The pilot of the sightseeing helicopter that crashed into the East River in Manhattan on Sunday night killing all 5 passengers, told investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board that the man seated beside him may have inadvertently triggered the chopper’s plunge by cutting fuel to the engine. The Associated Press is reporting that Richard Vance, 33, suggested a strap from a bag may have gotten tangled with the emergency fuel shutoff. Vance was piloting the helicopter from the left seat. A photo posted on Instagram from 26-year old Trevor Cadigan early in the flight, shows he was seated to the pilot’s right.   In that case,… Read More…

Warning to readers:  Photos of toilets appear in this post. Travelers at the airport hail from many countries and speak many languages but women arriving on oneworld flights into New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport have one word for the condition of the bathrooms in Terminal 8, “Ewwww.” Kisha Burgos stopped at the bathroom in the baggage claim area and was shocked to see paper-strewn floors, filthy toilets and empty and broken paper dispensers in the stalls. “It’s bad,” she told me comparing it to the airports she visited in Bangkok, Vietnam and Laos on her recent five-week trip. “Everything was really clean,” she said of the bathrooms in… Read More…