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An Airline Turns Around to Pickup A Child Left Behind @Terminal !!!

August 17, 2013August 17, 2013NatarajanLeave a comment

An Israeli airline – with the support of everyone on-board – turned around a plane to pick up an 11-year-old cancer patient.

All set to fly to New York August 7 to attend a camp for paediatric cancer patients, Inbar Chomsky, was taken off an El-Al Airlines flight after her passport went missing. Despite a frantic search by airline staff, passengers and the group Chomsky was travelling with, her passport was gone, flight attendants had no choice but to remove the sick girl.

Tears in their eyes, everyone said good bye to the devastated young girl after a half hour search aided by airline staff and passengers failed to turn up the girl’s passport, according to Haaretz.

She made it: A very happy Inbar Chomsky with her found passport at Camp Simcha

‘El Al sadly called her mother to tell her that Inbar’s passport was lost and that the girl, who had been fighting illness so valiantly, would not be able to fly to Camp Simcha’ Rabbi Yaakov Pinsky, director of of the Israeli branch of Chai Lifeline wrote in Yeshiva World News. ‘What a horrible experience for an 11 year old girl.’

Minutes after the doors closed and the plane taxied away from the gate, a fellow camper looking through another girl’s backpack found Chomsky’s passport and told flight attendants, according to Haaretz.

What happened next is virtually unheard of, especially post-9/11.

The plane’s pilots immediately stopped the plane, according to Haaretz, and after about 45 minutes were able to convince air traffic control to let them return to the gate to pick Chomsky up, Pinsky wrote.

Planes almost never turn around: No one could believe the plane returned to pick up Chomsky

Still overcoming her disappointment while at the gate with Elad Maimon, program director of the Israeli branch of Chai Lifeline, Chomsky and others watched in disbelief as the plane turned around, said Haaretz. ‘The flight attendants could not believe their eyes,’ Maimon told the paper. ‘They told me they had never seen such a thing.’

‘Planes rarely return to the gate after departing, read an El Al statement, continuing that ‘after consulting with El Al crew on the plane and El Al staff at the airport the decision was made and the plane returned to pick up Inbar.’

Passengers cheered and cried, wrote Pinsky, saying they shared ‘Inbar’s happiness and excitement,’ and calling it ‘one of the greatest moments’ he has ever witnessed.

source:::::mailonline.comUK

NATARAJAN

Check out What Economy Class Flying Looked Like In 1970s !!!

August 17, 2013August 17, 2013Natarajan1 Comment

1960s 1747

Everyone’s always whining about how flying sucks now compared to the way it used to be.

Judging from the photo above,, they might have a point.

This photo was tweeted this morning by Soren Dragsbaek Holm. It’s reportedly a shot of an economy-class cabin on a 747 from the 1960s. (The first 747 flew in January, 1970. It’s possible this photo was taken earlier).

UPDATE: Folks on Reddit think the photo is actually a “staged” version of a 747 cabin, which is certainly possible. The cabin has one fewer seat across than today’s cabins, though, and the luggage compartments are smaller, both of which make the cabin look bigger than today’s. So even if it’s a mock-up, it’s likely close to reality. A saved version of the photo here refers to it as a “mock-up,” so perhaps it was used to educate folks as to what flying on a 747 would be like.

UPDATE 2: And hold everything! The photo actually came from a feature that we did a few days ago. It’s from the Pan-Am archives. Check it and others out here.

Of course, when folks pine for the old days of flying, they ignore how relatively cheap and safe this mode of travel has become. Flying cost an arm and a leg in the 1960s. And there were lots more plane crashes.

If people really wanted comfort and service above price today, they’d pony up for First Class or Business Class. And there would be airlines that sold seats on the basis of comfort and service instead of price. But the truth is that the most important factor for most flyers is price. So we get what we pay for.
source:::::businessinsider.com

natarajan

Was Airtravel More Fun In 1930s !!!!!

August 10, 2013August 10, 2013NatarajanLeave a comment

Picture: Qantas

SEVENTY five years ago, there was great excitement when Qantas launched its first Short Empire Flying Boat service between Rose Bay and Singapore.

In what’s a bizarre sight to today’s flyers, passengers climbed the wings of the plane and stood on top, as the aircraft sat in the water.

How things have changed …

The fascinating image is part of a collection of historic photographs Qantas has shared on social media sites to celebrate the 75th anniversary of its original Short Empire Flying Boat service.

They provide an insight into what flying was like in the early days of commercial air travel and leave us wondering, was flying more fun – and glamorous – back then?

Sure, it took three days to fly between Sydney’s first international airport at Rose Bay, to Singapore’s Kallang Airport. But what an adventure.

There were overnight stops in Townsville, Darwin and Surabaya, Indonesia.

The planes sat on the water. Picture: Qantas Source: Supplied

The flight would have been made more bearable by the fact there were just 15 passengers on each flight, so there was plenty of room. Plus there were large windows and huge seats.

Inside the flying boat. Picture: QANTAS

The Short Empire flying boat service was replaced in 1943 by the long-range Catalina flying boat. The airline began with joy flights in 1920.

What a difference … Picture: Qantas Source: Supplied

Waiting for takeoff. Picture: Qantas What the flight attendants used to wear. Picture: Qantas

source:::::news.com.au

natarajan

Fighting Fire With an Aircraft !!!! …Amazing Photograph !!!!

August 10, 2013NatarajanLeave a comment

The Corona Fire Department is working hard to battle a wildfire that started Thursday about 90 miles away from Los Angeles.

The department has posted some photos of its efforts to its Facebook page, including this incredible shot of a DC-10 air tanker flying over a residential area.

The plane is commonly used to fight wildfires.

source:::::businessinsider.com

natarajan

Miraculous!!!….Pilot Walks Away From The Crashed Plane with a Thumb Injury !!!

August 7, 2013NatarajanLeave a comment

A pilot has had a narrow escape after walking away from a crashed plane with nothing more than a grazed thumb.

Alan Bray, 59, was left trapped and hanging by his harness in the cockpit for 40 minutes in the small two-seater plane, which plummeted into hedgerows after what is believed to be an engine failure.

The experienced pilot was forced to attempt a crash landing in a field at Pastures Farm, near the village of Loxley after he realised he had encountered problems.

Alan Bray had a miraculous escape from a plane crash in Warwickshire, emerging from the aircraft embedded upside down in a hedgerow with only a graze on his thumb

The pilot was left trapped in the small two-seater plane, hanging by his harness in the cockpit for forty minutes while shocked residents called the emergency services

After briefly touching down, the blue and white plane smashed through a fence and on to a private road, before flipping over on its nose and into the hedgerow – held into position only by an electric line.

Apart from a ‘bloody thumb’, Mr Bray, who has been flying for ten years, suffered no serious injuries in the crash, and even came back later that day to wrestle his aircraft out of the hedge.

Speaking at the scene, he said: ‘I’m a bit sore. The pain is simply from the straps and hanging upside down for forty minutes. Apart from that I escaped with a bloody thumb.’

He added: ‘You don’t get scared at the time, you just do what you trained to do,’ he said. ‘You spend all that time doing practice forced landings, it is just instinctive.’

He said what was more worrying was being stuck in the plane: ‘I didn’t want to let go,’ he said. ‘If I moved I didn’t know what would happen to the thing.’

He was forced to attempt a crash landing in a field at Pastures Farm, near the village of Loxley, after what is believed to be an engine failure

Apart from a ‘bloody thumb’, Mr Bray, who has been flying for ten years, suffered no serious injuries in the crash, and even came back later that day to wrestle his aircraft out of the hedge

Mr Bray even returned to the scene later the same day to help wrestle the aircraft from the hedge

Mr Bray, from Rugby, Warwickshire, part-owns the single engine piston plane, which has a propeller on its nose, with five other friends.

The group have been flying the light aircraft – which weighs only 1,050lbs – for eight years.

After flying out of Wellesbourne Airfield Mr Bray tried to glide the plane into a field when the engine cut out, but unfortunately ran out of space.

Nearby resident Paul Van Der Heyden said he initially thought the noise of the engine was from a tractor. When he heard a loud crash after the engine cut out, he though it had fallen into a ditch and went to investigate. He was amazed to find a plane embedded upside down in the hedgerow.

The only thing that saved him from flipping over entirely was an electric line that the plane’s tail got caught on

‘You could smell the kerosene or petrol or whatever it was, so I didn’t go too close in case it went up,’ he said.

‘I phoned the emergency services, and then had to go to the end of the lane to wave them down after one drove straight past.’

Another resident, Tori Danle, stayed with Mr Bray while they waited for firefighters to help him out of the cockpit. Crews were on the scene for around an hour and the Midlands Air Ambulance from Strensham also came, touching down in the same field that Alan himself tried to land in.

After he was freed, paramedics made sure he wasn’t injured and gave him the all-clear. The Air Ambulance was on the scene for 30 minutes.

source:::::mailonline.comUK

natarajan

What Your Flight Number Really Means !!!

July 28, 2013NatarajanLeave a comment

Travellers look at the departures and arrivals board. Picture: AP

HAVE you ever glanced at your airline ticket on the way to your boarding gate, or searched for it on the departure board, only to wonder just how your flight number was decided?

It turns out that you can learn a lot about a flight from its number.

We asked airline pilot, and author of the book Cockpit Confidential and the website askthepilot.com Patrick Smith just what those numbers really mean.

Technically, a flight number is a combination of numbers and letters, usually prefaced with the carrier’s two-letter International Air Transport Association (IATA) code – the international industry trade group of airlines.

Airlines can organise them according to the importance of the routes.

“Airlines often give lower numbers to their more prestigious, long-distance routes,” Mr Smith said. “If there’s a flight 001 in an airline’s timetables, it’s the stuff of London-Sydney or Paris-New York.”

For example, Qantas is flying QF1 from Sydney-Dubai-London today.

Flight numbers also have a key planning function and are usually grouped geographically.

Mr Smith said most airlines give eastbound flights even numbers, while westbound flights get odd numbers.

Qantas told news.com.au that they give odd numbers to outbound international flights, and even numbers for inbound flights to Australia.

Qantas flight numbers between 1-399 are international flights, including codeshare. Flight numbers higher than 400 are Qantas domestic service.

Meanwhile, all trans-Pacific flights operated by airlines such as United Airlines use three-digit numbers beginning with 8, which is considered lucky in many Asian cultures. Qantas says they also try to include an 8 in its Hong Kong route flight numbers.

Airlines also avoid some unlucky numbers such as 13. For example, there is no QF13 or QF666.

As a general rule, any four-digit flight number beginning with a 3 or higher – i.e. 3493 – is usually an indication of a codeshare flight operated by a partner.

Flight numbers can survive a lot of change within the airline.

“Numbers can stay in use for many years, even as departure times and aircraft types may change,” Mr Smith said.

“In some cases they outlast airlines themselves: To this day, some of the flight numbers used by Delta on its European routes trace their origins back to Pan Am, whose European network was sold to Delta more than 20 years ago.”

But other times, they just have to be scrapped.

“After an accident, one of the first things an airline does is retire the number, out of respect.

“For example, there’s no longer a flight 11 operated by American Airlines on its Boston-Los Angeles route. Flight 11 went all the way back to the days of the Boeing 707, but its final departure was on September 11th, 2001, when it was hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center.”

source::::news.com.au

natarajan

How This Traveller Flies For Free !!!!!

July 19, 2013July 19, 2013NatarajanLeave a comment

You would be smiling too if you were flying for free. Picture: Amber Nolan/JetHiking.com

IMAGINE not having to deal with airport security, spend hours waiting for your flight or put up with annoying passengers. Even better, what if you never had to pay for a flight again?

Sound too good to be true? Not for this woman.

Meet US travel writer Amber Nolan. After years of corporate work, Amber went backpacking around South America and vowed never to be chained to her desk again.

Amber came up with a radical plan for her life which involved taking the hitchhiking concept to a whole new level … in the skies. She decided to fly to all 50 US states, for free.

So she set up a website called JetHiking.com and began researching her idea. It wasn’t long before she was contacted by a private pilot in New York, who loved her plan and helped get her started.

Amber hitchhiked on her first plane in July last year, flying from Rochester, New York, to Nashville, Tennesse. Since then she’s made it to 31 states, and she won’t stop until she’s flown to them all.

So how does she manage to get pilots to fly her for free?

Amber gets in touch with the pilots of private jets and light aircraft who are planning an upcoming trip and asks to join them. She has to be completely flexible on the destination, date, and time.

“I find most pilots enjoy sharing their passion for aviation with people,” Amber told news.com.au. “They are adventurers too, and want to help be a part of my project so I can reach my goal. They think it’s a cool idea.”

Travelling on smaller planes has its upsides. She even gets to fly them sometimes.

“I always associate travelling on planes with commercial airlines. I think a lot of people do. Long lines, security scans, being miserable in general,” Amber said.

“Also, hitchhiking this way offers an opportunity to see the country from a different perspective that you will not find if you fly commercial airlines.

“We can do a lot of low flying and really see the landscape. Yesterday, I flew up the Hudson River parallel to the New York City skyline at about 1100 feet (335 metres) – just over the bridges and next to the Statue of Liberty.

“On the way to Georgia, I was able to experience some aerobatic rolls in the plane, and often the pilots will let me fly a little to practice – I want to get my license. On a seaplane, we can land on a small lake in the middle of nowhere.

“And when I land at some of these smaller airports, I feel like I am time-travelling to a ‘romantic era’ of aviation.”

Among the states she’s flown to are California, Texas, Arizona, Washington, Maine and Florida.

What about the challenges?

“It isn’t easy and there is a lot of waiting involved,” Amber warns. “I can’t really plan much since I often have no idea where I’m heading to next, and flights get cancelled all the time for weather (or anything really).

“I’ll land in an area and have to find a place to stay on a shoestring budget. The airports are often far away from any public transportation, so getting to and from the airport is challenging and there’s often a lot of walking.

“I have to be totally flexible to just roll with whatever comes my way, and I often rely on the kindness of strangers.”

Amber has made it to 31 US states already. Picture: Amber Nolan/JetHiking.com

Amber has made it to 31 US states already. Picture: Amber Nolan/JetHiking.comWhen she needs a place to sleep she uses the website couchsurfing.com and stays with pilots and their families and friends. Sometimes she’ll stay in a hotel if she’s “really stuck”.

Her next stop is Maryland and New Jersey, followed by Alaska. She still works as a freelance travel writer, earning enough money – along with her savings – to keep her going during her trips.

Amber is also considering taking her “jethiking” international, and is writing a book.

source:::::news.com.au.

natarajan

Success Story Of Turkish Airlines with Simple Planning !!!

July 17, 2013NatarajanLeave a comment

Turkish Airlines is dominating in its field.

turkish airlines cartoon

In an industry where making money is insanely hard, the airline’s operating profit nearly tripled in 2012 (after dropping in 2010 and 2011).

One of the world’s fastest growing airlines, it’s adding destinations and buying planes at a rapid pace.

And it’s collecting tons of awards, including the Skytrax award for “Best Airline in Europe,” announced at the Paris Air Show in June.

In an interview, Turkish Airlines CEO Dr. Temel Kotil said his company excels by offering top of the line service, but also benefits from its geographical position.

“We are in the center,” he explained, which makes it easy to connect growing markets in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East with established areas like Europe.

It helps that passenger numbers in Turkey alone are up 16.7% year-over-year — a rate topped only by Indonesia (18.2%) and Thailand (17.7%), according to new stats from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Asked how the carrier plans to continue that pace of growth, Kotil said it was focused on adding destinations. Turkish Airlines already reaches more than 230 airports in 103 countries. Since May 20, it has issued ten different press releases announcing new destinations.

Turkish Airlines CEO Dr. Temel Kotil has big plans for growth.

“Of course we’ll keep on growing,” Kotil said, suggesting the addition of another 100 locations in the next decade, or less. “We are very aggressive in going different places.”

Along with more destinations come more airplanes. Today, the carrier has 228 aircraft in its employ — “still not enough,” Kotil said.

That will nearly double by 2020, to 415 planes, according to Kotil. The current fleet is mostly narrowbody (single aisle) aircraft, and the airline would consider ordering bigger, more advanced aircraft like the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Airbus A350, which tout fuel efficiency as a key feature.

While Kotil acknowledged the high cost of fuel (which accounted for 33% of global airline operating costs in 2012), he said that adding capacity to meet demand is more important for now than buying more economical planes.

“It’s okay whatever you have,” he said.
source :::::businessinsider.com

An Aircraft To Fly Anywhere in the World In Just 4 hours !!!!

July 17, 2013NatarajanLeave a comment

British aerospace firm Reaction Engines is working on an aircraft it believes would be able to take passengers anywhere in the world in just four hours.
The vehicle would also be able to fly in outer space.

skylon reaction engines

A rendering of Reaction Engines’ Skylon aircraft taking off.

Reaction Engines says there’s only one truly new technology in the aircraft that makes those things possible: the precooler.

In a new video, chief engineer Alan Bond explains that air entering the new “Sabre” engine system could be cooled by more than 1,000 degrees Celsius in .01 seconds. That ability would allow a jet engine to run at higher power than what is possible today.

More power = more speed. Enough to fly at Mach 5, five times the speed of sound, “pretty easily,” Bond says.

The Telegraph explained the technology in an article in late 2012:

The breakthrough technology is a cooling system which uses an array of thin pipes, arranged in a “swirl” pattern and filled with condensed helium, to extract heat from air and cool it to minus 150C before it enters the engine.

In normal circumstances, this would cause moisture in the air to freeze, coating the engine with frost, but the company has also developed a method which prevents this from happening.

The company eventually hopes to use its cooling technology to build a plane that transports 300 passengers and flies like a rocket. It will “transform high-speed aviation,” Bond says, adding, “we have no competitors. We are unique.”

The aircraft itself will measure 276 feet long, and be called the Skylon. It would take off and land horizontally (like a plane), which would make it easier to reuse than a standard rocket. But in addition to the $1.1 billion price tag for each one, there’s another big downside: The Skylon has no windows, a major bummer for those excited to fly in space.

The company is currently in the process of testing the system. Test flights of the Skylon are planned for 2019.

source:::::businessinsider.com

natarajan

” ஓ அதைத்தானே Stratosphere என்று சொல்வது ” !!!

July 7, 2013NatarajanLeave a comment

மொழி ஆராய்ச்சியில் எடுத்தாலும் அப்படித்தான் பெரியவா பேசும் ஆங்கிலம் மிகவும் கடினமாக உயர்ந்ததாக இருக்கும்.

அகராதியைப் புரட்டாமல் அர்த்தம் தெரியாது.நூறு வருடத்துக்கு முன்பே அவர் கான்வென்டில் படித்தவர்.ஆகவே அற்புதமாக ஆங்கிலத்தில் உரையாடுவார்.

ஒரு முறை விமான நிலையத்தைக் காண, பெரியவா மீனம்பாக்கம் சென்றார். எல்லா இடங்களையும் பார்வையிட்டபின் இன்ஜினீயரிங் செக்ஷன் வந்தது. அங்குள்ளவற்றை ஒருவர் விவரிக்கப் பிரயத்தனப்பட்டார். அவருக்கு தமிழில் சரளமாகப் பேச வரவில்லை

ஆனால் பெரியவாளுக்குத் தமிழில் சொல்லாவிட்டால் புரியாதே என்று நினைத்தார். தெரிந்தவரை சொல்லிக் கொண்டிருந்தவரைப் பெரியவா, “பிளேன் மேலே பறக்கும்போது காதைத் துளைக்கும்படியா ஒரு சத்தம் வரதே அது கேட்டுண்டேதான் இருக்குமா? என்று கேட்க “ஒரு குறிப்பிட்ட லெவல் வரைதான் கேட்கும். அதற்கு மேலே போயிட்டா
விமானச் சத்தம் கேட்காது!” என்றார். அந்தப் பொறியாளர்.

“ஓ! அதைத்தானே Stratosphere-னு சொல்லுவா!” என்று பெரியவர் சொல்ல…பொறியாளருக்குத் தூக்கிவாரிப்போட்டது.

‘இத்தனை நேரம் தமிழ் வார்த்தைகளையே தேடிக் கொண்டிருந்தேனே.. இவருக்கு போயா ஆங்கிலம் தெரியாது என்று நினைத்தேன்!’ என்று வெட்கினார்.

இப்படித்தான் அடிக்கடி உத்தியோகம் மாறுகிற ஒருவர் வந்தார்.

“இப்போ எதில் இருக்கே?” என்று கேட்கிறார் பெரியவர்.

அவருக்குப் புரியணுமேன்னு நினைச்சு மிகவும் கஷ்டப்பட்டு, “அந்தக் கணக்கு போடற யந்திரத்துக்கு பேப்பர் தரும் வேலை!” என்றார்.

“Computer Stationery-தானே நீ சொன்னது?” என்று பெரியவர் அவர் சங்கடத்தைத் தவிர்க்கிறார்.எந்த மொழியை எடுத்துக்கொண்டாலும் அதில் ஆழங்கால் கண்டவராயிற்றே.
source::::: http://www.periva.proboards.com