The UTair airline plane had arrived in Moscow from the southern Russian city of Stavropol. Boing 737-400 is a medium-range, narrow-body jet airliner. Approximate range: 5,000 km. Overall length: 36.5 meters. Wingspan: 28.9 meters. First flight took place on 19 February 1988, entering service on September 15, 1988. Capable of carrying up to 168 passengers. Cockpit crew: two members. “The plane’s left landing gear leg caught fire upon landing. Preliminary reports suggest the brake wheels were destroyed,” Ria Novosti news agency has quoted a police source, adding that the airport was closed at 7:48 am Moscow time (0308 GMT) and reopened at about 10:00 am after the aircraft had been removed from the runway.An unnamed fireman at the scene confirmed to the Russian news channel Russia 24, that the incident had been “dangerous.”The plane was carrying 136 people but none of the 129 passengers or 7 crew members were injured in the incident.Despite the plane being nearly full, everyone was evacuated promptly, according to one of the passengers.”The plane banked on landing. However, it landed quite successfully. Then the flight attendant announced the evacuation. Passengers were hurried down escape chutes. Passengers saw the burst wheel and fire. “Within three minutes there were no passengers left onboard,” according to Evgeny Popov, a reporter for Russia 2, who coincidentally happened to be on the flight. The airport had to divert 23 flights to neighboring airports, as the emergency unfolded.The last emergency situation took place at Vnukovo airport on December 29, 2012, when a Tu-204 aircraft belonging to Russian budget airline Red Wings performed a hard-landing and skidded off the runway, crashing into a highway. The plane, flying from the Czech Republic, was practically empty, with only crew of eight on board. Five of them were killed. … Read More
Watch: Solar-powered plane takes off for first cross-continental flight
The Solar Impulse, a Swiss solar-powered airplane, departs from San Francisco with Bertrand Piccard in the single seater cockpit, to complete the first leg of its coast-to-coast flights across the United States.
Over Pocket Knives, Flight Attendants Get Totally Wrong Kind of Fear of Flying
As
noted at Reason 24/7, flight attendants have got their panties,
boxers and boxer-briefs in a bunch over the Transportation Security
Administration’s decision to let Americans, once again, carry small
pocket knives onto airplanes. It’s hard to imagine an organization
taking on a more useless, fearmongering role than the TSA, but the
Association of Flight Attendants has
met the bar. This is especially annoying for those of us who
can remember a time when you could actually board a plane with
useful tools without inspiring fear in flight attendants and fellow
passengers — a situation that should prevail once again, especially
since we’ve already implemented the two changes that make a
difference in airplane security:
hardening cockpit doors and making passengers and crew aware that
they have to take an active role.
I remember flying from Boston to Philadelphia, in the early
1990s, to buy a motorcycle that a friend of a friend was selling
cheap. I had a one-way ticket and a carry-on bag with a helmet, a
change of clothes and a bunch of tools to make sure the bike was
tuned for the ride back to Boston. I had long hair and wore boots
and a leather jacket. At the security line at Logan, a guard
x-rayed my bag, then cocked an eye at me in what I understood as
the universal symbol for, “what the fuck?” I explained the
situation and we talked bikes for a minute before the passengers
behind me started complaining (something you could do then without
fear of being anally probed by federal employees). Then I went on
my way. I remember that the flight attendants managed to seat me
and take my drink order without dissolving into panic.
Flash forward to today, when the Association of Flight
Attendants
writes on its site:
The TSA was created because blades on airplanes were used to
cause this deadly attack on U.S. soil.
There’s no excuse for reversal on the policy to ban knives from
the aircraft cabin. Multi-layered security, including prohibition
of items that could pose a threat, ensures U.S. aviation is the
safest in the world. The ban on dangerous objects is an integral
layer in aviation security.
Flight Attendants serve as the last line of defense in aviation
security – responsible for ensuring the safety, health and security
of the passengers in our care. Join us in keeping our aircraft
cabin safe. TELL THE TSA TO KEEP KNIVES OUT OF THE CABIN.
Pppphhht. And I mean that. What crap.
The TSA is a useless jobs program that was created to make us
all feel that the government was doing something to protect us from
nasty terrorists who, frankly, got away with the horror of 9/11
because people didn’t understand that their hijackers weren’t the
old-fashioned, take-me-to Cuba variety. Once they learned what was
intended, the passengers of Flight
93 prevented their plane from being used as a weapon, though at
the loss of their own lives since the hijackers had already seized
control. Subsequent hijacking attempts have been
deterred,
again and
again, by passengers who have overpowered and, sometimes,
killed would-be assailants. Times have changed because people now
understand that they can’t be passive.
As mentioned above, even frequent air security
antagonists Bruce Schneier and Kip Hawley
agree that two security measures have really made a difference
since 2001, and those measures were implemented years ago,
involving passenger attitude and cockpit doors. They are not
threatened, in any way, by the TSA allowing passengers to board
with “[s]mall knives with non-locking blades smaller than 2.36
inches and less than 1/2 inch in width.” ;
I hesitate to point this out for fear of sending the flight
attendants’ association into an organizational panic, but the same
TSA notice allowing for small knives also allows novelty bats, pool
cues and golf clubs.
Honestly, in a bar fight, I’m reaching for the pool cue, not my
Leatherman micra.
Long permitted, without apparent mayhem resulting, are seven-inch
screwdivers and
knitting needles. But itty-bitty pocket knives, we’re told,
will be the doom of us all. I’m holding out for straight razors. I
hate keeping a bag of disposables in the bathroom cabinet just for
use on business trips. … Read More
Aero-TV: Flying The ‘Big Picture’ – Advanced Flight System’s Massive AF-5800
http://www.youtube.com/v/6PlevK0AIhM?version=3&f=videos&app=youtube_gdata See original: Aero-TV: Flying The ‘Big Picture’ – Advanced Flight System’s Massive AF-5800
TSA announces biggest loosening of security since 9/11
“This policy was designed to make the lives of TSA staffeasier, but not make flights safer,” Stacy Martin, president ofthe Transportation Workers Union, said in a statement. “While weagree that a passenger wielding a small knife or swinging a golfclub or hockey stick poses less of a threat to the pilot locked inthe cockpit, these are real threats to passengers and flightattendants in the passenger cabin.”The policy changes, which were made to conform to internationalrules and shorten the amount of time checkpoint officials spendconfiscating items, take effect April 25, TSA Administrator JohnPistole announced Wednesday. Knives with retractable blades shorterthan 2.36 inches (6 cm) will be permitted in carry-on baggage.Sports equipment like lacrosse sticks, ski poles and golf clubswill also be allowed in the passenger cabin.“The idea that we have to look for, to find and then somehowresolve whatever that prohibited item is — that takes time andeffort,” Pistole said at an aviation security conference in NewYork. “That may detract us from that item that could lead to acatastrophic failure on an aircraft.”But labor unions representing flight attendants are outraged atthe new policy and claim that the changes will simply put morepeople in danger.“We believe that these proposed changes will further endangerthe lives of all flight attendants and the passengers we work sohard to keep safe and secure,” the Flight Attendants UnionCoalition said in a statement, describing the TSA decision as“poor and shortsighted”.The decision marks the largest loosening of TSA travelrestrictions since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.Passengers interviewed by AP largely agreed with the new policy,claiming that almost anything – including a sharpened credit card –could be turned into a weapon anyway.“There are a lot of things you can use on an airplane if youare intent on hurting someone,” John L. Sullivan, an aviationsecurity consultant, told AP. “Security is never 100percent.”But TSA told USA Today that security agents will be able tospend more of their time searching for bomb threats, which are moreserious, rather than confiscating small pocket knives thatpassengers too often try to take with them.“This is part of an overall risk-based security approach,which allows transportation security officers to better focus theirefforts on finding higher-threat items such as explosives,” theagency said.But to flight attendants who lack the same protections as an airpilot, the new policy has instilled concerns about their safety ina cabin where passengers may soon carry knives in theirpockets. … Read More
Medical experts advise flatulent flyers: Let it rip mid-flight
A group of medical specialists has provided an answer to a dilemma that has faced flyers since the Wright brothers took to the air in 1903 — is it okay to fart mid-flight? The experts’ recommendation is an emphatic yes to airline passengers — but a warning to cockpit crews that…
Angel Rivas Arrested For Allegedly Aiming Laser Pointer At Aircraft Flying Above Long Island
MELVILLE, N.Y. _ The FBI arrested a Long Island man early Wednesday on charges of aiming a laser pointer at an aircraft, in the first federal prosecution of its kind in the region, an arrest made possible after the suspect blurted out a confession, officials said.
Angel Rivas, 33, of Shirley, N.Y., was set for arraignment Wednesday at U.S. District Court in Central Islip, N.Y., on the charge, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 5 years, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
Officials said Rivas pointed the laser at two aircraft on Aug. 21. He shined a green laser beam at the cockpit of a Sun Country Airlines chartered Boeing 737 headed for Kennedy Airport as it passed over Suffolk County at 12,000 feet, records say.
Read More…
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