A 90 year old flight attendant seems extraordinary considering we have only had a century of commercial flights! Bob Reardon started flying with Northwest Orient on 1st October 1951. The airline, in those days, flew DC-6s and Boeing 377 “Stratocruisers”. Northwest Orinet first flew to Japan in 1947 and for years was the largest foreign airline flying into Japan. Mr Reardon turned 90 in May, 2014. He set two Guinness World Records; one as the world’s oldest active flight attendant and the other for the longest career as a flight attendant (62 years). There is no upper limit on flight attendant ages in the USA whichI think…
Weird or Wonderful
Category Archives for Weird or Wonderful.
Malaysia’s Marketing Fail
Poor Malaysia Airlines, they cannot put a foot right it seems. “We are committed to regaining the confidence of our customers and sending them on memorable holiday experiences as a trusted five-star carrier.” Lee Poh Kait, Malaysia Airlines regional senior vice president, Australia, New Zealand & South West Pacific. After a horror year, Malaysia Airlines have started to rebuild. Apart from lowering fares to ridiculous levels, its major shareholder has announced a complete transformation of the loss making carrier. In addition, the airline is looking for ways to market itself. Its latest campaign has been pulled,…
Knee Gadget Sales Rise
After “that incident” on United Airlines this week, the Knee Defender, a gadget that blocks airplane seats from reclining, has seen a boost in sales. It’s website crashed yesterday under the weight of orders for the $US21.95 Knee defender! The device consists of two clips that slip onto the seatback tray. The incident, occurred, on United Flight 1462 from Newark, New Jersey to Denver, Colorado. A male passenger (48 years old), seated in a middle seat of row 12 used the Knee Defender to stop the female passenger (also aged 48) in the seat in front of him…
Most pierced man refused entry into Dubai
Rolf Buchholz a 53 year old German is the world’s most pierced man, according to the Guiness Book of Records. He sports 453 piercings plus two horns on his forehead. This week, he was barred from Dubai. No reason for refusing entry was given by airport officials but airpirt workers reportedly told him that officials were concerned he could be a practitioner of black magic. Ironically, he was on his way to a guest appearance at Cirque le Soir nightclub in Dubai’s Fairmont Hotel. This incident will generate some publicity for them? (For the record, he has 16 piercings in his right ear,…
Video: Dangerous Dreams in Rural Utah
This video on the BBC Travel website had me rolling around. Hilarious – and sobering. What crazy things people do when young and carefree?! The site has a series of animated mis adventures based on reader experiences including: Near drowning in Morocco Dangers in the Outback A stranger in Romania What misadventures have you had? Apart from almost getting robbed in Paris, having my starter motor die on my four wheel drive in the outback, sleeping in my car when we ran out of fuel in rural Western Australia, and almost getting blown up, I have…
Ignoring the safety message
Funny, cynical and thoughtful. The safety announcement is much like many I have observed. Watch what happens to the oblivious passengers next…
Wanting cigarettes, drunk 1 legged woman diverts plane
One wonders if some people should be allowed to fly? Thomson airlines may have second thoughts about letting one woman back on a plane after she threw food at their staff on a flight from Tunisia to Edinburgh on July 30. She then allegedly hit a child and attacked the cabin crew with her prosthetic leg which she had detached. Another passenger said that the woman was shouting “I want cigarettes”. She then reportedly demanded a parachute to jump off the plane. The captain of Thomson Airlines flight 297 was so concerned that he diverted the plane to London’s Gatwick airport where police escorted her off the plane. She…
Snakes on the Plane
Today, the woman in front of me got called over for “special screening” at the security checkpoint. The officers were concerned about something in her bag. Turned out she had a large bag of candy which had not been sealed. There was candy all through her hand luggage. What had attracted the screener’s attention were the large candy snakes which were sitting at the bottom of the case!
Dubai Immigrant Workers Dance “Happy”
For those of who have been to Dubai, you will have seen the gleaming towers, spotless streets, stunning shopping malls and clean hotels. Behind all of this are an estimated 7.8 million immigrant workers- 75 percent of whom are from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. There has been significant criticism of the working conditions of these workers. A charity that works with these workers is Smartlife Foundation, has a mission to “uplift the non privileged members of our community“. I was taken by a video of the people they work with dancing to Pharrell ‘s – Happy. It really humanises the…
Standing Room Section for Planes? Will it fly?
A paper published this week concludes that a cabin dedicated to standing only passengers “has a potential to be applied by low-cost airlines servicing short-haul flight markets.” Sounds like just the recipe for Ryanair, Spirit Airlines and Air Asia! It brings a whole new meaning to the term “cattle class“! F. I. Romli et al in the International Journal of Engineering and Technology, suggest that by installing a “standing seat“, airlines could fit 21 per cent more passengers into a cabin. The distance between seats could be reduced from the usual 30″ to a mere 23″. By removing…
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