Southwest Plane's Landing Gear Collapsed Upon Landing at LaGuardia

I promised an update.

Some raw video from AP:



And from Anderson Cooper at CNN, "Passenger: Felt like the plane could break in half."

PREVIOUSLY: "Southwest Airlines Jet Lands Without Front Landing Gear."

Southwest Airlines Jet Lands Without Front Landing Gear

I'm watching CNN.

Three injured.

I'll be updating when more news is available.



IMAGE: At London's Daily Mail, "Plane crash lands without nose landing gear at New York LaGuardia Airport."

NTSB Investigators Raise Questions About Pilots

At WSJ, "NTSB Chief Says Cockpit Crew 'Required to Maintain a Safe Aircraft'":

Even before investigators have finished questioning the Asiana Airlines cockpit crew whose jet crashed in San Francisco, the National Transportation Safety Board ratcheted up signals that pilot error was the most likely culprit, prompting U.S. pilot-union leaders to issue an unusual public criticism of the board.

After providing new details Tuesday about the final minute of the flight—during which the plane was too low and not centered on the runway—NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman indicated that the jet's senior captain told investigators he believed automated safety systems would maintain the plane's speed and make the approach safe.

"He assumed the auto-throttles were maintaining speed," she said at a briefing.

"Let me be clear," Ms. Hersman added, "the crew is required to maintain a safe aircraft." In an apparent answer to critics who contend the safety board is rushing to judgment, she said "one of the very critical things that needs to be monitored on approach to landing is speed."

Ms. Hersman characterized her remarks as simple statements of fact, not conclusions. "We will not determine probable cause" at this early stage of the investigation, she said.

Still, her comments raised questions about the actions and performance of the three pilots who were in the cockpit of the Boeing BA +0.47% 777 as it crashed Saturday while attempting to land at San Francisco International Airport, hitting a sea wall and slamming onto the runway before bursting into flames. The crash killed two people and injured dozens.

The Air Line Pilots Association said it was "stunned by the amount of operational data" the board has released. Without the proper context and detailed analysis, according to the union, "prematurely releasing" such information "encourages wild speculation."

ALPA, among other things, called on the NTSB to determine if the pilots had adequate training to use onboard navigation aids for a visual approach, on a day when the primary ground-based landing aids for the strip had been turned off due to runway improvements. The union also urged the board to look at whether there were differences between what the pilots saw on their instruments, versus information subsequently downloaded from the plane's flight-data recorder.

Asked about the criticism from pilot groups, Ms. Hersman said the board's release of information has been "consistent" with its practices in past probes.

I doubt the union's going to be pleased no matter what the final investigation reports. Human error here is overwhelming. The situation is just asking for more regulation, and the public's not going to object.

Hey, Check Out NTSB's Smokin' Hottie Deborah Hersman

First appointed by President George W. Bush, she's got B.A. and M.A. degrees in Political Science and International Studies from Virginia Tech, via Wikipedia. Hawt!



Plus, at the Los Angeles Times, "Asiana pilots' lack of communication puzzles crash investigators."

SUV Flips, Crashes on Northbound Interstate 5 at Laguna Freeway SR-133

Just got back from having dinner with my wife, down in Aliso Viejo. Turns out this Dodge SUV had traffic all backed up coming down the on-ramp merging onto I-5. I don't ever remember a car caught between the side rail and a lamppost. Maybe that saved a life. I didn't see any paramedics, although they might have taken off already. My oldest son took the photograph from the passenger's seat.

Boeing's Queen of the Skies Nears End of the Road

It was the glamorous jumbo jet of my childhood, now fading away.

At the Wall Street Journal, "How the Boeing 747 Got Left Behind: Boeing to Launch New Model as Drop in Air-Cargo Business Squeezes Its 747 Jet":

A drop in the global air-cargo business is hastening the decline of the 747 jumbo jet just as Boeing Co. is preparing to launch a new plane that could ultimately replace it.

With its distinctive hump and four big engines, the 747, nicknamed "the queen of the skies," has been a symbol of jet travel for much of the past four decades. But in recent years, as airlines have chosen to fly passengers in more fuel-efficient, two-engine planes, the 747 has increasingly become an aviation packhorse. Most new 747 orders have involved freight carriers, which have been weighed down by two consecutive years of recession in global air cargo.

Earlier this month, Boeing said it would cut production of the 747-8, its newest model, to 1.75 airplanes a month in 2014 from two a month now because of weaker demand for large passenger and freighter airplanes.

Since it launched the 747-8 passenger model in 2006 with a longer body and new engines in hopes of rekindling sales, Boeing has sold just 31 of them to airlines, plus another nine to VIP users. "It's a market that hasn't delivered like we'd anticipated," Randy Tinseth, Boeing's vice president of marketing, says. Meanwhile, the company has sold 70 freighter versions.

Boeing would like to keep producing 747s even as it lays plans for a new model of its twin-engine 777, which could eventually supplant the older plane. As early as this month, the Chicago company is expected to seek permission from its board to formally start selling new stretched models of the 777, dubbed the 777X, with additional lucrative under-cabin cargo space and the 747's 16-hour range.

The new 777X, often dubbed a "mini-jumbo," arriving in 2019 or 2020, will seat around 35 more passengers and fly thousands of miles farther than the first "jumbo" 747 flown by Pan American Airways in 1970.

Boeing Chief Executive Jim McNerney says he doesn't "see the 777X introduction cannibalizing" the 747-8 significantly because the jets are different sizes. But analysts believe the 777X will be attractive to buyers who want many of the same capabilities with more fuel efficiency.

Launched on commercial service in 1970, the 747 was widely credited with making global travel more accessible. At the time Boeing estimated that the 747 halved the cost to airlines of flying a single passenger, compared with its smaller 707. Sales boomed, with Boeing receiving more than 1,400 orders between the 747's launch in 1966 and 2005.

But economic volatility and swinging oil prices made big bets on big aircraft with four engines seem increasingly risky. Sales surged for big twin-engine jets that could fly just as far. Boeing introduced the twin-engine 777 in 1995 and added subsequent models that stretched the jet's capacity and range, cutting into 747 demand.

More at that top link.

PREVIOUSLY: "Dude Recreates '70's Pan-Am 747 in City of Industry Warehouse."

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Vegas Fights the Haters

Well, I love the place.

But check LAT, "Taking on the Vegas haters":

They're tourists, bloggers, travel writers and newspaper pundits — an opinionated crowd with one thing in common: They're Vegas haters.

And, oh, do they have their reasons, their ammunition.

They abhor what they see as the mindless Mardi Gras of the Strip and arrogant hand-in-your-pocket connivances of the casino bosses. They criticize such Las Vegas entertainment mainstays as the comedian Carrot Top and the sickening largesse of those all-you-can-eat buffets, not to mention the scruffy characters who shove tacky girlie-show cards into the hands of passing tourists.

And why, they ask, are so many slot machine players perched in wheelchairs, wearing oxygen masks, puffing on cigarettes? Has the place no decency?

"I have to go there to see my family at Christmas — I feel so dirty," one letter writer responded to a blog post about people who despise this town. Author James Ellroy, who feels at home in even the darkest milieu, highlighted the city's disgusting nature, which he called "a testimonial to skeeviness."

A guest opinion-page writer from North Carolina pointed out that, by comparison, Las Vegas lends even Orlando, Fla., an old-world charm. "I can't even stand its name," wrote Tom Nelson, a media professor at Elon University. "Going to a show in Vegas? Where're you staying in Vegas? It's Vegas this and Vegas that. Las is lost. It is a city curtly summoned like a dog. Vegas."

This city, by its nature, is thick-skinned. Think some vampy runway model flaunting some scandalous outfit; she couldn't care less what people think.

But sometimes the insults cut too deep, even for this place. That's when Vegas fights back.

Jeez, it's Vegas, for crying out loud. Folks just need to chill.

More at that top link.

Egypt Hot Air Balloon Tragedy

I've never really liked the idea of going up in one of these, and I'm even less sold on it now.

At Telegraph UK, "Luxor balloon flights suspended."

All hot air balloon flights in Luxor have been suspended following a crash which resulted in the death of 19 tourists, including two Britons and a UK resident.

Also, "Egypt hot air balloon crash: '18 tourists, including Britons, killed'."

Added: From Bloomberg, "Egypt Balloon Pilot Jumped From Gondola Before Fatal Crash."

Dude Recreates '70's Pan-Am 747 in City of Industry Warehouse

You gotta love this story. I still daydream about the old 747s. As a kid, I was fascinated by the idea of a cocktail lounge in the sky. And now it turns out that a Southland man has recreated the Jumbo Jet '70's experience for guests to "fly" back in time.

At the Long Beach Press Telegram, "California man's lifelike model recreates Pan Am 747 in warehouse":

On an unusually warm December night, more than 25 years after her final flight with Pan American World Airways - 11 hours from Frankfurt to Los Angeles - Anna Gunther once again put on her pantyhose and blue uniform with white trim, so she could serve dinner on the upper deck of a Boeing 747.

But this airplane wasn't going anywhere. It was a model, like a child's playhouse, built by a man who had dreamed of re-creating the plane he loved as a boy.

This was a chance for Anthony Toth to unveil, for the first time, what he had created inside a 3,000-square-foot warehouse in the City of Industry. Here was his opportunity to show why he hired a contractor, spent more than $100,000 and used almost every vacation day he ever earned to reconstruct a major chunk of the interior of a Pan Am 747.
Sure, he had shown off airplane models before. He once even had a smaller replica inside the garage of his Redondo Beach condo. But at home there was no upper deck. And what's a 747, even a replica, without a second level?

There was another problem with his garage. Other than running to the kitchen, Toth had no way to prepare meals for his faux travelers. But the warehouse was different, and that's where Gunther came in.

She had never met Toth, a sales executive at United Airlines based in Los Angeles, but, almost on a lark, she agreed to help him. Toth wanted to pretend as if he were flying some of his co-workers and friends to another continent, and he wanted former Pan Am flight attendants to serve drinks and dinner, just as they might have three or four decades ago.

On the big day, Gunther arrived at 3 p.m., wearing high heels, a bowler hat and a uniform (white blouse, blue they walked into his warehouse and past the ticket counter with the bright blue Pan Am logo. They saw a sign indicating Flight 21 to Tokyo would leave soon. Then they walked onto a short jet bridge, through a real aircraft door and turned left into first class.

On board, they took amenity kits tucked in plastic and filled with goodies like slippers and a damp "refresher towel." They picked up a real set of Pan Am headphones, ones they could plug into a jack on their seats to listen to music or watch the movie projected overhead. They grabbed vintage magazines protected by a Pan Am branded sleeve.

They took their plush seats - the cabin has 18 of them arranged in an alternating blue and red pattern - raised their leg rests and reclined. They looked around. Everything was accurate, from the distance between seats to the overhead bins to the aircraft's shell to the galley Gunther and her three colleagues used to ready drinks. Using his iPad and hidden speakers, Toth had even piped in the humming of jet engines.

It was so true to the real thing, it blurred the line between reality and fiction.

It was as if Pan Am was flying again.

Continue reading.

Executive Accused of Slapping Toddler is Fired

At ABC News, "Executive Charged With Slapping Toddler on Plane Gets Slapped With Pink Slip."

The boy's adopted and he's a beauty. The executive called him the "n-word." Are you kidding me? Ask to sit somewhere else. I would have changed seats. Sheesh.

President Obama Touts Community Colleges in Asheville, North Carolina

After visiting the St. Lawrence Basilica, I cruised back over to the other side of town and came across the Citizen-Times building. While taking photos I noticed the headline at the newspaper in the rack, "Obama to visit Asheville," seen at the bottom photo.

And from yesterday's paper, "Obama touts community college training."

Also, "Obama's Asheville visit stirs protests."

Basilica of St. Lawrence, Asheville, N.C.

I'm traveling back to California today, so this post will have to hold down the fort. I have plenty more photos to share, but I just love this one of the Basilica:

The Basilica of St. Lawrence, Roman Catholic Church, Asheville, N.C. #Values #ProLife @rsmccain twitter.com/AmPowerBlog/st…

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) February 9, 2013

Visit the website here.

Clear and Sunny in Asheville

We're about to wind down the conference meetings and have lunch. After that it's a free day and I'm heading over to downtown Asheville to see the sights. I'll be back online tonight. Meanwhile, it's clear and beautiful and should be clear sailing for the flight out tomorrow, first to Atlanta to connect with my flight back to the O.C.

Check back tonight!

Clear and sunny in Asheville, N.C. #Weather twitter.com/AmPowerBlog/st…
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) February 9, 2013

Asheville Update

I have about a half hour or so before I head down to the Saturday evening dinner function. It's been a long day and I've only read a little bit of political news. I'll be post some regular blog entries later tonight. Meanwhile, I took some photos.

The Grove Park Inn is simply massive. This shot looks from the Vanderbilt Wing (where the conference rooms are) to the Sammons Wing (where my hotel room is). It rained this morning (at the photo), although the sun's out bright and shiny this afternoon, so guests would have no idea a monster blizzard is now slamming down on the upper East Coast:

Out front of the hotel, just after I returned to my room during the lunch hour:

The huge wood-burning fire down in the main lobby lodge:

A sign for the political science symposium at the conference rooms:

Some of the guests socializing before a presentation. That's Professor Eduardo Munoz of El Camino College at left. We attended graduate school together at UCSB. I saw him last night (at the first night's social mixer) for the first time in almost 15 years. I recognized him immediately, as he was coming down the hall toward the lounge. We had a good laugh:

I'll have more later...

Oh, a commenter at the last update warned me about the "Pink Lady" of Grove Park Inn. Interestingly, I was reminded of the hotel from "The Shining." Long empty hallways, rustic architecture, and scenic views will do that to you, I guess.

Unruly Passenger Duct Taped After In-Flight Meltdown

CNN was reporting earlier that the passenger was monitored after being immobilized, but this just sounds too gnarly.

At London's Daily Mail, "The moment drunken passenger is taped to his seat during flight to New York after 'trying to choke one woman and ranting the plane was going to crash'."

Pre-Christmas Blizzard Batters the Midwest

An ABC News report:

And at the New York Times, "A Reminder of What Midwest Winters Are About."

Well, it's a white Christmas at least. I'm sending a prayer out to all those who're traveling.

Vietnamese Airline's In-Flight Bikini Show (VIDEO)

It's VietJetAir, via News.com.au, "Airline fined for inflight bikini dance."

And there's a YouTube clip here.

Talk about flying the friendly skies!

Air France Crash Investigation Finds Pilot Error and Faulty Equipment

The jet crashed in 2009. Here's the story at the Los Angeles Times, "Probe of Air France crash in Atlantic blames pilots, training":

The investigation of the 2009 crash of an Air France jet into the Atlantic Ocean concludes that the cockpit crew took the wrong steps to correct a high-altitude stall and blamed the errors on poor training of those piloting today's highly automated aircraft.

In its final report issued Thursday, the French civil aviation authority's Bureau of Surveys and Analysis said its review of flight data recorders recovered almost two years after the crash disclosed that the two junior pilots at the controls of AF 447 were "completely surprised" by the failure of cockpit instruments to guide them out of the disaster.

All 228 passengers and crew on board died in the June 1, 2009, crash of the jet en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. The Airbus A330-203, built by a European consortium that includes the French government, suffered a rare cruising-altitude loss of power while the flight captain was outside the cockpit on a scheduled break, the French investigative agency reported.

It said the two copilots, both in their 30s, didn't know what to do when ice accumulation caused the aircraft's autopilot to disconnect, and that they took the opposite action from what was needed, which was nosing the plane down to recover lift.

RTWT.

Also at CSM, "Lessons from Air France Flight 447 Rio-to-Paris crash."

Welcome Sign in Las Vegas an Attraction in its Own Right

We always head south on the Las Vegas Boulevard to stop for gas and drinks before getting on the freeway. And I always notice the busloads of tourists who're stopped at that darned sign. I think, "One of these days we'll stop to take some souvenir photos," but we never do.

In any case, the Los Angeles Times reports on the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada" sign.

See, "Vegas sign a tourist attraction in its own right":

LAS VEGAS — It sits along a stretch of median on the less-glamorous south end of this city's glitzy gambling Strip, a stubborn holdover from another era. Yet, as the days turn to night and back into day, it beckons as many tourists, human tumbleweeds and adventure-seekers as any newfangled casino.

They come to see, touch and photograph the iconic "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada" sign, a 1959 scramble of colors, typefaces and flashing light bulbs. They come in droves, as if on some obligatory Vegas pilgrimage, arriving in taxis, rental cars, stretch limos, golf carts, pickup trucks, motorcycles, double-decker tour buses. One woman even arrived on foot, pulling a suitcase — a wanderer defying the scorching desert heat.

The reason: There's just something, well, fabulous, about this sign.

For one thing, it's survived 53 years in a town with a penchant for bulldozers, wrecking balls and spectacular building implosions, where a 20-year-old resort is considered as ancient as the pyramids.

Designed by sign-maker Betty Willis, who never sought a copyright for her work and instead donated it to her beloved city, the 25-foot-tall kitschy cartoon has become a full-flush symbol of this gambling mecca, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

"I just think it's cool. Who knows if those Rat Pack guys once stood here," Utah resident Marsha Hatch, 48, said on a recent Saturday evening. "It's like the Hollywood Walk of Stars, but it's ours. This sign belongs to Vegas."

Willis, now long retired, doesn't speak to reporters anymore. But in past interviews she said that back in 1959 — when Wayne Newton was a teenager and Frank Sinatra joined Dean Martin for the first time on stage at the Sands — the sign's diamond shape was unlike anything on the Strip. She added "fabulous" as the most fitting word to describe this 24-hour resort town.

More at the link.

PHOTO CREDIT: Wikipedia.

American Airlines Winds Down AAirpass: Unlimited Frequent Flyer Program Has Too-Frequent Flyers

This is an amazing story.

I love to fly and American Airlines is my favorite carrier, but I never imagined anything like this. When something's too good to be true it's not likely to last as long as this program, and AA's pulling the plug as aggressively as it can.

At the Los Angeles Times, "The frequent fliers who flew too much":

There are frequent fliers, and then there are people like Steven Rothstein and Jacques Vroom.

Both men bought tickets that gave them unlimited first-class travel for life on American Airlines. It was almost like owning a fleet of private jets.

Passes in hand, Rothstein and Vroom flew for business. They flew for pleasure. They flew just because they liked being on planes. They bypassed long lines, booked backup itineraries in case the weather turned, and never worried about cancellation fees. Flight crews memorized their names and favorite meals.

Each had paid American more than $350,000 for an unlimited AAirpass and a companion ticket that allowed them to take someone along on their adventures. Both agree it was the best purchase they ever made, one that completely redefined their lives.

In the 2009 film "Up in the Air," the loyal American business traveler played by George Clooney was showered with attention after attaining 10 million frequent flier miles.

Rothstein and Vroom were not impressed.

"I can't even remember when I cracked 10 million," said Vroom, 67, a big, amiable Texan, who at last count had logged nearly four times as many. Rothstein, 61, has notched more than 30 million miles.

But all the miles they and 64 other unlimited AAirpass holders racked up went far beyond what American had expected. As its finances began deteriorating a few years ago, the carrier took a hard look at the AAirpass program.

Heavy users, including Vroom and Rothstein, were costing it millions of dollars in revenue, the airline concluded.

The AAirpass system had rules. A special "revenue integrity unit" was assigned to find out whether any of these rules had been broken, and whether the passes that were now such a drag on profits could be revoked.

Rothstein, Vroom and other AAirpass holders had long been treated like royalty. Now they were targets of an investigation.

******

When American introduced the AAirpass in 1981, it saw a chance to raise millions of dollars for expansion at a time of record-high interest rates.

It was, and still is, offered in a variety of formats, including prepaid blocks of miles. But the marquee item was the lifetime unlimited AAirpass, which started at $250,000. Pass holders earned frequent flier miles on every trip and got lifetime memberships to the Admirals Club, American's VIP lounges. For an extra $150,000, they could buy a companion pass. Older fliers got discounts based on their age.

"We thought originally it would be something that firms would buy for top employees," said Bob Crandall, American's chairman and chief executive from 1985 to 1998. "It soon became apparent that the public was smarter than we were."

The unlimited passes were bought mostly by wealthy individuals, including baseball Hall-of-Famer Willie Mays, America's Cup skipper Dennis Conner and computer magnate Michael Dell.

Mike Joyce of Chicago bought his in 1994 after winning a $4.25-million settlement after a car accident.

In one 25-day span this year, Joyce flew round trip to London 16 times, flights that would retail for more than $125,000. He didn't pay a dime.

"I love Rome, I love Sydney, I love Athens," Joyce said by phone from the Admirals Club at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. "I love Vegas and Frisco."

Rothstein had loved flying since his years at Brown University in Rhode Island, where he would buy a $99 weekend pass on Mohawk Air and fly to Buffalo, N.Y., just for a sandwich.

He bought his AAirpass in 1987 for his work in investment banking. After he added a companion pass two years later, it "kind of took hold of me," said Rothstein, a heavyset man with a kind smile.

He was airborne almost every other day. If a friend mentioned a new exhibit at the Louvre, Rothstein thought nothing of jetting from his Chicago home to San Francisco to pick her up and then fly to Paris together.

In July 2004, for example, Rothstein flew 18 times, visiting Nova Scotia, New York, Miami, London, Los Angeles, Maine, Denver and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., some of them several times over. The complexity of such itineraries would stump most travelers; happily for AAirpass holders, American provided elite agents able to solve the toughest booking puzzles.

They could help AAirpass customers make multiple reservations in case they missed a flight, or nab the last seat on the only plane leaving during a snowstorm. Some say agents even procured extra elbow room by booking an empty seat using a phony name on companion passes.

"I'd book it as Extra Lowe," said Peter Lowe, a motivational speaker from West Palm Beach, Fla. "They told me how to do it."

Vroom, a former mail-order catalog consultant, used his AAirpass to attend all his son's college football games in Maine. He built up so many frequent flier miles that he'd give them away, often to AIDS sufferers so they could visit family. Crew members knew him by name.

"There was one flight attendant, Pierre, who knew exactly what I wanted," Vroom said. "He'd bring me three salmon appetizers, no dessert and a glass of champagne, right after takeoff. I didn't even have to ask."

Creative uses seemed limitless. When bond broker Willard May of Round Rock, Texas, was forced into retirement after a run-in with federal securities regulators in the early 1990s, he turned to his trusty AAirpass to generate income. Using his companion ticket, he began shuttling a Dallas couple back and forth to Europe for $2,000 a month.

"For years, that was all the flying I did," said May, 81. "It's how I got the bills paid."

In 1990, the airline raised the price of an unlimited AAirpass with companion to $600,000. In 1993, it was bumped to $1.01 million. In 1994, American stopped selling unlimited passes altogether.

Cable TV executive Leo Hindery Jr. bought a five-year AAirpass in 1991, with an option to upgrade to lifetime after three years. American later "asked me not to convert," he said. "They were gracious. They said the program had been discontinued and if I gave my pass back, they'd give me back my money."

Hindery declined, even rebuffing a personal appeal by American's Crandall (which the executive said he did not recall). To date, he has accumulated 11.5 million miles on a pass that cost him about $500,000, including an age discount and credit from his five-year pass.

"It was a lot of money at the time," Hindery said. "But once you get past that, you forget it."

In 2004, American offered the unlimited AAirpass one last time, in the Neiman-Marcus Christmas catalog. At $3 million, plus a companion pass for $2 million more, none sold.

There's lots more at the link.

What a life that would be, able to lift off and go anywhere, anytime like that.

Like I said, it's too good to be true.