News and notes from around the interweb:
- Alaska Airlines Confuses Columbus and Cleveland While Announcing Latest Route (HT: OH Travel Dad)
- Drug and alcohol problems not getting spotting among Amtrak locomotive engineers and others in safety-sensitive roles. Has the person driving your train also been driving the porcelain bus?
- Not sure how exactly this scheme works, but confident a wall won’t stop it: Indian man admits smuggling foreigners into U.S. on commercial flights to Newark
- “Hardcore Flight Attendant Dedicates Flight to “Real M$@#% in Coach” (NSFW, satire, HT: Jim H.)
The standard pre-flight safety announcements set up the next several minutes of Ray introducing the other members of the crew.
“Yo, when I get on that PA, it is my time to shine. I spread that glow over everyone with me in Airbus A321 because we are in this together — one family,” Ray said as he prepped for the first round of food service. “Without Linda up front, Big Tim and his main man Lucky Luke in the cockpit, and Jenna back here with me on pretzels and cookies, this flight can’t happen. But, at the end of the day, it’s the people who paid too much for a ticket and were hit with a bunch of unnecessary fees that make this all possible, and I want them to know that I see them.”
- Department of the Super-obvious: For Food-Delivery Fans, Saving Time Is Worth the Cost (WSJ)
- Genius.
I think I understand what you were trying for with the post title, but driving the porcelain bus, as I understand it, is slang for vomiting into the toilet, and not, in my opinion, an exact match for a drunk or drug-affected conductor. Sure, hungover folks puke. Impaired employees might exhibit (or more importantly, not exhibit) other symptoms apart from nausea.
The Alaska Airlines mistake reminds me of the Southwest commercial where the band gets the city wrong. Wanna get away?
Worked in the RR industry as conductor for 27+ years. Violation of Rule G ( alcohol or drug impairment) resulted in minimum 9 month suspension. Random drug testing one method used, as well as supervisor-level inspections of crews. Amtrak may be deficient in its diligence to confront this problem, hence one of the reasons it is known in the industry as slamtrak.
Re Mr. Patel who is charged with smuggling foreigners into the USA:
It is very difficult to understand how he got them aboard flights without visa, and how he got them past immigration at a US airport?
Whatever the process was, it is reasonable if the authorities don’t want to release any details which might lead others into to copycat attempts.
Gee, what could it be? Visa overstays? Sham marriages? Chain migration fraud? Identity theft? False travel documents? All of the above? Always amazed me that the US lacks even such basic security as a passport control line for exiting the country. But that wouldn’t serve the interests of the powers that be.
What kind of bamboozle is that? Sounds like they’re confused if you personally ask me. LOL