Who Regulates Passenger Baggage? Well…no one really

Baggage questions, will they ever stop? No, probably not.   Each week Flying With Fish probably receives more email regarding baggage issues than anything else. Checked baggage, carry on baggage, carry-on sizes, checked baggage weight … and frequently readers want to know who to complain to.  Those seeking to complain to “the authorities” generally are…

TSA VIPR Teams – Increase A Legally Questionable Failing Program?

In the spring of 2004, following the commuter rail bombings in Madrid, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) began devising a plan to “protect the Nation’s transportation systems and ensure freedom of movement for people and commerce,” for the railroads and mass transit systems in the United States.  The result of the TSA’s efforts to increase…

Boeing Makes History On October 26th Again …

Fifty-three years ago today, on the evening of October 26th 1958, crowds gathered to witness history, the first Boeing 707-121 commercial passenger flight. Pan Am’s “Clipper America” (N709PA) flew from Pan Am’s Wordport, at New York’s Idlewild Airport to Paris’ Le Bourget Airport with 11 crewmembers and 111 passengers for eight-and-a-half hours. The Boeing 707’s…

TSA Screener Professionalism & Crossing The Line

The Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) Transportation Security Officers (TSO) have the difficult job of searching for contraband items passengers may pass through security with. Along with TSA TSOs searching for prohibited items, the agency’s Behavior Detection Officers (BDO) watch and interact with passengers to determine passengers that they determine to be a threat to aviation…

IATA Forgoes Neutrality & Takes Sides In US vs Iran

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is a neutral worldwide airline trade association, founded in 1945, representing more than 90% of the world’s scheduled international airlines flying from nearly 150 countries.   Historically IATA has stayed out of politics as its members include airlines from every conceivable political background, including North Korea’s Air Koryo and Syria’s…

Moose Peterson’s Air-to-Air Photo Workshops … Learn From a Legend

Moose Peterson is a world renowned wildlife photographer, landscape photographer, camera bag designer and he literally wrote the book on Nikon.  While my interests were never in wildlife photography, I was hooked at Moose’s work at the age of 16 when I received my copy of the Nikon System Handbook (now in it its sixth…

Reader Mail : “Why Don’t Airlines Use Their Name As A Callsign?”

I have written about airline call signs before … but not in almost three years … so this reader mail caught my attention.   Alberto Lopez, from Barcelona, Spain, writes “I was recently listening to air traffic control while waiting for a flight home from Chicago and noted many airlines do not use their name…