Air Travel

JetBlue Refuses To Let Hindu Man Board Flight During Ramadan, Concerned About His "Disposition"

Air travel has become such a nightmare that it's hard to muster any surprise about the hassles and indignities travelers face on a regular basis. Excruciatingly long lines, invasive pat downs, awkward luggage inspections, delays, cancelations--and, oh yeah, racial profiling--are all pretty much ac ... More >>

UPDATE: A Drone Flies in Brooklyn? Pilot Reports Unmanned Aircraft Sighting

Cue the heavy drums and eerie science-fiction score. It looks like drones have already made their way to New York City skies, according to a CNN report. The pilot of an Alitalia passenger jet heading in to John F. Kennedy Airport for landing yesterday afternoon reported sighting a small unmanned ai ... More >>

Flight Attendants Prefer To Work Coach!

I learned this from a flight attendant for a major international airline. He said that, based on seniority, flight attendants are given the chance to request where they'll fly to every month and whether they'll do coach, business, or first class. He said Rio, Sao Paolo, and Tokyo are considered th ... More >>

Kill The Geese, Now! (Or People Might Get Killed by Them)

Avians and airplanes are a bad mix -- and the skies above New York City are no exception. On Tuesday, a bird strike prompted a JetBlue plane to make an emergency landing. Last week, also, a bird strike forced a Delta flight to make an emergency landing. And don't forget the Miracle on the Hudso ... More >>

New York Airports Are Good At Making People Late

​It wasn't too long ago we brought you the latest report on how New York's airports suck. Well, today we have some more good news from the New York Times . The paper reports that the airspace that includes JFK, LaGuardia and Newark (as well as Jersey's Teterboro Airport and Philadelphia Intern ... More >>

Air Safety on the Cheap

They're responsible for airport security but contractors still make poverty wages

American Airlines Responds to Alec Baldwin Situation on Facebook

​Alec Baldwin -- closer, formerly prolific tweeter, and fake future mayoral candidate -- had a little incident with American Airlines yesterday because of his refusal to stop playing Words With Friends. Baldwin wouldn't shut off his phone when the flight attendant asked him to and says he was ... More >>

Bulldogs Don't Fly Commercial

You might think a bulldog has the best life ever, being adorable and frequently stopped on streets to be gazed at and pet by adoring masses, and also getting its poop picked up by its owner whenever necessary, and not even having to work a 9 to 5 or 8 to 10 job...a bulldog is in the business of simp ... More >>

Delta Airlines Charges U.S. Soldiers $2,800 for Excess Baggage

In a move sure to capture the ire of Americans across the country, Delta Airlines has charged American troops returning from Afghanistan via Baltimore Washington International Airport $2,800 ($200 each) in extra baggage fees. Here's video from soldier Robert O'Hair, explaining the situation, with wh ... More >>

9/11 Flight Numbers Will Be Retired Forever

​United Continental will "permanently retire" flight numbers 93 and 175, Bloomberg reports, in honor of the flights hijacked on September 11, 2011. Over the past decade, the numbers have not been in use, but an error earlier this week caused them to pop up again, much to the chagrin of pilots' ... More >>

Complaining About the TSA Will Get You Targeted by the TSA

​Well, what do you know about this: If you bitch and moan and kick and scream about getting screened (or groped) by the TSA, you are that much more likely to get screened that much more thoroughly (or aggressively). Especially if you do it in the airport security line, where the TSA screeners ... More >>

Big French Plane Hits Small American Plane at JFK

On Monday night an Air France Airbus A380, the biggest passenger plane in use, knocked into a much smaller Comair CRJ 700 Regional Jet at John F. Kennedy International Airport, spinning the tiny thing almost 90-degrees, but injuring no one, NBC New York reports. A minor event when all was said and d ... More >>

Southwest Grounding 79 Planes After Hole Incident

​Southwest is grounding 79 members of its fleet after a 3- or 4-foot hole tore open in the fuselage of a plane traveling from Phoenix to Sacramento. It had to make an emergency landing at a military base. The grounded planes are being inspected for something called "aircraft skin fatigue."

Is Marcel's Quantum Kitchen a Modernist Cuisine for the TV?; Hardee's and Carl's Jr. Add Turkey Burgers to Menu

​The federal government is investing $60 million in three major studies on the effects of climate change on crops and forests. [BusinessWeek] Modernist Cuisine for TV? Syfy is debuting Marcel's Quantum Kitchen, a new show starring molecularly inclined Top Chef alum Marcel Vigneron. [Wired] A ... More >>

Stewart: The Little Airport That Couldn't

steve p2008​Stewart International Airport is only an hour and a half drive from Midtown, but it's the least popular commercial airport in the New York area. The New York Times reports the oft-ignored airport was again largely overlooked during a meeting held by transportation officials last we ... More >>

Hijacking Alert Issued Over Spilt Airplane Coffee

​Perhaps the most disturbing part of this story about an in-flight cockpit coffee spill is this: Pilots are allowed to drink coffee while piloting commercial airliners!? Because it seems that a coffee spill could do far worse than simply triggering a hijacking alert and forcing a United Airlin ... More >>

Update: Hijacking Threat Aboard American Airlines Flight to JFK "Non-Credible"

​We're hearing of a hijacking threat made on an American Airlines flight heading from San Francisco to JFK today. After a threat was reportedly made by phone that a hijacker was on board, passengers on American Airlines Flight 24, which was preparing for takeoff, have been asked to deplane and ... More >>

Drag Star Gets Horrible Treatment From Delta Airlines

David Shankbone​Get a load of this email thread between Gary Hall (aka drag star Shequida) and Delta Airlines over terrible service that caused Hall to miss his flight and forfeit big sums of money. In return, they offered him 100 smackers. And he smacked them right back down!

US Airways Flight 1101: Suicide Bird Strike Lands Direct Hit, Forced to Make Emergency Landing

​Again, with the fucking birds.

United Airlines plane makes emergency landing at Newark

​Update: the Bergen Record is reporting that three passengers were slightly injured, according to an airline spokesman. -- United Airlines Flight 634, an Airbus flying from Chicago's O'Hare Airport, made an emergency landing at Newark Airport this morning after the right hand landing gear fa ... More >>

After Crash, FAA Makes New Rules for Hudson River Flights

​After a mid-air collision between a small charter plane and a sightseeing helicopter over the Hudson River this summer killed nine people, observers were quick to blame the Federal Aviation Administration for poorly regulating the airspace, letting it become clogged with private planes. Toda ... More >>

US Airways Cuts 1,000 Jobs, Ground Crew Base at LaGuardia

​US Airways always comes up when we're looking for cheap flights, and there's a reason for that: like many airlines these days, it's not doing so hot. Today the troubled carrier announces it's going to cut 1,000 jobs and some flights to Europe, and close its ground crew base at LaGuardia and ... More >>

High Line Park Results in New Restaurant Row; Green Roofs Everywhere

Mere months after reports claiming the exact opposite, a new study suggests that living near a fast food outlet actually does not increase weight in children, and that living near supermarkets, with their fresh fruits and vegetables, does nothing to lower weight. Go figure. [Science Daily] A survey ... More >>

Near-Bankrupt NY Waterway to Sue US Airways for Water Rescue Funds

We mentioned in January that there were signs that the heroic water landing and rescue of US Airways Flight 1549 might result in lawsuits. Now Crain's New York Business reports that NY Waterway, whose ferries helped haul Flight 1549 passengers out of the Hudson River, "is preparing a lawsuit again ... More >>

Sully Fever! Flight 1549 Pilots, Crew Get Keys to the City

Mayor Bloomberg introduced "five real American heroes, the crew of US Airways Flight 1549" at City Hall today in a Key to the City ceremony. Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, co-pilot Jeffrey Skiles, and flight attendants Donna Dent, Sheila Dail and Doreen Walsh received their honors for their d ... More >>

In-Flight Hanging Apparently False, But Stephen Fry Really Stuck in Lift

American Airlines flight 834, arriving this evening from the Dominican Republic, was met by emergency personnel because of a medical situation with a passenger -- not, American Airlines spokespeople insist, because the passenger had tried to hang himself, as persistent twittering had reported. The ... More >>

Passenger, Bill O'Reilly Spoiling "Miracle on the Hudson" Buzz

Remember when US Airways Flight 1549's heroic Hudson River landing made us all feel good about America and ourselves? Well, it's all going to shit. Earlier this week Chicago's Joe Hart, one of the survivors, told USA Today that he'd like to be "made whole for the incident," and we all know what ... More >>

Have a Happy Flight-Delayed Christmas

Audio From Jet Crash Online at VF; Pilots Angry

At JFK, Erhan Yildirim Clears Corpses For Takeoff

A wing and a prayer

A Girl's Life at Aviation High School

A Girl's Life at Aviation High School

'Prisoners of War Have More Rights' Than Stranded Airline Passengers

NY's Airports Are Worse Than Most: Report

Trouble in the Air

Reagan's mass firing of air traffic controllers made American skies much less safe in the 1980s. Is Bush's flight plan the same?

Out of Control

When air traffic control shares blame for fatal crashes

Moussaoui's Guilt: Less Profound Than Airline's Own Incompetence?

In D.C., It's All Relative

Congress members, staff, and lobbyists—one big happy family

FAA's Security Measures Won't Fly

Hijacking the Facts

FBI worked hard to cover up a 9-11 cover-up—and then hide it some more

Fear of Flying

Whistle-blowers say the FAA ignored a decade of pre–9-11 warnings

The 9-11 Gun

Flying Blind

Among the Terminal Ills: Bodies in Wheel Wells

The Year in Terror

Knowing Much, Bush Did Little to Protect America

Pilots’-Eye View

The Crash of Flight 587 Raises Questions About Training and Air Traffic Control

Letters

What Color Is Your Parachute?

Her Boss at United Got $3.2 Million. She Got Shoved Out the Door.

The Next Attack?

Local Is Global

Bomb Plots in Manila, Mayhem in Manhattan

Winging it