Well, well, well. In our head it seemed like a very busy airport related news week, however some news just kept re-appearing. Plus we’ve travelled ourselves, from Asia back to Australia, this week too. Both of those things initially clouded our judgement, we guess. It’s actually been a fairly quiet week. Here’s what we found:
- Apple Maps leads drivers onto Alaska airport taxiway
- Plane lands at Louisiana Airport after threat
- LAX terminal flooded
- Singapore Changi introduces duty-free shopping from home
- Snake found on Qantas plane
Yep, it’s the Apple news that kept reappearing this week. It almost seems everyone likes to beat the successful tech giant. What happened is that, according to ABC News, a glitch in the Apple Maps app on newer iPhones and iPads guides people up to a runway at a major Alaska airport instead of sending them on the proper route to the terminal. The airport in question is Fairbanks International Airport in Alaska (FAI). According to the Alaska Dispatch, at least twice in the past three weeks, out-of-town drivers who followed directions on their iPhones were led across the runway to the airport ramp side of the passenger terminal. And they followed the directions even though a gate and a sign was there to stop them, wrote USA Today. It goes to show, you shouldn’t blindly trust technology and switch your brain off completely. It reminds us of of those Japanese tourists that drove into the water in Australia after following their GPS device’s instructions.
Then there was Monroe Regional Airport (MLU), a public use airport in Louisiana. On Tuesday, the News Star reported that the airport has been reopened after a scare caused when a bomb threat note was found Tuesday morning in an American Airlines plane en route to northeastern Louisiana.The airport had been shut down for roughly two hours and caused all air traffic to be diverted to Jackson, Mississippi. According to ABC News no device was found aboard Flight 3648, however agents were interviewing 15 passengers and three crew members but no suspects were immediately identified.
On Thursday Business Insider run the story of a flooded airport terminal. This wouldn’t necessarily make big headlines, but if the airport in question is Los Angeles International Airport, we’re surely listening. According to the article the United Airlines terminal at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) flooded on Thursday morning. In the article an airport spokesperson said the flooding started at 9:05 a.m. local time, and was caused by a pipe burst. Plumbers stopped the leak by 9:27. She said no flights were delayed.
One day earlier, on Wednesday, Singapore’s Changi Airport (SIN) announced the arrival of duty-free shopping from the comfort of your home. It wrote in its press release that Changi Airport Group announced today the official launch of iShopChangi, Changi Airport’s new online shopping portal (www.iShopChangi.com). The online store allows customers to purchase items from multiple retailers across different terminals, and enjoy the convenience of collecting them at a single stop – the iShopChangi Collection Centre, which can be found in the Departure Transit Mall of each terminal.
And finally, to finish off the week, we’ve got another ‘snake on a plane’ story for you. According to the Guardian Qantas appears to have a snake problem. For the second time this year a snake has been found trying to hitch a lift on a plane, this time forcing hundreds of passengers to spend a night in a Sydney hotel instead of jetting off to Japan. “The snake was taken to quarantine to determine where it came from, and a replacement aircraft – a B747 – operated a replacement service to Narita this morning [Monday] at 10.15,” a spokeswoman told Guardian Australia.
That’s all we have for this week. We’re going to take a break next week but will be back the one after. Our twitter feed is being updated while we’re away. Safe travels and read you again in two weeks!