Fogbow

Volkonski wrote: ↑Fri Oct 21, 2022 8:10 pm https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/1583604043028434944

They made Business Class too comfortable.

Slim Cognito wrote: ↑Sat Sep 03, 2022 11:53 am So this happened.


https://www.axios.com/2022/09/03/tupelo ... stream=top

Police: Rogue plane lands, pilot in custody after threatening to hit Mississippi Walmart

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WREG) — A man who hijacked a plane and threatened to crash it into a Walmart in Tupelo, Mississippi has died in federal custody, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Corey Wayne Patterson, 29, died at the Federal Detention Center in Miami, Florida on Nov. 14. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, he was found unresponsive but his cause of death is unknown at this time.

Authorities say on September 3, Patterson had taken off in a Beechcraft King Air 90 from the Tupelo Regional Airport around 5 a.m. and circled the air for around five hours. He was the only person on board.
Patterson was employed at the airport for 10 years and responsible for fueling planes, which gave him access to the aircraft.At one point, a Walmart in Tupelo was evacuated after the pilot threatened to crash the plane into the business, according to the Tupelo Police Department.

The plane eventually landed in a field near Ashland around 10:30 a.m. and Patterson was arrested. No one was injured during the incident.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons said Patterson arrived at the Federal Detention Center in Miami on November 10 under pretrial status.

Man allegedly held razor to woman's neck on JetBlue flight

Caitlin O'Kane
Fri, November 25, 2022 at 6:34 PM

A Utah man was arrested and charged after allegedly holding a razor blade to a woman's neck on a flight.

Merrill Darrell Fackrell, 41, was on a JetBlue flight from New York to Salt Lake City on Nov. 21 when he allegedly assaulted the passenger next to him, according to the Department of Justice.

He was sitting in a window seat in a row with a married woman and man and engaged in conversation with the woman, according to a criminal complaint filed by the DOJ.

The woman began to watch a movie using headphones, and said she could hear Fackrell continue to talk to himself, but she was not paying attention. Fackrell then put his hand in front of the screen and told her to pause the movie.

The woman alleges that she took off her headphones and realized Fackrell had what appeared to be a knife positioned inches from her neck, according to the DOJ.

The object was later identified as a straight edge razor with a one to two inch blade.

Fackrell allegedly stood up and yelled, "She's going to be ok," and "no one needs to worry." He allegedly told the husband to "get the f*** out of there."

The woman's husband got up to alert a flight attendant. The woman lunged for the aisle and Fackrell tried to grab her shoulder and stop her.

Another passenger seated across the aisle saw Fackrell holding an object, confronted him, and was able to get him to put the object he was holding down on the seat. He passed the object — which turned out to be a razor — to the flight crew for safe keeping, according to the complaint. He then sat next to Fackrell for the duration of the flight.



https://www.yahoo.com/news/man-allegedl ... 06049.html

Peanut butter jars set off airport alarm in New York, TSA says. Now, a man is arrested

Brendan Rascius
Sat, December 24, 2022 at 12:09 AM GMT+1

Jars of peanut butter stashed in a traveler’s checked luggage at a New York City airport triggered an alarm which resulted in his arrest.

On Thursday, Dec. 22 , TSA officers at John F. Kennedy International Airport opened the checked bag after it set off an alarm when passing through an X-ray, according to a statement from the agency.

They removed two jars of JIF creamy peanut butter from the luggage, each of which contained pieces of a dismantled semi-automatic handgun “artfully concealed inside,” the agency stated.

The parts, including a magazine loaded with .22 caliber bullets, were encased in plastic and shoved into the peanut butter, according to the agency.

When they found the weapon, officials contacted police who confiscated the gun parts and tracked down the man who owned the luggage in an airport terminal, the agency stated. The man, a resident of Rhode Island, was arrested.

“Our officers are good at their jobs and are focused on their mission—especially during the busy holiday travel period,” John Essig, the TSA’s federal security director for JFK Airport, stated.

The man, whose name has not been released, could be slapped with a civil penalty of up to $15,000, according to the TSA.





https://www.yahoo.com/news/peanut-butte ... 01067.html

TSA shows off weapons found in carry-on luggage at Orlando airport

Thu, December 22, 2022 at 1:58 AM GMT+1

Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said a new record has been set at Orlando International Airport where 154 passengers have brought guns to security checkpoints. Firearms must be in checked baggage. All firearms must be properly packed and declared to the airline at check-in, which means unloaded and in a locked, hard-sided case. In additions to guns, some passengers brought knives and other items which could be used as a weapon.



https://www.yahoo.com/news/tsa-shows-of ... 32481.html

raison de arizona wrote: ↑Tue Dec 27, 2022 1:32 pm

WOW: Nashville airport cop threatens to arrest stranded passengers who are standing in line at a Southwest counter to rebook their cancelled flights (1/2)
A lawyer asks the cop to cite the law he was threatening to arrest them under. He cannot. (2/2)

raison de arizona wrote: ↑Wed Dec 28, 2022 1:41 pm https://twitter.com/bradbatt/status/1607974921392586752

WOW: Nashville airport cop threatens to arrest stranded passengers who are standing in line at a Southwest counter to rebook their cancelled flights (1/2)
A lawyer asks the cop to cite the law he was threatening to arrest them under. He cannot. (2/2)

He sites trespassing, since their tickets were canceled, they no longer have a valid ticket. He says. I suppose one could also go with disorderly conduct?

“There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.”

Change is coming. Good change. But it won’t happen overnight. I still believe that Southwest Airlines is the best place to work and I could not imagine myself with any other airline. We will rise again. #WeAreSouthwest

A True Account of What Happened:

If you really want to know what’s happening with SWA… this is the most accurate explainaition. If you’re caught up in this you have my deepest, heart felt apology. And I hope you come back in the future and let us earn back your trust.

By Senior Pilot Larry Lonero:

What happened to Southwest Airlines?

► Show Spoiler

I’ve been a pilot for Southwest Airlines for over 35 years. I’ve given my heart and soul to Southwest Airlines during those years. And quite honestly Southwest Airlines has given its heart and soul to me and my family.

Many of you have asked what caused this epic meltdown. Unfortunately, the frontline employees have been watching this meltdown coming like a slow motion train wreck for sometime. And we’ve been begging our leadership to make much needed changes in order to avoid it. What happened yesterday started two decades ago.

Herb Kelleher was the brilliant CEO of SWA until 2004. He was a very operationally oriented leader. Herb spent lots of time on the front line. He always had his pulse on the day to day operation and the people who ran it. That philosophy flowed down through the ranks of leadership to the front line managers. We were a tight operation from top to bottom. We had tools, leadership and employee buy in. Everything that was needed to run a first class operation. When Herb retired in 2004 Gary Kelly became the new CEO.

Gary was an accountant by education and his style leading Southwest Airlines became more focused on finances and less on operations. He did not spend much time on the front lines. He didn’t engage front line employees much. When the CEO doesn’t get out in the trenches the neither do the lower levels of leadership.

Gary named another accountant to be Chief Operating Officer (the person responsible for day to day operations). The new COO had little or no operational background. This trickled down through the lower levels of leadership, as well.

They all disengaged the operation, disengaged the employees and focused more on Return on Investment, stock buybacks and Wall Street. This approach worked for Gary’s first 8 years because we were still riding the strong wave that Herb had built.

But as time went on the operation began to deteriorate. There was little investment in upgrading technology (after all, how do you measure the return on investing in infrastructure?) or the tools we needed to operate efficiently and consistently. As the frontline employees began to see the deterioration in our operation we began to warn our leadership. We educated them, we informed them and we made suggestions to them. But to no avail. The focus was on finances not operations. As we saw more and more deterioration in our operation our asks turned to pleas. Our pleas turned to dire warnings. But they went unheeded. After all, the stock price was up so what could be wrong?

We were a motivated, willing and proud employee group wanting to serve our customers and uphold the tradition of our beloved airline, the airline we built and the airline that the traveling public grew to cheer for and luv. But we were watching in frustration and disbelief as our once amazing airline was becoming a house of cards.

A half dozen small scale meltdowns occurred during the mid to late 2010’s. With each mini meltdown Leadership continued to ignore the pleas and warnings of the employees in the trenches. We were still operating with 1990’s technology. We didn’t have the tools we needed on the line to operate the sophisticated and large airline we had become. We could see that the wheels were about ready to fall off the bus. But no one in leadership would heed our pleas.

When COVID happened SWA scaled back considerably (as did all of the airlines) for about two years. This helped conceal the serious problems in technology, infrastructure and staffing that were occurring and being ignored. But as we ramped back up the lack of attention to the operation was waiting to show its ugly head.

Gary Kelly retired as CEO in early 2022. Bob Jordan was named CEO. He was a more operationally oriented leader. He replaced our Chief Operating Officer with a very smart man and they announced their priority would be to upgrade our airline’s technology and provide the frontline employees the operational tools we needed to care for our customers and employees. Finally, someone acknowledged the elephant in the room.

But two decades of neglect takes several years to overcome. And, unfortunately to our horror, our house of cards came tumbling down this week as a routine winter storm broke our 1990’s operating system.

The frontline employees were ready and on station. We were properly staffed. We were at the airports. Hell, we were ON the airplanes. But our antiquated software systems failed coupled with a decades old system of having to manage 20,000 frontline employees by phone calls. No automation had been developed to run this sophisticated machine.

We had a routine winter storm across the Midwest last Thursday. A larger than normal number flights were cancelled as a result. But what should have been one minor inconvenient day of travel turned into this nightmare. After all, American, United, Delta and the other airlines operated with only minor flight disruptions.

The two decades of neglect by SWA leadership caused the airline to lose track of all its crews. ALL of us. We were there. With our customers. At the jet. Ready to go. But there was no way to assign us. To confirm us. To release us to fly the flight. And we watched as our customers got stranded without their luggage missing their Christmas holiday.

I believe that our new CEO Bob Jordan inherited a MESS. This meltdown was not his failure but the failure of those before him. I believe he has the right priorities. But it will take time to right this ship. A few years at a minimum. Old leaders need to be replaced. Operationally oriented managers need to be brought in. I hope and pray Bob can execute on his promises to fix our once proud airline. Time will tell.

It’s been a punch in the gut for us frontline employees. We care for the traveling public. We have spent our entire careers serving you. Safely. Efficiently. With luv and pride. We are horrified. We are sorry. We are sorry for the chaos, inconvenience and frustration our airline caused you. We are angry. We are embarrassed. We are sad. Like you, the traveling public, we have been let down by our own leaders.

Herb once said the the biggest threat to Southwest Airlines will come from within. Not from other airlines. What a visionary he was. I miss Herb now more than ever.

raison de arizona wrote: ↑Thu Dec 29, 2022 7:17 pm This is interesting and was passed on to me by a pilot, FWIW.

“There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.”

When Herb retired in 2004 Gary Kelly became the new CEO. Gary was an accountant by education and his style leading Southwest Airlines became more focused on finances and less on operations. He did not spend much time on the front lines. He didn’t engage front line employees much. When the CEO doesn’t get out in the trenches the neither do the lower levels of leadership.