Airports, Americas, Europe, In the News, Oceania, Weekly

This week: Dry ice bomb at LAX, Kangaroo at Melbourne & more

The talk of this week certainly was the dry ice bomb at LAX. It’s therefore not surprising we’re also going to focus on this event in this week’s airport news round-up. Here are all the topics:

On Sunday Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) briefly shut when, according to CNN, a plastic bottle exploded in an employee restroom. The restroom is an area of Terminal 2 not open to the general public, a FBI spokeswoman said in a statement. No injuries were reported, and Terminal 2 resumed operations after a brief evacuation. During the week two airport employees were then taken into custody for their alleged role in setting off the bomb, wrote the Huffington Post later in the week.

Then on Wednesday the San Jose Mercury News reported that a bird strike to an engine forced an Alaska Airlines flight en route from San Jose to Honolulu to make an emergency landing at Oakland International Airport (OAK). The Boeing 737, carrying 157 passengers and six crew members, landed without incident, and no injuries were reported. This incident brings back memories from 2009 when Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger famously hit a flock of geese after takeoff from New York’s LaGuardia airport and then making a daring landing on the Hudson River.

Later in the week, Passenger Terminal Today reported the opening of Kiev International Airport’s (IEV) new Terminal D. The 3,000,000m² terminal contains 12 check-in desks, five gates, a business lounge, offices and two restaurants. The terminal cost approximately US$30m (£18.6m) to construct and will serve up to 400,000 domestic passengers every year.

And to finish off the week, we found another kangaroo story from down-under: According to the New York Times, an injured kangaroo made its way into Melbourne Airport (MEL) ending up, fittingly, in a pharmacy. Astonished travelers watched as the kangaroo stumbled around the aisles, only to be captured by a dark-clad woman and a man in a Qantas vest, who can be seen on video casting a cloth over the ailing animal and then gently tackling it. It was placed under the care of a veterinarian, the story concluded.

That’s all for this week – safe travels!

[Photo from Wikimedia Commons – some rights reserved]