passanger [sic] Is Tackled And Zip Tied After Trying To Breach Cockpit.  A flight from Los Angeles to Nashville was diverted to New Mexico on Friday afternoon after a passenger tried to break into the cockpit, Delta Air Lines said.  The "unruly" man-made the unsuccessful attempt on the locked cockpit aboard Delta Air Lines Flight 386 but other passengers and crew managed to detain him, the airline said.  Video taken aboard the plane shows the zip-tied and shoeless man surrounded by passengers and crew members as he repeats over and over again:  "Stop this plane!"  [Video clip]

Pete Buttigieg insists American travelers respect masks mandates on planes.  Pete Buttigieg urged U.S. travelers to respect flight attendants and other crew members as guidance still states even vaccinated people have to wear face coverings on public transportation like planes, trains and buses.  'The flight crews and other workers you encounter, they're doing their job,' the Transportation Secretary said during an interview [5/30/2021] on ABC's 'This Week' as they continue to enforce mask mandates on planes.

American Airlines:  No more booze sales onboard until mask mandate ends (except in business and first class).  Listen up, proles:  your failure to unquestioningly obey the useless mask mandate is going to cost you.  The surge in passenger misbehavior on airlines, partially attributable to mask mandate resistance, is ending steerage class passengers their access to intoxicants while airborne. [...] Ruling class members can relax, though.  Those who can come up with the money for business and first class seats apparently are exempt from the booze ban, presumably on the theory that the better class of people there can handle their liquor better, or are more obedient to the pseudo-scientific mandates emanating from their ruling class brethren.  Or maybe, if you pay extra, you get to behave a little worse.

The friendly skies aren't so friendly anymore.  Though the number of flights per day is still far below the daily average of recent years, the FAA recently revealed that the total number of reported incidents of passenger bad behavior on flights so far in 2021 is about 10 times the annual average — through just the first four months of the calendar year.  The FAA says it typically sees between 100 and 150 "formal" cases of bad behavior by passengers in a typical year.  By contrast, the agency said there have already been 1,300 such cases reported this year, even with significantly lower passenger miles flown.  These instances have involved verbal and physical assault and "political intimidation," frequently over mask mandates.

NFL star Janoris Jenkins' luxury car stolen at Atlanta airport.  Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding a car theft at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport where NFL star Janoris Jenkins said his luxury vehicle was stolen.  The incident happened Wednesday around 2:30pm. [...] According to preliminary details from police, Jenkins said he parked his 2016 Rolls Royce in the lot before boarding a flight on May 5.  He told the police when he returned May 27, his vehicle was gone.

Brawl Breaks Out On Spirit Airlines Flight Where Three Black Women Attack Someone Elbowing "Big" Ex-Navy Man Out Of The Way.  Three black women got into a brawl with a so far unknown person.  Mobile phone footage of the incident was uploaded to social media sites and in the videos, three female passengers can be seen attacking an unknown person while elbowing a big ex-navy guy out of the way.  [Video clip]

Airlines mull weighing passengers at gates for certain flights due to heavy loads.  U.S. airlines may begin weighing passengers at gates for flights involving smaller aircraft in order to comply with new Federal Aviation Administration rules aimed at addressing the reality that Americans are getting fatter, according to an industry website.  "For safety reasons, carriers need to calculate an aircraft's weight and balance, and it has to be within allowable limits for the plane," View From The Wing reported last week.  "However the assumptions they've been using for passengers are outdated.  Americans are getting fatter, and the federal government wants airlines to find out how much fatter their passengers have gotten, at least for smaller aircraft."  The outlet went on to note the FAA is aware that overall passenger weight varies depending on the route being flown and that it is likely in airlines' best interests to document the data.  Also, the agency understands that current standard weights being utilized by carriers may not reflect current realities, especially for smaller planes.

Massive Brawl At Miami International After Passenger Refuses To Wear Mask, Entire Flight Deplaned.  A viral video now making the rounds shows a chaotic scene near Gate G15 at Miami International Airport.  It happened Tuesday night, when, according to a document from airport police, "units responded after passengers were reportedly fighting aboard the aircraft.  The passengers had to be deplaned due to an irate female refusing to comply with mask mandates."  Police went on to arrest Alexus Beaty, 25, of Chicago, for alleged disorderly conduct and breaching the peace.  She's accused of getting violent with the flight crew onboard and belligerent with other passengers.  [Video clip]

Another Massive Brawl Breaks Out at Miami International Airport — Weaves Go Flying, Woman Dragged Across the Floor!  Another massive brawl broke out at Miami International Airport on Wednesday [5/5/2021] just one week after passengers were seen beating each other at the D gates.  The fight this week began when two women started yelling at each other on the plane.  [Video clip]

The Editor says...
Guess what all the participants in this disturbance have in common.  It's the only aspect of the story that the media refuse to report.

At United Airlines, racism and sexism are their copilots.  United Airlines has apparently conquered such mundane issues as late flights, canceled flights, uncomfortable flights, rude counterworkers, lost baggage, multi-hour delays in answering their phones, that plane urchin who keeps kicking the back of your seat and the ample passengers who've sandwiched you into the middle seat and the moron in front of you who's thrown his seat back into your knees at about Mach 2. [...] And so United has announced they're joining the woke wars.  They boast that they will reserve 50% of their new pilot slots for People of Color and women.  The wokerati applaud.  This presents a question.  Why doesn't United already have at least 50% POC and women pilots?  Instead, United's pilot corps are about 13% POC and 6% women.  There are two potential answers to this question, and only two.

Woman Facing Charges After Allegedly Attacking Flight Attendant.  A Brooklyn woman is facing charges after allegedly attacking an attendant during a flight to John F. Kennedy International Airport from Miami.  According to authorities, it happened Sunday midway through the flight.  Officials said Chenasia Campbell, a passenger, went to the crew area of the plane and yelled at a flight attendant for not picking up her garbage.  When another flight attendant tried to separate the two, Campbell allegedly began pummeling her and pulling her hair.

TSA extends mask mandate for planes, public transportation in U.S. until September.  The Transportation Security Administration announced Friday that it has extended through Sept. 13 its orders requiring people to wear masks in transportation settings, including at airports, on commercial aircraft, and on buses and trains.  TSA officials said the extension of the mask requirement is consistent with updated policies from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  The TSA requirement had been set to expire May 11.  "The federal mask requirement throughout the transportation system seeks to minimize the spread of COVID-19 on public transportation," Darby LaJoye, a senior TSA official, said in a statement.  "About half of all adults have at least one vaccination shot and masks remain an important tool in defeating this pandemic."

Fifty-two passengers on one flight from Delhi to Hong Kong test positive for coronavirus after landing — despite ALL presenting a negative test while boarding.  At least 52 people from a single flight from Delhi to Hong Kong have tested positive for Covid-19, despite all passengers presenting a negative coronavirus test before boarding.  All of the passengers who tested positive flew into Hong Kong on a flight from India's capital, run by Indian airline Vistara on April 4.  Hong Kong as a whole has been recording fewer daily new infections than the total number detected on the flight, since it brought a fourth wave of infections under control in January.

Alaska Airlines bans mask-resisting Republican state senator from home state.  A Republican state senator from Alaska who staunchly opposes COVID-19 restrictions has been banned from Alaska Airlines for refusing to wear a mask while flying.  Alaska State Sen. Lora Reinbold was handed the no-fly order by airline management after she resisted multiple requests by staff to abide by its policies requiring masks for all passengers.  "She is not permitted to fly with us for her continued refusal to comply with employee instruction regarding the current mask policy," spokesman Tim Thompson told the Anchorage Daily News.  Reinbold was captured on video last week arguing with Alaska Airlines staff in Juneau International Airport over her refusal to wear a mask covering her nose and mouth.

Masks are a Joke, But No One is Laughing.  [Scroll down]  As I approached the door to board the jet with several passengers ahead of me, my eyes met the fierce, darkly penciled eyebrows of a flight attendant overseeing the boarding.  Of course, I couldn't see the rest of her face due to her face mask.  For a fraction of a second, I thought she was going to give me a welcoming smile, but she yells over the people in front of me and points at my face, and says "Your mask, pull it up all the way, cover your nose completely!"  Apparently, unbeknownst to me, my mask was not sufficiently secured to my face, even though it felt okay to me.  I made sure not to let that happen again!  Next, throughout the flight, in two languages, we were berated and chided about the importance and necessity of thoroughly covering our faces, or risk being ejected and suffering the consequences.  We were told how to eat and drink while only momentarily lowering our masks.  Meanwhile, the rather large passenger in the seat next to me was invading into my seat space, even using my foot space, but as long as I have my face muzzled, when not eating or drinking, all is well in COVID world.  It is a complete joke, but no one is laughing.

What you really need to be afraid of when you get in an airplane.  Affirmative action has eroded the efficacy of the air traffic control system to an alarming degree.  The air traffic controllers' strike in the summer of 1981 was a crisis that the social engineers did not let go to waste.  They replaced the PATCO workforce with many of the liberal left's favorites.  Let's just say their favorites do not include straight, white, competent, experienced males.  However, some level of competence still must be added to the mix; the nature of air traffic control demands it. [...] Now, you shouldn't be blamed for thinking that incompetence would easily be outed and vanquished in an age of black boxes, videotapes, and other gotcha devices.  Unfortunately, the responsible are not always fingered, and mostly they are coddled and protected by the same bureaucrats who appointed them to the positions they can't handle.  An illustration follows: [...]

This is Out Of Control!  Family is being thrown off a Spirit Airlines flight from Orlando to NY because their two-year-old child is eating without a mask.  [Video clip]

Some Thugs Decide To Catch Fights Instead Of Flights At Atlanta Airport, Police Has To Use Taser To Stop.  Several people are facing charges after a wild fight ended in the use of Taser at the Atlanta airport.  According to Atlanta police, three people were attempting to enter the TSA checkpoint on Tuesday morning at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.  One of the passengers didn't have identification, which led to an argument between the group and the TSA employee, police said.  [Video clip]

Whistleblower: Biden's FAA Forcing Air Traffic Controllers to Wear Masks While Speaking to Pilots, Causing Serious Read-Back Errors.  An Air traffic controller is ringing alarm bells about the Biden administration's mask mandates, warning that the face coverings are creating a serious safety hazard.  Investigative journalist Alex Berenson reported on Twitter that he received an "urgent warning" from an air traffic controller who works at a major Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).  The whistleblower told Berenson that the FAA issued a guidance about a month ago requiring controllers to "wear masks at all times" while at work and in position, and warned that the directive could have devastating consequences for airline passengers and pilots.  Prior to this, he said, most controllers took off masks while speaking directly with pilots.  "For context, our headsets use a boom microphone that adjusts to fit somewhere an inch or two away from our face.  It has created an issue where we get a lot more read-back errors from pilots on instructions because they can't hear us clearly over the radio," he explained.  "A bad readback or failure to even copy can cause a lot of problems when we're busy because we use up more time to correct them," he continued.  "Worst case scenario is a pilot thinks we say something, reads it back wrong, and it results in disaster because we can't correct them before we lose them on radios."

Disturbing incident on a Frontier flight as staff told a Hasidic couple to get off because their 18 month old had no mask.  An Orthodox Jewish person spoke up in defense of the Hasidic couple.  Then the whole family siblings and in-laws started leaving the plane at which point the [airline] ordered everyone off of the airplane.

American Airlines flight from Dallas to LA is forced to stop at Phoenix after disturbance.  An American Airlines flight from Dallas to LA was forced to divert to Phoenix and two passengers were arrested after they allegedly used racial slurs and spat on a man who asked them to stop.  Kelly Pichardo, 30, and Leeza Rodriguez, 29, from the Bronx, New York, were on Flight 776 from Dallas-Fort Worth to Los Angeles, on February 24 when they were reportedly overheard using 'disturbing and unacceptable' language, according to the airline.

FAA seeks $27,500 penalty against female passenger who punched a flight attendant.  A female passenger on a Delta Airlines flight is being penalized for her actions during a flight last October.  Friday [2/26/2021] the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced a proposed fine of $27,500 for a passenger who punched a flight attendant.  The flight was from Miami to Atlanta on October 19.  The passenger is not named in the announcement.  She was traveling with and sitting next to a male companion who refused to wear a face mask, secure his tray table or fasten his seatbelt, according to the FAA.  Due to the male's behavior, the flight returned to the gate.  Flight attendants asked the two passengers to get off the aircraft.

CDC Orders Sweeping U.S. Transportation Mask Mandate as COVID-19 Rages.  The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a sweeping order late Friday [1/29/2021] requiring the use of face masks on nearly all forms of public transportation Monday as the country continues to report thousands of daily COVID-19 deaths.  The order, which takes effect at 11:59 p.m. EST on Monday (0459 GMT Tuesday), requires face masks to be worn by all travelers on airplanes, ships, trains, subways, buses, taxis, and ride-shares and at transportation hubs like airports, bus or ferry terminals, train and subway stations and seaports.

The Editor says...
Covid-19 does not "rage," except on CNN.  There will always be germs in the air.  With the exception of airline travel and mass transit, the problem of germs in the air was not a great concern until 2020.  Something tells me the airlines could pump fresh air into their planes, but it would reduce their profits.

Massive Fight Breaks Out At Spirit Airlines Check-in At Detroit Airport, Gate Agent Hospitalized, Arrested.  According to Click On Detroit, three passengers were arrested after injuring the gate agents who had asked them to make sure their carry-on bags were the right size during the Sunday incident at Detroit Metro Airport.  One of the workers was hospitalized, the airline said.  "Three passengers attacked our agents without provocation," a Spirit spokesperson told the TV station.  After the passengers started arguing with the agents over the luggage, the agents were attacked when they tried to close the door to the jetway to prevent the passengers from boarding the flight.  [Video clip]

Man caught living in O'Hare for months, prosecutors say he was afraid to fly home due to COVID-19.  A 36-year-old allegedly lived inside O'Hare International Airport for three months before he was caught on Saturday [1/16/2021].  Prosecutors said Aditya Singh was too afraid to fly back to Los Angeles due to COVID-19.  Cook County prosecutors said Singh was found with an airport worker's misplaced credentials and survived inside a secure area of O'Hare Airport.  Singh arrived at O'Hare's Terminal 2 on a flight from LA back on October 19th according to prosecutors, and has lived in the airport's security zone since then.

The Editor says...
This is the inevitable byproduct of 24/7 fearmongering on TV.  This guy isn't the only person frozen in place by irrational fear.  Turn off your television!

Delta bans MAGA passengers who heckled 'traitor' senators Mitt Romney and Lindsey Graham and stops all firearms in checked baggage on DC flights until after inauguration.  Delta Air Lines has banned passengers who heckled Utah Sen Mitt Romney and South Carolina Sen Lindsey Graham ahead of their flights last week and will be prohibiting all guns in checked baggage on flights to Washington, DC, until after President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration next week.  Romney, the lone Republican senator to vote to oust President Donald Trump after he was impeached, was on a flight from Salt Lake City to DC when he was first harassed by a Trump supporter while waiting on his flight.  A second video showed dozens of people on a flight yelling 'traitor' at Romney, though he isn't seen in that clip.

The Editor says...
Interesting.  From this news article, one may surmise that each of the airlines maintains its own No-Fly List.  Yet I've never seen a "journalist" report such a thing.

FAA: No more warnings to disruptive passengers after 'disturbing increase' in confrontations.  With recent incidents of passengers confronting crew members or acting unruly, the FAA says the first response will be legal enforcement action.  Federal safety officials said on Wednesday [1/13/2021] that they are stepping up enforcement against unruly airline passengers after confrontations on flights to and from Washington, D.C., around the time of the riot at the Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump.  The Federal Aviation Administration said there has been "a disturbing increase in incidents where airline passengers have disrupted flights with threatening or violent behavior.  These incidents have stemmed both from passengers' refusals to wear masks and from recent violence at the U.S. Capitol."

American Airlines and Delta Airlines are Now Refusing To let Trump Supporters on Their Planes.  If you thought you were living in a new world where wrong think could keep you from living your life, you would be right.  People who are not radically left are quickly realizing that some of their beliefs are going to get them targeted by the radical-Nazi-like Democrats that are currently controlling the congress.  Now American Airlines and Delta are literally keeping people from being able to go home even after they purchased a plane ticket.  [Video clip]

American Airline Pilot Threatens To Dump Trump Supporters In Kansas If They Don't Stop Chanting USA.  A fed-up American Airlines pilot threatened to "dump" a plane filled with "USA" chanting President Trump supporters in Kansas if they didn't "behave" during a flight out of Washington D.C. Friday [1/8/2021].  "This is the way it's going to be... It's a four and half hour flight out to Phoenix, we'll put this plane down in the middle of Kansas and dump people off.  I don't care.  We will do that if that's what it takes.  Behave please."  [Video clip]

American Airlines says flight attendants forced to deal with 'politically motivated aggression' on DC flights.  American Airlines says it is taking several new "precautionary" measures, including no longer serving alcohol on flights to and from Washington, DC, as one union reported several incidents during which flight attendants "were forced to confront passengers exhibiting politically motivated aggression towards other passengers and crew."  "We are working closely with local law enforcement and airport authority partners to ensure the safety of our customers and team members on the ground and in the air," the airline's statement said.  The airline did not provide details on specific incidents, but the announcement came on the same day thousands of rioters — supporters of President Donald Trump — stormed the US Capitol as Congress kicked off its joint session to certify President-elect Joe Biden's victory.

CNN Grounds Its Long-Running Airport Network.  CNN Airport, a long-running out-of-home media operation that became an integral part of the traveling experience for people flying through Chicago's O'Hare, Dallas' Love Field or even Fresno-Yosemite International Airport, is shutting down, the victim of shifts in consumer behavior that are moving more quickly than a Boeing 737.  CNN said the operation, which aired a mix of news from CNN and snippets from other WarnerMedia networks in 58 different airports in the U.S., would close as of March 31.

If you want to travel next year, you may need a vaccine passport.  Now that coronavirus vaccines are starting to roll out in the US and abroad, many people may be dreaming of the day when they can travel, shop and go to the movies again.  But in order to do those activities, you may eventually need something in addition to the vaccine: a vaccine passport application.  Several companies and technology groups have begun developing smartphone apps or systems for individuals to upload details of their Covid-19 tests and vaccinations, creating digital credentials that could be shown in order to enter concert venues, stadiums, movie theaters, offices, or even countries.

We say "No" to mug shots at airports and borders.  Today the Identity Project (IDP), Restore the Fourth, Privacy Times, and the National Workrights Institute filed joint comments with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in opposition ot the CBP proposal to require mug shots (and possibly collection of other biometrics) from all non-U.S. citizens at all border crossings and international airports and seaports. [...] As our comments discuss in more detail, the Privacy Act allows the collection of information "describing how any individual exercises rights guaranteed by the First Amendment", which includes records of travel and assembly, only in specified circumstances — none of which apply to suspicionless mug shots at airports and borders.

British Airways says it will now force passengers to test negative for COVID before they fly to New York City.  British Airways and Delta say they will require passengers traveling from the UK to New York City to test negative for COVID-19 before they fly after being asked by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to take action to stop the new mutant variant of the virus arriving in the US.  The airlines agreed on Monday [12/21/2020] as 40 countries around the world banned travel from the UK over a new strain of COVID-19 that has been detected there.  The new strain is 70 percent more infectious than what has been seen previously.  Cuomo had asked the federal government to ban all travel from the UK but having had his request fall on deaf ears, he went to the airlines instead.

COVID Hysteria Serves Desire for Power.  We finally reached peak COVID-19 madness last week, when a family was ejected from a United Airlines flight because their two-year-old girl could not tolerate a muzzle.  So, on the apparent theory that you can't be too safe or too careful, even from a two-year-old, the airline enforced its zero-tolerance policy and booted the girl and her family from the plane.  "The health and safety of our employees and customers is our highest priority ... everyone onboard two and older wears a mask," said the airline.  "These procedures are not only backed by guidance from the CDC and our partners at the Cleveland Clinic, but they're also consistent across every major airline." In case you're unaware, doctors, immunologists, and epidemiologists are now the highest authorities in the land.  Under their very own mini-Mussolini, Dr. Anthony Fauci, they can override our constitutional liberties, such as freedom of assembly and religion, severely constrict our freedom of speech, limit our movements, commandeer our businesses, and eliminate our livelihoods with complete impunity.

When 2-Year-Olds Are Thrown Off Airplanes, You Know America Has Changed.  You may have seen the video of the family thrown off a United Airlines airplane because the 2-year-old daughter would not wear a mask.  Though the family wore masks and the father promised to cover his daughter's face with a mask that he placed on her face, it made no difference.  Though the child was completely asymptomatic, and though it is exceedingly rare for a child to transmit COVID-19 to an adult — that is why Sweden kept its schools open all spring and summer, with its students not wearing masks — the airline had its orders, and the flight attendant duly obeyed them.

The Editor says...
"I was only following orders" didn't go over too well at the Nuremberg trials, either.

Doggone: Department of Transportation Bans Emotional Support Animals.  If you're used to flying with fluffy, the DOT is clipping your wings.  As made clear by the U.S. Department of Transportation Wednesday, the Air Carrier Access Act regarding transport of service animals has been amended.  Subsequently, emotional support animals have been banned.

'Everybody dies!': Maskless woman booted from plane coughs on passengers.  Wild video shows a plane passenger going berserk after being booted off her Scotland-bound flight for refusing to wear a face mask — coughing on other passengers and yelling, "Everybody dies!"  The footage — shot by another passenger on Sunday's [10/18/2020] EasyJet flight from Belfast, Northern Ireland, to Edinburgh — shows the woman losing her cool when a flight attendant approaches her to escort her from the plane.

Risk of COVID-19 exposure on planes 'virtually nonexistent' when masked, study shows.  United Airlines says the risk of COVID-19 exposure onboard its aircraft is "virtually non-existent" after a new study finds that when masks are worn there is only a 0.003% chance particles from a passenger can enter the passenger's breathing space who is sitting beside them.  The study, conducted by the Department of Defense in partnership with United Airlines, was published Thursday.  They ran 300 tests in a little over six months with a mannequin on a United plane.

Black Trump Supporter Is Kicked Off Southwest Air Flight For Pulling His Mask Down To Eat Peanuts.  A black man wearing a Black Voices For Trump hat was kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight for pulling his mask down so he can eat some peanuts.  The person filming the incident before the flight had taken off asked the flight attendant repeatedly what the airline regulations were for eating on a flight.  She specifically asked if there was a rule against pulling the mask down to eat.  The flight attendant didn't appear to want to answer the passenger's questions in the video.  [Video clip]

DoD Test of Viral Spread on Commercial Planes Reveals Good News, General Says.  The head of U.S. Transportation Command offered a sneak preview Wednesday [10/7/2020] of the results of a Defense Department test of particulate spread on commercial aircraft — and they are surprising.  Speaking at the National Defense Transportation Association's annual fall meeting, Gen. Stephen Lyons cited an aerosol test held Aug. 24-31 aboard two large passenger aircraft:  the Boeing 767-300 and 777-200.  The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, better known as DARPA, teamed up with biodefense company Zeteo Tech Inc. to evaluate in-flight spread of airborne particles.  Industry partners included Boeing and United Airlines.

World's first Covid passport technology will be trialled on flights from Heathrow this week.  Coronavirus passport trials are taking place at Heathrow this week to test technology to let people travel the globe without risk of being quarantined.  Passengers on United Airlines and Cathay Pacific are trying out an app called the CommonPass.  The phone software is a digital health pass which can hold a certified COVID-19 test status or show someone has been vaccinated in future in a way designed to satisfy various governments' different regulations.

Massive Fight Breaks Out On Phoenix Flight Over A Mask.  A fight broke out between two passengers on an Allegiant Air flight from Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport on Oct. 3 after one passenger confronted another for allegedly refusing the flight attendant's request to wear a face mask in addition to a face shield.  A spokesperson for Allegiant Air confirmed that an altercation happened on Flight 607 to Provo, Utah, after a passenger refused to comply with airline policy.  [Video clip]

Spirit passenger removed from flight after bizarre tirade about white privilege.  A passenger was removed from a Spirit flight for being a royal pain — after claiming she is a queen from California during a tirade about white privilege and a trip to the toilet, according to a report.  The unidentified black woman got up to use the bathroom at the back of the plane after it landed in Sacramento last week, Fox News reported.  A passenger's video captured the woman arguing with a flight attendant who was trying to get to the front of the aircraft.  "Don't push me," she says.  "Did you see what she did?  She put her hands at me.  She wants me to go to jail, y'all.  See how she's antagonizing me?"  The woman, whose mask hangs below her chin, then tells the crew member that she has "white privilege."  "It's over with — it's 2020.  Wake up, you got a mask on.  So you're under the government, too.  You're confined and you don't have white privilege anymore," she says.

Race-baiting turmoil on airplane caused by woman lambasting 'white privilege'.  Black Lives Matter is a Neo-Marxist organization, but there are still millions of Americans who buy into the narrative that it's about fighting systemic racism, police brutality, and income inequality.  But even than false narrative is taking a beating with daily examples of Black Lives Matter "activists" invoking racism in an effort to supposedly fight racism.  The latest viral video depicts an African-American woman on a plane lambasting, well, everyone around her.  The flight attendant wanted to go to her station.  The passengers wanted to get their trip going.  Everyone wanted her to end her racist rant and stop insulting those around her.  She claimed she wanted to go to the bathroom.  Nothing was stopping her except her need to express her discontent with a society that was just too white for her liking.

Flight canceled after feud about toddler not wearing face mask.  A Canadian flight was canceled after a feud with a family over their young children not wearing masks on a flight.  Safwan Choudhry said crew members approached the family on the WestJet flight Tuesday from Calgary to Toronto about putting masks on their 3-year-old and 19-month-old daughters, CBC News reported.  "It started with my toddler and once we got a mask on her, they turned to my 19-month-old infant and said, 'Every person on the plane has to wear a mask or the plane can't take off,'" Choudhry said.

Canadian Flight Cancelled After Toddler Refused To Wear Face Mask.  A WestJet flight from Calgary to Toronto was cancelled this week after a family was ejected from the flight for refusing to make their child, a toddler, wear a face mask.  Safwan Choudry and his family were removed from the flight on Tuesday after an argument broke out about whether or not the man's 19-month-old toddler should be wearing a face mask to prevent the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus. [...] "It started with my toddler and once we got a mask on her, they turned to my 19-month-old infant and said 'every person on the plane has to wear a mask or the plane can't take off," he said.

Black Lives Matter activist 'kicked off American Airlines flight for wearing offensive mask.  A FLORIDA woman was reportedly forced to leave an American Airlines flight for wearing an "offensive" mask that read "F--- 12."  Wearing a T-shirt that said "Black Lives Matter" and the mask, Arlinda Johns was asked to leave the plane after boarding to fly to Illinois last week.

Naturally...
Activist wearing anti-cop mask says she was kicked off flight because she's black.  A Florida activist wearing a face mask with a vulgar anti-cop slogan on it claims she was kicked off an American Airlines flight because of her race.  "I think I got taken off the plane because I'm black," Arlinda Johns told Local10.com.  "My mask said 'F--- 12' and my shirt said, 'Black Lives Matter.'"  Johns had just boarded the flight in Miami last week when a crew member asked her to cover up the slogan, which is slang for "F--- the police," the outlet reported.  Johns said she replaced it with a different mask — but then had another tense conversation with the flight attendant.

Insane Ratchet Brawl At The Airport Luggage Carousel.  Yesterday we had ratchets attacking airline workers at a terminal, today we have this.  Maybe it was better when we weren't allowed to fly.  [Video clip]

Alaska Airlines flight makes an emergency landing in Seattle after passenger threatens to 'kill everybody on this plane unless you accept Jesus was a black man'.  An Alaska Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing in Seattle, Washington on Saturday after a passenger threatened to kill everyone on board.  Video footage from the incident shows the man — wearing a face mask — moving through the cabin of Flight 422 bound for Chicago O'Hare yelling: 'I will kill everybody on this plane unless you accept Jesus was a black man.'  As he moves past alarmed passengers in their seats he is heard shouting 'accept it' and 'die in the name of Jesus' multiple times.

Did the state legislature pass this law, or is it a unilateral decree?
Cuomo threatens $2K fine if you break coronavirus quarantine rules.  Travelers flying into New York from states with high infection rates of COVID-19 will be required to provide their contact information upon arrival or face a fine and court summons, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo tweeted Monday [7/13/2020].  Passengers flying in from the 19 states on New York's rolling quarantine list are now required to fill out a form detailing where they came from and where they're going before they leave the airport, Cuomo announced during a press conference Monday.

Airlines Ban Alcohol On Planes In Response To COVID-19.  Airlines are always looking to do less ... for more.  After the 9-11 attacks in the U.S. in 2001, airlines in America did away with most meal services (and many started charging you $50 for an extra bag — that'll teach those terrorists!).  Now, with COVID-19 emerging as a new threat in the states, airlines have decided to stop in-flight sales of alcohol on many flights ('cuz, you know, the coronavirus lives on those little bottles).  "Because COVID-19 can spread through surface contact, airlines have placed an emphasis on reducing 'touchpoints' between fliers and airline staff as much as possible.  And beverage service is a major source of those touchpoints," The Washington Post reported.

United Airlines Passengers Who Won't Wear Masks Won't Be Allowed to Fly.  United Airlines announced Monday [6/15/2020] that passengers who refuse to wear masks will be put on an internal no-fly list and will be banned from boarding future flights.  The airline said the policy will start taking effect Thursday [6/18/2002] and last for a minimum of 60 days, adding that the policy is being put into place to protect passengers and crew from contracting the coronavirus.

Why airplanes are still packed in the coronavirus pandemic — and is flying still safe?  Despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and social distancing guidelines advising people stay six feet apart, reports of terrified airline passengers on packed flights continue to emerge.  Just this week, passengers on an Iberian Airlines flight became incensed over their crowded flight, which had jammed the plane to 70 percent capacity despite airline guidelines to have the cabin no more than half full.  And photos from a United Airlines flight last week showed passengers sitting shoulder-to-shoulder — while a doctor returning from helping fight the virus in New York had a similar experience with the carrier.

The airlines are sitting on $10B in customer refunds.  I was already aware that many customers have had issues trying to get refunds from the airlines on flights they had booked before the coronavirus shut everything down.  But I had no idea the extent of the problem was so vast.  This report from NextGov indicates that there are currently enough of these cancellations that ten billion dollars worth of refunds are in limbo.  The airlines want to give people travel vouchers instead of money, basically saying that once they have your money, they're going to keep it.  Whether you fly or not is up to you.

Airlines withholding $10B in cash from customers, lawmakers say.  US airlines are estimated to be sitting on more than $10 billion in travel vouchers that should have been cash refunds from canceled flights, a group of senators released on Friday [4/17/2020].  Many US airlines are canceling 60 percent to 80 percent of their flights, and under federal law passengers on those flights are entitled to full refunds, Senators Ed Markey, Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal said in a statement.  "However, many airlines have been obfuscating this right by offering travel vouchers as the default option, requiring passengers to take burdensome steps to request refunds instead," they said.

Here's Why So Many Planes Are Still Flying, Nearly Empty.  You have probably seen the video of an American Airlines flight attendant making the best of a difficult situation on March 27, providing a customized inflight safety briefing for Sheryl, the sole passenger on a flight from Washington Reagan National Airport to Boston.  Sheryl was on the way to visit her dying mother and the American crew did the best they could to cheer her up in a way she really appreciated.  As travel blogger Gary Leff has noted, flying alone on a commercial airliner is usually a once-in-a-lifetime hoot for a frequent traveler, but now it's becoming a much more frequent and grim occurrence.  While the airlines have drastically cut their schedules, those service cuts haven't nearly kept up with the drop in demand, which is why lots of flights are going nearly empty.

Crisis Socialism:  No Bailouts for Open Borders Globalists!.  After the aviation industry's last $15 billion shakedown of taxpayers following the 9/11 terrorist attacks (a hefty combo of direct cash assistance and loan guarantees plus civil liability protection), airline stocks soared as oil prices plummeted, carriers crammed more passengers into tinier seats and customers faced new and higher charges on everything from carry-on baggage to Wi-Fi to peanuts.  High-flying American, JetBlue, United and Southwest splurged on megastock buybacks and dividend hikes for shareholders.  In fact, Bloomberg News reported that the top airlines plowed 96% of their free cash flow over the last decade on buybacks.

Eight-Hour Waits at U.S. Airports for Virus Screenings Called 'Unacceptable' and 'Atrocious'.  There wasn't much "social distancing" at U.S. airports Saturday as the ban on travel to Europe resulted in 7- and 8-hour waits at airports for virus screening.  The situation at Dallas/Fort Worth airport was described as "atrocious, no semblance of a line beyond the barriers and no officials or staff around to direct."  Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker called the situation at O'Hare "unacceptable," among other, more colorful epithets.

DFW airport passenger fights police.  Passenger attacked female gate agent then attacked police officers after being shot with tazers [sic] multiple times.  Passenger goes for officer's pistol at one point as well.  This is all inside the security area as well.  [Video clip]

Cabin crew struggle to contain heated argument over alleged drinking on US flight.  Man films shocking moment a group of women on a flight from Atlanta to Los Angeles are caught arguing and screaming at each other before the cabin crew have to get involved.  The clip, filmed on February 11, shows the moment three women started arguing on the flight after two were allegedly drinking and speaking loudly.

Canada's first coronavirus patient had symptoms on flight from China.  Canada's chief medical officer said on Sunday [1/26/2020] that an individual who was declared the country's first "presumptive" confirmed case of the novel coronavirus had developed symptoms on the plane while traveling from Wuhan in China to Toronto.

Horrible passenger uses airplane vent to dry shoes.  An unidentified traveler turned an airplane vent into their personal dryer in a viral video that has the internet disgusted.  The clip shows a passenger holding their presumably wet sneaker up to their overhead air vent to dry them out.  Posted to the Instagram account Passenger Shaming, the revolting video has amassed more than 333,000 views from naysayers on Instagram.  It's unknown on which airline the barbaric incident occurred, captured on video by Canadian professional wakeboarder Dylan Miller.

No more free rides:  US seeks to limit emotional support animals on planes.  Some animal lovers and nervous fliers may squawk but the US government wants a definitive "neigh" to the question of passengers bringing rabbits, turtles, birds, miniature horses and other unusual emotional support animals on planes in future, especially free of charge.  Even cats could be running out of lives to while away under passengers' seats at 30,000 feet.

Airline passenger allegedly storms cockpit, attacks flight attendant, injures 6 officers.  Authorities took a man into custody after he allegedly assaulted a flight attendant and attempted to storm the plane's cockpit last week.  A fellow passenger on the flight described the Jan. 9 incident to news outlets, saying that the plane was about to land when the suspect headed towards the cockpit in a "full sprint."  A flight attendant and six law enforcement agents were injured in the ensuing scuffle.  Matthew Dingley was taken into custody after his flight United Express flight from Dulles International Airport landed at Newark, NBC New York reports.  He reportedly began acting erratically during the flight and stormed the cockpit as the plane neared its destination.

At least 5 US airports have exposed travelers to measles, health officials warn.  An unknown number of U.S. air travelers have been exposed to measles after at least five airports allowed people with the highly infectious disease to pass through this month, according to health officials in the affected cities.  At Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, a person with the disease traveled through two terminals over the course of a week, ABC News reported.

CNN Pays 58 Airports $100,000 Each to Play Channel at Gates.  Tucker Carlson Tonight reported CNN is spending millions of dollars to have their channel played at fifty-eight airports across the United States.  As Carlson explained, CNN is paying the airports approximately $100,000 each to "pump propaganda into America's airports, holding its hapless travelers hostage."  He commented:  "It's not something [the airports] would do willingly.  Who would?  Nobody watches [CNN] — it's garbage."

CNN Pays Airports $100,000 Each to Play Fake News At Gates.  An investigation by Tucker Carlson Tonight has revealed that CNN is paying off more than fifty major airports throughout the United States to play their broadcasting to unsuspecting travelers at airline gates.  The network pays airlines around an average of $100,000 each to play the fake news, adding up to more than $6 million dollars in bribery.  Such a use of network resources could be easily used to fund legitimate and newsworthy journalistic endeavors, but the network, under the leadership of Jeff Zucker, instead adopts an approach of merely paying to have its propaganda broadcast to non-consenting viewers.

Trump Admin Proposes Using Facial Recognition On All Airport Travelers — Including Americans.  The Department of Homeland Security is proposing a rule that would allow the government to use facial recognition data to identify everyone traveling to and from the country, including U.S. citizens. [...] "The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is required by statute to develop and implement a biometric entry-exit data system," the proposal reads.  "To facilitate the implementation of a seamless biometric entry-exit system that uses facial recognition and to help prevent persons attempting to fraudulently use U.S. travel documents and identify criminals and known or suspected terrorists, DHS is proposing to amend the regulations to provide that all travelers, including U.S. citizens, may be required to be photographed upon entry and/or departure," the filing continues.

American Eagle Flight Slides Off Runway At O'Hare.  "I think we've landed."  [Video clip]

Business vs.  Coach: The Class Divide in the Sky.  [Scroll down]  My crime, you see, had been wanting to use the toilet.  Not an uncommon experience, even at 30,000 feet.  I had risen from my seat and observed with horror the long queue for the toilets at the back of the plane.  It was about 20 passengers deep, all of them anxiously hopping about.  But then I peeped through the curtain separating "my" area from the privileged few and saw not only no queue for the toilets but also that both cubicles were free.  So I did what any right-minded person would do and strode forward in search of relief.  Big mistake.  Crossing the Berlin Wall would have been easier.

Flight shaming is gaining traction and could cost airlines billions.  Consumers are paying more attention to their carbon footprint and it could cost airlines billions of dollars, Citi said in a note to clients Tuesday [10/22/2019].  The firm said that "flight shaming," which it defines as "the inherent guilt that an individual feels as a result of one's aviation-related carbon footprint" is causing consumers to explore alternative modes of transportation when possible and to look for ways to offset their carbon emissions.  Citi estimates that over the next five years the cost of carbon offsetting economy flights will grow to $3.8 billion per year.  It will either be absorbed by the consumer or the airline.  But really the airline gets hit in both scenarios since if the price is absorbed by passengers the higher cost could lead to an overall slowdown in air travel.

Eco madness may be reason for disastrous Boeing 737 MAX safety issues.  Air travel, which accounts for 2 percent of global emissions, has become the great bogeyman for climate alarmists, sparking a backlash against airlines.  Punitive eco-taxes, aviation regulations, activist investors, green NGOs and climate-aware passengers conspire to force airlines and manufacturers to lower CO2 emissions by using less fuel, which accounts for 99 percent of aviation's carbon footprint.  No one has said it explicitly yet, but this relentless pressure to reduce emissions appears to have been a significant factor in the disastrous safety failures of the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, which resulted in two fatal crashes in the past year, claiming 346 lives.  The warning from Boeing's catastrophes is that climate ideology can have fatal consequences.

American Airlines Joins Southwest In Abandoning Hope 737 MAX Will Fly Again This Year.  Even as Boeing still tells anyone who will listen that it is confident the infamous 737 MAX plane will fly again this year, its biggest clients are giving up hope, and earlier today American Airlines abandoned expectations it would resume flights with the Boeing Co. 737 Max this year, pulling the troubled plane from the carrier's schedule beyond the end of 2019, at least through January 15, 2020.

Southwest pilots sue Boeing for $100 million over lost wages from 737 MAX.  Southwest Airlines' pilots union has filed a lawsuit against Boeing for $100 million over lost wages from the grounding of 737 MAX jets in the wake of two crashes and a myriad of safety issues.  The lawsuit was filed in Dallas County, Texas, and alleges that Boeing represented the planes as "airworthy and essentially the same as the timetested 737 aircraft that its pilots have flown for years."  The union called that assertion "false."

Nothing gets past the TSA!
Woman dragged off Delta flight after boarding without ID, ticket.  A woman somehow managed to get on a Delta flight without identification or a boarding pass, causing a three-hour delay in Florida over the weekend, officials said.  The airline apologized in a statement Sunday after the unidentified woman got on an Atlanta-bound flight Saturday at Orlando International Airport, sat in another person's assigned seat and flatly refused to move, WFTV reported.  "She said very bluntly, 'I'm not moving,'" another traveler told the station, adding that a supervisor and a pilot tried unsuccessfully to get the woman out of the 15th-row seat.

Sources: Woman Who Sneaked Onto OIA Flight Fooled TSA Agents.  A woman who boarded a Delta Air Lines flight at Orlando International Airport over the weekend without a boarding pass or ID fooled a TSA agent by pretending to be a part of another family, multiple people with knowledge of the investigation tell Spectrum News 13.

Woman refused to get off Delta flight after boarding without a ticket or ID.  The female stowaway, identified as Sylvia Rictor, is said to have refused to move after ticketed traveler Jenni Clemons found her sitting in her assigned seat for the journey from Orlando International Airport to Atlanta on Saturday [10/5/2019].  In footage taken on board the aircraft Rictor can be heard telling Delta workers she 'threw out' her boarding pass 'as soon as she got on the plane'.  She later tries, and fails, to convince crew that a picture of herself on her phone can be used for ID.

Ignore the sensational headline:  This happened on the ground.  In China.
Plane passenger opens emergency exit for 'a breath of fresh air'.  Airlines passenger recently delayed her flight's departure by one hour when she opened the emergency exit door of the aircraft because she reportedly felt the cabin was "too stuffy" and wanted "a breath of fresh air."  Video footage of the unbelievable sight is said to have gone massively viral on social media in China.

Police: Man who urinated on floor of BNA re-arrested for throwing rock off bridge.  A man who was arrested for exposing himself and urinating on the floor at Nashville International Airport was re-arrested hours later for throwing rocks off the I-40 Jefferson Street bridge.  According to Metro Police, 56-year-old Eliezer Nieves Gonzalez was originally at the Southwest Airlines baggage office on Monday around 4 p.m. exposing himself and urinating in front of passengers near the baggage belt.  Officers noticed a large amount of urine on the wall and floor.  Gonzalez was found with urine on his hands and pants, and he admitted to investigators to urinating on the floor, saying it was okay to do so in Puerto Rico so he thought he could do it here.

Shocking scene as American Airlines passenger tries smoking weed mid-flight causing emergency landing.  The shocking moment is captured as a passenger on an American Airlines flight from Phoenix to Minneapolis on Saturday (September 20) forces an emergency landing in Denver after he decided to attempt to smoke marijuana mid-flight.  The dreadlocked man is seen here trying to spark a joint while shocked onlookers and flight crew intervene.

Climate Activists Try to Shut Down Heathrow by Flying Drones in Front of Passenger Planes.  Brain-dead climate activists came up with the scathingly brilliant scheme of protesting against airplanes at Heathrow Airport by flying drones in front of passenger planes to prevent them from taking off or landing.  I guess the climate activists got it in their heads that making airplanes crash would be an excellent way to reduce the world's carbon footprint.  Fortunately, British police foiled their plan by jamming drone frequencies.  Several nutcases were arrested and, for the moment, plane passengers have been spared the ordeal of being grounded by idiots who think threatening to kill people is a legitimate way of battling global warming.

Family Alleges Alaska Airlines Deserted Teen Daughter at SFO.  A North Carolina family is seeking a full refund from Alaska Airlines after it claims the carrier "abandoned" their unaccompanied 13-year old daughter, who was traveling alone from Raleigh, N.C. to Spokane, Wash.

Muslim blocks aisle to pray on plane, punches flight attendant, resists arrest while screaming "Allahu akbar".  Somehow his peaceful religion of peace prayer didn't leave him feeling kind and magnanimous toward the Infidels.  That most learned of imams, Pope Francis, needs to find this man and explain to him how "authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence."

Air Transavia France Steward takes a punch.  Man praying on the plane gets up and punches Steward.  [Video clip]

Hong Kong Cancels All Remaining Monday Flights as Protesters Swarm Airport.  Hong Kong airport authorities canceled remaining flights on Monday after protesters swarmed the main terminal building for a fourth day, the biggest disruption yet to the city's economy since demonstrations began in early June.  Thousands of black-clad protesters on Monday packed the arrival area, where they had gathered for a three-day sit-in that was originally planned to end last night.

Drunk flight attendant busted after passing out for [an] entire trip.  A boozed-up flight attendant was busted in Indiana after passengers saw her stumbling all over the cabin — and then passing out in her seat for the entire flight, according to new reports.  Julianne March, 49, of Waukesha, Wis. was charged Thursday [8/8/2019] by St. Joseph's County prosecutors in connection to an Aug. 2 incident on a flight from Chicago to South Bend, The South Bend Tribune reported.

Bill de Blasio makes fliers wait on tarmac so he can rush to 'The View'.  Mayor Bill de Blasio made Delta passengers wait in their seats on the tarmac at LaGuardia Airport for 10 minutes Thursday after flying back from his less-than-stellar performance in the Detroit debate — so that he and his security detail could deplane first.  But it wasn't a pressing matter related to City Hall or the potential firing of Eric Garner chokehold cop Daniel Pantaleo that necessitated the inconvenience to his fellow passengers — de Blasio had to rush off to tape an appearance on ABC's "The View."  And passengers on Flight 788 were not pleased.

Suspected drunk Delta pilot arrested just before flight.  A Delta pilot who authorities suspect was boozed up was booted off a fully boarded plane in Minneapolis and arrested, according to new reports.  Gabriel Lyle Schroeder, 37, was cuffed just after 11 a.m.  Tuesday [7/30/2019] after police at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport found him reeking of alcohol and with a bottle of booze on him.

This is only slightly off-topic:
Airbus A350 software bug forces airlines to turn planes off and on every 149 hours.  Some models of Airbus A350 airliners still need to be hard rebooted after exactly 149 hours, despite warnings from the EU Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) first issued two years ago.  In a mandatory airworthiness directive (AD) reissued earlier this week, EASA urged operators to turn their A350s off and on again to prevent "partial or total loss of some avionics systems or functions".  The revised AD, effective from tomorrow (26 July), exempts only those new A350-941s which have had modified software pre-loaded on the production line.  For all other A350-941s, operators need to completely power the airliner down before it reaches 149 hours of continuous power-on time.

Mom Says Airline Changed Booked Seats, Then Tried Charging Her $75 to Sit With Her Child.  A California woman is claiming that an airline changed her booked seats and then tried charging her a $75 fee to sit next to her child.  The mom, who only gave her first name, Aliss, told KGTV she chose two seats next to each other when she booked the flight with Sun Country Airlines from Providence, Road Island, to San Diego on a third-party website.

France Announces 'Eco-Tax' Of Up To €18 On Tickets For All Flights Leaving Country.  France will introduce an "eco-tax" of up to €18 (£16.19) on tickets for all flights leaving the country, the government has announced.  Transport minister Elisabeth Borne told a news conference that the €180m (£162m) it is expected to raise annually from 2020 would help finance daily transport, notably rail, in the country.  The new tax will range from €1.50 for short-haul flights and up to €18 for long-haul journeys in business class.

How small can airline seats get? (This small).  You may have suspected this was coming, ever since the last time you banged your knee on the airplane seat in front of you.  Airlines have been reducing the space between rows of seats in order to squeeze in a few more rows of seats and max the profits per flight.  As a reward, they've also raised fares.  You don't mind do you?

Terminal 1 At LAX Evacuated, Morning After Major Power Outage.  Terminal 1 at LAX was evacuated early Thursday [6/6/2019] due to residual problems from a major power outage that lasted for nearly four hours Wednesday night.  Terminal 1, home to Southwest Airlines, was evacuated just before 6 a.m. due to problems with passengers and baggage not being properly rescreened.  Airport officials decided Thursday to clear the terminal and rescreen all passengers by the TSA.

'Extinction Rebellion' Climate Activists to Shut Down Heathrow for 10 Days in Drone Attack.  The climate change activist group Extinction Rebellion is planning a series of protests using drones to shut down Heathrow Airport for 10 days in July, unless plans to expand the airport are scrapped.  The group has threatened to hold a one-day demonstration on the 18th of June, with ten days of disruption planned from July 1st if their demands are not met.  This threatens hundreds of thousands of passengers' journeys, most going on their summer holidays, and it is expected it would cost millions of pounds in policing.

"France Does Not Belong to the French!"  Algeria, Tunisia and Pakistan belong to Muslims.  But France doesn't belong to the French.  Or so the invaders say.  [Video clip]

Footage shows hundreds of migrants occupying French airport terminal.  Video showed hundreds of illegal immigrants storming a French airport and occupying an entire terminal Sunday, demanding to meet with the country's prime minister.  Footage posted on Twitter shows roughly 500 migrants chanting in Terminal 2 of the Charles de Gaulle airport as about a dozen police officers in tactical gear look on.  "France does not belong to the French!  Everyone has a right to be here!" one person can be heard yelling into a loudspeaker.

Boeing admits it KNEW of safety alert flaw in 737 MAX planes a YEAR before the fatal crashes, but didn't tell airlines or regulators.  Boeing said Sunday [5/5/2019] that it discovered after airlines had been flying its 737 Max plane for a year that a safety alert in the cockpit was not working as intended.  But it didn't disclose that fact to the Federal Aviation Administration and other airlines that used these planes until after one of the planes crashed.

WSJ: Boeing Turned Off Malfunction Alerts On 737 Max, and Didn't Tell Airlines Or FAA.  Just when did the airlines know that they had to pay extra for a key warning system on the Boeing 737 Max?  The Wall Street Journal reported last night that it wasn't at the point of sale.  Until a crash in Ethiopia last October, Southwest Airlines thought the system came standard with the platform — so much so that their operating manuals included them.  Somehow, the news that the safety feature was an upgrade didn't get mentioned to the FAA, either.

Garage floods at Dallas Love Field amid heavy rains, leaves dozens of cars partially submerged.  Cars parked on the ground floor of a garage at Dallas Love Field were partially submerged after heavy rains took their toll on the airport overnight [4/24/2019].  The airport confirmed its lower-level ground transportation area was also flooded, according to a statement obtained by Fox News.

Passenger dies on board flight from Germany to Houston.  A passenger on board a Houston-bound Lufthansa flight from Germany died Tuesday, according to media reports.  Officials at George Bush Intercontinental Airport received a call around 1:30 p.m. about a death on the airliner during its 11-hour journey, a Houston Airports spokeswoman told KTRK-TV.

British Airways apologizes to travelers after flight lands 525 miles away from destination.  A British Airways flight from London to Germany accidentally took off in the wrong direction, landing 525 miles away in Scotland.  The flight from London City Airport was supposed to head to Duesseldorf, Germany, but ended up in Edinburgh, Scotland, instead — the total opposite direction.  The airline said Monday [3/25/2019] the problem started when an incorrect flight plan was filed by WDL Aviation, which operated the flight on behalf of British Airways.

The Editor says...
Do the pilots not know where they are, and what direction they're headed?

Woman looks 'possessed' during in-flight meltdown over a Pepsi.  The unidentified Spanish woman began screaming and taking shots from a flask right after boarding the TAP Air Portugal flight in Lisbon for a trip to Malaga on March 9, according to the Daily Mail.  But the turbulence really erupted when flight attendants informed her that they had no Pepsi, only fruit juice.  "Her hands had turned into claws.  She looked like a demon.  She was the worst passenger I have ever seen on an airline and I fly quite a lot," a 38-year-old British tourist told the outlet.

Crashed jets reportedly lacked key safety features because Boeing charged extra for them.  Boeing jets in Ethiopia and Indonesia lacked two safety features in their cockpits because the company charged extra to install them.  The features could have helped the pilots detect erroneous readings, which some experts believe might be connected to the planes' failures, The New York Times reports.

Ethiopian Airlines Had a Max 8 Simulator, but Pilot on Doomed Flight Didn't Receive Training On It.  Ethiopian Airlines surpassed many carriers by becoming one of the first to install a simulator to teach pilots how to fly the new Boeing 737 Max 8, but the captain of the doomed Flight 302 never trained on the simulator, according to people close to the airline's operations.

Plane turns around after mom realizes she left baby at airport.  A Malaysia-bound plane made a U-turn for a frantic passenger who realized that she forgot her baby back at the airport in Saudi Arabia, according to reports.  The pilot of Saudi Arabian Airlines Flight SV832 made the rare request to air traffic controllers shortly after takeoff, when the passenger told crew members that she had left her child at the terminal in Jeddah, Gulf News reported.

Air Canada employee says staff [is] trained to 'dupe' passengers at risk of being bumped from oversold flights.  A pair of Air Canada insiders are shedding light on the airline's policy of overselling flights, revealing what they say is a widespread practice of duping passengers into believing they have a seat on a plane and stringing them along until the last possible moment.

Air traffic controller shortage delays flights at Newark, LaGuardia and Philadelphia.  An increase in sick leave among air traffic controllers delayed hundreds of flights at several major airports in the eastern U.S. on Friday [1/25/2019], the Federal Aviation Administration said.  Flights at New York's LaGuardia Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport and Philadelphia International Airport were delayed on Day 35 of the partial government shutdown.  More than 14,000 air traffic controllers and thousands of other federal aviation workers have been deemed essential employees and ordered to work without pay due to the impasse between lawmakers and President Donald Trump over funding for a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico that the president had proposed.

Shutdown Exposes Another Government Agency Ripe For Privatization.  As the partial government shutdown drags on, the nation's air traffic controllers warn that it's putting the safety of air travel at risk.  Here's a solution:  Privatize the air traffic control system.

Hawaiian Airlines flight diverted after flight attendant dies.  A Hawaiian Airlines flight traveling from Honolulu to New York City was reportedly diverted to San Francisco on Thursday night after a flight attendant died of an apparent heart attack.  Doug Yakel, a San Francisco airport spokesman, said Hawaiian Airlines Flight 50 landed in California after a flight crew member had "a suspected heart attack."

United Airlines cracks down on 'emotional support' animal air travel.  United Airlines is closing a loophole for passengers who try to avoid traveling fees when they fly with their pets.  United will only let dogs and cats be designated as "emotional support animals" and won't let passengers get on a plane with kittens or puppies who are younger than four months.  It also will not allow passengers to fly with emotional support animals if the flight is more than eight hours long.  Dogs, cats, and miniature horses will be allowed to fly as service animals to help passengers with physical disabilities.

Passenger takes trip to jail after meltdown at Memphis airport.  Tamiko Warner didn't just make a scene before her flight at the Memphis airport  — she made a mess, turning over furniture and setting off a fire extinguisher that filled the airport gate with fog.  The man who filmed the rampage and posted it to Facebook said it was all over a $20 baggage fee.  "I don't care about going to jail.  Whatever.  This is worth it," Warner said in the video.  She carried on for nearly five minutes uninterrupted in the video, causing thousands of dollars of damage in the airport.

Gatwick Airport:  Drones ground flights.  Tens of thousands of passengers have been disrupted by drones flying over one of the UK's busiest airports.  Gatwick's runway has been shut since Wednesday night, as devices have been repeatedly flying over the airfield.  Sussex Police said it was not terror-related but a "deliberate act" of disruption, using "industrial specification" drones.  About 110,000 passengers on 760 flights were due to fly on Thursday.  Disruption could last "several days".

Southwest Airlines bans college student's pet fish from plane.  A college student says Southwest Airlines banned her pet fish from flying with her, and now she's lost her best friend.  Lanice Powless, a sophomore at the University of Colorado, was not allowed to board a Southwest Airlines flight from Denver to National City, Calif., with her pet fish, Cassie, on Thursday [12/20/2018].  "This lady was just not having it," Powless told San Diego news station KGTV.  "So the supervisor comes and she said 'Unfortunately, you cannot bring fish onto Southwest Airlines.'"

Southwest Airlines flight returns to Seattle after human heart is left on board.  A human heart left on a Southwest Airlines plane caused a Dallas-bound flight to turn around and return to Washington state.  "We made the decision to return to Seattle as it was absolutely necessary to deliver the shipment to its destination in the Seattle area as quickly as possible," Southwest said in a statement obtained by USA Today.  Apparently, the heart was supposed to be delivered to a hospital.  However, it was mistakenly left on the connecting flight rather than being taken out of the cargo hold.

Delta Air Lines Says No More Support Kittens, Puppies on Flights.  Delta Air Lines Inc. is barring emotional-support and service animals that are less than four months old, while banning all support animals from flights longer than eight hours.  The changes will take effect for tickets issued on or after Dec. 18, the carrier said Monday.  Passengers who bought tickets before then and who already requested to travel with an emotional support animal will be allowed a grace period to fly as originally planned until a full ban starts Feb. 1.  The changes don't affect pets that customers pay to take into the cabin in enclosed carriers.

Delta passenger removed from plane for head-butting flight attendant.  A "violent" and "unruly" passenger forced a Delta flight to make an emergency landing in Oklahoma City Friday morning [9/21/2018].  Flight 2603 was heading from Salt Lake City to Orlando when 28-year-old Derek Edward Maas had to be restrained.  The captain then determined he needed to be removed from the flight to ensure the safety of the other passengers and crew, KOCO 5 reports.

Japan Airlines pilot admits being almost 10 times over alcohol limit.  A Japan Airlines co-pilot arrested after failing a breath test shortly before a London to Tokyo flight pleaded guilty Thursday [11/1/2018] to being almost 10 times over the legal limit for alcohol.

Man accused of groping woman on Southwest flight says Trump said 'it's OK'.  A woman flying from Houston to Albuquerque on Sunday had just settled into her seat and fallen asleep when she was awoken by an unwanted touch — a hand from behind her grabbing the right side of her breast.  And the man authorities say is responsible allegedly cited President Donald Trump's past lewd language about women.  Federal prosecutors allege the hand belonged to 49-year-old Bruce Michael Alexander from Tampa, Florida, another passenger on the Southwest Airlines flight, who reportedly told authorities after being arrested Sunday that "the President of the United States says it's OK to grab women by their private parts," according to a criminal complaint.

'Disruptive' Delta passenger gets flight diverted to Maine.  A Delta Air Lines flight from Georgia to Stuttgart, Germany, was diverted to Maine on Sunday after a passenger "got a little disorderly" midflight, according to a fellow traveler.  Delta passenger Tyler Hunter, of Atlanta, shared footage on Twitter of what appeared to be a woman sitting on the floor of the cabin, with surrounding crew members attempting to get her to return to her seat.

Swedish student who refused to sit down on flight in effort to stop man's deportation to Afghanistan is indicted.  A student who livestreamed her dramatic efforts on a plane to stop an asylum seeker from being deported to Afghanistan in July was indicted by Swedish prosecutors Friday [10/19/2018].  Elin Ersson, 21, a student at the University of Gothenburg and a volunteer with refugee groups, had her broadcast go viral as she attempted to stop a flight from Gothenburg to Turkey on July 23.  Ersson and other asylum activists discovered an Afghan man on the flight was being deported to Kabul, Afghanistan.

Southwest flight makes emergency landing after passenger allegedly plays unwanted game of 'footsie'.  A Southwest flight on Tuesday [10/16/2018] was diverted after a Texas man on board played an unwanted game of "footsie" with a female passenger sitting next to him and got into a confrontation with the flight crew, authorities said.  Justin Riley Brafford, 29, remains in federal custody in New Mexico and faces felony interference with a flight crew and a misdemeanor assault charge, the Dallas Morning News reported.  Brafford and the woman, identified only as M.W., were seated next to each other on Southwest Flight 859 from Los Angeles to Dallas when he allegedly put his arm on her leg as the plane readied for takeoff, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque.

'Emotional support' squirrel gets passenger removed from Frontier flight.  A woman was removed from a Frontier Airlines flight Tuesday night [10/9/2018] after the airline refused to let her fly with her emotional support squirrel.  The airline said the woman noted in her reservation for Flight 1612 from Orlando, Fla., to Cleveland that she would be boarding with an emotional support animal, FOX8 Cleveland reported.

The Editor says...
If you need the constant presence of a squirrel to maintain your enotional stability in public places, you really should either stay home or have yourself locked up in a mental hospital.

Woman removed from flight bound for Cleveland due to 'emotional support' squirrel.  Frontier Airlines said a woman had to be escorted off a flight bound for Cleveland Tuesday night due to a squirrel.  Frontier said a passenger boarded Flight 1612 in Orlando, saying the squirrel was an emotional support animal.  The airline said the passenger noted in her reservation that she was bringing an emotional support animal, but it was not indicated the animal was a squirrel.  Frontier said "rodents, including squirrels are not allowed" on its flights.

The Editor continues...
Next time I fly, I should bring along a little box of my emotional support bedbugs.

This is why they call it "Lyin' Air."
Lion Air passenger boards flight and discovers assigned seat does not exist.  A Lion Air passenger was shocked when she boarded her flight from Palembang to Jakarta in Indonesia and discovered her seat did not exist on the plane.  Satwika Ika took to Facebook to express her confusion over the seating mishap.  In the photo Ika shared on social media, her ticket appeared to be marked for 35F, but the plane rows ended at 34.

Florence travel nightmare:  Hundreds of flights are cancelled.  Hurricane Florence was already causing travel chaos on Wednesday [9/12/2018], with hundreds of flights and train journeys cancelled and roads gridlocked with evacuees.  A total of 967 flights were cancelled over the next three days as of 2.30pm (ET) — 230 on Wednesday, 504 on Thursday and 233 on Friday.  That is in addition to more than 1,600 delays on Wednesday, according to Flight Aware.  Charleston International Airport — the busiest in the Carolinas — is set to close at midnight on Thursday and not resume until Saturday at the earliest.  Amtrak has stopped trains running to Virginia and stops south of Washington, DC, until Monday.

What's With All the Planes Full of Sick People?  The first one that came to my attention was a flight into the United States from the Dubai.  On that plane headed toward JFK International Airport in New York City, approximately 100 passengers and members of the crew became ill.  The CDC met the flight at the airport and determined that out of the plane full of 521 people, about a hundred of them self-reported fevers of over 100 degrees and coughing.  19 of those people were found to be ill, 10 or 11 (reports vary) of them enough to be hospitalized by the CDC and the other 500+ people on that plane were sent on their ways, all over the nation, as JFK is a hub for international flights.

American Airlines flight attendant told passenger to 'pee in a bag' after plane's toilets overflow.  An American Airlines flight to Hawaii became a trip from hell when a flushed diaper caused the plane's toilets to overflow, forcing passengers to urinate in bags and bottles.  On August 31, things got messy aboard flight 663 from Phoenix, Arizona, to Kona, Hawaii, NBC News 12 reports.  The outlet obtained video footage of a female passenger who desperately had to use the restroom and spoke with a flight attendant, who agreed that the situation was "horrible" and suggested that she use a plastic bag.

Protesters plan to disrupt Labor Day traffic to [and] from O'Hare.  An anti-violence demonstration scheduled for Monday [9/3/2018] plans to shut down a part of the Kennedy Expressway aiming to disrupt traffic to O'Hare International Airport.  The Labor Day protest is led by Reverend Gregory Livingston, who organized a similar protest that shut down a part of North Lake Shore Drive on August 2.

Kentucky youth group kept off American Airlines flight over check-in delay.  A youth group headed to Mexico was kept off a flight for being late — however, the group's youth pastor feels the blame is with American Airlines.  William Davis, a youth pastor at Clays Mill Road Baptist Church in Lexington, Ky., said he and his group of 40 teenagers were heading to Irapuato, Mexico, as part of a mission to help children.

Passengers complain of bed bug infested seats on international flights from Newark.  Passengers have been bitten by bed bugs on multiple Air India flights out of Newark Liberty International Airport in the past week, according to a passenger accounts and a published report.  Pravin Tonsekar said that the business class seats he, his wife and children had for a 17-hour flight to Mumbai on Tuesday [7/17/2018] were infested with bed bugs.

Over 20 cars burned in possible arson attack at Salt Lake City airport.  An overnight parking lot fire at the Salt Lake City International Airport destroyed more than 20 cars, causing an estimated $500,000 in damages and prompting an arson investigation by authorities.  Firefighters responded to the fire around 12:30 a.m. on Sunday morning [7/8/2018] in the Hertz Rental Car Lot, according to Fox 13.  Captain Kyle Lavender with the Salt Lake City Fire Department said that the fire doubled in size between the time crews were dispatched and their arrival.

'Verbally abusive' United Airlines passenger caused massive delay after refusing to check bag, leave aircraft.  A passenger onboard a United Express flight from Indianapolis to Newark, N.J., caused more delays for flight 3708 Monday night [7/16/2018] after she refused to gate check her bag, and then became "verbally abusive" and refused to leave the plane.  The unidentified woman reportedly boarded the plane with her carry-on suitcase, but was unable to fit it in the overhead bin.

'Unbearable' smelling jet passenger who later died identified as rock star.  A man who caused a Transavia flight that originated in the Spanish island of Gran Canaria to make an emergency landing in Portugal has died from tissue necrosis, De Telegraaf reported.  The male passenger, now identified as Russian rock musician Andrey Suchilin, purportedly smelled so strongly that others on the flight began fainting and vomiting before the plane could touch down at the Netherlands' Schiphol Airport.  Several passengers said the smell was "unbearable" and the man was "unwashed."  The Daily Mail reported the 58-year-old contracted an infection while on vacation in the Canary Islands that caused his body tissue to die, resulting in the odor.

Obama put diversity over safety at FAA.  The Obama administration's hiring rules for the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) air traffic controllers placed diversity ahead of safety, says an attorney suing the federal agency for putting American passengers at risk.  Former President Barack Obama changed the FAA's rules for hiring air traffic controllers so that applicants must pass a diversity test before being considered — an added step in the initial process that is argued to put millions of passengers and crew members as risk.  "For decades, the selection process for the Federal Aviation Administration's air traffic controllers was rigorous," TheBlaze reported.  "After all, one minor mistake could cost hundreds of people their lives."

Affirmative action in the control tower.  I don't fly.  When folks ask me why, the short answer is that I know too much:  I'm a former FAA air traffic controller.  It's been recently reported that the FAA is now actively recruiting new trainees to work in the towers and control rooms directing airplanes and that the criteria they now utilize to screen applicants is a curiously absurd "biographical questionnaire." [...] First, the FAA stopped reporting aviation incidents, including near mid-air collisions and runway incursions.  When safety incidents are under-reported or deceitfully downgraded, the system starts to look like perfection, and the FAA will gladly report, as it frequently does, that it is "The Safest System In The World."  These people want the flying public to skate out onto the ice, even as they are lying about how thin the ice is, and while we are at it, how warm it is today.

Obama-era FAA hiring rules place diversity ahead of airline safety, attorney tells Tucker Carlson.  The safety of America's airline passengers is being compromised for the sake of diversity in hiring air traffic controllers, an attorney suing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) told "Tucker Carlson Tonight" host Tucker Carlson on Friday.  During the Obama administration, the FAA replaced the previous hiring standards with rules designed to increase diversity among air traffic controllers, attorney Michael Pearson said.  "A group within the FAA, including the human resources function within the FAA — the National Black Coalition of Federal Aviation Employees — determined that the workforce was too white," Pearson told Carlson.  "They had a concerted effort through the Department of Transportation in the Obama administration to change that."

American Airlines bans emotional support amphibians, ferrets, goats and more.  The carrier is joining rival airlines in tightening rules for passengers flying with emotional support animals, expanding the list of animals that can't fly in addition to requiring customers vouch for their animal's ability to behave.  Federal laws require airlines to permit passengers with disabilities to travel with service and emotional support animals in the cabin, though airlines can require a statement from a licensed mental health professional documenting the passenger's need for an emotional support animal.

MH370 experts think they've finally solved the mystery of the doomed Malaysia Airlines flight.  On two occasions, whoever was in control of the plane — and was probably the only one awake — tipped the craft to the left.  The experts believe Zaharie, the plane's pilot, was taking a final look.  That is the chilling theory that the team of analysts assembled by Australia's "60 Minutes" have posited about the final hours of MH370.  They suspect that the plane's 2014 disappearance and apparent crash were a suicide by the 53-year-0ld Zaharie — and a premeditated act of mass murder. [...] Zaharie and co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid were prime suspects in the plane's disappearance from the beginning.  There were rumors that Zaharie's marriage was ending and that he downed the plane after learning that his wife was about to leave, the news site said.

Shocking news about the missing Malaysia Airways flight MH-370.  MH-370 aviation experts claim they have solved the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines flight, saying the passengers were a victim of a deliberate and unconscionable act by the doomed plane's Muslim pilot — Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah.  However, this is not so shocking if you were following BNI at the time the plane went missing.

Disruptive Spirit airlines passenger refuses to leave, forces whole flight to deplane.  A disruptive passenger who was late to board a Spirit Airlines flight from Atlanta to Las Vegas refused to get off, forcing the crew to ask all other passengers to deplane.  Even more bizarre, she filmed the entire ordeal for Facebook Live.

Nigerian passenger in Houston says United Airlines ejected [her] for "pungent" odor.  A Nigerian passenger has filed a civil rights lawsuit alleging that United Airlines personnel ejected her and her children from an international flight departing from Houston in 2016 because of her "pungent" odor.  The woman says in a federal discrimination suit filed in Houston Friday that she and her minor children were boarding a San Francisco bound plane — the second leg of a three-flight journey from Nigeria to Canada — when an incident occurred involving a white male passenger that escalated to her being asked by United staff to exit the plane.

Delta passenger toppled drink cart, threw coffee before attacking air marshal, police say.  A woman on a Delta Air Lines flight was arrested Thursday [4/19/2018] after she toppled a drink cart, threw coffee on passengers while running up and down the aisle before assaulting an air marshal, police said.  Sarah Maria Beach, 45, was on a flight from London to Salt Lake City, Utah, when she allegedly went on a rampage that ultimately left her handcuffed for the remainder of the trip, FOX13 Salt Lake City reported.  She doused coffee on passengers, knocked over a drink cart and "repeatedly" ran up and down the aircraft's aisle, the criminal complaint stated.

Alaska Airlines tightens emotional support animal policy.  Alaska Airlines is the latest carrier to tighten up the rules for traveling with emotional support animals, following the lead of United and Delta.  In January, the story of a woman denied boarding her United flight with an emotional support peacock went viral and sparked debate about the ethics of policy, given escalating instances of customer abuse and animal-related incidents in the high skies, according to the carriers.

The Great Pet Scam:  More fliers feeling need to bring pets on board — for free.  The bond between pets and their human is amazing, powerful, touching, inspiring and really, really annoying if you're seated next to them on a packed airplane.  That's happening more and more these days as thousands of Americans catch on to this generous scam of airlines.  The con is that passengers can claim they need the dog or cat's company for "emotional support."  Airlines simply require a health professional's letter confirming the need for such support.  Apparently, few doctors have the emotional fortitude to deny a paying patient such a letter.

Delta passenger suffered 'painful' cartilage damage after child on flight repeatedly kicked her, she claims.  A Delta passenger has claimed she suffered bruised ribs after a child repeatedly kicked her on a Minneapolis-bound flight.  Sally Canario was on an overnight flight from Los Angeles to Minneapolis on April 2 when the violent incident occured, The Sun reported.

Growing questions about CNN's airport monopoly as network veers left.  CNN's ubiquitous presence in airports — where it broadcasts from thousands of screens to a captive audience of millions — is facing new scrutiny after the cable network's hard left turn.  The CNN Airport network dates back to when CNN was known for straightforward news programming — and has been a fixture at airports since before competitors MSNBC and Fox News even existed.  But critics are now asking if busy travelers should be subjected to CNN's increasingly ideological programming — at gates, bars, food courts and baggage claims — which can include on-screen chyrons or subtitles that gleefully mock President Trump.

What's going on with airline travel?  United, Southwest, American and Alaska Airlines are just a few of the carriers scrambling to explain the behavior of crew members.  And tales of passengers gone wild can often be even more harrowing.  In a recent survey of airplane crew members, 67 percent of respondents said they have witnessed passengers behaving aggressively or violently toward each other, and 10 percent have experienced firsthand passenger-initiated violence.  But it's not just the flyers acting out.

Travelers at Newark airport may have been exposed to measles.  New Jersey health officials are warning travelers at Newark Liberty International Airport that they may have been exposed to the measles virus.

Dog dies after United flight attendant forces it into overhead bin.  On Monday night [3/12/2018], a dog died in a plane after a United Airlines flight attendant forced the dog into an overhead bin.  Maggie Gremminger, a passenger on a flight from Houston to New York's LaGuardia Airport, uploaded a photo of the dog's owners on Twitter.

The Rapid 'Progress' of Progressivism.  Not long ago I waited for a flight to board.  The plane took off 45 minutes late.  There were only two attendants to accommodate 11 passengers who had requested wheelchair assistance.  Such growing efforts to ensure that the physically challenged can easily fly are certainly welcome.  But when our plane landed — late and in danger of causing many passengers to miss their connecting flights — most of the 11 wheelchair-bound passengers left their seats unassisted and hurried out.  It was almost as if newfound concerns about making connections had somehow improved their health during the flight.  Two passengers had boarded with two dogs each.  No doubt the airlines' policy of allowing an occasional dog on a flight is understandable.  But now planes are starting to sound and smell like kennels.

Planes full of vomiting passengers land in Washington DC amid powerful wind turbulence.  Flights full of vomiting passengers have been landing in Washington DC as powerful winds buffeted the state today [3/2/2018].  Even the pilots were on the verge of throwing up as the planes were hit with heavy turbulence on Friday.  One passenger, My Nguyen, was flying back to Washington on a Jet Blue aircraft when the turbulence hit.  She warned anyone planning to fly into DC today, to 'rebook it for tomorrow.'

Fight over man's flatulence forces flight to make emergency landing.  A pilot made an emergency landing after a fight broke out over a passenger who allegedly refused to stop passing gas.  Two Dutchmen sitting next to the flatulent passenger reportedly asked the man to stop, but he refused and continued to break wind aboard the Transavia Airlines flight from Dubai to Amsterdam Schiphol.

Why Is CNN Always on at Airports?  Tucker Carlson Explains.  Travelers don't have a choice in most cases, since the network has an agreement with dozens of U.S. airports to broadcast the channel.

'Mob' breaks out at Des Moines International Airport after 14-hour delay.  A 14-hour flight delay erupted in chaos at Des Moines International Airport overnight, causing police and security to be called in to calm the irate passengers.  Allegiant Air Flight 153 was supposed to leave Friday morning, but didn't take off until 2:30 am Saturday, KCCI reports, stranding passengers at the airport.  "They couldn't get a refund," Cassie Marks, whose parents were stranded in Des Moines, IA, on their way to Arizona, told KCCI.  "They couldn't get their luggage.  People were literally stuck."

At last!
Judge denies release for suspected serial jet stowaway.  A judge has denied a request to release from jail a woman with a history of sneaking onto planes whose attorney wanted her sent to a nonprofit facility.

Next time I fly, I'll insist on bringing my emotional support skunk.
Woman denied emotional support peacock on United flight.  Live and Let Fly reported earlier this week that even though the unidentified woman claimed that she had a second ticket for the peacock, the airline denied her request.  A spokesperson for United further tells Fox News that the traveler(s) with the peacock were told they would not be able to bring it on board.  "This animal did not meet guidelines for a number of reasons, including its weight and size.  We explained this to the customers on three separate occasions before they arrived at the airport," said United in a statement.

'Serial stowaway' arrested at O'Hare days after judge bans her from airport.  A woman charged earlier this month with flying to London without a ticket was arrested again early Sunday and denied bail after police spotted her at O'Hare International Airport, a violation of a previous order banning her from Chicago's two airports, authorities said.  Marilyn Hartman, 66, was barred by a Cook County judge from entering the airport after she was charged earlier this month with felony theft after allegedly sneaking onto a British Airways jet at O'Hare and flying to the United Kingdom without a $2,400 plane ticket.  Hartman, who is notorious for stowing away on commercial airplanes, also was charged in that incident with misdemeanor criminal trespassing for allegedly entering O'Hare illegally.

Now illegal aliens are getting priority boarding on commercial flights?  As if commercial airline flights weren't miserable enough, now we have Homeland Security officials escorting unscreened groups of illegals onto commercial airline flights, riding alongside paying passengers.  In another example of special treatment, the illegals board with all their luggage on a priority boarding basis, ahead of paying passengers.  It's the return of catch-and-release, and it's responsible for a nearly threefold surge of illegal crossers of the U.S.'s southern border in the past few months, according to Judicial Watch.

United Airlines flight diverted after 'toilets reach capacity'.  A passenger aboard a United Airlines flight from Denver to Hawaii claims the airline "ruined a lot of people's vacations" by failing to service the plane's bathrooms before takeoff on Sunday [1/14/2018].  United Flight 1219, which left for Hawaii just before noon, was forced to divert back to San Francisco after the "lavatories had reached capacity" before the aircraft was able to arrive at its intended destination of Lihue, in Kauai, United confirmed in a statement.

Jet Airways fires pilots who fought on flight, left cockpit unattended.  Jet Airways has ultimately decided to terminate the employment of two employees who got into a heated in-flight fight on New Year's Day, during which the male co-pilot allegedly slapped his female commander and later left the cockpit completely unattended.  "Consequent to the review of the events ... Jet Airways has terminated services of both the cockpit crew with immediate effect," said the airline in a statement obtained by the AFP.  Jet Airways had initially grouned the two pilots following an incident during a 9-hour trip from London to Mumbai on Jan 1.  During the altercation, which occurred shortly after takeoff, the male co-pilot allegedly slapped the aircraft's female commander, prompting her to leave the cockpit of the Boeing 777 in tears, according to sources for The Times of India.

Woman accuses United of giving her seat to Houston's Sheila Jackson Lee.  A passenger on a flight from Houston to Washington D.C. has accused United Airlines of giving her first-class seat to U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.  D-Houston, and then threatening to remove her from the plane for complaining and snapping a photo of the Houston congresswoman.  "It was just so completely humiliating," said Jean-Marie Simon, a 63-year-old attorney and private school teacher who used 140,000 miles on Dec. 3 to purchase the first-class tickets to take her from Washington D.C. to Guatemala and back home.

United apologizes to passenger booted for congresswoman.  United Airlines has apologized to a female passenger and given her a $500 travel voucher after she accused the company of giving away her first-class seat to a Texas congresswoman, an airline spokesperson said Monday [12/25/2017].  Jean-Marie Simon, 63, of Washington, DC, claimed she was tossed aside to make way for Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Houston Democrat, during a Dec. 18 flight.  Airline officials told reporters that their internal systems showed that she canceled her trip following a weather delay, but Simon denies doing this.

Unruly traveler forces jet to make unscheduled Alabama stop.  Police say a Southwest Airlines flight from Tennessee to Florida made an unscheduled landing in Alabama [12/22/2017] after the flight crew struggled to control an unruly passenger.

Terrorism Not Ruled Out In Atlanta Airport Power Outage Incident, FBI Says.  Federal authorities have not ruled out terrorism — or another inside threat — in the power outage at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport earlier this week. [...] The outage forced the Federal Aviation Administration to suspend outgoing flights and implement a "ground stop" for incoming flights.  No one was injured in the incident.

Time to Get CNN Out of the Airports, etc..  With minor exceptions, almost everywhere one goes that is a public facility like airports, bus and railroad stations, as well as most private venues like the lobbies of banks and corporate towers and even bars and restaurants, CNN is the default cable news network hanging Big Brother-like on the wall for all to see and believe.  Often it is blaring at us in elevators.  This is true even though in terms of voluntary home viewership CNN trails massively behind Fox News and even the less popular MSNBC.  It's clear from years of ratings, the people, by and large and consistently, don't want to watch CNN.  Nevertheless, they are force fed the network's vision of the world as they sit stupefied in airport lounges waiting endlessly for a delayed flight.  It's like having your brains drilled.  This has been going on for decades.  Why?

The hassle factor of flying to the US is about to rise.  New security measures take effect Thursday [10/26/2017] at airports around the world.  A spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration said the new steps will cover about 2,100 flights a day.

Airport worker filmed 'opening passenger bags' and stealing contents.  Abdullah Hayee Mayeh was arrested October 12 following video footage that circulated showing him opening airplane passenger's bags in the luggage compartment of a Jetstar flight and stealing the contents inside.  The 27-year-old airport worker was caught on CCTV "opening passenger bags and helping himself to contents," the Mirror reported.

Woman contracts rare bacterial infection on 12-hour flight.  In a rare case, a woman contracted a potentially deadly bacterial infection while on a 12-hour flight from Japan to Germany, according to a new report.  Called meningococcal disease, this bacterial infection is generally transmitted only through close contact, for example, by kissing or living in close quarters with someone who is sick, according to the World Health Organization.  The new report is only the third case ever reported of this disease being transmitted on an airplane, said Yushi Hachisu, of the Chiba Prefectural Institute of Public Health in Chiba, Japan, who helped investigate the case.

Worldwide airport chaos after computer check-in systems crash.  Air passengers have been suffering major disruption at airports around the world after computer check-in systems crashed.  Problems were reported at airports including London's Heathrow and Gatwick, Charles de Gaulle in Paris, Zurich, Melbourne, Johannesburg, Changi in Singapore and Washington DC's Reagan Airport.  Travellers endured delays at check-in desks after the outage from about 10.30am on Thursday [9/28/2017].

Flying Coach Is So Cramped It Could Be a Death Trap.  A Daily Beast investigation has found:
  •   The tests carried out to ensure that all the passengers can safely exit a cabin in an emergency are dangerously outdated and do not reflect how densely packed coach class seating has become — or how the size of passengers has simultaneously increased;
  •   No coach class seat meets the Department of Transportation's own standard for the space required to make a flight attendant's seat safe in an emergency;
  •   Neither Boeing nor the Federal Aviation Administration will disclose the evacuation test data for the newest (and most densely seated) versions of the most widely used jet, the Boeing 737.

TSA agent caught stealing cash from luggage at Orlando International Airport, cops say.  Transportation Security Administration employee was arrested Thursday after he was caught on video stealing cash from a bag going through screening at Orlando International Airport, Orlando police say.  Alexander Shae Johnson, 22, who had been with TSA just a few months, was arrested on a charge of third-degree felony grand theft, records show.  A passenger was going through security when she was selected for a pat-down search and saw Johnson was standing near her bag.  Afterward, she went through her bag to make sure her cash was still there, but it was missing.

Sewage leak contaminates checked bags at Nashville airport.  A sewage leak at Nashville International Airport may have contaminated about 200 Southwest Airlines passengers' bags, the airline said in a statement Thursday [8/3/2017].  Airport officials told ABC News that the source of the problem was a single toilet in a women's restroom inside the terminal, closely positioned over the baggage handling area.  The sewage flowed through the bathroom floor, leaked into the bagging handling area and seeped into some bags that were checked in for Southwest's early morning flights, according to the officials.  The bags are currently being sanitized, and replacement bags are being offered on a case-by-case basis, the airline said.

Our air traffic control system is badly broken and the FAA is hopeless.  For over 30 years the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has tried — and failed — to modernize America's woefully dysfunctional air traffic control system (ATC).  It is time to get ATC out from under the thumbs of federal bureaucrats and partisan politicians, and create a completely new structure that will get U.S. air traffic moving.  American ATC is stuck in the 1950s.  Unbelievably enough, in the age of computers, U.S. air traffic controllers still hand each other little slips of paper to track aircraft locations.  Pilots are forced to fly from one radar point to another (a 70-year old technology), instead of following the most direct routes from A to B.  Our air space is so congested it takes 20 percent longer to fly to most places today than it did 20 years ago.

The Editor says...
Radar is not obsolete.  Over-reliance on computer systems is a very dangerous thing.  Stick with whatever works.  The article immediately above sounds like a sales pitch for some new computer system that would refurbish the FAA's system.  This would be a very lucrative contract, of course.  To tout this product, it would be necessary to generate some frightening press coverage that makes the current system sound archaic and unsafe.  The Editor has neither the time nor the inclination to connect the dots.

Security Officers to Shed 'Police' Label After United Airlines Dragging Episode.  It was a video clip watched around the world:  A screaming doctor, forcibly yanked from his seat by an officer, who dragged the man down the aisle of a United Airlines jet.  As passengers cried out in horror, two other officers followed down the aisle at the man's feet.  They were draped in black jackets with one word stitched in white capital letters across their backs:  "POLICE."  But on Wednesday, more than three months after the episode, the Chicago Department of Aviation conceded that their security officers were not actually police officers and that the uniforms had been "improperly" marked.  It vowed to remove the word from uniforms, vehicles and other insignia in the coming months.

Hundreds of New York-area airport workers go on strike.  The airport workers at Newark Liberty International Airport walked off the job at 9 p.m.  Tuesday [7/11/2017] in a labor dispute with their employer, PrimeFlight, a subcontractor for several airlines.

There Was No 'Golden Age' of Air Travel.  It's pile-on time for America's commercial airlines.  The contempt people hold for them has long been severe, but following a raft of highly publicized incidents, resentment has hit a fever pitch.  It started about a month ago, with the forced removal of a passenger onboard a United Express flight.  This was followed by several more airlines-behaving-badly controversies, up to and including the death of Simon, a giant rabbit who perished after a London-to-Chicago United flight.  Over and over we are reminded about the hellishness that is commercial flying.  Enabled by cellphone cameras and the catalyst of social media, even the most mundane boarding snafu or onboard fracas has been getting its 15 minutes.  I'm a commercial pilot, so I take some of this personally.  I also think it's time for a slightly different perspective.

Delta worker to dad:  Give up the seat you bought, or go to jail!  A family from California was threatened with jail time and then booted off an oversold Delta flight last week for refusing to give up a seat they paid for, according to a report.  The latest debacle for the airline was caught in an eight-minute YouTube video that shows employees telling Brian Schear that he and his family would be tossed behind bars if they didn't get off the Los Angeles International Airport-bound flight from Maui on April 23.  A female employee can be heard telling him in the video, "Then that's going to be a federal offense and you and your wife will be in jail and your kids."

Statistical Summary of Commercial Jet Airplane Accidents.  [For those who enjoy statistics.]

The 10 worst airports in the US.  President Trump wants to upgrade the nation's infrastructure, and much of that desire comes from his hatred of the nation's airports.  Trump in a presidential debate compared the nation's airports to what he would expect to find in a "third-world country."  As a frequent flyer on his own personal jet, the subject of airports is something very close to the president's heart.  Here are the 10 worst large airports in the United States based on customer satisfaction, according to a year-end study by J.D. Power and Associates, in descending order of quality.

Soda spill prompts emergency landing during American Airlines flight.  An American Airlines flight on Monday [3/13/2017] from Miami to Chicago was diverted to Jacksonville shortly after takeoff due to a soda spill.  Matt Miller, a spokesman for American Airlines, told Jacksonville.com that a soft drink splashed on an electronic device in the main cabin.  Preston Wake, 43, a passenger, said a flight attendant fumbled a soda that soaked him.  "I can't really tell you how far it went, but I was soaked," Wake told the paper.  "I had to change my clothes and everything."

'Emotional' Pilot Removed From SFO-Bound Flight After Bizarre Rant.  A United Airlines pilot was removed from a plane bound for San Francisco International Airport after a bizarre rant about politics and her divorce.  It happened Saturday [2/11/2017] before United Flight 455 left from Austin, Texas.

United Airlines pilot is removed from flight from Austin to San Francisco.  An unidentified female United Airlines pilot was removed from a plane before a flight from Austin to San Francisco Saturday evening.  United flight 455 was scheduled to depart Austin-Bergstrom International Airport at 5:02 pm but was delayed for more than two hours after the pilot went on what passengers described as a 'rant'.  The pilot came into the cabin wearing 'street clothes' and talked to passengers over the intercom about her divorce and the presidential election, passenger Randy Reiss told KVUE.

Anti-Trump Protests Block Airports, Frustrate Travelers.  Protests against President Donald Trump and his executive order restricting travel from several terror-prone countries continued Sunday evening [1/29/2017] at several West Coast airports, blocking traffic and causing some travelers to miss their flights.  In contrast to the demonstrations on Saturday evening, which ostensibly were aimed at securing the release of individuals who had been detained after arriving from one of seven countries on a list originally approved by the Obama administration, the protests on Sunday aimed primarily at disrupting travel and creating chaos to send a signal to the Trump administration.

Liberal hag tossed off plane after harassing Trump supporter.  Late Saturday, Facebook user Scott Kotesky said he had what he called the "craziest experience ever on an airplane."  Kotesky said he had a somewhat harrowing experience when he boarded a flight going from Baltimore to Seattle.  It seems he sat next to a woman who apparently didn't like President Donald Trump.  In no time, she began berating him, telling him that she would throw up in his lap because he supports the new president.  Eventually, the woman was removed from the airplane for her conduct.

Passengers cheer as anti-Trump woman Thrown Off Plane for angry rant on President.  Passengers on a plane clapped, cheered and chanted "USA" as a woman was escorted off a flight by police after aggressively challenging a Donald Trump supporter.  In video footage posted online on Saturday, the woman is heard asking a flight attendant if the man sitting next to her could be moved to another seat.  She tells the man next to her:  "You pretend you have the moral high ground but you put that man's finger on the nuclear button."

Woman kicked off plane for berating Trump supporter in viral video.  The left wing is always a dangerous place for a Trump supporter to be.  Even on an airplane.  But when Scott Koteskey boarded his flight from Baltimore to Seattle on Saturday, he likely had no idea the woman sitting next to him would berate him in an incoherent and unhinged rant — that was all captured on a video that quickly went viral.

Al D'Amato kicked off flight after starting rebellion against crew.  Former Sen. Al D'Amato was escorted off a JetBlue flight Monday night [1/9/2017] after trying to lead passengers in a rebellion against seating changes that followed a lengthy delay, an eyewitness told The [New York] Post.  JetBlue flight 1002 from Ft. Lauderdale to JFK was scheduled to depart at 1:40 pm Monday, but didn't take off until 8 pm.

Flight attendants can't 'think straight' after 'toxic fumes' leak.  British Airways attendants began babbling, stuffing food in their mouths and forgetting where they were during a flight after "toxic fumes" leaked into a cabin, according to a report.  At least 12 attendants began exhibiting weird behavior on the Oct. 25 flight from San Francisco to London, including "forgetfulness, confusion, inability to think straight," the Sunday Times of London reported.  They treated themselves with emergency oxygen as the pilots called for an emergency landing in Vancouver, Canada.

Hawaiian Airlines faces DOT investigation for weighing passengers.  Two American Samoan businessmen have filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Transportation allegeding they may have been the target of discrimination after being weighed while boarding a recent flight from Honolulu.  In the complaints, the men also say they were assigned new seats on the aircraft that they did not originally select, to ensure that the weight on the flight was evenly distributed.

The Editor says...
Weight and balance are critical to the safe operation of an airplane.  The uniform distribution of an airplane's payload must be arranged before the plane leaves the runway.  An imbalance discovered after take-off can bring the plane down immediately.  In the good old days, one could have presumed that all adults weighed about the same, and seats could have been assigned accordingly.  Unfortunately there are thousands of airline passengers today who weigh twice as much as they should.  If they all sit on one side, or they all sit in the front or the back, the plane is in big trouble.  The safe operation of the airplane is more important than the risk of occasionally offending a few grotesquely obese passengers.

Calif. woman:  Airline changed my seat to honor Pakistani monks' religious beliefs.  A Southern California woman said she is the victim of discrimination, CBS Los Angeles reports.  Mary Campos said her pre-booked ticket was given away by United Airlines.  The reason?  She's a woman, and two men didn't want to sit next to a female.  A million-mile flier, Campos, a mom who lives in Coto de Caza, said she thought she'd seen it all -- until a gate agent handed her a new boarding pass just before she got on a flight to Houston last Monday [9/26/2016].

'Carnage' at Heathrow airport as protesters take over terminal.  Passengers reported "total carnage" trying to get into Heathrow airport today as protesters staged a demo against airport expansion.  Police were on site as crowds of cyclists dressed in red rode their bikes outside the airport in a bid to block traffic before staging a 'die-in' inside the terminal.  Demonstrators lay on the floor inside the terminal building and refused to move as passengers made their way to catch flights.

Lawyer sues Emirates airline after 'enduring' nine-hour flight seated next to an obese man.  A disgruntled flyer is suing Emirates airline and claiming his nine-hour flight was 'ruined' by an obese passenger seated next to him.  Giorgio Destro, a lawyer from Padua in northern Italy, claims the 'spillover' caused by the South African man neighbouring his 29K window seat, made for a deeply uncomfortable journey from Cape Town to Dubai.  According to an Italian newspaper, Mr Destro is 'gold member' flyer, but says Emirates wouldn't let him change seats and refused to offer an apology or any form of compensation.

London City Airport flights disrupted after 'Black Lives Matter' protesters occupy runway.  Flights at London City Airport were disrupted this morning [9/6/2016] after a group of protesters occupied the runway.  Nine demonstrators got onto the runway and chained themselves to a tripod at about 5.40 am, police said.  The protesters, who claim to be acting in support of Black Lives Matter UK, are said to have got onto the tarmac at the airport after using a boat to sail across the Royal Docks.

U.K. Airport Brought to a Standstill by Protesters.  A group of protesters from Black Lives Matter UK brought London's City Airport to a standstill for nearly six hours early on Tuesday [9/6/2016], holding up thousands of passengers.

JetBlue sends 2 children to wrong destinations.  A five-year-old boy from Manhattan and another child from Boston are finally home where they belong.  Both unaccompanied children were traveling to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic last month when JetBlue says they boarded the wrong fights and ended up in the wrong cities.

The best (and worst) dishes at 35,000ft according to an in-flight food addict who travels the world sampling plane food.  Airline food doesn't always have the best reputation — especially if you're travelling in economy or with a budget carrier.  But for one man, the joy of flying is all about the food served on board.  For the last four years, Australian ex-pat Nik Loukas has hopped on hundreds of flights just to sample their culinary offering.  Along the way, he's eaten everything from steak and lobster to satay and sushi — and he can certainly tell you which airlines have the best, and the worst, food.  Now, the airline food addict is looking to make a documentary about the subject.

Delta cancels 300 more flights amid third day of computer problems.  Delta fliers faced delays, cancellations and more headaches Wednesday as the Atlanta-based airline struggled with its computer systems for the third straight day.

Delta flights grounded after IT systems failure.  Delta Air Lines flights have resumed after a "major system-wide network outage" temporarily grounded all the carrier's flights worldwide [8/8/2016], causing massive delays.  Delta advised customers to expect "delays and cancellations" as the backlog of missed flights begin to get airborne again.

Carbon monoxide diverts plane to Tulsa, passengers panic.  Passengers getting sick on a flight from Atlanta to Denver Saturday began to panic before the flight was diverted to Tulsa.  "As people started seeing other people freaking out everybody just kind of went in to a panic," passenger Dylan Doyle said.

FBI no-fly list revealed: 81,000 names, but fewer than 1,000 are Americans.  The FBI's no-fly list contains about 81,000 names, but fewer than 1,000 of those are "U.S. persons," a top lawmaker revealed Monday, giving the outlines of the secretive program on the floor of the Senate.  Another list maintained by the FBI, dubbed the "TSA selectee list" because it triggers higher scrutiny but doesn't ban flying, has some 28,000 records, of which fewer than 1,700 are U.S. persons, Sen. Dianne Feinstein said as she argued for denying gun sales to those who appear on the lists, in the wake of the Orlando terrorist shooting.

Holiday headache for thousands at JFK airport.  It was a holiday travel headache for many passengers at John F. Kennedy Airport after a computer outage forced delays and cancellations for hundreds on Sunday [5/29/2016], CBS New York reported.  Passengers inside Terminal 7 said the crowded mess seen late Sunday evening was actually an improvement since many of them arrived earlier for their international flights.  "It's been pretty packed.  And pretty cramped and pretty unsafe at times," passenger Mike Priestley said.

Cops: Woman Boards Plane Without Ticket: 'My Name and Faith is My I.D.'.  A woman who claimed "my name and faith is my I.D." bypassed an airport security checkpoint and boarded a plane at Nashville International Airport without showing identification or a boarding pass, officials said.  Naja Eva Haynes, 24, drove herself to the airport, parked and went inside, where she went to a TSA security checkpoint and through a lane without being screened on March 24, according to an arrest affidavit.  "(Haynes) then went to gate B5, got on a Delta Airlines plane without proper identification and occupied a seat near the rear," the document said.

Danger in the cockpit:  FAA records show pilots fly drunk, engage in criminal activity.  An American Airlines pilot flunked two sobriety tests before a 7 a.m.  flight out of Detroit.  An Alaska Airlines pilot flew a commercial plane from California to Oregon and back again, all while allegedly drunk.  Yet another pilot, from United, allegedly moonlighted as a pimp, running half a dozen brothels out of apartments in Houston, according to authorities.  The cases are enough to frighten the flying public, and are not isolated, according to a FoxNews.com investigation.

Exclusive: Black Lives Matter activist rages after being kicked off American Airlines flight.  An award-winning poet and Black Lives Matter activist says she was kicked off an American Airlines flight for questioning a flight attendant for moving non-English speaking passengers from the emergency exit row.

Korean man arrested after allegedly doing yoga, meditating on airplane.  A Japan-bound airplane returned to Hawaii [3/26/2016] because of a violent passenger who wanted to do yoga instead of sit in his seat, the FBI said.

Passenger from hell gets lifetime ban from British Airways.  A woman has received a lifetime ban from British Airways after arguing with another passenger who claimed she got up too many times on their flight from London to Dubai.  Bridget Nhire, 33, was handcuffed and escorted off the plane, but claims she did nothing wrong.  Passengers on the flight had a different story.  A number of them described a series of in-flight incidents to the Daily Mail that included Nhire becoming intoxicated, making racist remarks to the crew, getting up from her seat at least 20 times, yelling, and even trying to get into the cockpit.  The fashion stylist claims she only got up three times, had two glasses of wine with her onboard meal, and was "treated like a terrorist."

Airbus could seat obese passengers on benches.  Travel can be tricky for passengers of larger girth.  For years, travelers have been getting wider, while airline seats have been getting smaller. Not to mention the fact that heavier fliers are too often rewarded with ridicule from their thinner cohorts.  Airbus might have a solution:  replace individual seats with rows of benches.

The Editor says...
Sure, put in bench seats, but then charge airline passengers by the pound.  What could be more equitable than that?

It will take drastic action to make air travel bearable again.
How the Left Ruined Air Travel.  [Scroll down]  Obviously, the TSA is part of it, but only part.  That's too shallow an answer.  The real reason is that, despite deregulation, there is no real competition among airlines.  Why is that?  Because the four major U.S. airlines — United, American, Delta and Southwest — have monopolies over particular markets.  At 40 percent of America's large airports, one of the big four controls an outright majority of the seats sold.  At 93 percent of the large airports, a majority is controlled by two of the four combined.  Which means their market shares are assured and there's no need to compete with one another.  Where do the monopolies come from?  Why don't smaller, newer airlines just start flying out of the monopolized airports?  There aren't enough airports for the volume of air traffic the American market demands.  Because of airport "slots."

Panic on Second American Airlines flight as mystery fainting illness hits passengers and crew.  Unnerved passengers feared for their lives after a plane was forced to make an emergency landing when passengers and crew passed out mid-flight.  The American Airlines flight, which was flying from Brazil to the United States, was travelling at a height of more than 30,000 ft when three members of staff became ill.  This is the second time this week that the US airline has been forced to ground a plane as a result of a mystery illness on board.

Delta Flight Attendants Get in Fist Fight, Plane Lands.  According to the Aviation Herald, the flight attendants had a disagreement over work issues on the Jan. 22 flight.  A third woman on the plane tried to break up the fight and was also hit by the brawling flight attendants.  At that point, the captain made the decision to land the Boeing 757.  The plane was flying just south of Salt Lake City when the fight broke out.

American Airlines jet diverted to Canada after turbulence injures 7.  Seven people were hospitalized Sunday night [1/24/2016] after an American Airlines plane from Miami to Milan ran into heavy turbulence and was forced to make an emergency landing in eastern Canada.

You're more likely to be killed intentionally on an airplane than accidentally.  An industry tally shows more airline deaths worldwide were due to deliberate acts in 2015 than to accidental air crashes, for the second year in a row.

TSA Says It Will Stop Accepting Driver's Licenses From Nine States.  The last time we took notice of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), it was to inform you that the unpopular, expensive, and ineffectual outfit had decided it could force travelers on domestic airline flights to go through full-body scanners.  Previously, TSA had allowed folks to submit instead to a full-body pat-down.  Now comes even more troubling news.  A decade ago, Congress passed The Real ID Act which was supposed to make it easier for law enforcement to share information on driver's licenses issued by the states and territories.  Even during a period of heightened fear of terrorism, there was massive and continuing pushback because everyone realized that when the federal government (or any other centralized authority) concentrates information, it just makes it that much easier for it to get hacked or misused.

Terminal Confusion? DHS push could make some IDs invalid for flying.  Millions of air travelers across the U.S. are potentially at risk of finding themselves grounded in the new year thanks to a post-9/11 law that took a decade to finally come into effect.  The REAL ID Act, originally passed in 2005, was meant to tighten standards for government-issued IDs like driver's licenses — to boot, it banned federal agencies from accepting any IDs that don't meet the bar.  That means the TSA technically shouldn't accept driver's licenses from certain states, once the law is in full effect.  While Washington let the rules slide for years, the Department of Homeland Security could start to enforce them in 2016 and is pushing states to comply.

Hundreds wait for hours in DIA security, baggage lines; Denver airport blames TSA.  Security lines eased at Denver International Airport by late Tuesday [12/29/2015], following a day of missed flights and wait times that lasted several hours.  Airport spokespeople apologized to frustrated travelers because of the massive wait times that began Monday night and went on through the morning that caused passengers to miss their flights.  DIA tweeted that heavy security wait times were due to holiday traffic and blamed TSA for poor staffing levels at the security checkpoints.

There are those who think blacks can get away with anything.
7 passengers kicked off Spirit Airlines flight at LAX; some claim racial discrimination.  Seven passengers were booted from a Spirit Airlines flight at Los Angeles International Airport on Monday night [11/2/2015], and one of them says they were discriminated against because they were black.  The onboard commotion began about 7:15 p.m. when an African American couple raised concerns about an overbooked seat on Flight 868 to Dallas, said Officer Rob Pedregon, an airport police spokesman.

Sudanese Man Tries to 'Slaughter' Israeli Passenger on Flight to Ethiopia.  The Israeli victim, identified as Arik, works in Africa and was traveling on to Israel.  He said that the alleged attacker choked and threatened to "slaughter" him. [...] "He hit me over the head with a metal tray and shouted 'Allah akbar' and 'I will slaughter the Jew.'  Only after a few seconds, just before I was about to lose consciousness, did I manage to call out and a flight attendant who saw what was happening summoned her colleagues," Arik said.

Brazilian man bites passenger on Irish aircraft, collapses and dies.  A postmortem exam is being conducted Monday on a 24-year-old Brazilian man who collapsed and died aboard an Irish aircraft Sunday [10/18/2015] after he bit another passenger.  Cork police arrested a 44-year-old Portuguese woman traveling with the man after discovering five pounds of suspected amphetamine powder in her suitcase.

San Francisco-bound Southwest flight returns to LAX after 'altercation'.  A San Francisco-bound Southwest Airlines flight returned to Los Angeles late Sunday night [10/18/2015] after an apparent altercation between two people on the plane.  One eyewitness account from the flight indicated that the fracas may have begun after one passenger reclined her seat, possibly provoking the passenger behind her.

Southwest flight forced to turn around after fight between passengers.  A brawl between two passengers that broke out Monday [10/19/2015] forced a Southwest Airlines plane bound for San Francisco to turn around mid-flight.  The captain declared an emergency to receive priority handling from air traffic controllers to land the Boeing 737-300 back at Los Angeles International Airport, ABC's Channel 7 reports.  The pilot on board Southwest Flight 2010 taxied to a gate where police entered the cabin.

Chaos, long lines at JFK Airport after glitch knocks out Customs, Homeland Security computer system across the country.  Chaos and confusion were reported at JFK and airports around the country Wednesday night [10/14/2015] after customs computers that screen for terror suspects went down.  The problem reportedly started about 7 p.m., when a Homeland Security Department computer system that checks for airline passengers on terror watch lists experienced a service disruption — meaning passengers traveling internationally couldn't be checked in or out.  The scare lasted about two hours with some systems coming back online about 9 p.m.

Co-pilot 'intentionally destroyed' plane in French Alps crash.  The co-pilot of the Germanwings airliner that slammed into an Alpine mountain "intentionally" sent the jet into its descent that ended in the deaths of all 149 people aboard, a French prosecutor said Thursday [3/26/2015].  Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin said the captain left the cockpit, presumably to use the lavatory, and then was unable to get back inside.  The barricaded co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, 27, then manually and "intentionally" set the Airbus A320 on its fateful eight-minute path into the mountainside in the southern French Alps.  It was Lubitz's "intention to destroy this plane," said Robin — who announced he has opened an investigation into a "voluntary homicide."  Lubitz was not on any terrorist watch list, he said.

Escaped Tarantula Grounds Plane Overnight Near Baltimore.  An eight-legged creature that escaped in the cargo hold of a passenger flight from BWI to Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International grounded the plane and sent passengers onto another flight.

Man arrested for urinating on fellow passengers during JetBlue flight, police say.  Jeff David Rubin, 26, of Oregon, was booked on misdemeanor accusations of offensive littering and third-degree criminal mischief. [...] Plane staff and other passengers told officers that Rubin had been sleeping for most of the flight, but stood up toward the end of the trip and began urinating between the space of the seats in front of him, the report said.  The urine hit passengers sitting there.  Rubin soon lost his balance and fell backward, causing his urine to shoot upward, the report said. Other passengers, their seats and their personal belongings were hit.

TSA screener charged with stealing $7,000 diamond watch at JFK airport.  A TSA screener at John F. Kennedy International Airport was charged with steeling a passenger's $7,000 diamond watch, authorities said.  The screener, Margo Louree-Grant, 41, of Brooklyn, admitted taking the "Diamond Master" watch at a JFK checkpoint on Aug. 26, but told investigators she destroyed it after fearing she would be caught, said Joe Pentangelo, a Port Authority Police spokesman.

Six hostile, unruly, aggressive Muslim passengers kicked off Southwest Airlines flight and arrested.  A Southwest Airlines flight from San Diego to Chicago was diverted to Amarillo, Texas, after pilots reported that six Muslim passengers started swearing at flight attendants and making obscene gestures at passengers who tried to calm them down, authorities said.

Six Men Detained In Texas After Disrupting Flight From San Diego To Chicago.  A Southwest Airlines flight from San Diego to Chicago was diverted to Amarillo, Texas, late Monday night, after six passengers became unruly during the flight. [...] The men who were detained were being processed at the Randall County Jail and charged with interference with a flight crew, police said.  They have been identified as Saiman Hermez, 19; Jonathan Khalid Petras, 20; Ghazwan Asaad Shaba, 21; Essa Solaqa, 20; Khalid Yohana, 19; and Wisam Imad Shaker, 23.  They are all from the San Diego area.

D.C., New York flight delays caused by air traffic glitch, FAA says.  A computer problem at a Virginia air traffic control center led to significant flight delays Saturday [8/15/2015] at airports in the Washington and New York City areas, the Federal Aviation Administration said.  Just after 4 p.m. ET, the FAA tweeted that an automation system that experienced problems was back in service.

For Your Travel Inconvenience.  Having created the problem of too many passengers lugging their suitcases aboard airplanes by charging for checked bags, the major airlines are now planning to make checked bags even more unpopular.  The are testing various methods for making bag-checkers do their own checking instead of giving their bags to attendants with the attendant putting tags on the bags and sending them on a conveyer belt

From the Gang that Brought Us the Obamacare Website: 'NextGen' Air Traffic Control Computer System Blows Up.  Flight delays are being reported up and down the East Coast, courtesy of a glitch in the new air traffic control computer system.  The system went down Saturday morning and initially affected airports in Washington, D.C., and New York.  But the outage quickly spread to Baltimore and other points, causing the cancellation of more than 200 flights and leaving passengers scrambling on a busy weekend.

Keep your face buried in your cell phone or you'll be face-to-face with some talkative stranger.
New airline seat arrangement looks to increase passenger capacity.  After years of financial struggles, the nation's airlines are now collecting hefty profits thanks in part to industrywide efforts to squeeze more seats into the economy section of most planes.  But if you thought airlines were finished trying to shoehorn more seats into each plane, think again.  One of the world's largest airline seat makers, Zodiac Seats France, has applied for a patent to reconfigure the seats on airplanes so that every other passenger in a row is facing toward the back of the plane.

Justice Dept. investigating potential airline price collusion.  The Justice Department is investigating whether some of America's biggest airlines have colluded to keep airfares high, striking at an industry that has posted record profits recently while limiting routes and affordable seats, officials familiar with the matter said Wednesday [7/1/2015].  Justice Department spokeswoman Emily Pierce confirmed the probe, saying investigators are looking into "possible unlawful coordination by some airlines," but she would not name the carriers.

Woman who tries to sneak onto planes arrested twice in 2 days.  A woman who has repeatedly tried to sneak aboard airplanes has been arrested in Chicago twice in as many days, the latest incident while trying to get through security without a ticket at O'Hare International Airport.

The Editor says...
Two obvious questions arise:  Why hasn't she locked up for a long time, and how many times has she successfully flown without a ticket?

Industry on edge as EPA prepares to regulate airline emissions.  The Environmental Protection Agency will soon announce it plans to regulate airline emissions, asserting they contribute to global warming and endanger public health, according to industry and environmental groups.  Those findings will prompt a regulatory process for the EPA to determine and enforce aircraft emissions limits, following a similar effort to limit emissions by cars, trucks and power plants.  But conservatives say higher airplane efficiency standards will only force airlines to raise ticket prices or install more seats on already cramped flights.

The vast warehouse tucked away in Alabama that is filled with America's lost luggage.  It's a paradise for bargain-hunters — filled to the rafters with electronics, clothes, musical instruments and jewelry, sold with as much as 80 percent of the value lopped off.  Inside, crowds of shoppers pore over the gear — some of it practically brand new — in the hope of giving the best finds a new home.  In an earlier life, all the items were checked onto planes, trains and buses, their real owners expecting to see them again a few hours later.

Trouble in the Skies.  Millions of Americans will fly to their summer vacations unaware that some of the men and women in the nation's air traffic control towers and centers may have cheated on the test to get their jobs.  Fox Business presents Trouble in the Skies[,] a six month investigation of the FAA's new hiring practices which uncovers changes that may put the nation's flying public at risk as well as allegations that the newest air traffic control recruits had access to answers on a key test that helped them gain jobs with the FAA.

Family forced to sit in vomit on United flight.  A Maryland family says they were forced to sit in a vomit-soaked seat during a return flight home after a vacation in Orlando last Sunday [4/19/2015].  Scott Shirley had boarded a United Airlines flight with his wife and son when the trio noticed an unusual smell after placing their carry-on bags underneath their seats.  After realizing their bags were damp, the family recognized the odor as vomit.

Hidden Cameras Show Airport Workers Stealing.  Inside a plane at Miami International Airport, baggage handlers are going on a shopping spree with passengers' bags.  What they don't know is that they are being recorded on a hidden camera.  The Miami-Dade Police Department set up the camera as part of an ongoing police investigation into luggage thefts by the very airport workers who are supposed to get bags safely onto planes.

First Officer Lands Delta Jet As Captain Locked Out Of Cockpit.  A jammed door in a Delta Air Lines jet left the captain locked out of the cockpit during a flight from Minneapolis to Las Vegas Thursday [2/12/2015], leaving the first officer to complete the flight in the right seat.  Delta 1651 otherwise landed uneventfully and on time at McCarran International Airport.  However, since the first officer notified the airport of an in-air emergency, as CNN reported, the media was alerted and interviewed passengers afterward.

Hate Flying? It's Your Fault.  I hardly need to tell you that flying these days is a miserable experience.  In fact, it's so miserable that it's tempting to suspect that the suffering is deliberate — that airlines are making us miserable as part of a calculated strategy to extort more money from us.

Airline: 'Emotional support' pig kicked off flight for being 'disruptive'.  A woman was kicked off a US Airways flight after the pig she brought for "emotional support" became disruptive, an airline spokeswoman told CNN.  The passenger and her large pig were booted from the flight before it left Connecticut's Bradley International Airport on Wednesday, spokeswoman Laura Masvidal said.  "After the animal became disruptive, the passenger was asked to deplane," she said.  How disruptive?  Fellow passengers told the Hartford Courant that the pig stank up the cabin of the tiny DC-bound aircraft.

More than 700 flights cancelled and tens of thousands left without power in holiday travel misery.  There were more 4,688 delays at airports across the U.S by 10 pm Wednesday [11/26/2014] and more are expected Thursday as the storm moves across the East Coast, reports Flight Aware.  Snow fell in every state from Virginia to Maine as Winter Coast Storm Cato hit its peak, with over a foot by midday in the Mid-Atlantic region and the same amount expected in New England.

What Is America's Worst Airport?  The first observation:  Are bookstores dying in airports?  Do people on planes not read anymore?  If so, this strikes me as a strikingly depressing development for our society.  It's one of the few places where you can get relative peace and quiet, you're out of cell-phone range, and you probably don't have Internet access (and if you do, it's pretty slow).  [Indeed], reading is one of the few things you can do comfortably in an airline seat.  Yes, perhaps everything has shifted to e-readers and Nooks, but there's something so inviting about seeing an actual bookstore, as opposed to a newsstand, near your gate with time to kill.

Flying Coach: How Airlines Engineer You Out of Room.  Some 24.6 million people (equal to the whole population of Australia) will be heading down the aisle toward a seat on an American airline during this Thanksgiving holiday.  That's an average 31,000 a day more than last year — including international and domestic flights — as Americans wing their way home from far and not so far.  Depending on whether they turn left or right at the door, they're going to find increasingly different levels of service, from a hearty, personal welcome to a dismissive instruction to get seated ASAP.

Fresh fears after passenger flying from Nigeria to JFK dies in his seat after vomiting profusely.  A 63-year-old American man has died during a flight from Nigeria to New York's JFK after vomiting profusely -- but it was only a 'cursory' exam by the CDC that confirmed he did not have Ebola.  The unnamed passenger boarded an Arik Air plane out of Lagos, Nigeria, on Wednesday night [10/15/2014], but passed away before the plane reached its final destination.  Flight attendants called the CDC, Port Authority and customs officials, who then boarded the plane in protective gear as it touched down, forcing 145 worried passengers to remain on board.

The Editor says...
Right after 9-11-2001, the government would issue rash pronouncements whenever any suspicious event occurred, saying there was absolutely "no connection to terrorism."  We are now seeing the same thing with regard to Ebola:  In the story immediately above, other passengers have ample reason to be concerned; after all, people don't usually throw up and die after boarding an airplane in Nigeria.  But don't you worry, Big Brother says immediately, there's no reason to think this has any connection to Ebola.

Plane cleaners strike at LaGuardia terminal.  Airplane cabin cleaners have set up pickets outside a LaGuardia Airport terminal over health and safety issues.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews delay flight, refuse to sit next to women.  Hundreds of Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men refused to sit next to women on an El Al jet from New York to Israel — and spent the 11-hour flight trying to bribe people to switch seats and loudly praying in the aisles when they refused.  "It was an 11-hour long nightmare," one of the passengers told Israel's ynet news Web site after the Wednesday morning [9/24/2014] flight landed.  The flight — on the eve of Rosh Hashanah — was not only delayed, but degenerated into chaos once in the air, passengers said.

Police: Fire at FAA radar center deliberately set but 'no terrorist act'.  Nearly 2,000 flights in Chicago have been canceled so far today as federal aviation officials slowly resume operations at O'Hare and Midway airports following a fire that was deliberately set at an FAA radar center, apparently by a disgruntled worker.

Air passengers forced to wait 2 hours for VIP politician.  Resentment over the arrogance of ruling elites has boiled over.  While reports of air rage in the United States are increasingly common, the phenomenon of resentment over the indignities of contemporary air travel is global.

A standing-only section on planes could mean lower fares, study says.  Would you buy a bargain-priced airline ticket, but the catch was you had to stand for the entire flight?  A new university study says the idea of standing-only sections on planes is no joke.  An airline that removes seats can fit about 20% more passengers and, as a result, offer discounts of as much as 44% compared with airlines that offer big comfy seats, according to the study published in the International Journal of Engineering and Technology.  Airlines in Ireland and China have looked into the concept, but none have yet put the idea into practice.

The Editor says...
Isn't the air stale enough on an airplane without this?  And wouldn't all the standing-room passengers break their necks if the plane hit a pocket of clear-air turbulence?  And isn't it illegal to take off, or even leave the gate, before all the passengers have buckled up?  Will the airlines push people into the doors, the way they pack people onto Japanese subways?  How about an additional discount if you agree to squeeze into the unpressurized cargo hold?

LAX thieves stole thousands of valuables from luggage, police say.  As the sea of luggage twists and turns down rollers from terminals at Los Angeles International Airport, the bags stop briefly at large platforms where workers separate them for flights across the world.  It is there, police said, that a group of baggage handlers pulled off one of the largest property heists in airport history.  For months, detectives said, workers rifled through bags looking for items to steal.  "Basically everything of value — be it electronics, jewelry and items — that could be stolen in seconds would be removed from bags," LAX Police Chief Pat Gannon said.  "They'd just open up the suitcases and rifle through them and pocket valuables."

Virtuoso's flutes destroyed by US Customs.  Before you whine about an airline temporarily losing your luggage, think of poor Boujemaa Razgui.  The flute virtuoso who performs regularly with The Boston Camerata lost 13 handmade flutes over the holidays when a US Customs official at New York's JFK Airport mistook the instruments for pieces of bamboo and destroyed them.

Tone Deaf? Musician claims feds destroyed rare flutes at airport.  A Canadian musician claims that U.S. Customs officials seized and destroyed 11 rare flutes as he passed through New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport last week.  The reason?  Concerns they were an ecological threat.

Delta Will Ban Calls On Planes Even If Feds Approve Them.  The airline's frequent fliers believe that calls in the cabin would disrupt the travel experience, CEO Richard Anderson told employees in a memo [12/18/2013].

The Air Boehner Tax.  He is the new tax collector for the welfare state.  And House Speaker John Boehner's latest gift to the American people — a 124% tax increase on air travel — can aptly be called The Air Boehner Tax.

JFK baggage handlers accused of stealing iPads, cash.  Seven men who worked as contract baggage handlers for El Al Airlines in New York have been charged with stealing iPads, iPhones, cash and jewelry from passengers' luggage.

A wise move by the airline generates positive publicity:
United to let lucky travelers fly on tickets accidentally sold for $0.  Airlines have posted so-called mistake fares before.

Tragic security snafu: Man dies at JFK after doors delay responders.  A man died after suffering a heart attack at Kennedy Airport after two teams of first responders failed to reach him — because their electronic ID cards couldn't open secure doors at the newly renovated Delta terminal, The Post has learned. [...] A call went out for help, but what happened next was a massive mix-up.

You will watch a movie, whether you want to or not.
Flight diverted after family raises concerns over PG-13 inflight movie.  A family's criticism of inflight entertainment allegedly prompted a United flight to be diverted over "security concerns."  In a story published in The Atlantic, one family recounts traveling from Denver to Baltimore with two young sons, ages 4 and 8.  During the flight, the PG-13-rated detective film "Alex Cross" was shown on drop-down monitors across the plane.  The family worried about their young children seeing inappropriate content in the film.

That's How They Getcha: Airlines Extract $6 Billion in Fees From Americans.  What's the true price of flying?  It's much more than the price of a ticket.  And it has been for a long time.  Last year, Americans likely spent more than $6 billion in baggage, cancellation, and change fees, on top of their ticket price, in 2012.

Wife called in bomb hoax to prevent husband from flying to Paris without her.  A whacked-out New Jersey woman sent police rushing to Newark Airport yesterday after falsely accusing her husband of plotting to blow up a plane, authorities said.  Eunice Ukaegbu, 50, called cops about her hubby, Okieze Ukaegbu, 58, because she didn't want him to leave the country without her, authorities said.

Another TSA Agent Accused of iPad Theft.  A TSA agent was arrested this week and charged with stealing from passengers traveling through New York's John F. Kennedy Airport, adding to the long list of TSA officers accused of theft of passenger belongings.

This is an anti-war column, but the writer makes some interesting points.
Isn't it time for the truth?  Last Friday, at Los Angeles airport, I saw people trying to check their baggage — standing in a line that was at least 200 yards long.  I stood in five separate lines to identify myself and my carry-on luggage.  The soldiers in fatigues with sub-machine guns reminded me of a Third World country.