[sunnykerr]

Dream, Triumph, now Legend: Carnival's 2013 cruise woes grow Carnival Cruise Lines says yet another one of its ships has experienced problems -- the third this year -- and the ship had to cancel a planned stop and head home instead. Late Thursday the company said its cruise liner Legend had experienced problems that affected its sailing speed. As a result, a planned stop at Grand Cayman Islands was cancelled and the ship was returning to Tampa, Fla. The ship is scheduled to arrive in port on Sunday at the conclusion of the seven-day cruise, The Tampa Bay Times reported. Passengers will receive: A $100 credit; Refunds on pre-purchased shore excursions; Half-off on a future cruise. It's just the latest round of bad news for Carnival Cruise Lines. On Thursday the company announced another ship, the Carnival Dream, had experienced problems with an on-board generator while sitting in port at St. Maarten, and passengers were being flown home. The company denied reports of widespread toilet malfunctions, saying on its website the "alleged toilet system issues" were limited to one public restroom that was shut down for cleaning after an overflow, and one toilet in a guest cabin that required cleaning. "Aside from that there have been no reports of issues on board with overflowing toilets or sewage. The toilet system had periodic interruptions yesterday evening and was fully restored at approximately 12:30 a.m. this morning," the company said. Dream passengers were being offered a refund equivalent to the cost of three days on the cruise, and a 50 per cent discount on a future booking. Carnival has been under the microscope since last month, when more than 4,000 people on board the Carnival Triumph spent five days in the Gulf of Mexico without power or working toilets after an engine room fire. The ship was towed to Mobile, Alabama. Ross Klein, a cruise industry expert and professor at Memorial University in Newfoundland, said Carnival is desperate to restore its reputation as a trustworthy cruise company. "Certainly it's going to have a negative impact on the company's image," Klein told CTV's Canada AM. "I've seen, on the discussion forums, people saying 'I'll never go on a Carnival ship' or 'I made a mistake going on a Carnival ship.’ So I think it's definitely going to have a negative impact on the corporate bottom line." He said Carnival has revealed few details about the two recent incidents, and appears intent on trying to control the flow of information. The full story won't likely emerge until passengers from both the Legend and Dream are back on home soil and can speak freely about their experience. "The industry generally doesn't like bad news stories so they'll do everything they can to keep this quiet," he said. Cruise passengers sign a contract before they board a ship, agreeing to allow the company to change the cruise itinerary when necessary and without notice, Klein said. As a result, passengers have little legal recourse in the event that a trip is cut short or planned stops are cancelled. "I think the company thinks they're being fair because they're giving a (partial) refund but I think the reality is people go on a week's vacation and that's precious time and the cruise line isn't recognizing people are losing the vacation time and the vacation experience," he said. Ross said technical troubles are a common occurrence in the cruise line industry. Between 2000 and 2011 approximately 100 ships went adrift or had technical issues, he said.

Source

I'm not really sure what Carnival could do to restore its image at the moment.

It seems like the passengers get a raw deal, vhen it's a minor problem. A $100 cheque and 50% your next cruise? Why would anyone want to do business with them again?

It seems like the worst scam in the world. Not only do you no get what you paid for, but the only way you get something is if you volunteer for yet more of this abuse.

No thanks.

[sunnykerr]

FAA to close 149 air traffic towers as budget cuts bite The US aviation authority plans to close 149 air traffic control towers in response to steep budget cuts that took effect this month. Towers will close at small airports but the facilities will remain open, the Federal Aviation Administration said. Pilots will have to co-ordinate takeoff and landing by themselves after 7 April using a shared radio channel. The towers marked for closure are all staffed by private contractors. Critics say the move will compromise safety. "We heard from communities across the country about the importance of their towers and these were very tough decisions," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement. But he said the closures of the control towers were an unavoidable response to the spending cuts known in Washington as the sequester. On 1 March, $85bn (£56bn) was cut from this year's budget after Congress failed to reach a budget deal. FAA officials said they would work to ensure safe operations at the affected airports. The affected airports are spread across the country. Some are smaller airports in densely populated areas, a list released by the FAA shows. Overall, the agency must find $637m in savings through the end of the fiscal year, 30 September. Towers were only recommended for closure if it posed no threat to national security and if the agency forecast little economic impact beyond the affected local community, the FAA said.

Source

I don't know how small the airports where those towers are... well, are.

But, between the news that small knives are going to be allowed back on airplanes and then this...

I don't know, but it sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.

[sunnykerr]

Judge denies $20M severance for CEO of American Airlines parent company A judge has rejected a proposed severance package of nearly $20 million for Thomas Horton, the chairman and chief executive officer of American Airlines parent AMR Corp, saying the payout was not allowed under federal bankruptcy law. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane in Manhattan issued his decision on Thursday, after having approved at a March 27 hearing AMR's planned $11 billion merger with US Airways Group Inc. Horton's $19.9 million severance had been part of the merger agreement and was to consist of equal amounts of cash and shares of the combined company. Lane had suggested at the hearing that severance might be better addressed in AMR's reorganization plan, which the company has yet to submit and which requires creditor approval. U.S. Trustee Tracy Hope Davis, a Department of Justice monitor for the bankruptcy, also opposed Horton's severance. "It's American Airlines' current intention to address Mr. Horton's compensation arrangement in the plan of reorganization," said Mike Trevino, a spokesman for the carrier. The combined company would be run by US Airways CEO Doug Parker, with Horton as nonexecutive chairman. Parker would become chairman after the first annual shareholder meeting, probably in the spring of 2014. Horton first joined AMR in 1985, left in 2002 for a four-year stint at AT&T Corp and then returned. He became CEO of AMR when it filed for bankruptcy in November 2011. AMR at first opposed the merger, but reversed itself under pressure from creditors. The merger would create the world's largest airline, and AMR and US Airways hope to save more than $1 billion of annual costs by 2015. "You're telling retirees you can't pay their health care benefits, you're telling creditors you can't pay them, and then you want to pay $20 million to a CEO who hasn't done anything to earn it," airline consultant Mike Boyd said in an interview. "AMR will end up giving him several million dollars, and can probably dig up other cases and precedents to justify it." UNCLEAR PURPOSE Davis had called Horton's proposed payout too large relative to severance for nonmanagement workers, and improper because it was not part of a program for full-time workers in general. Lane rejected AMR's argument that these restrictions did not apply because the payout would be made - or could be voided - by the combined company after the merger closed. "It is unclear what purpose would be served by the court's approval of the severance if (the combined company) could later veto the severance through a vote of its board," he wrote. The judge also said deferring to AMR's "business judgment" in allowing the payout was "exactly what Congress sought to prevent" in capping severance awards by companies in bankruptcy. AMR has said the payment to Horton recognized his efforts in leading the company through bankruptcy and into the merger. Its lawyer, Stephen Karotkin, told Lane on March 27 that the desire of AMR directors to maximize value and see the merger through justified payments to Horton and others. The combined carrier would take the American name and be based in AMR's hometown of Fort Worth, Texas. US Airways is based in Tempe, Arizona.

Not that there necessarily needed to be more proof, but it's obvious that there's a problem in the travel industry (as elsewhere, of course) with CEOs cutting benefits and pensions while lining their own pockets quite ridiculously.

I mean, it's one thing to observe how insane travelling has become, it's another to realize the depth of the corruption in that industry.

Talk about putting the customer (and the employees) dead last.

[sunnykerr]

Lufthansa ground staff walk out, airline cancels most flights BERLIN -- Ground staff at Lufthansa, Germany's biggest airline, walked off the job Monday on a one-day strike that prompted the company to cancel most of the day's scheduled flights and left it complaining of "excessive" union tactics. The strike by airline technicians and service personnel across Germany started in the early hours. Lufthansa moved in advance to head off chaos, announcing on Saturday that it was cancelling almost all scheduled short-haul flights and the majority of long-haul services. In all, the airline planned to operate only 32 of more than 1,700 scheduled flights. The ver.di union announced the "warning strike" -- a tactic commonly used to raise pressure in wage talks -- on Friday. Lufthansa last week rejected its demand for wage increases of 5.2 per cent over the next year and job guarantees, countering with a complex offer that foresees smaller raises over a 29-month period. Ver.di, which is negotiating for some 33,000 workers, argued that the offer would mean wages falling in real terms. "We demand that we definitely get a pay rise ... and we are not willing to accept increased working hours," said Brigitte Scheffler, a Lufthansa employee at Berlin's Tegel airport. Ver.di official Gerold Schaub told n-tv television that the union had "no other possibility" to exert pressure on Lufthansa management, and noted that it was the airline itself that decided to scrap more than 1,600 flights. Lufthansa is trying to cut costs to cope with high fuel prices as well as vigorous competition from European discount carriers and the big Gulf airlines such as Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways. Last year, the airline and a union representing cabin crews called in an arbitrator to settle a pay dispute after a series of short-term stoppages. Lufthansa charged that ver.di, Germany's biggest service workers' union, was motivated by a desire to shore up its position in an increasingly fragmented union landscape in which assertive smaller groups representing individual professions have become more and more powerful. Monday's strike followed a smaller walkout last month. "This time it is a strike ... with a massive impact, completely excessive, that has only one aim -- to position itself as a union at Lufthansa against many other unions and groups," Lufthansa's chief personnel officer, Stefan Lauer, told ARD television. He put the number of passengers affected at 150,000. Lauer complained that "the transport sector has mutated into a strike sector" and said that "we as Lufthansa now have to suffer strikes every three months," often by unions representing non-Lufthansa workers such as air traffic controllers and airport security staff. The German national employers' association has called for government action to rein in the problem of companies facing demands from competing unions but, while Chancellor Angela Merkel has expressed sympathy for their concern, little has happened. The airline allowed passengers with flights scheduled Monday to rebook for free, and said those booked on cancelled German domestic flights could convert their tickets into vouchers to travel by train.

Source

When I'm travelling, this is the sort of thing that drives up a wall and leads me to forget all of my principles. Obviously, Lufthansa being a major airline, this will have caused massive inconvenience for hundreds of thousands of travellers.

Yet they only walked off the job for a day and what else were they supposed to do?

The company holds all the power, but it couldn't function without the people on the ground, could it?

I'm not really one to whole-heartedly embrace unions just for the sake of embracing them either, but there comes a time where individuals who work together might have to unite their efforts in order to get heard.

And it was just one day.

[sunnykerr]

Dreamliner: Boeing resumes deliveries of 787 Boeing says it has resumed deliveries of its 787 Dreamliner, after two incidents involving the lithium ion batteries led to a worldwide grounding of the aircraft. Boeing has delivered a modified jet to Japan's All Nippon Airways, which will restart Dreamliner flights on 1 June. Regulators halted all Dreamliners after ANA and Japan Airlines had incidents where the battery overheated. Boeing has since modified the jets with new batteries. The US Federal Aviation Administration gave Boeing's redesigned battery system approval on 19 April. Boeing then modified existing fleets for airlines. As well as new batteries which run at a cooler temperature, Boeing has also enclosed them in stainless steel boxes. The system now has a ventilation pipe that leads directly outside the plane, which Boeing says will lower the chances of any future fire or smoke affecting the aircraft. Ethiopian Airlines was the first to restart commercial flights on 27 April. Other airlines will begin services later in May or in June. The delivery to ANA is the first handover of a modified 787 from Boeing factories. Boeing had delivered 50 Dreamliners to airlines at the time of the grounding. The company said on Tuesday that it expected to achieve its target of delivering more than 60 Dreamliners this year. The US National Transportation Safety Board is still looking into what caused the 787 battery to overheat and catch fire on a Japan Airlines plane in Boston in January. About one week later another battery overheated on an ANA flight in Japan, causing an emergency landing and evacuation of the plane.

Source

Hopefully the redesign prevents similar incidents in future...

But I'm not sure why they hadn't thought of a more solid enclosure before or of cooler batteries.

So now I don't know that I can trust their reassurances.

Which is okay, because I don't really see a day in which I'll be getting on a Boeing anyway.

[sunnykerr]

An update:

United Airlines resumes Boeing Dreamliner 787 flights United Airlines put its 787 back in the air on Monday, with both the airline and Boeing hoping to put the plane's four-month grounding behind them. The flight from Houston to Chicago was just the kind of 787 flight that airlines are hoping for: uneventful. Smouldering batteries on two 787s owned by other airlines prompted authorities to ground the planes in January. The failure of Boeing's newest, flashiest and most important plane embarrassed the company and its customers. Both United CEO Jeff Smisek and Boeing CEO Jim McNerney were on board Monday's flight, and United promoted the plane's return to service. Said Smisek, "I'll tell you, Jim, it was a fairly expensive piece of sculpture to have on the ground so we're really delighted to have it up and flying." United is the only U.S. airline currently flying the 787. The airline, based in Chicago, said it will use 787s on shorter domestic flights before resuming international flying June 10 with new Denver-to-Tokyo service as well as temporary Houston-to-London flights. It's adding flights to Tokyo, Shanghai, and Lagos, Nigeria, in August. Those long international flights are the main reason the 787 exists. Its medium size and fuel efficiency are a good fit for long routes. Starting with shorter domestic flights "will give us a period to ramp up full 787 operations," United spokeswoman Christen David said. Four of its six 787s have been fixed, and United said the other two will get the battery modification in coming days. Airlines including Japan Airlines and South America's LATAM Airlines Group, said profit took a hit because of the grounding. LATAM said it still had to make payments on the plane and pay for crews and maintenance. It expects to resume flying soon. United was forced to delay planned international flights, and the grounding reduced first-quarter earnings by $11 million. The two battery incidents in January included an emergency landing of one plane, and a fire on another. Federal authorities lifted the grounding order on April 19 but it has taken Boeing and the airlines a few more weeks to fix most of them. The incidents never caused any serious injuries. But the January grounding embarrassed Boeing and disrupted schedules at the eight airlines that were flying the planes. The company had delivered 50 of the planes worldwide. The 787 uses more electricity than any other jet. And it makes more use of lithium-ion batteries than other jets to provide power for things like flight controls and a backup generator when its engines are shut down. Each 787 has two of the batteries. Boeing Co. never did figure out the root cause of the battery incidents. Instead, it redesigned the battery and its charger. The idea was to eliminate all of the possible causes, 787 chief engineer Mike Sinnett said in an online chat on Thursday where he and a Boeing test pilot took questions about the plane. The changes include more heat insulation between each cell and charging the battery to a lower maximum voltage. Ethiopian Airlines resumed flying 787s on April 27, and Air India and Qatar Airways have also restarted flights. All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines have both said they expect to restart 787 flights on June 1. Boeing said that as of Sunday, 45 planes have gotten the battery fix out of 50 that were in service when they were grounded. It said it will finish the modifications by the end of May. Boeing never stopped making 787s, but deliveries were halted. They resumed last week, and Boeing has since delivered two planes, both with the new battery system.

Source

So I guess we'll see what happens, huh?

[sunnykerr]

UK's new visa rules 'causing anguish' for families New financial rules for migrants from outside the European Union are tearing UK families apart and causing anguish, a group of MPs and peers have said. They said thousands of Britons had been unable to bring a non-EU spouse to the UK since July 2012, when minimum earnings requirements were introduced. Children have also been separated from a parent, the parliamentary group said. The Home Office said the rules were designed to ease the burden of migration on the taxpayer. Under rules that came into force a year ago only British citizens who can show they earn at least £18,600 a year can sponsor their non-European spouse's visa. This rises to £22,400 for families with a child, and a further £2,400 for each further child. The inquiry by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Migration, which is calling for an independent review of the minimum income requirement, looked at more than 175 cases from families affected by the rules. Forty-five claimed their inability to meet the income threshold had led to the separation of children, including British children, from a non-EU parent, the group said. In one case, a woman from outside Europe had been separated from her British husband and two sons, including a five-month-old baby she had been breastfeeding. Douglas Shillinglaw, from Kent, is among those to have been affected. His wife is in Lagos, Nigeria, with his five-month old son and her six-year-old son from another relationship. Mr Shillinglaw, a self-employed mortgage broker for two years, told the BBC he was being "judged like an employed person". "Self-employed income is different from employed income. I have got enough money to pay my mortgage and bills, and that should be enough," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "And should anything happen to me, I have a family that will take care of them. My family are wholeheartedly behind what I am doing." Mark Reckless, Conservative MP on the home affairs select committee, said the government had promised to bring down net immigration and it had done so by "bearing down" on bogus colleges, caps on work visas and reforms on family immigration. "If you are bringing someone into the country, then you should be expected to support that person without recourse to public expense," he told Today. "Over time, it might be possible that the regulations could be adjusted. There will be hard cases and we learn in light of those experiences." 'Children shouldn't suffer' The group also heard from a number of UK sponsors in full-time employment at or above the national minimum wage who reported that they were unable to meet the income requirement. Wider evidence suggested that 47% of the UK working population last year would have failed to meet the income level to sponsor a non-European Economic Area partner, the group said. By the government's own estimate, almost 18,000 British people will be prevented from being reunited with their spouse or partner in the UK every year as a result of the new rules, it added. Baroness Hamwee, chairwoman of the inquiry and Liberal Democrat home affairs lead in the House of Lords, said the parliamentary group had been "struck by the evidence showing just how many British people have been kept apart from partners, children and elderly relatives". "These rules are causing anguish for families and, counter to their original objectives, may actually be costing the public purse," she said. Liberal Democrat group member Sarah Teather MP said that "whatever the objective of the policy, children shouldn't suffer as a result". A Home Office spokesman said the rules had been designed to make sure those coming to the UK to join their spouse or partner would not become a burden on the taxpayer and would be well enough supported to integrate effectively. "High-value migrants would not be refused because their British spouse or partner was not employed," he said. "They can meet the income threshold by having cash savings of £62,500 or through their own private income, for example from investments. We have also introduced greater flexibility for those holding investments to liquidate them into cash in order to meet the rules."

Source

Obviously, this isn't travel in the strictest sense of the term inasmuch as we're not talking temporary moves or tourism.

But the rules dictating who can come in would seem to fall under a loose definition of travel and since none of us seem particularly keen to discuss stories related to the traditional travel industry...

I do think the rules are harsh here.

Yes, limits have to be put in place and safeguards against abuses of the system.

But it's basically benefit-hoarding that the government's doing here. Anyone with a low-income family would, I assume, be entitled to benefits and ther government doesn't want that expense. In this tough economy, it's hard to exactly fault them for being thrifty.

However, the government would also do well to remember that anyone that works, whether they are self-employed or employed by someone else, pays income taxes and as such contributes to the pool of money from which those benefits are meted out. As such, they are entitled to have their family life.

[sunnykerr]

Fire hits Greek ferry carrying 250 people in eastern Aegean, 5 treated for smoke inhalation ATHENS, Greece - Crew members put out a fire on a Greek ferry boat carrying 248 passengers and crew in the eastern Aegean Sea Friday. Five people had to be evacuated and treated for respiratory problems. The Merchant Marine Ministry said the Nissos Mykonos was sitting just off the island of Samos. Its 174 passengers were being transferred to another ferry, which would take them to their destinations. The fire broke out in the vessel's smokestack as it was sailing between Samos and the island of Ikaria, the ship's owner said. Hellenic Seaways Vice-President Antonis Agapitos said the ship was one mile (1.6 kilometres) off the port of Karlovassi on Samos. It was not clear what caused the fire. The four women and one man who needed treatment for smoke inhalation were given first aid by doctors on the ship, and then taken to Samos by coast guard launch. Weather conditions were fair, while a tug was sent to the scene. The Nissos Mykonos departed earlier Friday from the port of Piraeus, Greece's biggest, and was heading for Samos with stops at the islands of Syros, Mykonos and Ikaria. It was the ship's first journey on that route this season.

Source

It's a good thing so many people got out.

On a ship, I have to imagine that fire can become pretty lethal pretty quickly.

[sunnykerr]

Planes in 'near-miss' collision over New York City US aviation officials are investigating a near-collision between two jets in the skies over New York City. On 13 June, a Delta Airlines Boeing 747 and a Shuttle America Embraer E170 came within 200ft (60m) vertically and half a mile (800m) horizontally from one another, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said. Both planes landed safely. US aviation regulations require planes to be 1000ft apart vertically or three miles horizontally. About 14:40 local time on 13 June, the Delta plane was cleared to land at John F Kennedy (JFK) International Airport, but the pilot decided not to land, a standard procedure known as a "missed approach". Meanwhile, the Shuttle America plane was departing from LaGuardia Airport about 10 miles (16km) away. The planes were "turning away from each other at the point where they lost the required separation", the FAA said in a statement. The FAA did not say how many people were aboard either plane. The Shuttle America Embraer E170 can hold 69 passengers and the Delta Boeing 747 can hold 376.

Source

Obviously, they were actually at significant distances from one another, but I suppose the speed and weight of the planes is what makes this a near-miss.

Either way, this seems a bad year for U.S. airplane security, what with the change in regulations about what can be brought aboard planes and the shuttering of several air-control towers.

[canflam]

Did you hear about the U.S. Embassy official fired over a visa scandal? Geez. Apparently he was bribing people for visas.

[sunnykerr]

I haven't heard about that, no.

Is there a story you could link?

Meanwhile, though, I definitely have heard about this:

San Francisco crash Boeing 'tried to abort landing' Pilots of the plane that crashed at San Francisco airport on Saturday tried to abort the landing seconds before touching down, US investigators say. Initial inquiries suggested the Asiana plane was flying "significantly below" its target speed on approach. And the Korean airline revealed that the pilot was landing a Boeing 777 at San Francisco for the first time. Two Chinese teenagers died and more than 180 people were injured when the plane hit the seawall. 'Standard practice' Sixty of the passengers on board the flight from Seoul, including the two girls who died, were Chinese schoolchildren on their way to summer camp. Chinese state media named the two as Ye Mengyuan and Wang Linjia, both 16, who were classmates at a school in eastern Zhejiang Province. Both girls were pronounced dead at the airport. A coroner is trying to determine if one of the victims was run over and killed by an emergency vehicle. Two fire chiefs raised that possibility at a news conference on Monday. Their families, as well as relatives of the injured, are travelling to San Francisco. More than 30 people remained in hospital late on Sunday. Medical officials said eight were listed in critical condition, including two with paralysis from spinal injuries. Asiana said 141 of the 291 passengers were Chinese, 77 were Korean and 61 were Americans. At a news conference on Sunday, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) chief Deborah Hersman said the aircraft's speed was below the planned 137 knots (158mph; 254km/h) as it approached the runway. "We are not talking about a few knots here or there. We're talking about a significant amount of speed below 137," she said. She said the pilots had tried to speed up, before trying to abort the landing less than two seconds before touching down. Ms Hersman stressed that it was too early to speculate on precise causes for the accident. The airline said mechanical failure did not appear to have been a factor. Late on Sunday, Asiana released more details about the pilot, Lee Kang-kuk. They said he had only 43 flying hours in a Boeing 777, and was assisted by another more experienced pilot as he landed the aircraft. The airline insisted such in-flight supervision was standard practice within the aviation industry. Meanwhile, US officials confirmed that a navigation system helping pilots make safe descents had been turned off for maintenance since June. The Glide Path is used for landings in bad weather conditions, but it was clear and sunny when the Asiana Airlines aircraft crashed. Inflatable slide injuries The Boeing 777 has a good safety record, and this is thought to be the first fatal crash. The only previous notable crash occurred when a British Airways plane landed short of the runway at London's Heathrow Airport in 2008. Footage of the scene in San Francisco on Saturday showed debris strewn on the runway and smoke pouring from the jet, as fire crews sprayed a white fire retardant into gaping holes in the aircraft's roof. One engine and the tail fin were broken away from the main wreckage. Cabin manager Lee Yoon-hye told reporters that during the evacuation, two slides had inflated toward the inside of the plane, instead of outside, hurting two flight attendants. Passenger Ben Levy said the accident "happened in a flash" and there was "chaos, disbelief, screaming". Nevertheless, people "calmed down pretty quickly", he added, and evacuated the plane without a stampede. Another passenger, David Eun, tweeted a picture of people going down the plane's emergency inflatable slides and wrote: "I just crash landed at SFO. Tail ripped off. Most everyone seems fine. I'm ok. Surreal." A Chinese passenger, Fei Xiong, wearing a neck brace after being injured during the crash landing, told a San Francisco news conference her eight-year-old had noticed something was wrong during the plane's descent. "My son told me, 'the plane will fall down, it's too close to the sea,'" she said. "I told him, 'no, baby, it's OK, we'll be fine.' And then the plane just fell down."

Source

I'm sure people will slam the pilot(s) for the lack of experience, but I expect that it is indeed a standard situation in aviation.

Pilots have to learn in some way, right?

Besides, if the guiding systems had been down since June... that seems more problematic. Any time the instruments aren't doing their job, you'd think that's even more difficult on the pilots.

[canflam]

OK. It's here.

[sunnykerr]

Holy cripes!

It wasn't just for money either.

Sex! Human trafficking!

This is digusting!

[quaist]

'Disgusting' is the right word indeed

[sunnykerr]

It really rankles when a person uses their power like that.