Given the possibility of theft, damage, and loss, packing your laptop in a checked bag is not a good idea to begin with. Even so, travelers continue to stow their computers and other large electronics in their checked luggage. But that could come to an end, now that the Federal Aviation Administration has urged airlines around the world to stop this practice, citing the fire and explosion risk posed by the batteries in these devices. [More]
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Alaska Airlines Passengers Will No Longer Share Planes With Reindeer & Sled Dogs
By 9.25.17
Do you like reindeer? Have you always wanted to fly with them? No, this has nothing to do with Santa Claus: Next month, Alaska Airlines will retire its last combi-planes, jets that carry both passengers and cargo to communities across the state. That cargo could include food, consumer goods, or live animals like dogs and reindeer. [More]
A Strike At An Airline You Probably Never Heard Of Could Mess Up Your Christmas Shopping
By 11.22.16
Unless you work in shipping logistics or aviation, you’re probably not familiar with ABX Air. You can’t book a ticket on the Ohio-based airline; it doesn’t carry passengers. It carries boxes. And as the companies it carries boxes for — including Amazon — are ramping up for the super-busy holiday retail season, ABX pilots have gone on strike, potentially leaving a lot of those boxes in the lurch. [More]
FAA Wants To Fine Amazon For Allegedly Shipping Hazardous Materials As Air Cargo
By 6.13.16
Because you can’t just throw anything in a plane and ship it somewhere, the Federal Aviation Administration wants to stick Amazon with a $350,000 civil penalty for allegedly shipping hazardous materials as air cargo. [More]
FedEx Employee Falls Asleep Loading Plane In Tennessee, Ends Up In Texas
By 4.15.16
Falling asleep on the job is a big no-no. It can end with a reprimand — or worse, a firing — but for one FedEx employee, an on-the-job catnap earned him a flight to Texas. [More]
Amazon Leases Planes For Air Delivery Fleet
By 3.9.16
While Amazon might not be ready to unleash its Prime Air drones into the skies just yet, that doesn’t mean the e-commerce company isn’t preparing to launch its own fleet of Amazon aircraft. The company has inked a deal to lease planes to carry out some of its fulfillment services. [More]
Televised Car Chase Followed Rogue Tractor-Trailer Full Of Cabbage And Lettuce
By 1.14.16
Last week, police chased a rogue tractor-trailer in Texas after the vehicle’s owner reported that the driver was out of contact. The chase was televised, but at first it wasn’t clear why the driver of a truck full of vegetables was fleeing from the police in the first place. Today, sources explained the real reason for that car chase: law enforcement suspects that the driver planned to sell the trailer’s contents himself. [More]
Delta No Longer Allowing Large Animals To Be Flown As Checked Baggage
By 11.17.15
Flying your favorite furry friend on Delta Air Lines is about to get a little less convenient, and more expensive, starting next year, as the carrier announced that it will no longer allow travelers to ferry their pets from one place to another as checked baggage. [More]
Delta Letting Some Customers Pay To Track Their Pets’ Whereabouts During Cargo Transport
By 3.31.15
Generally it’s pretty easy to keep tabs on your loved ones when traveling, that is unless they have four legs and can’t fit under the airline seat in front of you. In that case, you’re left to worry about whether or not they made it from the drop-off area at the airport to the plane’s cargo hold before the flight. In an attempt to ease some of the worries passengers face when traveling with their beloved pets, Delta Air Lines has introduced a GPS pet-tracking device. [More]
Cat Lost In JFK Airport On August 24 Still Missing, Internet Swarms In To Help
By 9.22.11
Have you seen Jack the cat? According to his Facebook page, he’s been on his own in Queens for more than four weeks now. He allegedly disappeared from his carrier in the baggage area of New York’s JFK airport on August 24th, as he, his feline brother, and their human were flying to their new home in California. Employees searched for him. Then Hurricane Irene happened. [More]
Kitten Freezes To Death After Delta Flight, Owner Offered Free Trip And $50
By 2.17.11
Snickers, an 11-week old kitten, is dead after taking a trip on Delta that went horribly awry. The owner said the airline initially offered over $3,000 in compensation. They have now revised that offer to free airfare plus $.50 for every pound the kitten weighed. There’s a $50 minimum payout on that policy, which is a good thing because the feline only weighed 3 pounds. [More]
Hairless Kitten Freezes To Death After Trip In Delta Cargo Hold
By 1.27.11
Snickers, an eleven-week-old hairless kitten, flew from from a breeder in Utah to her new home in Connecticut in the supposedly climate-controlled cargo hold of a Delta Airlines plane. Her new family paid the airline $70 extra so she would be removed immediately. Instead, she sat under the plane for about 50 minutes, on a 10 degree Fahrenheit evening. When she finally met her family, she showed symptoms of severe hypothermia. They tried to warm her up and rushed to a vet, but it was too late. [More]
US Airways Delivers Corpse To Pet Store
By 3.11.09
If you’re a pet store employee, probably the only thing worse than opening up a shipment of live tropical fish to find them dead is opening up a shipment of live tropical fish to find a human body intended for a research facility in a neighboring town. That’s what happened at a Pets Plus in Philadelphia yesterday, and US Airways says the mixup was caused by a “verbal miscommunication between a delivery driver and the cargo representative” and that they’re deeply sorry.
Delta Airlines Cargo Door Falls Open, Raining Luggage Down On Chicagoland
By 10.22.07
Delta Flight No. 4718 took off about 9:40 a.m. and was forced to circle back to Midway shortly after takeoff when a pressure problem in the cabin was detected and instruments showed a cargo door had opened during flight, FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory said.
United Airlines: Sorry We Lost Your Cat in the Cargo Hold For 3 Weeks
By 1.18.07
- A 12-year-old orange tabby cat named “Pumpkin” is said to be doing well, after going three weeks without food or water in the cargo hold of a passenger jet that flew from England to Germany.
