On February 17, an air traffic controller let his little boy take the reigns for at least five transmissions to commercial jets at JFK International. This was terribly dangerous breach of protocol! And so totally awesome for the kid. More »
This is great news for frequent travellers – Jetstar is trialling a system that lets you use an SMS message as your boarding pass, forgoing the need to actually print anything off. More »
United has announced more details regarding their long-planned inflight internet services. Coming in the second half of this year, Wi-Fi will cost customers $US13 per flight.
Remember back in June how Air New Zealand announced it was going to be trialling a biofuel mix in a 747 aircraft based on the jatropha plant? Well, they did it, and according to The Register, everything went off without a hitch. The plane used a 50-50 mixture of the biofuel and regular fuel in one engine, while the other three all had regular fuel running through them. They tested out a series of mid-air manoeuvres like engines stops, restarts, and got full power from the biofuel mix.
After a hiker found some of Fossett’s ID documents in eastern California while on a trail in the Sierra Nevadas, a search team has found what looks to be the wreckage of the record-breaking pilot’s single-engine Bellanca plane. Fossett, who became the first person to fly solo around the world in a balloon among other feats, took off for a quick leisure flight in September of last year and never came back. He was declared legally deceased in February by his family, and now, finally a bit more closure. [Reuters]
We don’t know how many airports total are being affected, but FAA computers at one of their facilities are having trouble processing data, which means flights everywhere are being delayed. So far CNN says LaGuardia in NY and Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta were affected, but radar and plane contact is fine. If you’re flying today or tomorrow (like I am), you should get to the airport early. Or late, I guess, if flights are delayed. Maybe just show up at your normal time. [CNN]
