Tag Archives: air travel

The Associated Press reports: The woman flying out of Philadelphia’s airport last year remembered to pack snacks, prescription medicine and a cellphone in her handbag. But what was more important was what she forgot to unpack: a loaded .380-caliber handgun in a black holster. The weapon was one of the 6,542 guns the Transportation Security Administration intercepted last year at …

Axios reports: The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) acting chief has issued a “safety call to action” after several narrowly-averted catastrophes in the past few months have raised serious concerns throughout the aviation community. It’s a public acknowledgement that the agency is acutely aware of those incidents, and is taking steps to investigate and learn from them. In an agency memo, …

Hawaii News Now reports: Newly-released flight data reveals a San Francisco-bound United Airlines flight went into a steep dive shortly after taking off from the Kahului Airport, coming within almost 800 feet of impacting the ocean. The incident happened in mid-December of last year, but is only coming to light now. United Flight 1722 plunged toward the ocean moments after …

Gothamist reports: The National Transportation Safety Board has subpoenaed an American Airlines crew involved in a runway incident at John F. Kennedy Airport. The crew was onboard an American Airlines plane headed for London in mid-January when it crossed an active runway at JFK without air traffic clearance. The move caused a Delta Air Lines plane headed for Santo Domingo …

Politico reports: A Southwest Airlines and FedEx cargo airplane avoided crashing into each other at the Austin airport over the weekend by less than 100 feet, the head of a federal investigating body said Monday. Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board said in an interview with POLITICO that the near-miss findings are still preliminary, but that …

CBS News reports: A FedEx cargo airplane attempting to land at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport on Saturday morning had to reverse course after a second plane was cleared to depart from the same runway, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The Boeing 767 cargo airplane was several miles from the airport when it was cleared to land at about 6:40 a.m. …

NBC News reports: Nearly 1,300 flights within, to and from the United States were canceled Tuesday as an ice storm swept over parts of the South. The storm was concentrated in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, leaving the region hit the hardest with travel issues, with 374 flights canceled at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, according to the online flight tracker …

ABC News reports: Struggling U.K. regional airline Flybe collapsed for the second time in three years Saturday, putting jobs on the line and leaving passengers stranded. The airline initially slumped into bankruptcy in March 2020, shedding 2,400 jobs, as coronavirus restrictions decimated the travel industry. It relaunched in April last year, flying many of the same routes out of Belfast, …

Axios reports: Southwest Airlines has been in damage-control mode since its December holiday meltdown, working to defend its reputation. Now, that episode has an actual price tag. The airline said today the snafu cost it $800 million in the fourth quarter, driving it to a net Q4 loss. And it expects to take another $300 million to $350 million hit …

CNN Business reports: The US Transportation Department said it is in the early stages of an investigation into the Southwest Airlines holiday travel meltdown in December. The probe includes an examination of whether Southwest is scheduling more flights than it can handle. “DOT is in the initial phase of a rigorous and comprehensive investigation into Southwest Airlines’ holiday debacle that …

Atlanta’s ABC affiliate reports: A woman was arrested Tuesday after police said she assaulted officers at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and sprayed people with a fire extinguisher. At around 9:34 p.m., officers responded to concourse D at the airport in reference to a suspicious woman attempting to open secured doors inside the concourse. When officers arrived, airport security notified them …

CNN reports: Air traffic controllers had “noticed another aircraft crossing the runway in front of the departing jetliner,” the FAA said in a statement. “According to a preliminary analysis, Delta Air Lines Flight 1943 stopped its takeoff roll approximately 1,000 feet before reaching the point where American Airlines Flight 106, a Boeing 777, had crossed from an adjacent taxiway.” Audio …

CNN reports: The Federal Aviation Administration announced it is starting a probe into how a commercial airliner taxied in front of a flight that was taking off from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport Friday evening. The crew of a Delta Air Lines Boeing 737 aborted its takeoff, ultimately stopping within 1,000 feet of the taxiing American Airlines Boeing 777, the …

Reuters reports: Shareholders filed a lawsuit against Southwest Airlines Co on Thursday, accusing the carrier of fraudulently concealing problems that led last month to an operational meltdown and more than 15,000 flight cancellations. According to the proposed class action filed in federal court in Houston, Southwest publicly downplayed or failed to disclose serious shortcomings in its flight scheduling software technology. …

ABC News reports: The ground stop and Federal Aviation Administration systems failures Wednesday morning that impacted thousands of flights across the U.S. appear to have been the result of a mistake that occurred during routine scheduled systems maintenance, according to a senior official briefed on the internal review. An engineer “replaced one file with another,” the official said, not realizing …

Reuters reports: U.S. flights were slowly beginning to resume departures after Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) scrambled to fix a system outage overnight that impacted thousands of flight. U.S. President Joe Biden has been briefed on the FAA system outage, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Twitter. There is no evidence of a cyber-attack at this point, but the president has …

Reuters reports: Countries should consider recommending that passengers wear masks on long-haul flights, given the rapid spread of the latest Omicron subvariant of COVID-19 in the United States, World Health Organization (WHO) officials said on Tuesday. In Europe, the XBB.1.5 subvariant was detected in small but growing numbers, WHO and Europe officials said at a press briefing. Passengers should be …

NBC News reports: Flights across the United States were affected Wednesday morning after the Federal Aviation Administration said it experienced a computer outage. All flights in the U.S. were grounded following the incident, a source with knowledge of the situation told NBC News. About 1230  flights within, into and out of the U.S. were delayed as of around 6:30 a.m. …

CBS News reports: Southwest Airlines, which angered customers with thousands of flight cancellations over the holidays, is offering 25,000 frequent-flier points to travelers who were affected by the epic meltdown. Southwest CEO Bob Jordan wrote in a letter to impacted travelers that the 25,000 points have a value of more than $300, will never expire and carry no blackout dates. …

Orlando’s NBC affiliate reports: Shortly after 1 p.m. on Monday, social media began swarming with reports of flights heading into Florida being halted or canceled. The FAA told WESH 2: “The FAA has slowed the volume of traffic into Florida airspace due to an air traffic computer issue that is being resolved.” Miami International Airport stated that there was a …