So did you hear about the Quantas Aircraft loaded with 346 passengers...having a very dramatic landing as their plane fell apart because it was 17 years-old?
"One hour into the flight there was a big bang, then the plane started going down,"
The 346 passengers were cruising at 29,000 feet Friday when an explosive bang shook the Qantas jumbo jet. The plane descended rapidly. Oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling as debris flew through the cabin from a hole that had suddenly appeared in the floor.
The eerie scene aboard Flight QF 30, captured on a passenger's cell phone video-camera, showed a tense quiet punctuated only by a baby's cries as passengers sat with oxygen masks on their faces. The jerky footage showed a woman holding tightly to the seat in front of her as rapidly approaching land appeared through a window. Loud applause and relieved laughter went up as the plane touched down.
What they found was a stunning sight. A 9-foot-wide hole gaped at the joint where the front of the right wing attaches to the plane. Luggage from the cargo hold strained against the webbing used to keep it from shifting during a flight.
The probe into the 17-year-old aircraft was likely to be lengthy, Verdier said, and the Boeing team expects to interview the crew and examine the structure of the plane, among other things.
Union engineers — who have held several strikes this year to demand pay raises — say that safety is being compromised by low wages and overtime work.
As of December 2007, Qantas was operating 216 aircraft flying to 140 destinations in 37 countries, though in recent months it has announced it will retire some aircraft and cancel some routes — as well as cutting 1,500 jobs worldwide — due to skyrocketing fuel prices.
Consider this by Bloomberg:
Trend One: The service on your airplanes, bad as it may be, is going to get much worse.
Once upon a time these straight ladies and gay men sought to please fliers; now they treat fliers like criminals.
Trend Two: Your time will be treated as ever-less valuable. You think it's an outrage that planes are now flying more slowly to save fuel? Wait until you find yourself en route from New York to Los Angeles, and stop unexpectedly in Denver until the headwind slows.
Trend Three: Your planes will be ever-more likely to have an accident.
After all, these people who run the airlines have every expense under their microscope
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I'm thinking I'm gonna have to choose another airline from the top 10 list:
Maybe...Emirates. "Consistently cited as one of the world's best airlines, Emirates is the largest Middle Eastern Airline. Based in Dubai, most of its flight attendants are recruited from overseas. Website: http://www.emirates.com/"
They fly from JFK and Houston to Addis via Dubai.
And domestically...you just can't beat Jetblue.
These airlines (Emirates, Southwest, Jetblue) have new planes (because they are young), great safety records...and provide the type of service that United and American Airlines have long since abandoned in favor of cheap. They give you water, food, a movie, and nice flight attendants.
I don't want peanuts and water (how is that even safe, anyway...with all the allergies out there?); nor do I want to pay for bag (just charge all tickets what's needed to cover the cost of the bags), a coke, or be weighed to see how much my ticket should be. I want to at least have the option to watch a movie. I don't want the paint on the wing to be peeling, or the hand-rail to be broken. I don't want the decor to be dated (because that makes me think that the plane is old...and the metal may fatigue and fall off at 30,000 feet)...and I don't want to be without my luggage.
These airlines should just raise their prices to cover these costs...oh,...and the cost of paying the employees (the flight attendants, pilots, the people who fix the plane, who paint the plane, who clean the plane...)
Tsk, tsk, tsk...
...I wish I were rich enough to afford a private jet!!
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