Forums: Aviation

On Saturday John and Martha King filed an IFR flight plan and flew in their Cessna 172 aircraft, N50545, from San Diego to Santa Barbara Airport, California. Upon landing the King’s were instructed taxi their aircraft to the hanger one. Upon exiting the aircraft, the couple was stormed by the Santa Barbara police. They were told to put their hands up and detained by gun point. What the King’s did not know was earlier in the day federal authorities were monitoring flights and checking aircraft tail numbers and that the King’s aircraft came up as a stolen aircraft when they...

(AP) STONEWALL, Texas (AP) - Luci Baines Johnson remembers as a teenager riding in a shiny mirror-finished jet trimmed with sky blue and white paint and emblazoned with black letters proclaiming "United States of America," then landing on a narrow Texas airstrip behind what Americans would come to know as the Western White House. "A country runway," she said this week of the roughly mile-long airstrip behind President Lyndon Johnson's ranch, her childhood home and now part of the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park. The National Park Service, which manages the park, will formally acquire the JetStar aircraft Johnson...

United and Continental airlines aren't yet officially hitched, but some are already grumbling about the monogram they've selected for their china. The backlash is a reaction to one of the first compromises reached by the carriers' CEOs during their April courtship: an agreement to stamp Continental's stylized globe logo and blue-and-gold color scheme on all jets operated by the new United, which will be one of the world's largest carriers. United's name and its Chicago headquarters will survive the tie-up, but not the "tulip," the giant Saul Bass-designed "U" that has graced United's jets for nearly 40 years.

Logan airport security just got more up close and personal as federal screeners launched a more aggressive palms-first, slide-down body search technique that has renewed the debate over privacy vs. safety.

Aviation has rebounded from the economic crisis and the proof is in the US$ 47bn of orders signed at last week's biannual Farnborough International Airshow. While the 2008 Farnborough air show held before the start of the global economic recession saw a total of $89 billion worth of deals signed, aviation and aerospace executives were pleased with the resounding rebound. Of the total sales at the 2010 show over 20% - about US$ 10bn were inked by Russian companies and the biggest smiles were around the Sukhoi stand as its Civil Aircraft division proved the international appeal of the Sukhoi...

One passenger was killed when an airplane crashed in bad weather and split into two when landing early Monday on the island of San Andres, Colombia, officials said. The number of injured remained unclear Monday morning, but the national police said six of at least 127 people aboard the plane were not hurt. There also were conflicting reports as to how many people were aboard the Aires airline 737-700 jet when it crashed around 1:49 a.m. (2:49 a.m. ET). The Colombian national police initially said the flight had 131 people -- 121 adult passengers, four minors and six crew members....

Most of us will probably never pull a Steven Slater: curse out a customer, grab a drink and leave our place of employment in a blaze of glory. But let’s face it, we’ve all had the urge. Slater, a flight attendant on JetBlue, instantly became a folk hero in many people’s eyes Monday after he grabbed a microphone and ranted at a passenger who had refused to apologize for hitting Slater with some luggage. Slater then grabbed a beer from the galley and fled the plane via the emergency exit chute. “How many of us can honestly say we haven’t...