Commentary

Category Archives for Commentary.

President Trump Grounds Boeing 737 MAXs in the US

by Gary Leff

airline cabin
Mar 13 2019

I’ve just written that I believe the FAA was reasonable not to ground the Boeing 737 MAX, and that doing so brings along its own safety risks. I wrote that I hoped that new data would be what guides any shift in position.

Minutes after writing that, though, President Trump announced a grounding of the aircraft type. It’s not obvious that there’s been any actual new information which has become available since the FAA resisting doing so. The only meaningful news item has been Canada’s decision to ground the plane, also based on no new material information.

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Woman Asks Plane to Turn Around When She Realizes She Forgot Her Baby at the Airport

by Gary Leff

Mar 12 2019

Saturday’s Saudia flight SV832 from Jeddah to Kuala Lumpur turned back to the gate because a woman on board forgot her baby at the gate and insisted the plane return.

Since communications between a commercial airliner and the ground are available, it’s worth a listen to this exchange. The pilot asks, “May God be with us. Can we come back or what?”

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‘Luckiest Man Alive’ Arrived at the Gate Moments Too Late to Board Yesterday’s Doomed Ethiopian 737

by Gary Leff

ethiopian ticket
Mar 11 2019

There are untold human stories coming out of the loss of lives on that Boeing 737 MAX 8 flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi.

One compelling story was told in the first person on Facebook — the passenger who was running just a few moments late and missed the flight while he watched the final passengers board and the door at the gate close in front of him. He declares it his lucky day, and indeed it was that, though of course luck probably had nothing to do with it — just a series of unrelated choices that put him in the position to make, or not make, his flight.

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American’s Chicken Salad Lunch: New Worst Airline Meal Ever?

by Gary Leff

chicken
Mar 10 2019

If you choose the salad, here’s a sample of the chicken as seen on American Airlines flight AA644, the 1 p.m. departure from Charlotte to Austin on Friday.

Perhaps this is the reason airline President Robert Isom says their caterers have “gotten a little bit lazy in terms of what they can provide us.” Unfortunately it doesn’t seem he’s done enough about it.

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Europe Will Impose De Facto Visa Requirements on US Citizens Starting in 2021

by Gary Leff

passport getting stamped
Mar 10 2019

Americans will be required to get an ‘ETIAS’ (European Travel Information and Authorization System) in order to travel to Europe, which is essentially what the US requires of Europeans (an ‘ESTA’). It’s advance permission to travel.

Of course the game of tit-for-tat is far from over. Two years ago the US Secretary of Homeland Security said he wanted to revisit allowing Europeans to travel to the US with ‘only’ an ESTA. By the way the number of people killed by terrorists who entered the U.S. under the Visa Waiver Program is zero.

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Flight Attendant Puts Coffee Grounds Above Passenger’s Head to Mask the Smell of Chick-fil-A

by Gary Leff

overhead bin with something coming out
Mar 08 2019

A reader brought a bag of Chick-fil-A on board with him (“12 grilled nuggets w/ buffalo sauce, 2 grilled chicken deluxe sandwiches no bun”). He admitted that it smelled quite a bit in the small first class cabin of an American Airlines Bombardier CRJ-700 regional jet operated by SkyWest.

He finished eating, a flight attendant picked up his trash, and “moments later without making eye contact crushed up a bag of coffee grounds, opened the overhead bin, and placed the bag directly over my head in seat 2C.”

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