airline

Travel Etiquette : Don’t Put Your Feet In The Air & Wave ’em Like You Just Don’t Care

It has been a few months since I last wrote about passenger etiquette, but my flight home from London this past week reminded me that some passengers lack any sense of etiquette regardless of the class of service they are seated in.   This past Tuesday as I got settled into seat 10J, in business…

A Man In A Wheelchair Enters An Airport With A Bomb … And No One Cared

Travelers can seem indifferent to the world around them when in an airport. Odd things happen in airports and train stations every day all over the world, however it is the job of law enforcement and security personnel the world over to spot these odd moments and prevent odd things from turning into something else….

TSA Stops Chewbacca’s Light Saber, Despite TSA’s Policy on Carry On Light Sabers

Last Monday, the 3rd of June, Star Wars star Peter Mayhew, better known as everyone’s favourite Wookiee, Chewbacca, was briefly stopped by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) at Denver International Airport with his chest-high light saber. Standing 7-feet 2-inches tall, the light saber double’s as the 69 year old actor’s cane.   While the TSA…

The TSA Rereverses Its Already Reversed Decision On Knives As Carry On

This afternoon at 14:42hrs EST the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) Administrator John S. Pistole sent an email to all agency employees regarding a “Prohibited Items List Update.”   The email, one which was expected by many, rereversed an already reversed decision by Administrator Pistole to withdraw the March 5 2013 announcement that passengers would be…

Physics Revisited : Can A Passenger Open An Airplane Door In Flight?

Given the news that an Alaska Airlines passenger was arrested yesterday at Portland International Airport after attempting to open an emergency exit door on-board Alaska Airlines flight 132, from Anchorage, this seems like a good time to revisit the issue of aircraft doors being opened in-flight. Can a passenger open a jet airliner’s door in…

Gov’t Wants To Fingerprint Travelers Leaving The U.S., Why It’s A Bad Idea

Yesterday the United States Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13-to-5 in favour of an amendment, as part of immigration reform, to require the finger printing of all foreign travelers departing the United States.  The bill, proposed by Senator Orin Hatch (R-UT), implements biometric tracking of foreign travelers under the Department of Transportation in three phases.  …

Delta’s Rationale For Denying Media Access On ‘Worldport’s’ Last Day … Fear

For months I had planned on documenting the last day of New York JFK International Airport’s Terminal 3 operations, the former Pan Am Worldport, on the 23rd of May 2013.   After back and forth emails Delta Air Lines declined my access to the historic terminal last week, as well as other media outlets interested in…

A Historic Chapter In Aviation Closes & It Won’t Be Documented

In less than one week the former Pan American Airways Unit Terminal Building, more commonly known as the Pan Am WorldPort, at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, taken over by Delta Air Lines in 1991, and now simply known as Terminal 3, will cease operations after 53 years. .   JFK’s iconic Terminal…