[sunnykerr]

American Airlines says 'improper' work caused seats to come loose DALLAS -- American Airlines said that improperly installed clamps caused seats to pop loose on two planes during flights and an inspection turned up four others with the same problem. The airline said Tuesday that it inspected and fixed the seats on 36 of its Boeing 757 jets and planned to check 11 other planes. In the past week, rows of seats have come loose on three separate flights, two of which made emergency landings. Federal officials are looking into the matter, which safety advocates consider to be serious. David L. Campbell, the airline's vice-president of safety, said in an interview that the clamps might have been installed incorrectly during maintenance work by American crews and an outside contractor, Timco Aviation Services. He could not recall a similar problem with any other American planes. The first sign of trouble showed up last Wednesday, when crews noticed loose seats on a plane that had flown from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport to Vail, Colo. The seats were tightened again that day in Boston. The same plane had to make an emergency landing Monday when seats came loose shortly after takeoff on a New York-to-Miami flight. Another plane flying from Boston to Miami on Saturday diverted to New York after seats loosened in mid-flight. Separately, an American flight on Tuesday from Chicago to London was diverted to Shannon Airport in Ireland after a report of smoke in the cabin, which the airline attributed to a faulty fan in an entertainment system. The reports of smoky cabins and seats coming loose during flights raised questions about safety on the nation's third biggest airline. Aviation industry experts said bad publicity could lead passengers to avoid American. Matt Ziemkiewicz, president of the safety-advocacy group National Air Disaster Alliance, said passengers could be hurt or killed in an otherwise survivable crash if seats break loose from their moorings. "What if it's a little kid or an old person in the row behind them?" he said. "That seat becomes a projectile with people on it." The planes in the Saturday and Monday incidents were serviced in the past two months and seats had been removed and reinstalled, American said. Campbell, the safety executive, said new seats on some of American's 757s have a different fastening system -- instead of four bolts that are wrench-tightened, they are held in place by two bolts in back that are tightened with wrenches and two in front that are hand-tightened. The seats must be positioned precisely so that they lock into place. "It's a very temperamental job," he said. American said work was done at an American Airlines base in Tulsa, Okla., and a Timco facility in North Carolina. In both cases, American employees were the last to touch the seats, said airline spokeswoman Andrea Huguely -- a comment that drew a fierce response from the Transport Workers Union, which represents American's maintenance employees. "Our workers were the last to touch the seats only in the sense that after the seats came loose we were dispatched" to fix them, said union official John Hewitt. The union blamed Timco and criticized management of American parent AMR Corp. for cutting costs by outsourcing maintenance work. A Timco spokesman declined to comment beyond saying that the company is still investigating. The Federal Aviation Administration said it is looking into the incidents as well. American officials said the incidents were not related to its difficulties with union workers, who are unhappy about pending layoffs and cuts in pay and benefits that American has imposed since filing for bankruptcy protection in November. American accuses some pilots of conducting an illegal work slowdown that caused a jump in cancelled and delayed flights in September. Robert Mann, an aviation consultant who once worked at American, said delays, cancellations and bad publicity about broken seats could create an opening for rivals United Airlines and Delta Air Lines to poach American customers in competitive markets like Chicago and New York. "I'm struck by how close this company is to losing its way," he said. Spencer Nam, a stock analyst from Boston who was flying to Dallas on American for business, said his Wednesday evening flight was delayed after passengers boarding the planes noticed that the seats in Row 12 were leaning toward Row 13. Although the problem was fixed and his plane got to Dallas on time, he said he might book another airline the next time. "When it comes to flying, I don't like unexpected events," Nam said. "I'm 42, I've been flying more than 20 years, and I've never seen where seats weren't screwed down."

Source

I'm not afraid to fly. I've done it all of my life and I love it.

But, as someone who's about to board a flight to Chicago on American Airlines in about two weeks... Ack!!!



I'll be checking the seats!!!

[sunnykerr]

'Bulletproof vest' man arrested at Los Angeles airport A man has been arrested at Los Angeles International Airport who, officials say, was carrying weapons in his luggage and wearing a bulletproof vest. Yongda Huang Harris, a US citizen, had arrived from Japan and was due to board a flight to Boston when he was stopped. Border officials said a number of items were found including knives, handcuffs, body bags and a smoke bomb. He was charged with transporting hazardous items - an allegation relating to the smoke bomb. "He was detained by customers border protection because he was wearing a full ballistic vest with a trauma plate and knee pads and to them that was unusual," Commander Blake Chow of the Los Angeles police department told ABC. "He had a myriad of items in his checked-in luggage and it raised a lot of suspicion." Mr Harris, a 28-year-old man from Boston, was also said to be wearing flame-resistant trousers. Other items found included a hatchet, a collapsible baton, a bio-hazard suit, a gas mask, leg irons and lead-filled truncheons. Officials said he had recently been living and working in Japan but was not co-operating with investigators attempting to question him. They also gave no explanation of how he was able to board his flight in Japan without raising suspicions.

Source

But, by all means, confiscate my bottle of hand sanitizer.

Seriously, I've seen some pretty scary stuff be confiscated at airports (like, why would you need to carry armor-piercing bullets in a plastic bag on board an airplane?), but it's scary to think about everything that still gets through.

[sunnykerr]

Indonesia plane lands at Tabing not Padang Indonesian officials have suspended a foreign pilot and launched an investigation after a passenger jet landed at the wrong airport. The Sriwijaya Air jet had about 100 people on board when it took off on Saturday from Medan in northern Sumatra headed for the city of Padang. However, it landed at the Tabing air force base, 12 km (seven miles) from its destination. Indonesian officials said air safety practices would be investigated. It is not known why the pilot chose to land at the wrong airport - only that he was in contact with the air traffic control at Minangkabau airport in Padang. An investigation by the Indonesian aviation safety watchdog has been launched with air traffic control authorities. Indonesia has a chequered history of aviation safety, although efforts have been made to improve standards over the last few years, the BBC's Karishma Vaswani reports from Jakarta. Indonesia's transport ministry says the 96 passengers on board were never in any danger. According to our correspondent, the ministry's spokesman said the landing was entirely normal - except for the fact that it was at the wrong airport.

Source

When I get on the plane Wednesday, this better not be what happens.

Those poor passengers. I understand it's no big deal in the grand scheme of things, but it's very inconvenient when you've organized your travel plans, isn't it?

[Drunk On You]

I guess a little. But at the same time it was only 7 miles from where they were suppose to land.

[Nick HeyRee]

From time to time we hear about those stories where sat nav sends a car somewhere really weird or dangerous, but this is a whole different kind of odd.

What i don't understand is why the air force base failed to warn him off? You can't lant land just like that.

[Drunk On You]

I didn't even think about that. But you're right. They would of told him when he was in the general area to leave. And from what I understand, don't they need permission to land? Why would they give him permission to land?

[Avatar]

That sounds very weird, unless it's unused and thus without anyone to warn them off (though in that case the pilot should have seen something was amiss), or there was something wrong with the plane.

[sunnykerr]

Well, speaking as someone who was on a plane a little over 12 hours ago, it occurs to me that there are "exigent circumstances" that could warrant an airport to wave the usual guidelines.

And that's assuming that Indonesia as the same guidelines we would expect them to have, here in the West. Who knows, maybe they do things differently over there.

But, I was thinking more along the lines of either the plane didn't have enough fuel to safely go back to its intended landing location (it may just be 7 miles, but planes burn fuel differently, don't they?) or perhaps there was a health situation that required the plane to land ASAP or, indeed, since the plane had flown beyond its intended landing location, the authorities were afraid of terrorists and demanded the plane land immediately.



It's not the first time that I've heard of something like this. Two years ago, when I went to Minneapolis, another plane ran into trouble when the pilot and co-pilot got so involved in discussing their ongoing union problems that they got completely off-course and didn't realize that ground control was trying to contact them to get at the bottom of what was going on. They were fired, of course. But my point is that things like what happened in Indonesia do happen.

[Avatar]

Sure, but it shouldn't... you pay to get to the correct airport, after all.

[sunnykerr]

Oh, I agree. I do believe that was the first point I made on the issue.

But then the discussion veered into "how could they allow that plane to land there?" so I tried to address that.

[Nick HeyRee]

Wouldn't any of those most plausible of reasons have been alluded to in the article? And it isn't news when you land for a health based emergency, not typically.

It could be as Dan suggested, that the air base has been decommissioned or only manned from time to time.

However when a plane intends to land there is usually a lot of chatter with the control tower right, and communication between computers on the plane and on the ground? So like April said, was not the differing nature or outright lack of this evident to the pilots upon approach?

There's no way a civilian jet would just land an an air force base over here kind as you please. m

What of radar, was this aircraft's descent to the wrong airport not seen?

All of the on board communication ceased to function and or fuel shortage, that's the only justification i can come up with.

[sunnykerr]

Meh. Sometimes the overraction becomes the story and its reasonable explanation gets completely ignored and forgotten.

I'm not saying this is what happened.

I'm just saying Indonesia... has some pretty harsh reactions to a lot of stuff, up to and including "disobedience."

We don't know what happened.

I do think it sucks for the passengers, though.

[Nick HeyRee]

Oh i dunno, baggage reclaim must be a hell of a lot easier when you are the only flight at the airport.

A shortage of taxis though...

[sunnykerr]

That's assuming they weren't connecting to another flight.

Then, I don't care how easy it is to claim your baggage, you're still not a happy camper.

[Nick HeyRee]

I once had to wait nigh on an hour and half for a suitcase, then the queues at passport control...*shrugs*