Monthly Archives

Monthly Archives for December 2018.

Nightmare Scenario: Man Arrested for Impersonating Air Traffic Control, Issuing Fake Takeoff Instructions

air traffic control
Dec 03 2018

Two years ago someone was pretending to be Melbourne, Australia air traffic control. A Virgin Australia flight from Gold Coast was instructed to land by this person — the plane came witin 275 feet of the runway before the real air traffic control waved them off. The Boeing 737 climbed to 3800 feet and made a go-round.

Frighteningly that seems not to have been a one-off. A man has been arrested for pulling that same stunt in Buenos Aires.

Continue Reading »

Warning: Resorts Covering Up Sexual Assaults

beaches negril
Dec 03 2018

The Detroit Free Press carries an important investigative report on reports of sexual assaults in Jamaica where mutiple resorts have taken steps to ‘cover up’ incidents: Failing to make evidence available, encouraging women not to file complaints with the police, even to just ‘forget about it’, and seeking non-disclosure agreements surrounding incidents.

There are important steps to take to protect yourself and your loved ones.

Continue Reading »

That’s Alight, Just Leave It There

dog pooping in airport
Dec 02 2018

Air travel brings people together from all sorts of backgrounds and experiences. So there are bound to be cultural clashes. And we’re not just dealing with people, we are also dealing with pets. And we’re dealing with how those people deal with their pets.

Walking through Washington Dulles airport on Thursday a passenger in front of me had their dog on a leash….

Continue Reading »

Why Airlines Should Charge Passengers to Use the Lavatory

lavatory
Dec 01 2018

Whenever Ryanair is out of the news their CEO Michael O’Leary talks about making passengers stand (to cram more people onto planes) and making them pay to use the lavatory. In the U.S. pay toilets are illegal in many states but those prohibitions wouldn’t apply to airlines since they’d be pre-empted by the federal Airline Deregulation Act.

UK pay toilets are often cleaner than free ones. Would airlines charging for lavatories give us better lavatories? Would they give us bigger lavatories since they’d become a profit center?

Continue Reading »