At least he didn’t tamper with the smoke detectors. Then he would be in real trouble.
There are just some days and situations where you’ll get yourself in a lot less trouble by just not showing up at work at all, even if you haven’t bothered to phone ahead. This is one of those situations.
Are lighters allowed on board with passengers? If not, is anyone else wondering why the flight crew is allowed to have them?
TSA recently lifted the restriction on passengers bringing lighters through the security checkpoints and onto the planes.
Interesting choice, since you can’t smoke on planes anymore. What do they think people are going to use them for in the air?
They’re not going to use them in the air. They’re going to use them as soon as they land–hell, when my flight arrived back home last week, I literally saw some of my fellow passengers run from the gate to the street exit so they could light up. They came back inside to get their luggage once the carousel started moving.
I bet they rethink that decision now.
The airlines aren’t thinking clearly. They could make a killing, and keep their ticket prices lower, by selling lighters at exit gates.
30000 feet in 8 minutes? That’s 62.5 feet per second. I hope everyone was wearing their seatbelts.
I remember when they first started banning lighters on flights; there were always containers full of lighters just outside the security station where disgruntled smokers who hadn’t heard of the restriction had been discarding them while complaining that now they were going to have to buy a new lighter. I always thought they should have allowed departing passengers to help themselves to a lighter on their way out.
They apparently offered a $300 flight coupon. :rolleyes:
Meanwhile, FWIW CBC is reporting an FBI allegation that the accused stocked up on paper towels and tissues which he put into the washroom that was set ablaze.
Is Winnipeg all *that * unfabulous a place for a young gay guy, though? Compared to Marytylermoorepolis, even?
I was on a Southwest flight from Rhode Island to Texas a few years ago. About halfway through the flight, they made an announcement asking if a doctor was on board. :eek:
A passenger was apparently having some kind of heart attack, or abnormal rhythm, or something related. The physician determined that he needed to be in a hospital immediately, or faster if possible.
The pilot made a quick announcement that we were diverting to the nearest major airport and told everyone, including flight attendants, to buckle up. The pilot then basically pointed the plane at the ground. I remember being pressed up against my seatbelt. We were on the ground in Memphis less than 10 minutes after the initial announcement. As we taxied at an unusually high speed to the terminal, we could see the lights of ambulances coming toward us.
The plane stopped, and these paramedic/cops came rushing on board. They were wearing latex gloves, carried paramedic scissors, stethoscopes, and medical kits, but also were armed and carried handcuffs. :dubious: They were ready for anything, I guess. The passenger was off and in the ambulance within a minute or two after landing.
We delayed taking off only long enough to refuel and to transfer off the guy’s and his wife’s luggage.
In the immortal words of Richard Pryor, fire is *&^%$ motivational.
The decent was probably faster than that, since they had to level out for for approach. Figure 100-200 feet per second, and then a fairly normal approach.
It’s amazing how steep it feels. Of course, descending 62.5 feet/second at (say) 200 knots (I hope that’s conservative) is only 11 degrees from horizontal. I don’t doubt that it *feels * like a screaming nosedive.
I’m curious. Why the rolleyes? An employee does something totally freaking off the planet, beyond the bounds of anything the airline could possibly regard as expected, let alone preventable, and the other airline employees (ie the pilots) deal with the situation perfectly, and give their passengers a gift despite the situation not being their fault, but you’re rolling the eyes because, well, why?
How does it feel to do something like this as a commercial airline pilot?
Having to conduct an emergency landing because of a reported fire on board is probably hell at the time, or at the least nerve wracking. However, given that a commercial airline pilot must spend most of their working life stooging around in the most quiet, efficient, dull, ponderous and comfortable way possible, pointing a big plane like that at the ground and landing from 30,000 feet to touchdown under full control in eight minutes must, when all’s done and safe, be about the most exhilarating thing you’re likely to do in your whole career.
I wonder if one of our commercial pilots might comment.
[I’m not suggesting that we all set fires in the toilets to give our pilot’s a thrill, just in case that isn’t clear :)]
How about vetting your employees for psychos? It’s your fucking employee who almost killed me and my family, FUCK YES it’s your fault.
Also, in my personal experience, NWA comprises a bunch of shitheads with exactly that attitude of “what you yellin at me for, I’m not the one who lost your baggage”.
Do you have cite for the proposition that this person would have failed such testing? Because I’ve never heard of testing that was sufficiently effective to do so.
Do you regard yelling at an employee as appropriate when they weren’t the one who lost your baggage? If you do, you’re a jerk.
Whatever.