Aviation News

A SIA aircraft lost 30 metres in altitude, and that "all loose items" became "airborne". A photo taken by a passenger shows food trays and utensils strewn along the cabin aisle.

Photo credit (Alan Cross)

Singapore Airlines flight, SQ308, was about two hours into its journey to London's Heathrow Airport when it experienced "moderate to severe turbulence". Passengers were being served breakfast at the time, and meal services were suspended when the turbulence became severe. The fasten seatbelts sign was immediately put on.

The aircraft was carrying 328 passengers and 26 crew members at the time. Eleven passengers and a crew member sustained minor injuries.

Those injured were treated by medical personnel on arrival at Heathrow.

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A passenger on a US commercial flight from Alaska to Oregon was arrested on Monday after witnesses said he tried to open an emergency exit during the plane’s descent and other passengers had to help restrain him using shoelaces and seatbelt extensions.

Passengers and crew aboard the Alaska Airlines flight from Anchorage to Portland told investigators that Alexander Michael Herrera, 23, made “unusual statements” before trying to open the plane’s door, FBI spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele said.

Flight 132 was preparing to land at Portland International Airport when the Arizona man set off an alarm by pulling the door handle in the emergency-exit row, Steele said.

Witness Henry Pignataro told KGW-TV that a woman seated next to Mr Herrera asked for help.

“I put him in a choke hold and brought him down to the ground,” Mr Pignataro said.

Mr Pignataro said he and another man held down the passenger and asked flight attendants for restraints. He said they brought three sets of shoelaces, which Mr Pignataro and the other man used to bind Mr Herrera’s legs.

The flight attendants then brought extra seatbelt extensions, and the witnesses applied those to Mr Herrera as well.

Mr Pignataro said Mr Herrera – listed as 100kg on his booking information – was then placed into a seat, where he calmly sat “surrounded by big guys” until the plane landed only nine minutes behind schedule.

Mr Herrera was being booked into a Portland jail on a charge of interfering with a flight crew, and was expected to make his first court appearance on Tuesday before a federal magistrate.

AP

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-incidents/tied-down-with-shoelaces-on-flight-20130528-2n8c9.html#ixzz2Ub20aCjw

Two US holidaymakers found themselves a long way from their intended destination after an airline confused two airport codes.

Sandy Valdiviseo and her husband Triet Vo were intending to fly from Los Angeles to Dakar in Senegal with Turkish Airlines. However, instead they ended up about 11,000km away – on an entirely different continent – in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, after the airport codes were mixed up, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The airport code for Dakar, the capital of Senegal, is DKR, while the code for the airport in Dhaka, which is the capital of Bangladesh, is DAC.

After arriving in Istanbul, the couple had boarded a connecting flight. It was only after seeing the route map of the flight’s progress, which showed the plane over the Middle East, that they realised the error.

“When the flight attendant said we were heading to Dhaka, we believed that this was how you pronounced ‘Dakar’ with a Turkish accent,” Ms Valdivieso said.

When they arrived in Bangladesh, the pair informed Turkish Airlines about the mistake, and tried to arrange a transfer to Senegal.

According to reports, the airline insisted on tracking down the recording of the initial booking before acknowledging the error and installing the couple on flights to West Africa, 12 hours after their arrival in Bangladesh. Their baggage arrived in Senegal two days after they did.

The incident happened in December last year, but has only just been reported after the couple’s long battle to obtain compensation.

“I have called them [Turkish Airlines] every Friday for the past four months,” said Ms Valdivieso. “They told me each time that they will review my case and get back to me. But they never do.”

“We are very, very sorry that this happened,” a Turkish Airlines spokeswoman said. The couple have since been offered two free economy-class tickets to anywhere on the airline’s flight network.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/couple-ends-up-on-wrong-continent-after-airline-error-20130520-2jvis.html#ixzz2ToPHMBxJ

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A PASSENGER claims he was detained on a flight after a cabin crew member accused him of not flushing the toilet.

Salvatore Bevivino, 52, is suing Virgin America for $US500,000 in damages over the incident, which he says left him humiliated, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. He alleges it all started when he pushed the call button mid-flight and asked for a drink. A male flight attendant then allegedly informed Mr Bevivino he’d need to enter his drink request on the inflight entertainment unit. He then asked another crew member and asked why they couldn’t just bring him a drink like other airlines.

He said: “My time is precious, you are here to serve me.”

When he informed them of his intent to contact the airline over the policy, a third member of the crew then gave him the drink.

When the plane landed at San Francisco Airport Bevivino was pulled aside by the captain “as a person of suspicion” and accused of leaving the toilet unflushed. He was then removed from the flight by police, FBI and airport security agents.

According to a police incident report, a flight attendant said Bevivino had gone to the bathroom after asking for the drink: “(He) came back out with a smile on his face and began using profanities. (He) passed by the restroom and saw that Bevivino left the door open and did not flush the toilet.”

The captain told police he and the crew didn’t feel threatened by the passenger. Bevivino insists he didn’t yell obscenities at anyone or leave a toilet unflushed, saying he was just flustered over the incident.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/passenger-detained-for-unflushed-toilet/story-e6frfq80-1226632182894#ixzz2Rx3nz2gF

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