Comfort Minus

So the flight back home was in two parts.

From the Bahamas to Atlanta it was rather perfect and enjoyable with no issues.

However, from Atlanta back to Detroit was a whole different story.

I was flying Comfort Plus, as I bought that upgrade for a decent price from Main Cabin, mainly because I wanted to be sure to secure overhead bin space for my carry-on bag as it had expensive dive gear and a camera case in it, along with lithium batteries, and I didn't want it being banged around in checked luggage.

It was not to be.  Tons of passengers decided that they would put both their carrying on and their personal items (some of those "personal items" suspiciously looked like carry on size that would never fit under a seat) into the bins, taking up space including the space by my seat.  So my bag got placed rather a distance away from me and away from the exit, which meant I would pretty much be one of the last people off the plane as I could not reach my bag and could not swim upstream to get to it until everyone else got off. Not a huge deal, but annoying.

The Comfort Minus part came with my fellow passengers in my row.  I had the aisle seat.

Unfortunately, one of the largest women extant had the middle seat, and she spilled over both my side and into the passenger's space on the window seat side and she sure as heck required a seat-belt extender.  Forget about getting the interior armrests down, that wasn't going to happen.

So, I spent most of the flight sitting halfway on my seat and partially in the aisle, which got rather uncomfortable especially when the service carts came through. Meanwhile, the window passenger got really smushed against the hull of the aircraft for the flight.

Not particularly pleasant. At all.

If you need a seatbelt extender and your body goes into other people's seats, you should quite simply be required to purchase a second seat as you're taking up  more than one seat worth of space.

It is true that you may be grossly overweight due to no fault of your own due to a medical reason, or childhood trauma, or an overeating disorder, all of which can be sympathized with. But, you only paid for your seat space, not mine and the other passenger's space nor are you entitled to it, and you darn well knew at the time you wouldn't fit just in your seat.

That the airlines allow this out of fear of push-back from fat people "rights" groups is kinda ridiculous. If you take up more than one seat you should be required to pay for the additional seat, not get it at other passenger's expense.

Oh, and for the icing on the cake of that flight, my checked bag did not make the connection from the Bahamas flight to the Detroit flight, even with an hour layover, which caused me to hang around the Detroit airport for a couple hours for the next flight to bring it, so I got home the next day as I finally left the airport at 1 am.

Not Sure If These Will Be Reported As Deaths Caused By The Coronavirus

The New York Post: Pilots in Pakistan airliner crash were reportedly distracted by coronavirus

The pilots ignored the sterile cockpit rule while landing, instead chatting about the Coronavirus, and ignored the multiple alarms that their gear wasn't down and went to land anyways.

They then managed to scrape both engines along the runway and then compounded the error by doing a go-round with two damaged and failing engines and then unsurprisingly crashed and killed all 97 people on board.

This is one of the reasons why flying with many foreign airlines is highly contraindicated. Violating the sterile cockpit rule is a major problem that tends to allow an opportunity for disasters to strike. Then sterile cockpit rule is amazingly simple - no non-essential activities or communication is permitted during critical stages of flying such as takeoffs and landings.

Add to the mix that it appears that perhaps 30%+ of Pakistan Airlines' pilots have fake credentials, which doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

Heck, I fly a tiny plane by comparison, and always instruct passengers not to talk during takeoff or landing, except to let me know if they see another plane is on a collision course.

This was a completely and easily avoidable accident that should never have happened.

Singapore Day 6 - To The Beach

So at my birthday party the day before, Jonathan suggested we go to Changi beach as we wanted to swim in the Pacific Ocean on our trip.

So bright and early we got on the bus to head for Changi Village.

It was a nice double-decker air-conditioned bus, figuring out the fare was interesting as the driver had limited English, and we had no Chinese and limited varieties of banknotes, and the fare is based on distance and age, but we got it figured out.

Taking the bus was rather enjoyable and we got to see quite a bit of the city. We passed by the Malabar Mosque on the way:

And the famous Gay World Hotel:

Gay in the original and very English sense of the word. That hotel has been in Singapore with that name for a very long time which might disappoint certain travelers who might book there expecting the more modern meaning.

Then we passed by the infamous Changi prison.

Yes it is the same site as the Changi prison of World War 2. The Changi World War 2 prison museum is now at a different location. The prison today still looks very imposing indeed.

The bus drops you off at a station in Changi village and it's a short walk from the bus station to the beach.

On the way you cross a bridge by the docks lined with small boats.

Then you reach the beach.

It is a nice sandy beach with trees farther back for shade. It's also quite near a shipping lane so large freighters come by while you're swimming.

The water was warm and the beach was nice and sandy, and there were nice clean changing rooms and shower facilities, and restaurants close by so we had a nice picnic lunch on the beach.

The day was full of swimming and watching the boats go by.

Not only did boats go by, as Changi Beach is, luckily for an aviation buff like myself, in the flight path to Singapore's Changi International Airport.

I may have gone a little plane crazy, with so many planes from so many different Asian airlines in liveries that I've never seen in person before (click 'em to embiggen as they say and see the liveries, quite a few of which are rather ornate):

Air Asia has a cheerful slogan: "Now Everyone Can Fly", so carry on flying Mr. B.

There was Lion Air:

There was Tiger Air:

There was no Bear Air, Oh My.

But there was Royal Brunei:

EVA Air:

Vietnam Airlines:

China Airlines:

Malaysia:

Garuda Indonesia:

Thai:

Myanmar:

The venerable Cathay Pacific airline:

Heck, just when you get over Fox cancelling Firefly, you find out it's still flying -- in Asia:

That was quite a nice day at the beach.

After getting our fill of swimming, lunch, swimming some more, walking along the beach and sightseeing, we then took the bus back into town and had to stop for Starbucks.

However, we decided to have drinks there that you could only get in Singapore:

We got a Shiok-ah-ccino, and two more drinks that I don't remember the names of, but one was rather memorable as it had oatmeal in it which was rather interesting, but I really wouldn't recommend it. However, the Shiok-ah-ccino was very tasty as was the special iced tea drink.

Then we headed back to our abode, rested for a bit, and prepared for the next event of the day.

Leaving And Leaving On A Jet Plane

Travel can be interesting sometimes.

In this case we spent a longer time on the plane on the ground than we did in the air.

None of these issues were really the airline's fault, in this case Spirit, just a bunch of circumstances that snowballed into a massive delay.

Boarding was actually quite efficient so kudos to Spirit Airlines for making the process actually work for once.

First there was a long line for deicing of the plane. Since conditions were for ice, ice, and more ice, this wasn't optional.

Then just after we got deuces the wind shifted and instead of taking off directly from the runway right beside the deicingpad we had to do a tour de tarmac.

Then just as we reached the hold short line at the runway an announcement came over the intercom "is there a doctor , nurse or paramedic on board?"

It seems an elderly gentlemen on the way to a wedding started having some serious health issues. An ambulance arrived and he and some of his party were offloaded. Then they had to remove their luggage, refuel and deice the plane yet again. As the air conditioning system can't be running during deicing this made the plane rather hot and stuffy, but overall it a huge deal. We finally got to the right runway and took off to much applause from all. The pilots and crew were pretty good about it and rather apologetic but it wasn't their fault.

We arrive about two and a half hours late for a three hour flight. But, we did arrive safe and sound and it's warmer by far where we are now so I'm not complaining.

Not Worth A Continental

The saying "Not Worth A Continental" dates back to the Revolutionary War and the inflationary paper money put out by the Continental Congress to pay for the the costs of the war. The Continental Congress issued over $241,552,780 in continental notes. The notes rapidly became worth less than the paper they were printed on due to inflation and a lack of any backing to the currency.

We do have a history of our government trying to print our way out of our expenses....

However, that's not the Continental in the news today. Yet another item is about to reaffirm the adage "not worth a Continental".

It appears that Continental Airlines is about to be no more.

The Detroit Free Press: Continental Airlines will be history after tonight

Metro Detroiters who lived through the merger of Delta and Northwest airlines will not be surprised to learn that as of Saturday morning, another airline brand will vanish.

Tonight is the final step in the merger of United and Continental Airlines. The last Continental flight will leave Phoenix for Cleveland at 11:59 p.m. today. Just after that, the reservations systems of the two airlines will merge. The code CO (Continental) will disappear. By Saturday morning, the merged airline will use only the United name and the United website. And Continental will be history.

I found Continental to be more reliable and pleasant than that other now-merged airline that operated out of DTW and has now passed on thankfully taken over by Delta: Northworst.

Then again I've always liked flying United, especially when the pilots allowed channel 9 on the audio to be active and you could listen in to air traffic control and the pilot's communication with ATC.

So, farewell to yet another Continental, proving yet again that the way to make a small fortune in the aviation business is to start out with a large one.

Green Day Singer Tossed Off Plane For Wearing Sagging Pants

Foxnews:Green Day Front Man Kicked Off Plane Because of Saggy Pants

Apparently airlines these days are very concerned that their passengers wear pants that aren't properly worn.

Billie Joe Armstrong might also have been kicked off because he was an American Idiot on Holiday.

Now pull up your pants.

Yet another example of government competence in action, FAA department.

FAA loses track of 119,000 aircraft

Yes, the FAA's registry system is so messed up, they don't know with certainty who owns over 1/3 of America's aviation fleet.

The Detroit News:

The Federal Aviation Administration is missing key information on who owns one-third of the 357,000 private and commercial aircraft in the U.S. — a gap the agency fears could be exploited by terrorists and drug traffickers.

The records are in such disarray that the FAA says it is worried that criminals could buy planes without the government's knowledge, or use the registration numbers of other aircraft to evade new computer systems designed to track suspicious flights. It has ordered all aircraft owners to re-register their planes in an effort to clean up its files.

About 119,000 of the aircraft on the U.S. registry have "questionable registration" because of missing forms, invalid addresses, unreported sales or other paperwork problems, according to the FAA. In many cases, the FAA cannot say who owns a plane or even whether it is still flying or has been junked.

Already there have been cases of drug traffickers using phony U.S. registration numbers, as well as instances of mistaken identity in which police raided the wrong plane because of faulty record-keeping.

The fix will require re-registering all 357,000 civilly owned US aircraft, causing some major issues with priority on the titles of the aircraft.

The registry errors have already led to innocent aircraft owners being confronted at gunpoint by US law enforcement:

Unreliable data in the system has led to cases of mistaken identity.

Pilot Pierre Redmond said his Cirrus was searched by Customs and Border Protection agents in fatigues and bulletproof vests last year in Ramona, Calif. They told him his tail number had been confused with that of a wanted plane in Florida.

In August, police in Santa Barbara, Calif., detained flight instructors John and Martha King at gunpoint after federal authorities mistook their Cessna for a plane that was stolen in 2002. The Kings are famous in aviation because they produce and star in a popular series of test-preparation videos for pilots.

The error in the Kings' case was eventually traced to a law-enforcement database that is cross-referenced with the FAA's registry, not to the registry itself. But Brown of the FAA called it an example of the real-world consequences of bad recordkeeping.

"It's very, very scary," Martha King said. "If this keeps happening to people, somebody's going to get shot."

As the Instapundit would say, the country's in the very best of hands!

Another Arab Disturbance On A Northwest Aircraft to Detroit

This is becoming a troubling pattern.

Flight 243, again a Northwest flight from Amsterdam to Detroit had four Saudi Arab males removed from the aircraft upon landing.

Detroit Bound Flight Crew Made Jittery by Muslim Passengers
Four Muslim Men Are Questioned After One Hides His Head Under a Blanket

Another jittery flight crew questioned the actions of a few Muslim passengers today, causing yet another flight to be delayed and police to question the four men.
Surveillance footage shows the security breach that resulted in flight delays.

As Northwest Airlines flight 243 from Amsterdam to Detroit -- the same route taken by a Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up a plane Christmas Day -- began its descent on Detroit, four passengers began to act in ways that alarmed their fellow passengers.

One or more of the men reportedly pulled a blanket over his head. When the plane landed at around 1:05 p.m., it was met by police.

Apparently they were also joking about terrorism in Arabic, luckily the Air Marshals on board spoke Arabic.

Was this yet another test of the system, especially as it succeeded in exposing 4 Air Marshals that were on the flight, or even a dry run for an attempt perhaps?

Other Bloggers covering this:

The blogprof: Déjà vu: Another Delta flight from Amsterdam to Detroit disrupted this time by unruly Saudis. Most media only calls them "unruly passengers," won't divulge nationalityDebbie

Debbie Schlussel: AGAIN!: Northwest Amsterdam Flight Disrupted by Unruly Middle Eastern Passengers; UPDATED + VIDEO

Michelle Malkin: Four Saudis disrupt Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight

Arab pulled off Detroit bound flight after threatening to kill Jews

In yet another Detroit-bound Northwest airlines incident, a man was removed from a flight after uttering threats.

The Detroit News: Witnesses: Man taken off Detroit-bound flight shouted anti-Semitic slurs

An airline passenger in Miami proclaimed, "I want to kill all the Jews," before police forced him off a Detroit-bound plane, authorities said today.

Mansor Mohammad Asad, 43, of Toledo, Ohio, was arrested Wednesday night, according to a Miami-Dade Police Department statement. Asad was charged with threats against a public servant, disorderly conduct and resisting an officer without violence.

FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela said there were no indications the disturbance was related to terrorism. The bureau was initially brought in to look into the incident but is no longer involved in the investigation. She said the FBI is treating the disruption as a matter for local authorities.

The disturbance forced a taxiing Northwest Airlines flight to turn around at Miami International Airport, according to a news release. Witnesses told investigators who boarded the plane that Asad was loud, disruptive and claimed to be Palestinian.

Officers didn't find any weapons or explosives on Asad, who was reportedly agitated and aggressive at times, according to an arrest affidavit. Authorities used a stun gun to subdue Asad on the jet bridge after he charged at an officer with fists clenched. He also chanted in a foreign language and threatened officers during a search.

"I'm not afraid of you cops. I've gotten in fights with cops in Ohio and broke their arms in three places," he said, according to the affidavit. "I've broken skulls, too!"

The affidavit noted that alcohol didn't appear to be a factor during the incident.

The Transportation Security Administration says three of Asad's companions were also taken off the plane and questioned. The plane departed after a search.

Asad was transported to a Miami-Dade County jail after his arrest, according to the affidavit. A telephone number for county corrections rang unanswered early this morning, and his records could not immediately be located online.

Yet another incident involving Muslim males, Northwest Airlines and Detroit as a destination. Whether this was merely some loudmouth or a dry run to see how officials would react is hard to tell, and this cluster of activities certainly bears watching and investigation.

Alcohol may not have been a factor as noted in the report, but in the immortal words of Mark Steyn something else was, something that begins with an I and ends with a SLAM.

Obama Administration pushes Unions on the Airlines

The Detroit News: Airlines oppose union rule change

The National Mediation Board proposed a rule change Monday that would allow airline and railroad workers to unionize, even if a majority of workers don't participate in the election.

The change would overturn more than 75 years of precedent. It would eliminate a requirement that a majority of workers must participate in a unionization election for it to be valid.

Unsurprisingly, the change does not have a parallel provision to decertify a union without a majority, thus tipping the balance firmly towards the unions.

It's not like airlines are flush with cash and ripe for plucking by unions, they're hanging on by their wingtips and increaed labor costs through pushed-through unionization without even a majority of workers approving the change is just plane wrong.

Yet another example of payback to Obama's union backers.