As an excuse for a delayed flight, it took some beating – a mouse was loose in the cabin.
Nearly 150 passengers on the Delta Airlines Boeing 767 from JFK New York to London Heathrow last Sunday were transferred to another plane after the mouse was spotted. Airport officials told them that the stowaway could create a safety hazard by chewing through electrical wire and hydraulic lines.
Amazingly, Delta confirmed that the same plane on the same scheduled flight had been evacuated three weeks earlier for the same reason. The airline said it was now “working with pest control experts in case remedial action is needed.”
The New York Times had a bit of an eye-witness exclusive on this one – their Deputy Managing Editor, William E Schmidt, was on board. “People were amused,” he said.
by Andy Moreton
A runway at New York’s JFK airport had to be closed for a time last week because 78 turtles emerged from a nearby bay and crawled on to the tarmac.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said ground crews rounded up the wayward reptiles in about 35 minutes and deposited them back in the water, farther from airport property.
The incident disrupted JFK’s flight schedule and led to delays of up to an hour-and-a-half.
The turtles were identified as Diamondback terrapins, a species common to Jamaica Bay, which surrounds the airport. They’re about 8 inches long and weigh 2 to 3 pounds each.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration’s wildlife strike database, jets hit turtles a few times each year at JFK, usually at the end of June or in early July when it’s the breeding season.
by Andy Moreton
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Here’s a cautionary tale for those travellers who choose not to pre-book their onward transport from the airport.
Five French tourists, arriving at New York’s JFK, were led by a man into a vehicle that wasn’t licensed as a taxi service.
Plain-clothes police recognised the man as a serial hustler but, as an officer reached inside to take the keys, the driver sped off with the tourists, knocking down the officer in the process.
What followed was a scary high-speed police chase through residential streets, with the French visitors alternately ‘screaming and praying’. After about seven miles through two boroughs, the van crashed into a gate at a US Postal Service building in Brooklyn. One of the tourists was slightly injured as she tried to jump from the van.
The police chased two men on foot and arrested them. They currently face charges of second-degree assault and unlawful solicitation of ground transportation services, among other related charges.
For their troubles, the French guests received a bag of NYC goodies, including transit fare cards, passes to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and tickets to see the musical Chicago on Broadway.
by Andy Moreton
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Figures recently released here in the UK show that air travel is declining for the first time in twenty years.
The number of passengers at eighteen leading British airports dropped by more than four per cent in September from 20.8 million to 19.9 million.
Large airports fared worst, with Heathrow down 3.6 per cent, Gatwick 6.8 and Manchester 6.7.
The figures suggest that the continuous growth in air travel since 1991 – encouraged by the popularity of low cost carriers – is coming to an end, along with cheap flights.
Any number of factors are driving leisure airline traffic down, not least the economic situation that’s beginning to affect family budgets. There are also environmental concerns and the well-publicised and off-putting problems with baggage handling and queues caused by extra security measures.
Companies are also re-evaluating business travel in light of the global downturn. According to Rebecca Ruiz of Forbes.com in New York, travel managers are considering everything from curtailing trips that aren’t revenue-generating to renegotiating contracts with hotels to include free Internet or gym access to asking employees of the same sex to share hotel rooms.
Environmental campaigners here in the UK say it all adds up to the government needing to look again at airport expansion, particularly a proposed new runway at Heathrow.
But the British Airports Authority says the outlook for aviation remains strong. “Historically, air traffic growth recovers from short-term shocks such as those currently being played out in the financial markets,” a spokesman said.
by Andy Moreton
One thing that didn’t delay passengers at Heathrow’s new Terminal 5 was having their fingerprints taken.
Less than 24 hours before the opening of the terminal, the controversial scheme was shelved after Britain’s Information Commissioner expressed concern that it could breach the Data Protection Act.
The British Airports Authority had maintained that fingerprinting for domestic passengers was needed so that they could mix with international travellers in airport shopping centres. It warned that an incoming international passenger could switch tickets with an accomplice booked on a domestic flight and then enter the country without being checked by immigration.
But a statement from the Information Commissioner said: “It is essential that before introducing new systems and technologies which could accelerate the growth of a surveillance society, full consideration is given to minimising the impact on privacy and that data protection safeguards are in place to limit any risks.”
No such worries at New York’s Kennedy airport. Indeed, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has just announced that, in common with many other US airports, it’s now going to carry out a full ten-finger print check on international visitors arriving at JFK. Previously it was just a two finger job and a photo.
The DHS said the upgrade would improve fingerprint matching accuracy and help immigration officers make visa and admissibility decisions.
by Andy Moreton
