Airlines, Airports, Americas, Asia, In the News, Weekly

This week: Bangkok runway incident, Boston’s 911 mishap & more

After a few slower week, this one has seen quite a few airport related news headlines again. Here’s what we’re going to recap for you today:

First up was quite a scare for passengers on a Thai Airways flight when a Airbus 330-300 skidded off the runway while landing at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport (BKK) after its landing gear malfunctioned. According to a Fox News article thirteen people were injured while evacuating the plane. After the accident, workers on a crane blacked out the Thai Airways logo on the tail and body of the aircraft, as part of an effort to protect the airline’s image according to Star Alliance guidelines, an official said. Tomo News took this fact and published a rather cheeky animated video on his news site; watch it here.

It was also the 12th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. this week. Needless to say that Americans and probably people around the world in general would be quite sensitive that day. It then was fairly stupid to conduct a fire drill on that day which resulted in heavy smoke. That’s exactly what Boston’s Logan International Airport (BOS) did though. CBS Boston reported that on Wednesday morning, the Massachusetts Port Authority conducted the drill, which involved what appeared to be a plane on fire. Heavy black smoke could be seen drifting over the airfield. They later apologized for the poor timing.

The Wall Street Journal published an excellent article this week about the state of U.S. airline travel in regards to flight delays over the summer period. Its article reveals the most delayed airline being Spirit Airlines with about every other flight occurring delays. The most punctual airline was Alaska Airlines with 85% of all flights arriving on time. The report also revealed the most troubled airports in regards to delays. Top of the list went to San Francisco Airport (SFO) with only 62% of flights arriving on time. In the article a San Francisco airport spokesman said June suffered from planned closures for runway improvement work. The July 6 crash of an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 that hit a sea wall short of the runway left SFO with only one of its two main landing runways available for six days, causing widespread delays.

Also this week the Financial Times published an article about the progress of the Brazilian airport upgrades. Well, you probably guessed it, progress is very slow. The article reveals for example that the only major improvement so far at Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos Airport (GRU), which handled nearly 32.8m passengers last year, has been the construction of an eight-story car park. We’re certainly not impressed.

And to finish the week, some celebrity gossip for you: Rolling Stone revealed yesterday that Kanye West has been charged with battery and attempted grand theft for his July encounter with a photographer at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Each of these misdemeanor charges carries a maximum penalty of six months in prison if West is found guilty.

That’s all for this week – safe travels!

[Featured Image from Wikipedia – some rights reserved]