Posts with the tag ‘aviation history’


Dreamliner Fuels the Boom in International Flying

November 21, 2014

A UA 787-9 photo courtesy United Passengers on United Flight 98 from Los Angeles to Melbourne, Australia on October 26, participated in small slice of aviation history; flying on the world’s longest Boeing 787 route. They not only flew the longest route, but on the first American airline to fly the new stretched version of the Dreamliner, the dash-9. Many factors contribute to the spike in international air travel, which the International Air Transport Association reports is up from 80 million in 2008 to nearly 100 million this year. But we can’t ignore the role of the 787, Boeing’s trimmer wide-body in this global trend…. Read More…


Readin’ Researchin’ Writin’ and the Tools to Make it Happen

October 3, 2014

Nils Haupt hosts salon on MH 370 mystery Last month at the invitation of Nils Haupt, Lufthansa‘s former head of North American PR, I spoke to a small group of aviation and business writers about the book I have been contracted to write about the disappearance of MH 370 and other aviation mysteries. It was thrilling to be questioned about my theories and my experiences covering the story for ABC News from Malaysia, by people who had given the subject a lot of thought.  With me that night, was Emily Baker, the acquisitions editor at Penguin who purchased the book and who, to my delight, is… Read More…


Australian Adventurer Illustrates Flying’s Glorious Contradictions

September 12, 2014

I spend so much time writing about the safety and economics of aviation every now and then its good to go back and remember that flying was pioneered by risk takers who were motivated by many things, convention and common sense not among them. The role of adventurers in aviation was very much on my mind while reading Dick Smith’s thrill-a-page book, The Earth Beneath Me, the story of his solo helicopter flight from Fort Worth, Texas to Sydney, Australia in 1982.   I met Smith this past June and flew with him for a not-to-be-forgotten hour. An Enya tune filled our headsets as we… Read More…


MH 370 Lawyer Behavior Criticized Yet Again

August 13, 2014

A disciplinary commission in Chicago has upheld a censure decision against a lawyer who just last week came under its scrutiny for her behavior  related to Malaysia Flight 370. Monica Ribbeck Kelly, who made worldwide headlines when she filed the first case against Boeing and Malaysia Airlines following the mysterious disappearance of the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March, has been battling the ethics board of the Illinois Supreme Court since 2011 when she mishandled her representation of the victim of another crash. In the earlier case, Kelly continued to file papers on behalf of Mustafa Gumus, who was injured when Turkish Flight… Read More…


Delta’s 747s to Fly Into the Sunset

July 31, 2014

In a startling change of plans, Delta Air Lines today confirmed that it will retire four of its Boeing 747s beginning in September. Employees were notified in a memo penned by Glen Hauenstein the airline’s chief revenue officer.  Hauenstein described the decision as way to “reduce Delta’s footprint at Tokyo Narita” and to do less intra-Asia flying. Sixteen 747s came to Delta through its 2009 merger with Northwest. This spring, when I interviewed vice president of fleet strategy Nat Pieper for an article on the plane for Air & Space magazine, he told me executives spent a lot of time trying to decide whether to… Read More…


The Accident That Didn’t Happen and What it Says About Safety

Airplane crashes make headlines. Missing airliners get the all-news channels into round-the-clock regurgitation of speculation. Missile-downed airliners throw global diplomacy and the entire air travel industry into turmoil. All this I get. What continues to baffle is the lack of interest in the news that is far better indicator of how particular airlines handle their duty to protect customers. Two stories this week make my point. In his excellent article for Forbes, former NTSB member John Goglia reports on the unfortunate case of a mother traveling on Delta Air Lines who was prohibited from using the FAA approved child-seat she brought with her on the airplane.  Flight… Read More…


Airlines and Governments Oblivious to Warnings of MH 17 Disaster

July 20, 2014

It is missing the point to “blame” Malaysia Airlines for its decision to continue to fly over the conflict zone in the Ukraine despite the disastrous outcome of that choice. At the same time, Malaysia and the dozens of others who opted to continue using the route should be asking, what exactly are they paying their security advisors for? Airlines don’t bring hundred+ million dollar airplanes and the highly trained folks who operate them into countries without analysing the security status of the airport and the places where their flight crews will be housed. That’s why the kidnapping of two pilots for Turkish in Beirut… Read More…


Malaysia Flight 17 May Be Victim of Geopolitical Turbulence

July 17, 2014

The apparent shooting down of a Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 in the Ukraine today is a shocker  for many reasons, not the least of which is that this is a double dose of tragedy for an airline already off-balance over the mysterious disappearance of another jumbo jet in March of this year. It is also deeply troubling to think of air travelers as casualties of geopolitical turbulence. But perhaps it should not be so shocking. Over the past decades, nearly two dozen passenger airliners have been hit by missiles. Among them Iran Air Flight 655 in 1988 hit and destroyed by the U.S. Navy Korean… Read More…


A Century Later The Same Old Thrill

July 10, 2014

The first time I flew in an airplane, I was six. It was an Eastern Airlines flight from Miami to Newark, probably in a DC-8, but I can’t say for sure. I do remember that a flight attendant strung a cardboard bib in the shape of a Teddy Bear around my neck with my name and other information printed on it, and off I went. If my parents worried about me, I was unaware of it. Many years later when I bundled my own 8-year old daughter off to see her grandparents in Connecticut, I worried some, but I’d already done it myself. Try to… Read More…


Dreamliner’s Dramatic Life Mimics Woody Allen’s Art

May 23, 2014

In the Woody Allen movie, Annie Hall, an estranged couple is seen in separate visits to their therapists answering the question; “How often do the two of you have sex?” “Aways,” the woman says, “three times a week.” “Never,” the man says, “three times a week.” When it comes to the way the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board see the question of the “safety” of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner the same flexibility in perception is on display. How well-contained are the risks on the world’s newest wide body airliner? “Very” says the FAA. “Not so much,” says the NTSB. In March,… Read More…


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