Tagged With "Agency"

Some of us need to go out well beyond two months to be sure we get the time off we want (especially popular vacation times like Thanksgiving or Christmas vacation). So I'm very much in favor of planning in advance. Of course this makes it hard to be responsive to great last minute travel deals.

Well, you can't actually visit the planet Kepler 16b; it's not even in our solar system. But graphic artists at the National Aeronautical and Space Agency (NASA) have made up dream travel posters for several "exoplanets" (planets that orbit other...

In the wake of the Germanwings crash that killed 150 in an apparent suicide-by-pilot, Lufthansa and many others are quickly adopting rules requiring at least two crew members be present inside the cockpit at all times. Lufthansa's announcement covers...

Thomas Cook and Sons, widely regarded as the world's first real travel agency, opened its doors just 150 years ago, in Fleet Street, London. Cook himself was a 20-year veteran of leading groups on tours.   The Telegraph (UK) has an...

  Sometimes numbers get so big they're hard to visualize or believe, and here's one of those numbers:   During the first three months of 2015, booking.com handled  106,400,000   hotel room nights. That's right...over 100 million....

Modern times have decimated traditional ways and images all over the world; this evening I was devastated to learn that the famous Saint Bernards whose image, with brandy keg, says "Alpine" whenever and wherever you see it, are no longer used in...

Ryanair has proposed that airlines take the offensive against online travel sites and price comparison sites, such as Expedia, Opodo, Kayak, etc.; he believes they "shouldn't exist" and "make no sense." He's written to four other big European carriers...

TripAdvisor just took one giant step forward in its plans to be a one-stop review and booking site by a deal with booking.com which will  allow TripAdvisor to directly book customers into booking.com's 436,000 rooms.   It's part of a series...

Booking.com's Amsterdam headquarters   Booking.com has just passed a milestone: It booked its one-billionth guest since its start nearly 20 years ago.   The site was founded in 1996 in Entschiede in the Netherlands, and is now one of the key...

The U.S. Senate is working on a transporation bill that contains language that would prohibit the Department of Transportation from enforcing rules that allow you to cancel an airline ticket within 24 hours, or to hold the fare for 24 hours before...

I certainly can't see any harm in it. I've been told that airline staff have a "back" way into a locked cockpit to be used only in an emergency(a contingency). Not sure why that wasn't used this time -- perhaps it never dawned on the flight crew what was actually happening until it was too late.

The back door is the second, emergency, code. It was used, but it can be overridden for 5 minutes from within.

Originally Posted by PHeymont: The back door is the second, emergency, code. It was used, but it can be overridden for 5 minutes from within. Looks like that 5 minute policy will need to be revisited.

It's very difficult to see exactly what to do, and I doubt that every contingency can be provided. The 5-minute lock is intended to deal with the situation of a crewmember, knife at throat, giving up the second code. If a second staff member were in the cockpit...that's about the only way to deal with a maniac like the Germanwings co-pilot. No guarantee...but a much better shot.

There was mention in the news coverage that planes can be controlled from the ground. It seems to me that the 2 person rule, combined with planes equipped so that settings from the cockpit can be overridden from the ground, would go a long way in the right direction.

I do think the security doors have been good because its prevented hijackings. I just don't see any answer though to a pilot or copilot wanting to crash the plane . It's a horrible tragedy but flying on a commercial airplanes is so safe compared to other forms of transportation. For some reason ,we don't worry about taking buses or vans or driving our own cars even though the risk is far greater.

I actually thought a bit about this today, and I'm going to go at this from a different approach. While we seem to think that a locked cockpit door makes flying safer, we have no evidence of that. There have been no (published) attempts of terrorists wanting to hijack a cockpit since 9-11. A shoe and underwear bomber, yes, but that didn't directly involve taking control of the plane. I would agree that it SEEMS to be a deterrent, but so is all the rest of the TSA song and dance. We have now...

I think I have to differ sharply with you on aspects of this issue. When you say that "whoever established that 5 minute rule is somewhat complicit in this," I think you are pointing the finger in the wrong direction. That system was the product of careful thought and consensus. You are right: there are no published reports hijacking a cockpit (and yes, there ARE a number of reports of attempts). That is because the cockpit security rules have succeeded in their aim. Where the finger of...

I don't know if there were two people or not in the cockpit the time the Egypt Air Pilot allegedly crashed that plane ,but I can't imagine it would stop a pilot bent on doing that. And we don't require two bus drivers with controls when going on mountainous journeys. I looked at a list of hijackings and attempts and after 2001 the attempts haven't been successful I think in part because of the doors and the fact that crew and passengers don't remain passive anymore. ...

Good points, Rob...although I think a second pilot, not a flight attendant, could have grabbed the controls and/or during those 8-10 minutes have opened the door and gotten help. Remember also that the original purpose of multiples in the cockpit was to deal with strokes, heart attacks, etc. Far more likely a passenger could stop the bus than fly the plane.

You do raise some good points with medical conditions, but those occur while driving too .I do it think it would be almost impossible to get to the bus driver in time if he drove off a cliff or bridge and also some bus drivers are driving children. We seem to accept those small risks in other forms of transportation and life.

I think we can all accept accidents happening. We do not accept a murderer using public transportation to kill large numbers of people. Planes are high profile because of the tremendous data we can retrieve when it crashes, which usually allows us to understand what happened to make it crash. Also because of the large number of passengers involved and lastly the tremendous cost of the planes. And yes, flying is still the safest way to travel. Going through Rob's link, there are hijack...

The reason the danger appears to be on the inside of the cockpit is that there are effective mechanisms for keeping intruders out. Remove those, and you remove that. Now, as I pointed out above, comes the need to reduce the risk from within by both requiring more than one person in the cockpit, and by more effective mental and physical screening of pilots. We have enough passenger screening...now we need the rest.

I saw a good article that points out just how safe flying really is. He was talking about 2013 but 2014 was even safer. As far as murderous pilots ,I'm sure statistically that's extremely low too. It's a horrible tragedy and we openly see it on the news ,but safety is one thing we have to give the airline industry some credit. The outsourcing of maintenance is what would be my biggest concern on the industry A couple of quotes. "Around 3 billion people boarded some 35 million flights, each...

I saw a Delta ad for the first time this morning, not apparently a new slogan, but given new meaning by recent event..."Keep climbing".

Lufthansa has been in dispute with its pilots for over a year. "Lufthansa’s industrial relations problems hit services for a tenth time in 2014 with pilots again taking action" Perhaps the last straw for the angry young man.

At a time when there are so many apps for instant and last-minute booking, it will probably come as a surprise to many that there are travelers (I'm one) who like to book plans way in advance -- especially true of Japanese tourists.

With the theme "100-Year-Old Flavors of Japan," Japanese Restaurant Week in NY will feature regional dishes at over 30 restaurants in the city as part of a joint promotion between the restaurants, the Japan Tourism Agency and other businesses.