travel
USAToday is reporting that a broken
FAA computer in Atlanta is causing widespread delays across the country. In particular, "Washington National, Baltimore/Washington and Newark Liberty are all listed as having severe flight delays, according to the FAA."
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american airlines
The
FAA is not pleased with American Airlines. They say the airline should pay $7.1 million in fines for deferring maintainence and not complying with employee drug testing requirements. AA says the fines are too severe and will appeal.
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emergencies
A gentlemen who ignored flight attendants requests that he get off his cellphone was met by police when the flight landed at Dallas' Love Field. Joe David Jones, 50, of Austin was ticketed for disorderly conduct, says the Associated Press.
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airlines
With morale among
overworked and poorly supported air-traffic controllers bottoming out, "a combination of fatigue and frustration is laying a dangerous groundwork," reports Time magazine. The spokesman for their union says, ""We're left trying to hold the system together like MacGyver — with duct tape and scissors and string." Time interviewed a controller to find out what's going on, and what the consequences could be if we (or the airline industry and the FAA) don't address the problems.
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travel
Midwest Airlines flies the Milwaukee Brewers on their planes through a "charter service" says the
Minneapolis Star-Tribune, but the Brewers weren't grounded like the over 100,000 other passengers who were booked on MD-80s.
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airlines
What's the surest way to save money on rising fuel prices? Don't use it! MSNBC has gathered pilot complaints from a database NASA maintains for the FAA, and they show that
airlines are challenging pilots' refueling decisions, urging them to carry only the minimum fuel required by FAA regulations in order to reduce the weight of the plane and improve mileage. Pilots, however, have the final say on the matter and some of them are upset that cost-cutting is a factor at all in such a crucial decision. One pilot wrote in his complaint, "It's almost like a contest to see how far we can spread this company thin, and when an accident happens, we'll start reintroducing the safety elements we once had."
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shady
There's evidence that
Continental Airlines might be engaged in some shady manipulation of air traffic controllers by creating "fuel emergencies" in order to skip ahead of other airlines and land quicker at Newark, says the
Wall Street Journal. So-called "fuel emergencies" aren't as scary as they sound— planes that are getting close to the minimum amount of fuel required to remain in the air can call into the tower and get "expedited handling," and skip the line. There's no real danger to passengers.
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lawsuits
The AP is reporting that four Southwest passengers have filed a federal lawsuit alleging that Southwest broke its contract with passengers by skipping important safety inspections... over a period of six years.
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travel
The trouble continues at
American Airlines! They've cancelled 933 more flights today. This raises the total number of flights canceled this week to 2,500, as the airline struggles to perform a backlog of neglected safety inspections on its MD-80 aircraft.
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airlines
Delta will announce sometime today whether or not it will
ground more of its planes to perform additional inspections, reports CNN. Yesterday, while
American Airlines was grounding 200 of its planes for safety inspections, Delta also canceled an unnamed number of flights. Both airlines' renewed focus on safety inspections comes after reports that Southwest Airlines was
caught flying planes that hadn't met inspection guidelines.
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