Aviation News

Malaysian Airlines

MALAYSIA Airlines is to ban babies travelling in first class on the airline’s new Airbus A380 and Boeing 747-400 fleet.

The airline said they have introduced the baby ban after receiving a number of complaints about crying infants from first class passengers, the Australia Business Traveller reports.

The airline has decided not to install bassinets in the first class cabin of its Boeing 747-400 fleet.

Those wishing to travel with babies will have to book bassinets in business or economy sections instead.

Malaysia Airlines CEO Tengku Azmil told the Australia Business Traveller first-class passengers complained about spending a lot of money and not being able to sleep “due to crying infants”.

Airbus A320neo

China signed an agreement Tuesday to buy 88 Airbus aircraft in the A320 family. Airbus CEO Tom Enders signed the agreement with the China Aviation Supplies Holding Company during a visit to Berlin by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

As part of the general terms agreement, China’s ICBC Financial Leasing Co Ltd signed a purchase agreement for 42 out of the total 88 aircraft. The single-aisle A320 family is made up of the A318, A319, A320 and A321. An Airbus spokesman said it was up to China Aviation Supplies to decide what to do with the other 46 aircraft.

Also Tuesday, Daimler AG signed an agreement with Chinese partner BAIC to expand their cooperation and build more vehicles in China.

Daimler said that the deal would involve an investment of 2 million euros in the joint venture, Beijing Benz Automotive Co Ltd.

...

Jetstar Airways

A drunk New Zealand passenger urinated in the aisle of a Jetstar aircraft – spraying one man and soaking a woman’s scarf – but was allowed to leave the flight with only a warning.

The man, travelling from Auckland to Singapore two days ago, emptied his bladder about six hours into the 11-hour flight.

Passenger Amos Chapple said: “I hear this sound of running water and then I hear a guy going ‘No, no, no, what the hell is wrong with you?’

“And there’s this guy pissing in the aisle, waving back and forth.”

The man urinated on to the aircraft carpet, a man’s leg, and a woman’s scarf.

“Everyone was yelling at him and he slowly became aware that he was being uncouth. He pulled up … and wobbled back to the other end of the plane.”

The man and a friend were seen drinking whisky before take-off.

“Him and the mate were sitting there and mixing it in Burger King cups. Six hours later they were catatonic,” Mr Chapple said.

The man left the plane with only a warning and Singapore police were not called to deal with the matter on landing, he said.

Jetstar crew gave wipes to the man who was sprayed and moved him to another seat, but Mr Chapple was left sitting next to a large reminder for the rest of the flight.

“We were sitting next to a pool of urine for a good five and a half hours. You couldn’t see a puddle but you could tell it was there. It was pretty outrageous.”

The female passenger whose scarf was sprayed had to repeatedly ask for a plastic bag for the soaked item, said Mr Chapple.

Mr Chapple criticised the way the Jetstar crew handled the incident, saying they were “slack”.

He said he confronted the man in Singapore and asked him “what was that all about” but the man did not know what he was talking about.

“I told him that he had pissed everywhere and he looked quite shocked,” Mr Chapple said.

JetStar said the urinator was issued an official warning from the plane’s captain, had his alcohol confiscated, and returned to his seat to sleep off the public incident.

Jetstar last night confirmed that “there was an inebriated passenger who engaged in inappropriate and disruptive behaviour”, but maintained police did not need to get involved.

“We issued our final warning … if you don’t behave after the warning, then it becomes a matter for federal police,” said airline spokeswoman Jennifer Timm.

Jetstar was contacting the customers affected by the incident to arrange compensation.

They would probably get a $200 voucher and an apology letter.

INFLIGHT HORRORS

August 27, 1989: Izzy Stradlin of Guns N’ Roses arrested at the Phoenix airport after urinating on the floor of the plane, apparently upset at having to wait for the bathroom.

April 21, 2001: REM lead guitarist Peter Buck cleared in court after a drunken rampage aboard a British Airways plane, where, among other things, he allegedly sprayed flight attendants with a pot of yoghurt.

December 3, 2003: A Canadian man, 39, became drunk on a Cathay Pacific Airways flight from Hong Kong to Melbourne. “He then punched a flight attendant in the stomach, threw his shirt at a flight attendant’s face and urinated in the aisle and against the toilet door,” said a state prosecutor.

June 2, 2011: Rats were found aboard a Qantas flight from Sydney to Brisbane shortly before takeoff. A spokesman for Qantas said it was “a very irregular occurrence”.

By Hayley Hannan

source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz