You really think that a full time military crew is that superior to any commercial crew with thousands and thousands of hours of flying for, sometimes, decades all over the world and through all kinds of emergency? And flying any politician and his entourage is fine, but on my book is not even remotely more important than 300+ persons and their daughters, sons, moms, wife’s, husbands, etc.... Just to be clear, I’m sure that these vip transport military crews are ALSO top notch, of course. My issue is with the idea that they would be superior to a veteran civilian crew in any way.

(Written on 09/25/2020)(Permalink)

It is a joke to indicate that now, after having flown on a private jet, the child will never like normal flying again. And kudos to Spirit for having done that

(Written on 07/10/2020)(Permalink)

No, it's worse than that. The daughter of the founder who was an executive VP or something, didn't like the way the cabin crew served nuts while taxing to the runway ad she made the captain turn back around so that the cabin crew could be ejected from the flight. The amount of bad news coming from Korean Air and Asiana are really incredible. I mean, in terms of airlines and number of incidents or bizarre behaviours over the last couple of years.

(Written on 07/12/2019)(Permalink)

Now.... see how the Chinese have advanced in flight safety in just a couple of decades. They caught 2 coins near the engine and cancelled the flight. Would that be the case 20 years ago? It's good to know, as they will be aviation's biggest market for all of our - commenters - lifetimes.

(Written on 03/01/2019)(Permalink)

There's more than that. Here in my Brazil you have a lot of people who have not flown, are flying for the first time, only flew few times, etc... I would say 99% of people, regular flyers and all, have no or very basic idea of how a jet engine works, but there is a cultural thing at play here. Most Brazilians I have witnessed flying for the first time are so afraid, or stressed out about where to go, what to do, that none of them would ever even think about doing something like that.... because we don't do that period, and by that I mean throw coins on anything for good luck. As a mostly roman catholic country, what you will see if people doing the sign of the cross I don't know how many times, and praying the metal tube takes them safely where they are going. So it is not a negative thing about Chinese culture, but it is a cultural thing (and they must have addressed it for most part as now you hear about few cases only, as evidence, here we are, a world away, discussing it).

(Written on 03/01/2019)(Permalink)

As a Brazilian, I would love it this theory was true, but I have to disagree. I think that - maybe not today - but certainly in the near future, Embraer will need Boeing's strength in marketing, service and sales. Especially if Boeing doesn't get their way and end up in a future partnership with the likes of Mitsubishi or Comac... I fully agree that all of this is Boeing's doing. They thought they had the upper hand and tried to bully a competitor who was not even a fully direct competitor today, but ended up pushing Bombardier's CSeries into Airbus arms and, the cherry on the cake, got a ruling against them in the end... I just hope the people that plan Boeing corporate strategies are not the same that plan how to assemble the planes... :) Way to go! I don't know if this deal will go through though. There are lots of headwinds to overcome on this side of the deal (the Brazilian side).

(Written on 02/09/2018)(Permalink)

Having flown half a dozen times on the whale, couple of times on the Dreamliner, a dozen or more times on the 747 (200/300/400) and dozens and dozens on the triple-7, I have no doubt that the A-380 is by far the most comfortable ride all in all. I haven't had the experience of flying the A-350, though, and people say she is good too. I'm happy that Emirates did what they did. And I hope the 747-8 stays the course too! Both are awesome machines.

(Written on 01/26/2018)(Permalink)

Well... the Captain is right and he is wrong. ANA's security policy was followed. BUT... I would definitely prefer to be flying with a crew that knows the procedure, respect rules, but can think for themselves when an unexpected situation arises. Other news sources say the mistake was discovered while in flight. It was two brothers with "very similar names", both originally flying to Tokyo, but in different flights, both cleared by US security and initially by Japan to enter the country and, most important, both admitted into the ANA plane by ANA gate staff and a terrible performance of ANA cabin crew who allowed the doors to be closed with an extra passenger seated on the plane. So I agree with others on this on, this flight should have gone on its way and - even if the brothers did it on purpose - it is ANA gate and cabin crew that need to hear from the bosses about this.... If we go by the book it was a correct decision by the captain, but it surely showed a lack of critical

(Written on 01/03/2018)(Permalink)

This is narrow minded geopolitcs on the part of Boeing. Let's not be innocent, it's part of the game and which aircraft manufacturer CAN'T be accused of receiving some form of benefit from their respective governments? But I think maybe Boeing let the lawyers and lobbyist's have the final say on what could, at the end, bet a net loss for Boeing (but not for the lawyers and the lobbyists...) This play is only begging and it will have many other moves yet. Sad to see the direction this has taken (and I'm a Brazilian, so in theory I would be all for screwing Bombardier which competes directly - today and at the foreseeable future, at least - with Embraer, not Boeing or Airbus). I will be cheering for Bombardier on this one, for sure. We need more competition, not less. Or, like a certain person likes to say "Sad....".

(Written on 09/29/2017)(Permalink)

Long live Turkish Airlines and the Queen of the Skies!!! I'll fly to Europe via Turkey from my Brazil is it is needed to keep the 747 alive!!! :)

(Written on 09/08/2017)(Permalink)