Airlines Archive

What Happens to Your Image After the Airport Scan?

August 23rd, 2010. By Hunter West

A group known as the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), working through a Freedom of Information Act request, obtained what was described as a “representative sample” of more than 35,000 ‘whole body images’ of attendees at a US courthouse in Orlando. 

The images are captured by millimeter wave technology and are ghost-like, not showing much detail. 

However, what bothers the EPIC and privacy advocates everywhere, is that the images were even available at all. 

The Bijot Gen2 imaging system scans and captures the images of people entering the court facility, for security purposes. US marshals have the capacity to view the current image, and the previous two images, while on security detail. 

But instead of being automatically purged the images—according to an August 4^th CNN report—are automatically stored in the system’s hard drive. While the images are available for viewing after the fact, they can only be accessed with the use of a system pass code. 

Privacy advocates maintain that this type of archiving makes them nervous with regard to the use of backscatter X-ray machines at the nation’s airports. While the full-body scans Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Airline, Airport Security, Privacy
Posted in Airlines, Intellectual Property | 1 Comment »

You Smell: Get off the Plane

February 19th, 2010. By AbiK

We’ve all been there. Someone walks by and you catch a whiff. Maybe it’s Giorgio or Red Door layered on a little too thick…that distinct left-the-bar-at-dawn smell…or pure and simple B.O. It’s off-putting, but thankfully not lingering. Unless you’re sittin’ next to it. On a plane.

So as this story goes, regional airliner Jazz Air out of Canada “deplaned” a man for his “strong body odor”. One passenger on the Feb. 6th flight described the smell as “brutal” according to a cnn.com report. The flight was only to be about 2 hours, 21 minutes from Charlottetown to Montreal. But still. Seat back forward, baby, please return that tray table to its upright and locked position. You’re outta here.

This marks what appears to be a new rationale for deplaning a passenger—it used to be that a passenger needed to be a) drunk, b) unruly/belligerent, c) with screaming child in tow, or d) a terrorist suspect to get booted from a plane. Perhaps, too, on an overbooked flight there may have been an occasion where a double-occupancy physique couldn’t squeeze into a single-occupancy seat (hello, Kevin Smith). But for the most part, those were your options for getting kicked off the plane.

Now, I can tell you, if you’ve never experienced “brutal” bodily aromas while being held captive, you really can’t call what happened on Jazz Air either shameful or ridiculous. I’ve been there—while in a hospital bed (captive enough?)—and I can tell you it was so bad I marched my rolling I.V. stand right out to that nurses station with that pee-uw look on my face and my nose clipped shut clothespin-style with my fingers and requested a complete fumigation of the room and something for nausea. It. Was. Bad. So my sympathies lie with the other passengers on this one. But it does raise the question of just what exactly are grounds to kick someone off a plane they’ve no doubt spent hundreds—possibly thousands—to be riding the friendly skies in?

And I question what grounds may follow…halitosis? snoring? smelly feet? excessive dandruff? chatty Cathy? Sounds like a new day dawning in discrimination litigation…

Tags: Airline Passenger Rights, Jazz Air
Posted in Airlines | 2 Comments »

Airline Passengers Get a Bill of Rights–Better Late than Never!

December 21st, 2009. By LucyC

When I read the headline this morning I thought they were describing a United Nations or World Health Organization intervention. “Airlines must supply food, water after 2 hours, maintain operable lavatories” (msnbc.com). But no—the Obama administration has developed some regulations to protect domestic air travelers. 

In fact, the Transportation Department has ordered US passenger airlines operating domestic flights to let passengers deplane if they’ve been stuck in a plane on the tarmac for three hours. Three hours is still a long time, mind you, especially if you’re flying at the back of the bus, but it’s better than the current time limit—which is FOREVER. 

According to the report on msnbc—some 613 planes were delayed on US tarmacs in the first six months of 2009—January to June. Not surprisingly, there are horror stories aplenty from passengers stranded in hot, crowded planes for hours—even overnight—while the problem that caused the aborted take-off is fixed—best case scenario. 

Of course there’s always the chance that the problem can’t be fixed in your lifetime, so after Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Air Travel, Airlines
Posted in Airlines | 1 Comment »

Don’t Just Blame The Laptop Pilots

October 28th, 2009. By Hunter West

So everybody is up in arms over the Northwest Airlines flight that overshot Minneapolis airport last week because the pilots were busy with their laptops. Monday night Jay Leno had a field day, suggesting that when two guys are bored, what do they do for fun? Bring out the laptops and surf for…well, you know what comes next. 

The pilots are suspended, as they should be. The public is outraged, as it should be. The outcome could have been far, far worse.  

But let’s look at it another way. There were some things that went right. There was no alcohol abuse. And the pilots weren’t tired. There was a 17-hour break for the two men between flights, which means they were well rested. 

Too many pilots because of fatigue, or illness have made too many deadly errors.

So let’s be thankful for that. 

True, we should not allow the focus to be removed from two experienced pilots who should have known better. The New York Times reported October 27th that there were 31,000 hours of flying time between the two men. That kind of lapse in judgment, by two experienced pilots with the lives of 144 people (not to mention flight crew) in their control cannot be discounted. The New York Times quoted Robert Mann Jr., a veteran industry analyst, as saying the actions of Captain Timothy B. Cheney and First Officer Richard I. Cole, were “inexcusable.”  Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Airplane, Delta, Northwest Airlines, Pilot Error
Posted in Airlines, Court of Public Opinion | No Comments »