Star Wars at Frankfurt Airport
Airlines, Airports, Americas, Europe, In the News

This week: More security concerns, Star Wars at Frankfurt & more

This was one of those weeks where one topic dominated. Nevertheless we did find some other interesting and even amusing airport news aside from the big one – here’s the overview:

The big one this week was the aftermath of last week’s raised U.S. security alerts. It now emerged that U.S. intelligence is sought to increase focus on cellphone and other electronic devices for passenger travelling to the United States. Fox News wrote that passengers taking international flights into the United States now must have their cellphones and other electronic devices pass additional inspection before boarding planes, as part of the Transportation Security Administration’s most recent strategy to protect against the threat of a new type of terror attack.

Technology Blog TechCrunch followed up by alerting travelers to charge their phones before flying. The blog wrote that the TSA published an announcement stating that passengers boarding flights to the U.S. from “certain overseas airports” (the specific airports go unnamed) will first need to prove that “all electronic devices” they’ve packed can be powered up. No power? No flight. At least not while you’re carrying that dead device.

Forbes even went further and provided a full list of suggestions to make certain that your phones, tablets and computers will work when you need them on to convince security screeners they are real. The list is very long and a bit excessive in our opinion, but a good source for some of the general advice – after all you don’t want to leave your iPad behind just because you have the wrong adapter, right?

Moving on to our next story: Most media outlets would have reported this one. Why? Well because first and foremost a possible big accident was prevented but – in our opinion – even more because it was caught on camera. We’re talking about the near miss collision at Barcelona Airport (BCN) this week of course. CNN reported that the video shows a Boeing 767 belonging to Russian airline UTair pulling up from its landing approach as an Aerolineas Argentinas Airbus A340 taxis across its path. No one was injured in the incident and the UTair plane was able to circle round and make a safe landing five minutes later. A spokesperson for the airport said there had been no impact danger and the perspective of the video did not show that there was plenty of space between the two aircraft.

A lighter subject – pardon the pun – came from South America this week when CNN reported that anyone departing from the Simon Bolivar International Airport of Maiquetia in Caracas (CCS) now faces a levy of 127 bolivars (US$18) to pay for a new air conditioning unit installed earlier this year. The airport says its air conditioning system “eliminates contaminants” and injects ozone into the atmosphere to improve the environment and protect the health of passengers.

And to finish the week off, here’s a bit of an eye candy for all you Star Wars fans out there. This week The Hollywood Reporter run the story about a YouTube video which shows Storm Troopers and Imperial Shuttles taking over Frankfurt International Airport (FRA). The very well made, fake Star Wars Episode VII footage went viral this week with over 5 million views. Enjoy!

That’s all for this week – safe travels!

[Title photo is a screenshot of the YouTube video from the story above – some rights reserved]