DJ AM and Travis Barker Only Survivors in Jet Crash

This is exactly why I am most afraid during take offs.  First the incident in Spain, now this.  Guess not even celebrities are immune.  How sad:

Travis Barker and DJ AM were among those aboard a Learjet that crashed upon takeoff from a Columbia, South Carolina, airport – killing four people and critically injuring two others, reports NBC News.

Barker, an ex-drummer for the rock band Blink 182 and the star of the MTV reality show Meet the Barkers, had performed at a free Friday-night college event with former Jane’s Addiction singer Perry Farrell, Gavin DeGraw and DJ AM.

Barker, 32, was taken to a burn center in Augusta, Georgia, about 75 miles southwest of Columbia, and was listed in critical condition Saturday morning.

Hospital officials also confirmed that DJ AM (real name: Adam Michael Goldstein), 35, was admitted to the burn unit and that he too is in critical condition.

A rep for Gavin DeGraw says the singer was not onboard the plane.

Two other passengers and two crew members perished, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. They were not immediately identified, the Associated Press reports.

“Both Travis Barker and Adam Goldstein are in critical but stable condition,” Beth Frits, spokesperson for the Joseph M. Still Burn Center, tells PEOPLE. “Goldstein was airlifted here and Barker was brought by ground transportation. So they arrived separately.”

Frits confirmed the deaths of the four others but had no further but had no further information.

Sparks at Takeoff

Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said the Lear 60 – bound for Van Nuys, Calif., with six people aboard – departed shortly before midnight Friday, when air-traffic controllers reported seeing sparks.

Bergen said the plane went off the runway and crashed on a nearby road.

“It’s absolutely terrible and tragic,” said Columbia Mayor Bob Coble.

Barker and Goldstein perform together under the name TRVSDJ-AM. Goldstein at one time was the fiancé of Nicole Richie.

After Blink 182, Barker formed the rock band (+44) and costarred on Meet the Barkers with former Miss USA Shanna Moakler, his wife at the time.

[Source]

Follow Virgin America On Twitter

Virgin America now have official Twitter accounts.  They’ve been using them to post up sales, news, etc.  Don’t you wish that Virgin America flew more places?!

twitter.com/thisishowtofly

Virgin Airlines Twitter

twitter.com/VIrginAmerica

Couple Hits Power Line in Plane

Ummm…okay:

A German couple had a lucky escape after their light aircraft hit a 380,000 volt power line and then hung upside down from a wheel for nearly three hours.

“They had a very, very lucky accident,” said police officer Edmund Martin at the scene in Durach, southern Germany.

 

Emergency services freed the pair suspended 20 meters (65 feet) from the ground late on Sunday with a hydraulic lift after a helicopter rescue was ruled out as too dangerous.

 

The couple suffered only minor injuries.

[Source]

Homeland Security at JFK – Proactive or Embarrassment?

I found this story written by a young American woman who was traveling back to NY from Syria after a vacation on Digg.com last night and was incredibly disturbed and even embarrassed when I read it.  Here’s the text, it’s somewhat long, so it’ll continue after the jump.  What do you think?  Everyone has to have some sort of opinion, right?

I arrived at JFK Airport two weeks ago after a short vacation to Syria and presented my American passport for re-entry to the United States. After 28 hours of traveling, I had settled into a hazy awareness that this was the last, most familiar leg of a long journey. I exchanged friendly words with the Homeland Security official who was recording my name in his computer. He scrolled through my passport, and when his thumb rested on my Syrian visa, he paused. Jerking toward the door of his glass-enclosed booth, he slid my passport into a dingy green plastic folder and walked down the hallway, motioning for me to follow with a flick of his wrist. Where was he taking me, I asked him. “You’ll find out,” he said.

Discrepancy in Delta’s Weekly Fare Specials

As if the obvious wasn’t enough, here’s another reason why Delta is a mess of an airline. Last night, I received my weekly email with Delta’s fares. Although I’ve publicly sworn off flying Delta many, many times, the promise of a $69 ticket each way was almost too much temptation to resist. (Back story: This afternoon, I was looking into possibly flying to Raleigh this weekend – I know it’s not really practical at all, but let’s face it; being back on LI makes me restless to go do things far away from LI.)

So anyway, here’s a screen cap of the email, which was sent at 9:26pm on Monday, August 18:

Please note that it says, clear as day, that flights from JFK to RDU for travel this coming Saturday to next Monday or Tuesday are $69 each way.

So, I figure, “Hey, why not just check it out? Don’t have to buy a ticket, just look…” Here is what happens when you follow the rules – magically, the trip is $339. I may consider myself more of a writer than an accountant, but this makes no sense. I try one more time, thinking perhaps I screwed up the dates or something. Still:

Upon further investigation on the website, I learn the following:

So…it’s $129 each way to/from RDU from either JFK or LGA? That’s significantly different from $69 each way. And if the site just wasn’t updated as of me writing this (it’s almost 1am early Tuesday morning/late Monday night), then why even send out an email if the website isn’t updated?

Nice job, Delta. Nice job.

The Plane Truth: News Roundup

• I almost want to do this.
• United Airlines’ sneaky attempt to screw customers over.
• Great news for those Denver/New Orleans travelers; when are we getting a nonstop flight from NY-RDU?!
• Not great news for those flying between Boston/San Jose and Boston/San Francisco.
• JetBlue has been appointed to the “Gotcha Hall of Shame.”
• Are we screwed either way?
• Delta’s getting sued for holding 7 jet engines “hostage.”

JetBlue & Southwest Use Twitter for Updates

If you’re flying JetBlue or Southwest, they do have a Twitter that they keep updated on a fairly regular basis.  Southwest “tweets” at least 2 or 3 times a day (from what I have seen), and JetBlue pops up from time to time.  Here’s a helpful little notification from JetBlue:

JetBlue Twitter

Pilots: Airlines Make Us Fly “Uncomfortably Low” On Fuel

Are airlines ordering their pilots to fly planes that are “uncomfortably low on fuel”?  Pilots have started complaining that “safety for passengers and crews could be compromised.”  Three years ago, the attempt to save from already rising fuel prices caused the NASA to send a safety alert to federal aviation officials, but no action was taken.  Despite complaints from pilots, flight dispatchers and other airline workers, the FAA still refuses to order airlines to back off their efforts to keep fuel loads to a minimum, saying that there’s “no reason”.

“We can’t dabble in the business policies or the personnel policies of an airline,” said FAA spokesman Les Dorr. He said there was no indication safety regulations were being violated.

The September 2005 safety alert was issued by NASA’s confidential Aviation Safety Reporting System, which allows air crews to report safety problems without fear their names will be disclosed.

“What we found was that because they carried less fuel on the airplane, they were getting into situations where they had to tell air traffic control, ‘I need to get on the ground,’” said Linda Connell, director of the NASA reporting system.

With fuel prices now their biggest cost, airlines are aggressively enforcing new policies designed to reduce consumption.

In March, for example, an airline pilot told NASA he landed his regional jet with less fuel than required by FAA regulations. “Looking back,” he said, “I would have liked more gas yesterday.” He also complained that his airline was “ranking” captains according to who landed with the least amount.

A month earlier, a Boeing 747 captain reported running low on fuel after meeting strong headwinds crossing the Atlantic en route to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. He said he wanted to stop to add fuel but continued on to Kennedy after consulting his airline’s operations manager, who told him there was adequate fuel aboard the jet.

When the plane arrived at Kennedy, the captain said it had so little fuel that had there been any delay in landing, “I would have had to declare a fuel emergency” — a term that tells air traffic controllers a plane needs immediate priority to land.

Great, a whole new reason to be weary about flying.  Guess those extra charges for baggage, water, & breathing aren’t quite paying off yet for our safety.

[Source]

The Plane Truth: News Roundup

• I agree with most of this.
• What’s the point of frequent flier miles if you still have to pay an arm & a leg for actually deciding to use them? Go Delta!  All it takes is one and then everyone else wants to do it too…
• Book a trip to Europe with your MasterCard and US Airways will give you a discount of some sort.

How Secure Is Airport Security?

So as I’m getting ready to get on a US Airways flight from LaGuardia airport in NY, I had some brief thoughts on airport security.

We can bring even UNOPENED water bottles through security, but the last year that I’ve flown, I have walked through security with a Swiss army knife and pocket keychain of pepper spray in my bag.  I have literally been stopped by security who removed my water bottle twice (both times I honestly did forget), but NEVER for the pepper spray.  In fact, I didn’t even know it was in my bag until I just went through it and removed it now (cause karma would have it taken away from now today haha).  The Swiss Army Knife was taken from me last year, as I waited 8 hours at LGA on standby and missed a wedding.  I went through security at LGA literally 5 or 6 times (every like half hour, I was restless) before someone actually noticed it in there.  That’s almost scary to think that we’re so concerned with water bottles (OMG! Someone may have poisoned Sprite! We better make them throw their non-alcoholic beverage out so they can pay a ton of money once they get through the gate!)  Does anyone even stop to think that maybe someone could actually slip something from their pocket that’s non-metal and actually put it into something they bought in the terminal?  At least let us take through UNOPENED water bottles.  Alcohol I can totally understand not being allowed through, for obvious reasons.  April 2007, when I left Philadelphia to fly to Raleigh to visit a friend, they made me throw out an expensive Clinique face wash because it was over 3 ounces or whatever the limit is.  It was clearly just fancy, expensive soap.  It wasn’t even a liquid if you want to be technical.

Anyway, when I left San Diego on July 29, I had two connecting flights.  When I printed out my boarding pass after checking my bag, all 3 printed out, with the last one, from Logan Airport in Boston, MA to MacArthur in Islip, LI on top and the one from San Diego to Phoenix, AZ on the bottom.  As they do when you go through security, the first person (before the metal detector) will check your boarding pass to see if you are 1) Who you say you are; 2) Flying on the right day; and 3) In the right terminal.  Then, they initial it and you go on through to the metal detectors and do all that jazz.  Well, I mistakenly presented my Boston boarding pass to the first checkpoint and the man just initialed it and let me walk through.  I said something immediately, as when I presented it at the next point, I’m pretty certain all they do is check to see if it’s initialed to “approve” you through.  Basically, I could have been ANYONE flying anywhere and they may not have caught me.  Or at the next checkpoint, they could have possibly given me major problems for not having the right pass initialed (if they even looked).

The wrong boarding pass presented.  Pepper spray.  Swiss army knife.  Those are things that can be cause for real concern in the wrong hands.  All got through security at LGA, JFK, SAN, and RDU.  Yet we’re so worried about unopened water bottles.