Plane Crazy

I'm a huge fan of jetBlue and usually think that their flight attendants are the cheery type. Yet, yesterday one of their attendants blew his stack after a passenger acted inappropriately. The incident occurred on a flight from Pittsburgh to JFK airport. The passenger went into the overhead compartment before the plane reached the jetway, and the attendant, Steven Slater, was struck on the head. Cursing by the passenger ensued.

Attendant-turned-wing-nut Steven Slater's meltdown was preceded by an argument with a passenger who had told the 39-year-old airline employee from Queens "to f - - k off" after Slater asked him not to remove his baggage from the overhead compartment until the plane had fully stopped, sources said.

The passenger wound up opening his overhead compartment anyway -- striking the seething Slater on the head with the door as it dropped down.

After the plane, which arrived from Pittsburgh, pulled up to Gate 3 at the JetBlue terminal and the Jetway was put in place, passengers began moving to the door.

Suddenly, Slater commandeered the public-address system and launched into a tirade, officials said.

"To the f - - king asshole that told me to f - - k off, it's been a good 28 years!" Slater bellowed incoherently, according to law-enforcement sources.

But that wasn't the end of it.

In a move fitting for an action flick, Slater then grabbed his two bags -- and a can of beer from the galley -- and popped the lever for the airliner's inflatable chute before sliding to the tarmac outside the terminal door.

Slater, for his part, then went on the intercom and cursed out the passenger before leaving in a most dramatic fashion.



Slater went and deployed an emergency chute, and fled the airport. He was arrested a short time later at his Belle Harbor home.

His career as a flight attendant is most likely over, but at least he got his Network moment.

The fact is that passengers are an unruly bunch. Many of them do not adhere to the rules that are there for their protection. This incident put him over the edge - literally and figuratively.

Will jetBlue Relocate From Queens?

Will jetBlue move out of its Queens headquarters? That's the multimillion dollar question as the airline's lease is set to expire in 2012. The company wants to consolidate offices spread throughout the region and the company says that it will continue to maintain a strong presence in New York City as its main hub is at JFK airport, but that doesn't mean it can't leave for a cheaper location somewhere else in the region; whether it is in Connecticut, New Jersey, or somewhere else in New York City for a reduced rent.

One place that might make sense is Lower Manhattan with the influx of new office space and the Freedom Tower under construction. There is also space at Battery Park City and the Goldman Sachs headquarters that will be available due to the consolidation of the banking industry. That means that there is the possibility of large amounts of rental space coming on the market at reduced prices.

Tampa, Florida may try to make a play to land jetBlue since Tampa is a major destination for jetBlue flights (and my experience with jetBlue in Tampa was wonderful). Still, I think the company will stick with the NYC metro area.

March Storm Madness

For those who haven't noticed, I've been light on blogging this past week. I was out in the Caribbean on a 7-day cruise and got back into the NYC metro area last night. The trip was great, but getting back was an absolute mess because of the Nor'easter that we're experiencing in the NYC metro area and throughout the entire Eastern United States as the storm dumped snow from Alabama and Georgia all the way up through to Maine. More than 50 million people are being affected directly by the storm, and many areas will see more than 10 inches of snow before all is said and done.

It's a pretty bad storm no matter how you look at it and yet, it wasn't the weather in NYC that made travel so horrible yesterday. It was the mess in Atlanta, which was hit by the storm before it hit the East Coast. It may have been fun for some, but to the airlines, and Delta Airlines in particular, it was a disaster.

Hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed because they couldn't deal with the snow at the airport or to get equipment to the right place.

Normally, I would try to schedule direct flights between New York and our destination and for the return flights, but because I was using Skymiles, I got a connecting flight through Atlanta on our way back to Newark.

When we got to the airport from the cruise ship at 9AM, the airport was already a madhouse because Delta Airlines was having a meltdown. They were canceling flights left and right and people were scrambling to find alternatives. The line at the Delta ticket counter was winding through the airport and there were no representatives to direct people what to do. The situation was also bad at some of the other counters, including Northwest and Southwest, but Delta was having the worst of it. It was like that for hours. We were waiting on line with no guidance and no instructions.

The folks in the line were all well behaved and were quite helpful to each other, giving what little tidbits of information to each other. Phone lines to Delta's reservations line were useless as they were jammed and all you got were busy signals - and that situation remains unresolved even today. It didn't matter if you were a Skymiles member or not - you couldn't get through under any of the phone numbers except the flight information line - and there were significant waits for that too.

After three hours of waiting on line and still no closer to the counter, I made my way over to the jetBlue desk, and attempted to get tickets. I finally managed to get two tickets on a direct flight to JFK (our car was, and still is, at Newark), but it was a steep price to get back to NYC. The two tickets were $640, and we still had to deal with Delta. That was at 1PM. The new flight was scheduled for 6:32PM.

Oh, and there was no guarantee that the jetBlue flight would happen since there were weather delays and cancellations popping up all over the East Coast because of the storm that was now hitting all over the place.

Delta finally sent some people out into the crowd to provide additional phone numbers - all busy of course - but also that they shouldn't bother to stay on line since they wouldn't get any other information than what was being provided at the ticket counter. To say that this was not helpful was an understatement.

Still, it was a highlight of the day when a contingent of US Marines lugging what looked like 200 pounds of gear and bags entered the ticket area and attempted to get through the crowd to secure their own ticketing. Some of the Marines had bags and packs that were bigger than they were. The crowd parted easily and spontaneous clapping erupted as they made their way back and forth through the area. They were on their way to Camp Pendelton, but had to fly through Atlanta.

I would keep checking back with the Delta counter to see if the line slackened any, but that never happened. The line looked like it was a consistent two to three hour wait, and we were hearing that the earliest flights back to the NY metro area would be Tuesday at the earliest. That was completely unacceptable so I figured that I would deal with Delta when I got back to NY.

We kept a wary eye on the arrival/departures status boards, as we saw cancellations and delays mount. A delay on an inbound flight from Boston would mean delays on outbound flights from Tampa, and the domino effect was truly in play. Flights in and out of Newark, LGA, and JFK were being canceled or delayed. Our own flight ended up showing a delay because our plane was coming from Boston, where they got an early taste of the storm and that meant that our flight to NY was not expected to leave Tampa until 7:10PM.

The airport has some shops and a couple of restaurants so we made use of both - having lunch and wandering the airport terminal for amusement and to stretch our legs. Many other folks were in the same boat, although some gave up trying to fly out yesterday and instead looked to find a room for the night either at the Marriott on the airport property or at off airport locations.

Well, the folks at the jetBlue counter couldn't be any nicer and helpful and were able to get us on that flight and keep us informed. The Boston flight did get in late, but the jetBlue staff turned the plane around in literally 20 minutes time. They were deplaning the passengers through both the front and rear of the plane, checking it out, cleaning, and restocking it in minutes. We actually boarded the plane and pulled back from the gate at 7PM. It was still 20 minutes later than the originally scheduled time, but earlier than anticipated.

The plane was absolutely packed to the gills because people were scrambling to get back home. We finally touched down at just about 9PM. That's right - we made the trip in nearly 2 hours flat. Apparently we got a 50mph tailwind and were flying most of the trip at over 630mph. The ride wasn't too bumpy either although we did get a few thunderstorm displays out the window.

Touchdown in NYC was uneventful even though the runways and taxiways were wet and starting to slush up at the margins. We disembarked from the plane without a hitch although it took quite a bit longer to get our bags than we hoped. My brother got us from the airport and drove us home, which meant the world to us given the day we had.

Thousands of other passengers were in a similar situation yesterday and today because of the storm. Thousands of flights were canceled or delayed, and the problems aren't expected to ease for a couple of days. Meanwhile, while I can't say I'm glad to be home to shovel snow and deal with the storm, it is nice to be home.

And I finally managed to get through to a Delta rep today and they credited my account for the unused Skymiles. It's a start.

Stupid and Ignorant Is No Way To Go Through Life

How many times do we hear reports like this and yet people still take items that could trigger a massive emergency response? Someone decided that carrying items that look like grenades on board a JetBlue plane was a good idea.

Wrong.

It caused JetBlue to evacuate the terminal while the items were investigated.

It turns out that the items were replica paperweight grenades.

Every year, the TSA and airlines confiscate thousands of items that are prohibited, including knives longer than four inches, swords, firearms, and a whole litany of other items.

These kinds of items can cause flight delays, cancellations, and costs the airlines and TSA. The airlines and TSA have to treat every incident as though these kinds of items are real and that means evacuations and strong emergency response.

Airlines Scramble With New Fees

JetBlue is now going to charge its customers $7 for blankets and pillows. At a time when airlines are charging for even the first checked bag brought on board, the lengths to which airlines are going to find revenues is not going to end anytime soon because of soaring energy costs. The airline is bundling the $7 with a $5 coupon to Bed Bath and Beyond:

The carrier has done away with the recycled blankets and pillows used on its flights, and will begin offering an "eco-friendly" travel blanket and pillow that can be purchased for $7 on flights longer than two hours. The pair will come in a kit with a $5 coupon to home furnishings retailer Bed Bath & Beyond.

The carrier claims the pillow and blanket feature a fabric technology, developed by CleanBrands LLC, that blocks pesky critters like dust mites, mold spores, pollen and pet dander.

It is interesting watching the airlines engaging in these kinds of fees rather than actually raising the price of the ticket. They've found that it is often more difficult to raise the price of tickets rather than imposing fees and surcharges for what were previously free services.

Airlines are busy attempting to imposing charge for beverages, meals, checked luggage, and are even imposing fees for using your airline frequent flier miles to buy award tickets.

UPDATE:
Instapundit points out Rand Simberg's woes with American Airlines. He paid $15 for the privilege of them checking his bags on a nonstop flight, and proceeding to lose those bags.

The Ripple Effect

Recall that I warned about more stories exposing the problems with airport delays. Well, the latest such story has been published by USA Today, and it focuses on JFK Airport.

None of the overall problems should be a surprise. Lack of airspace and NIMBY have prevented changes to the traffic corridors that could open up more airspace and reduce delays. Construction of reinforced taxiways to accomodate the Airbus 380 closing key areas and reducing overall flow in the airport.

There are no simple solutions, even as jetBlue prepares to open a brand new terminal to accomodate more planes at one time but even jetBlue sees the need to limit flights into the airport.

I can recall that Mrs. Lawhawk and I flew out to Salt Lake City on jetBlue from JFK last year. We had to transverse the entire airport to just line up for takeoff and that took nearly a half hour. It was then that we had to queue in a long stream of planes awaiting takeoff. The flight was surely going to be delayed, but for the pilot on board being notified that someone on board needed to get to Salt Lake City because their wife was in labor and expected to give birth at any moment. Within minutes, we were jumped to the front of the line, which appeared to be a dozen planes long, and we were able to arrive on time. Had we not been able to cut the line, we would have been more than an hour late. That experience showed that the flight schedule was padded to take into account the flight delays on the ground. Expect to see more flight schedules padded so as to take into account delays - just so the airlines can claim better on time performance.

The airport simply can't handle more flights, and minor delays snowball into huge problems causing gridlock. The airport has managed to improve vehicle flow through the airport with the construction of the AirTrain, which also links to long term parking, car rental locations, and the Jamaica LIRR station.

The region had a reprieve of 5 years following 9/11 when air travel was significantly down from the prior period. That reprieve is over, and expectations are that traffic delays will continue to rise as there are no solutions in place or expected to make a dent anytime soon.

jetBlue's Customer Bill of Rights Unveiled

That's jetBlue CEO David Neeleman, who is paving the way for a jetBlue customer bill of rights. The full details will be revealed this afternoon, but customers who encounter delays will see discounts towards future fights starting at $25 for delays on the tarmac up to free tickets if left on the tarmac for more than three hours. These rights will be retroactive to February 14, when the Valentine's Day massacre of jetBlue's schedule began.

The future-flight vouchers would increase in value according to the length of delay. In the case of departures that are delayed one to two hours, for example, passengers would get $25 off a future flight.For a delay of two to four hours, the passenger would receive $50 off a future flight. With delays of more than six hours, passengers would be entitled toa free round-trip flight equal in value to the one bought for the delayed flight.

The payments are retroactive to last Thursday and the stranded passengers from the day before, an icy Wednesday, would also qualify for the flight credits. Similar flight vouchers would be given for delays in getting passengers off arriving flights. Arriving passengers on a flight stranded on an airport tarmac more than 30 minutes would get $25 off a future flight. Again, the discounts would increase as the delays lengthened, up to a round-trip ticket for a delay of more than three hours.

For departing flights that are stranded on the tarmac away from a terminal, passengers would be given $100 off a future ticket for a delay of more than three hours. If the delay is more than five hours, passengers would get round-trip tickets, and, unless takeoff is imminent, the plane will return to the terminal to let passengers off.

The penalties for stranding passengers on departure go into effect later because of the long lines that develop for takeoff at some airports, Mr. Neeleman said.

One potential problem is that the airline open itself up to liability at crowded airports like its JFK hub, where there are too many flights scheduled at peak times that result in delays and waiting for departures. Still, this appears to be a good start.

UPDATE:
jetBlue has posted the full details here. The keys are departure delays and ground delays. For departures:

DEPARTURE DELAYS
Customers whose flight is delayed prior to scheduled departure for 1-2 hours due to a Controllable Irregularity are entitled to a $25 Voucher good for future travel on JetBlue.
Customers whose flight is delayed prior to scheduled departure for 2-4 hours due to a Controllable Irregularity are entitled to a $50 Voucher good for future travel on JetBlue.
Customers whose flight is delayed prior to scheduled departure for 4-6 hours due to a Controllable Irregularity are entitled to a Voucher good for future travel on JetBlue in the amount paid by the customer for the oneway trip.
Customers whose flight is delayed prior to scheduled departure for more than 6 hours due to a Controllable Irregularity are entitled to a Voucher good for future travel on JetBlue in the amount paid by the customer for the roundtrip.

For ground delays:

For customers who experience a Ground Delay for more than 5 hours, JetBlue will take necessary action so that customers may deplane.

Arrivals:
Customers who experience a Ground Delay on Arrival for 30-60 minutes are entitled to a $25 Voucher good for future travel on JetBlue.
Customers who experience a Ground Delay on Arrival for 1-2 hours are entitled to a $100 Voucher good for future travel on JetBlue.
Customers who experience a Ground Delay on Arrival for 2-3 hours are entitled to a Voucher good for future travel on JetBlue in the amount paid by the customer for the oneway trip.
Customers who experience a Ground Delay on Arrival for more than 3 hours are entitled to a Voucher good for future travel on JetBlue in the amount paid by the customer for the roundtrip.
Departures:
Customers who experience a Ground Delay on Departure for 3-4 hours are entitled to a $100 Voucher good for future travel on JetBlue.
Customers who experience a Ground Delay on Departure for more than 4 hours are entitled to a Voucher good for future travel on JetBlue in the amount paid by the customer for the roundtrip.

It remains to be seen if other airlines follow suit or whether this new policy will be tweaked depending on how well jetBlue manages going forward.

Fighting the Blues at jetBlue

jetBlue, which is still suffering from the effects of the Valentine's Day storm nightmare that threw the airline schedule into a death spiral, is proposing new steps to protect its customers in case this kind of situation arises again. The company will announce a passenger bill of rights tomorrow:

JetBlue CEO David Neeleman is expected to announce the company's own "Customer Bill of Rights" on Tuesday, which is expected to outline both self-imposed penalties and "major" rewards for its passengers if it experiences operational problems and cannot adjust to weather-related cancellations in a "reasonable" amount of time.

JetBlue declined to provide any further details on the program prior to Neeleman's announcement.

Gone from JetBlue's Monday schedule - representing 23 percent of the airline's flights - are 11 destinations: Austin and Houston, Texas; Charlotte, N.C.; Columbus, Ohio; Jacksonville, Fla.; Nashville, Tenn.; Pittsburgh, Pa.; Portland, Maine; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Richmond, Va.; and Bermuda.

Speaking Thursday with CNN, JetBlue CEO and founder David Neeleman apologized for the cancellations and offered to reimburse passengers for the price of their tickets.

If jetBlue takes these steps unilaterally and it goes a long way to protecting the flying public (it depends on what is ultimately included in the announcement tomorrow), is there a need to institute legislation that would do essentially the same thing? The flying public will choose airlines that serve their needs and interests best. jetBlue has succeeded in the market by offering great fares and a decent list of destinations. If jetBlue takes the lead on protecting passengers, the airline might not only recover from these service disruptions, but spur change in the industry without the need for legislation.

UPDATE:
shel holtz comments on the way companies react to adversity is a good indication of how they will respond going forward.

Global Neighborhoods thinks that Neeleman went against the corporate lawyer types to admit that jetBlue did wrong by its customers but it was the right thing to do.

The Zero Boss thinks that now is the right time to buy tickets on the airline since they're going to be paying closer attention to customer details. However, I do recall that the CEO of the company that produces Tylenol bent over backwards and through every hoop and made every mea culpa following the cyanide poisoning incident in the 1980s. Not only did he oversee a voluntary recall of all Tylenol products, but instituted tamper resistant packaging. That crisis management has continued to serve as the gold standard by which all other corporate crises are measured. Neeleman appears to have come close to doing so, even though the company is not out of the woods just yet.

Blogging Stocks seems to think that Neeleman is talking himself out of a job. I think the deciding factor will be how the company performs in the next quarter. If it shows that the Valentine's Day massacre of its schedule and the related problems that contributed to the problems can be fixed and that customer service is improved, then not only will he keep his job, but lauded for it.

Others blogging: World Hum, Conservative Cat,

Putting the Blues in jetBlue

JetBlue, the upstart discount airline that was wowing investors and customers alike, hit major turbulence this past week and is still struggling to recover. Last week's nor'easter resulted in planes being grounded at JFK airport for more than 9 hours with hundreds of passengers aboard. The situation got progressively worse as the airline struggled to figure out what to do next.

JetBlue has been struggling to recover from an ice storm on Wednesday in the eastern United States that stranded hundreds of passengers. The airline, which is the biggest carrier at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, has canceled at least 861 flights since the storm; the 133 flights canceled each day over the weekend represent 23 percent of its schedule, the airline said.

“It was turning from an operational problem to a safety and security problem for our workers,” a JetBlue spokeswoman, Jenny Dervin, said yesterday. “We canceled late departures, upset more customers, met overnight and said, ‘This has just got to stop.’ ”

Irving Fain, a New Yorker who said that his 6:05 p.m. flight Friday from J.F.K. to San Diego was delayed many times and then canceled at about 10:30 p.m., described a scene at gate 16 in the JetBlue terminal with angry passengers crowding around the gate podium, a gate agent calling security, and then passengers and a security officer exchanging heated words.

“It was really a disaster,” said Mr. Fain, who is 26 and works for a radio station. “Passengers screaming, ‘We pay your salary.’ The security guy screaming back. Fifteen minutes into this ruckus, they finally canceled the flight.”

Ms. Dervin of JetBlue said that scenes like the one described by Mr. Fain “happened at a number of gates and at the baggage claim, too.”

The cancellations raise new questions about whether JetBlue’s management is equal to its ambitions. Early last year, after fuel prices had wiped out profit at the airline, it was forced to curtail an aggressive delivery program for new planes and focus more on making its existing operations run more smoothly.

On Friday afternoon, JetBlue’s chief executive, David G. Neeleman, acknowledged that he should have canceled more JetBlue flights on Wednesday to avoid stranding for more than six hours hundreds of passengers on nine planes that could not get to the gates at J.F.K. In an interview, Mr. Neeleman said of the spillover of delays to Friday: “Day three: unforgivable.”

JetBlue said early yesterday that it had scrapped 133 of nearly 600 scheduled flights for both yesterday and today because of a shortage of flight attendants. It essentially grounded its entire fleet of 26 Embraer 190s, which are 100-seat planes, and moved any available flight attendants from those planes to its fleet of bigger Airbus 320s.

I've been a big fan of jetBlue because they've done a good job of getting Mrs. Lawhawk and myself to our destinations with a low fare and with the DirecTV service at our seats. However, this kind of situation would give pause to many casual fliers.

That said, jetBlue wasn't the only airline struggling to deal with cancellations and problems. Delta was also hit with the same problem and was struggling to get back on schedule.

jetBlue has information relating to their ongoing scheduling problems and what they're trying to do to make it up to their customers. Right now, the airline has canceled all flights to certain destinations:

The airline has canceled all flights to and from the following cities through Monday, Feb 19: Richmond, VA; Pittsburgh, PA; Charlotte and Raleigh/Durham, NC; Jacksonville, FL; Austin and Houston, TX; Bermuda; Columbus, OH; Nashville, TN and Portland, ME. In addition, flights to other JetBlue cities may be cancelled, so be sure to check your flight status.

Port Authority Signs Deal on Stewart Airport

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has signed a deal assuming the 97 year lease on Stewart Airport, located 60 miles North of New York City. The long term goal is to shift air travel resources in the NY metro area so that Stewart assumes a far larger role.

Stewart Airport is physically larger than Newark Airport and is in a separate parcel of airspace than the three NYC metro area airports - LaGuardia, JFK, and Newark-Liberty. All three of those airports are constrained by FAA flight limits and limited capacity to expand. The Port Authority is hoping to increase usage at Stewart from a current level of 300,000 to more than 3 million by 2015.

"This project represents an opportunity to alleviate congestion at Teterboro and Newark, and help the region continue to grow," Chairman Anthony R. Coscia said Wednesday.

There are hurdles to clear, not the least of which is persuading Teterboro's denizens to land 60 miles to the north. Even Coscia acknowledged that would be difficult.

"It is not the solution, but part of it," he said. "Our agency would love to see greater use of Stewart and less use of Teterboro. As a policy, that is the direction we are headed in."

Independent aviation experts said Stewart is probably too far from Manhattan to be a good substitute for Teterboro.

"The natural question is: Why aren't they going today?" said Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition. "There would have to be some awfully strong inducements in order to effect that in a large way."

But some commercial passengers might pick Stewart instead of Newark, Mitchell said. Newark had the nation's worst rating among major airports for on-time arrival in 2006, a position that Coscia blamed on the region's crowded airspace.

The three major airports handled about 103 million passengers in 2006, and the airspace is likely to run out of room for more flights by 2015, Coscia said.

Stewart's flights would operate in a different airspace than flights at Newark, La Guardia, and John F. Kennedy International airports.

Stewart recently added JetBlue and AirTran Airways, but it remains dominated by general aviation. The airport needs more frequent commercial service to become a major airport, PA officials said.

What would make Stewart more attractive to consumers is a fast link to Midtown Manhattan. Extending the Port Jervis line to Stewart might be one possibility, as could a potential rail/car bridge replacement for the Tappan Zee bridge over the Hudson River enabling connections between Stewart Airport, hubs in Orange, Rockland, Westchester, Bronx, and the Manhattan terminus.

Seeing as the plans for Stewart are long term, combining the transit links and the expanded use of Stewart as a fourth major airport for the region makes sense and would complement other plans - including Access to the Region's Core.

The New York metro region is extremely crowded and since we have the opportunity to essentially open an airport in the area without going through the expense of having to buy thousands of acres of land, build the airport infrastructure from scratch, and can concentrate on airport links to the rest of the region makes this a no brainer.

If you live in Northern Bergen, you might be more tempted to fly out of Stewart than battle traffic heading to Newark or the other NYC airports. Bergen County residents would also benefit if they knew that they could get low cost flights out of Stewart and know that their flights would have a better chance of departing and arriving on schedule. That is far more difficult to accomplish at the other New York area airports as the number of departures now exceeds the pre-9/11 levels and delays are on the rise. JetBlue and ATA are expected to take advantage of this situation. This would also benefit the Hudson Valley and Newburgh, which should see an increase in business relating to the airport development.

On the downside, expect to see more traffic on the Thruway and nearby roads unless rail links and other transit options are put in place. That's why dealing with the traffic situation must be done in conjunction with the airport development. This is a long term project that will help the local economy immensely.

Airbus Rudder Problems and NTSB Recommendations

New rudder problems have been found on French-made Airbus jets that could cause disasters like the deadly 2001 crash of American Airlines Flight 587 in the Rockaways, federal safety officials warned yesterday.

The rudders of many Airbus passenger jets are made of composite plastic that appears dangerously prone to disintegrating, the National Transportation Safety Board said.

NTSB officials want airlines to immediately comply with recommendations issued by Airbus earlier this month for checks on its A300, A310, A330 and A340 aircraft.

"This urgent recommendation, if acted upon quickly, will go a long way to prevent a catastrophic failure of the rudder," NTSB acting chairman Mark Rosenker said.

The official NTSB press release contains references to several incidents in 2005 that related to separation of rudder components, and it appears that there might be a relationship between the separations and the appearance of hydraulic fluid.

Further examination of the disbonded area revealed traces of hydraulic fluid. Hydraulic fluid contamination between the honeycomb skin and the fiberglass composite skin can lead to progressive disbonding, which compromises the strength of the rudder. Tests on the damaged rudder also revealed that disbonding damage could spread during flight.

The investigation found that the areas specified in the AOT did not include the areas in which the disbonds were found on the incident rudder. Further, it was determined that tap tests on the external surfaces of the rudder likely would not have disclosed the disbonding of an internal surface.

On March 2, 2006 Airbus issued AOTs notifying operators of applicable A300 series airplanes that large disbonds between the rudder's inner skin and the honeycomb core could go undetected, and providing guidance for inspecting the rudders. The Safety Board is recommending a more stringent compliance time than specified in the AOT and also requesting that FAA make the inspections mandatory.

The NTSB is recommending examinations of the rudders before any further flights of the aircraft and is expected to affect about 400 aircraft.

Flight 587 crashed in Belle Harbor, Queens after the rudder apparently failed shortly after takeoff. 265 people were killed, and while Airbus claims that pilot error/training was to blame, many have pointed to rudder problems as the cause of the accident. Here is the NTSB summary of findings from that accident, which occurred shortly after 9/11 and prompted fears that it may have been another terrorist attack.

Other Airbus aircraft have had problems, including several spectacular landings due to failures of landing gear components.

Technorati: JetBlue, Jet Blue, airbus, A300, A310, and A320.

Accountability

What do the following stories have in common:

Espionage in the White House;

Iran's fingerprints are all over bombs that have blown up in Iraq killing scores of people;

Airbus landing gear problems go back years without resolution;

Ethan Allen, the boat involved in accident resulting in 20 deaths, was unstable;

The investigation continues into Hinrichs' suicide bombing;

Porter Goss will not seek an accountability review for former CIA Director Tenet and others relating to 9/11; and

A summary report of Able Danger will be released in coming weeks.

That list seems pretty disparate, but there is a theme. It's accountability. Or the lack thereof. Are any of the individuals or entities involved in these incidents going to be held accountable for their actions? Is Porter Goss going to let George Tenet and other former high level CIA workers off the hook, despite their failures to detect and/or treat Islamic terrorism as the highest threat to the US before 9/11? Is the Able Danger story going to be whitewashed behind a report that doesn't say anything as to why Able Danger was never mentioned in the 9/11 Commission Report? Will the Commission be chastized and publicly renounced for its failures to detail all relevant information? Will the boating company be held responsible for a boat that appears unsafe to handle the number of passengers it was rated for? Will the federal and state government revise the passenger loading/weight standards because of changes in what average weights are? Will the individuals involved in the spy ring that extended from Washington, DC to Fort Monmouth, New Jersey be brought up on charges of treason or will they be charged under lesser crimes, even though the ultimate goal of the involved individuals was to undermine US national security? In other words, are they going to be held accountable for their actions?

We've been hearing for weeks and months, especially among the blogging elites, that Iran has had their hands all over the bombs blowing up in Iraq. Will someone finally stand up to Iran and tell them flat out that their actions will force a reaction that they would not likely survive? Will the world sit idly by while Iran uses a proxy army of terrorists to undermine a nascent democratic regime in Iraq?

Will we get to the bottom of what happened in Oklahoma and whether Hinrichs acted alone, whether it was a suicide or part of a terror campaign?

So far, I think that we can rate who will be held accountable or not. The owners of the Ethan Allen will face numerous lawsuits, and will probably go out of business as a result. The NTSB tests look pretty damning. The federal government will take another 5 years to modify the weight restrictions to account for the growing waistlines of Americans.

Airbus will face greater scrutiny from the FAA and the FAA will eventually issue an airworthiness directive that forces the A320s to be fixed properly. JetBlue will suffer as a collateral party since they rely solely on the Airbus planes for their fleet of aircraft.

The spies involved in the Filipino spy ring at the White House will face reduced charges, but no one will actually be executed for treason. The incident will be swept under the rug, especially since it occurred during two administrations.

No one will be held accountable for lapses and failures relating to Able Danger or 9/11. And that is the scariest part of all. Nothing has changed among the bureaucrats and those who are entrusted with the solemn duty of keeping this nation safe from all threats, foreign and domestic.

UPDATE:
Captain Ed notes an important clarification in the New York Times:

The New York Times provides important clarification this morning, noting that Aragoncillo did his spying after his security detail at the White House, and that no evidence exists (yet) of any such activity during his tenure as a security staffer for Al Gore and Dick Cheney

. The quick linkage in the media between the White House and the spy case may have been due to partisan politicking, but there is no evidence thus far that Aragoncillo spied while stationed with the White House detail.

Investigators Looking Closely at Airbus Landing Gear

Investigators found signs of a "fault" with the nose-gear shock absorber of the JetBlue plane that made an emergency landing in Los Angeles last month — raising questions about efforts several years ago to fix problems in the devices.
Investigators are studying the apparatus in hopes of figuring out if it actually was the problem, the National Transportation Safety Board says.

At least seven incidents involving the A320 nose gear were known to U.S. aviation authorities before the A320 used in JetBlue's Flight 292 on Sept. 21 couldn't retract its nose wheel, forcing an emergency landing. The problems led Airbus in 2002 to issue new instructions to repair shops on fixing the shock absorber.

JetBlue has said that it followed the Airbus directives.

This isn't good news for the airplane manufacturer. This was a problem that was identified years ago and a fix was supposedly made to the problem. That it continues to present itself as a problem is not a good sign. Also, it's not a good sign that the company claims that the problem isn't serious because there haven't been any fatalities or serious incidents because of the problem.

It takes common sense to realize that Airbus is lucky that the seven prior incidents did not lead to a major incident. I'd call that luck, combined with the skill of the pilots. And that isn't good enough for the safety of the flying public and the safety of those on the ground.

Technorati: JetBlue, Jet Blue, airbus, A320, and Airbus A320.

Airbus Should Be Worried; JetBlue's Worries Not Quite Over

At least seven other landing gear incidents have been identified with the Airbus A320 planes, of which JetBlue Flight 292 was one. JetBlue owns 81 of the A320s and would be one of the biggest customers affected if changes needed to be made to the landing gear on the fleet of A320s worldwide.

A November 2002 incident on a JetBlue flight landing at Kennedy Airport was hauntingly similar to the situation Wednesday aboard Flight 292. That plane also landed with its nose gear turned 90 degrees in the wrong direction.

The incident was blamed on faulty maintenance procedures — but Green suggested investigators might now want to look deeply into the problems. "It seems to me that there's probably a design problem with the nose gear," he said.

The first A320 incidents arose in the mid-1990s and were attributed to problems with O-ring seals in the nose gear's hydraulic system. The problem caused nose wheels to turn 90 degrees upon landing — just like what happened on to JetBlue Flight 292.

A February 1999 incident in Columbus, Ohio involving an America West A320 led the Federal Aviation Administration and French aviation authorities to require modifications to the nose gear.


The problem seemed fixed, Green said — until a pair of A320 nose-gear incidents just a few weeks apart in 2002.

No one was injured Nov. 1 that year when a JetBlue A320 heading from Buffalo to Kennedy Airport landed with its nose wheels turned 90 degrees.

Three weeks later, it happened again — this time in Chicago, to a United Airlines A319, a sister model of the A320.

After those incidents, the National Transportation Safety Board reported, the French nose-gear manufacturer, Messier-Dowty, reported two more similar problems, one involving a Canadian airline, another in Ireland.

This time, the problems were blamed on faulty maintenance procedures — which Green said authorities attempted to fix by issuing new instructions to maintenance crews.

The manufacturer, Airbus, has done a good job shifting the blame to the individual airlines and maintenance crews who work on the planes, but one has to wonder why there are so many problems with the nose gear. Hopefully the FAA will cut through this situation and make sure that the travelling public is safe, though the FAA has a less than sterling reputation on doing what is right versus doing what is best for manufacturers and airlines.

Technorati: JetBlue, Jet Blue, airbus, A320, and Airbus A320.

JetBlue's Happy Ending; Should Airbus Be Worried

Last nite's video moment of the day was watching the JetBlue Flight 292, piloted by Captain Scott Burke, attempt to land with its front landing gear stuck in the wrong direction. Passengers were able to watch the events unfold on their DirecTV video screens. Someone even videotaped the entire episode with a camcorder. Other than sparks flying from the messed up landing gear, the landing was uneventful as the pilot managed to keep the plane on the centerline of the runway at LAX and everyone was safely deplaned through the front door.

I've always been a big fan of JetBlue, particularly because of those video screens, and because they had great prices. I guess we can add great pilots to the list of reasons to fly JetBlue. Oh, and in case anyone wonders, the name of the plane was Canyon Blue (JetBlue puts cute nicknames on every plane it owns - the first JetBlue flight I took was on the plane Bippity Boppity Blue).

The Airbus A320 is the plane that was involved in last night's incident.

Now, why did that landing gear fail, and is this part of some larger problem with Airbus aircraft? An Airbus A330 had rear landing gear problems back in 1994, and seems unrelated to this situation. However, The NYT reports that there was a prior incident with striking similarities to what happened last nite:

... according to the Web site of the National Transportation Safety Board, in 1999, an Airbus A320 operated by America West had a similar problem with its nose wheels rotated 90 degrees. In that incident, the two pilots of Flight 2811 from Newark were able to land the plane at the Port Columbus International Airport in Columbus, Ohio, and the plane was evacuated.

The FAA will definitely be looking into this incident to determine why the landing gear did not retract properly. They will look at the maintenance records for the aircraft, as well as the mechanical and electrical systems that operate the landing gear.

UPDATE:
Airbus should be justifiably worried as it wasn't just one prior incident, but seven others (at least according to a news report I heard on TV - no verification on that total, but we do have at least one confirmed incident of front landing gear failure admitted by the company).

Also according to the same news report, JetBlue had done some kind of repairs to this plane's front landing gear just a day earlier. JetBlue, Airbus, and the FAA have each launched investigations to figure out why this happened.

JetBlue spokeswoman Jenny Dervin said the airline was investigating the incident with the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board. She declined to identify the pilot and first officer.

The cockpit voice recorder and digital flight data recorder — the so-called black boxes — were removed from the airplane and secured by the investigator in charge, the NTSB said Thursday.

And JetBlue dodged another bullet today, as another one of their planes ran into some mechanical difficulty. The plane had an indication that flaps were locked, but the pilot could not verify this. The plane landed normally and investigators will look into this as well.


Technorati: JetBlue, Jet Blue, airbus, A320, and Airbus A320.

JetBlue's Bad Day Gets Worse

First there was news that JetBlue was going to be in the red for the first time. That pales in comparison to a problem with a JetBlue plane:

A JetBlue airliner unsuccessfully attempted to make an emergency landing Wednesday after its front wheels were turned sideways and unable to retract into the plane after takeoff from a nearby airport.

The plane carrying 139 passengers left Bob Hope Airport in Burbank at 3:17 p.m. for New York's JFK airport, said JetBlue spokesman Bryan Baldwin.

JetBlue flight 292 was circling the Long Beach Airport, about 30 miles south of Burbank, as the pilot and aviation officials tried to determine what the best solution was. The Airbus A320 was dumping fuel over the Pacific, said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Donn Walker.

At Long Beach Airport, six ambulances lined a runway, along with a handful of police cars and two fire engines. Planes continued to take off and land while the emergency vehicles remained parked at the runway's edge with their lights flashing.

Here's hoping for a safe conclusion to this episode.

UPDATE:
MSNBC and other media outlets are reporting that the plane is preparing to make an emergency landing at LAX. Photos of the plane on the MSNBC website show that the forward landing gear is 90 degrees off axis for some reason. So far, there is no information provided at the Jetblue website.

UPDATE:
JetBlue Flight 292 landed safely at LAX a little while ago. While there was some fire from the defective front landing gear, the plane was able to come to a safe stop and everyone was able to get off the plane safely and without incident.

UPDATE/Technorati: JetBlue, Jet Blue, airbus, A320, and Airbus A320.

Road Warrior

Mrs. Lawhawk and I love taking road trips. Not just trips near where we live, but ones that take us to some of the country's finest National Parks. I've planned all of our recent trips with an eye towards visiting National Parks, not only to get away from the usual city-life, but to experience nature at its finest and most glorious.

You've already seen some of the fruits of this labor - many of the photos displayed on this blog are the result of our trips to various National Parks. But the story of how I got some of those pictures is worht a blogging all its own.

Neither of us can stand being in one place for too long, and the idea of taking cruises doesn't really strike Mrs. Lawhawk's fancy, in part because of a fear of seasickness, but also because of the inability to see what you want to see on your own schedule.

Doing one of the prearranged bus tours has the same problem. You have to see stuff on their schedule, stay at the places they suggest, and you don't have enough time to see things off the beaten trail.

My trips usually start with a look at a map of the US. I pick a region that we'd like to visit. Our most recent trip was focused on Seattle, Washington. It is the locus of several major National Parks and has some very worthy vistas all its own. And the food and local wine isn't half bad either.

Once the region is selected, I begin looking at rates for hotels, cars, and flights several months in advance. I start locking in rates for cars and hotels first, because you can often get far better rates the furthest from your scheduled departure date. I have an Entertainment Card subscription, and find their car rental discounts to be superior to anything found online and can pay for the book in one trip.

On our Seattle trip, I happened to come to the National Car Rental counter at the same time as another couple. They had reserved the same car type as myself for a week's rental, yet their rate was nearly $100 higher than the rate I had for a week plus a day. It definitely pays to do research like that, since that savings went towards wine purchases (we came back with 15 bottles of Washington State wines) along with upscale restaurants along with way. For the record, I don't necessarily use the same rental company all the time, but I find that Alamo or National usually provides the best rates, especially for midsize cars, which offer the comfort and luggage capacity for a roadtrip and decent MPG.

I do all my travel bookings online, and use multiple travel sites to do the bookings. I use places like Orbitz or Travelocity for comparing rates, along with AAA guides, which I get free with my annual membership (benefits include roadside assistance, maps, and guidebooks). I'll often use individual vendor sites to book hotel rates, since these often offer the best prices over what can be found at the aggregators.

As for airfare, that was tricky this year because rates had been climbing steadily due to higher demand. I try to pick flights that let us leave on Friday nights (red eyes) because we don't have to leave work early, and maximize our time at our destination. The trip to Seattle was facilitated by our use of JetBlue, who continues to expand service around the country. Their rates for direct flights were lower than other airlines for the period I searched. Again, the key to locking in great rates is doing it well in advance. Last minute great rates might work in some cases, but you'll find the best deals with the most flexibility the further you are from your departure date.

To be continued...

That's Not Supposed To Happen

At 35 000 feet above the Caribbean, Air Transat flight 961 was heading home to Quebec with 270 passengers and crew. At 3.45pm last Sunday, the pilot noticed something very unusual. His Airbus A310's rudder -- a structure over 8m high -- had fallen off and tumbled into the sea.

It's interesting that this story didn't get wider coverage too. Considering that the A310 is a very popular aircraft, and the use of composites is gaining wider acceptance in the commercial widebody jet business because of its weight to strength characteristics, this is very troubling news indeed.

Also, it is possible that this has repercussions for the investigation into what downed Flight 587 in October 2001. That plane, an American Airlines flight, crashed shortly after takeoff and appeared to have rudder and tail problems.

According to the official report into the crash, the immediate cause was the loss of the plane's rudder and tailfin, though this was blamed on an error by the pilots.

Perhaps, this latest incident will spur a reexamination of the 2001 crash.

The A300/310 is flown by many airlines, including JetBlue, which uses the Airbus design exclusively.

If there is a design defect in the tail, it could mean huge problems for the European company, which has led Boeing in incorporating composites in commercial jetliner design.

UPDATE 11:28AM:
I reread this article, and the following jumped out at me on the rereading:

Despite these and earlier assurances, some pilots remain sceptical. The Observer has learnt that after the 587 disaster, more than 20 American Airlines A300 pilots asked to be transferred to Boeings, although this meant months of retraining and loss of earnings. Some of those who contributed to pilots' bulletin boards last week expressed anger at the European manufacturer in vehement terms. One wrote that having attended an Airbus briefing about 587, he had refused to let any of his family take an A300 or A310 and had paid extra to take a circuitous route on holiday purely to avoid them: "That is how convinced I am that there are significant problems associated with these aircraft."

If pilots think there are serious problems with the aircraft to the extent that they're putting their careers on hold to retrain on other aircraft, it might cause airlines to reconsider their purchases, usage, and maintenance of the aircraft until there is definitive word on the airworthiness of the A300/A310.

UPDATE 1:47PM:
Running a Google search for rudder, Canada, and airbus returns only 14 stories in Google's news search. One would think that this mishap would result in more news than this.