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By David Parker Brown, on July 29th, 2010 at 10:09 am
 QantasLink Boeing 717-200 (VH-NXH) Oh please! Are the airlines to blame for everything now-a-days? Well it sure seems passenger Jean Barnard thinks so, since she sued Qantas for, “physical and mental suffering, medical expenses and loss of income,” because a three year old passenger screamed into her ear on a QantasLink flight from Alice Springs to Darwin.
Don’t get me wrong, the hearing loss seems real. Barnard had to be taken off the plane and taken to the hospital for permanent ear damage. There is some question if she had previous hearing damage, but getting the blood-curdling scream into her ear, surely didn’t help.
However, how can this be seen as Qantas’ fault? In court, Qantas argued that they are not responsible for a child’s actions and, “Flight attendants cannot predict when children aboard an aircraft are about to scream. There is no evidence that the child was screaming in the terminal, or on board the aircraft prior to the particular scream which allegedly caused the damage.”
Qantas must have felt her argument or the idea of bad press was too great and (confidentially) settled with Barnard out of court. That is too bad, since I feel that Barnard was more out to make a few bucks than to really change how an airline operates. Other than putting a muzzle on every child, what could Qantas have done? If Barnard was walking on the street and a child did the same thing, what would she have done then? Sued the city that owns the street?
Thanks Chris S!
Source: Mail Online Image: Zach Liepa
By David Parker Brown, on April 6th, 2010 at 10:20 am
 Qantas Airbus A380 with Sydney in the background. Often the A380 flies from Sydney to Singapore. No, there wasn’t a Jedi master flying on Qantas flight QF31 from Sydney to Singapore. However, there was a man who appeared to be high on drugs and/or alcohol who thought he could crash the plane using his mind. Passengers around the delusional man stated he wanted to bring down the flight using only his mind. Although the fear of it actually happening was low, the flight attendants took no chances and cuffed the man’s arms and legs for the remainder of the flight.
Like most people who end up in cuffs during flight, the gentleman was met in Singapore by police.
Source: ABC.net.au via Seattle PI Image: griffs0000
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By David Parker Brown, on December 1st, 2009 at 11:01 am
 Indigo Airbus A320 What’s crazier than one passenger calling in a bomb threat to delay a flight? Having two different passengers calling in bomb threats to delay two separate flights a world away from each other.
The first one involves Claudia De La Rosa who didn’t want her boss to miss his American Airlines flight from Miami to Honduras last Wednesday. Instead of having to pay a ticket change fee or deal with a grumpy boss, she decided to email a bomb threat to delay the flight. It worked and the flight was delayed while police searched the aircraft. De La Rosa made it easy for police to track her down, since she sent the incriminating email using her work computer and was quickly arrested. That is going the extra mile for the boss, but I expect she won’t have her job for much longer. No word if her boss even made that flight.
All the way around the world in Delhi, a man called in a bomb threat last Sunday to delay his relative’s flight. Mubarak Ali’s relative got to the airport at 9pm, but his 8:55pm IndiGo flight was already pushed back from the gate. Not willing to accept his relative arriving late, Ali called the airline’s flight center and reported the plane had a bomb. The IndiGo flight, with 164 passengers, was sent to an isolated area of the airport and was searched. Of course no bomb was found and Ali was tracked down and arrested for making a fake bomb threat. As before, no idea if Ali’s relative was able to make it in time to pay for bail.
I have seen people do some crazy things (mostly just running very fast and asking people to cut in line, so not that crazy), but calling (or emailing) in a bomb threat just doesn’t make any sense. I for one would never want De La Rosa or Ali planning my next trip.
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Image: Siddarth Bhandary
By David Parker Brown, on November 10th, 2009 at 11:50 am
 Print that ticket at home, or it could cost you $150 to get into that door! If you follow Ryanair or Michael O’Leary, the CEO of Ryanair, you know there is always something going down in Ryanair-land. Well, let’s step this up to the next level of craziness. In the good ‘ol days (aka now) you only have to about $60 for printing your boarding pass at the airport. But O’Leary doesn’t like check-in counters and wants people to stop getting boarding passes at the airport.
“You really now must check in before you get to the airport. If you don’t the fine is €40 [~$60] and if that doesn’t get rid of them all within a very short order, we double that fine to €100 [~$150],” said Mr O’Leary. “We don’t want people showing up without the pre-printed boarding card.”
If you don’t have a printer at home, it would be more cost effective to go out and buy a printer for $50, print your boarding pass, and pocket the $100.
This might not shock many of you, but complaints on Ryanair are up 140% and they have the highest number of complaints in the UK (although they are one of the biggest airlines as well).
But if you want to complain to Ryanair, good luck! It costs about $1.42 per minute to talk to a customer service representative. I am sure they will have no problem, sitting back listening to your complaints and even ask follow up questions.
Why do people keep making this airline successful? Because they want the cheapest ticket possible, period. Will there ever be a backlash with passengers realizing price isn’t everything? Or will this business model spread to the US (please no) and be the future of commercial aviation?
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Source: Irish Examiner via FlyersView Image: * mario *
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