Seeker

6 hours ago, Kip Powick said:

If the phone showed bag in the terminal, why didn't  she, or someone else,  track it down using her phone.....it does tell you distance from phone and can be tracked 

Well, she couldn't go because she would need a RAIC to get into the bag room or out on the ramp.  Unlikely that she'd give her phone to someone else or that someone else would accept responsibility for it if she did.  The time it would take to patrol through all the possible locations hoping for a "ping" of the airtag would be excessive. 

The thing about these sorts of devices is that they are all extremely low power and use some combination of cell service, wifi, Bluetooth, GPS.  I have had, at some time, problems with all of those communication protocols; don't connect when you know they should.  Then add in the software, updates and the very real possibility that the signal is being shielded by some part of the terminal building or aircraft.

It's a difficult situation but one thing I know for sure is that people are certainly not aware of the limitations believing that the location showing on their phone is 100% "where it is" when, in reality, its simply the last recorded/transmitted location.

1 hour ago, Kip Powick said:

I used mine to make sure my luggage got off a DELTA flight and onto a WESTJET flight.

They are handy... 

You have to be careful with this.  As I understand the system the airtag will update it's position when it's in contact with an Apple device but other wise can be moved without the new position being shown to the owner.

A friend of mine (who works for another airline from myself) reported this situation from last week;  all boarded and ready to close the doors and push when a passenger stands up and announces that the aircraft can't leave as her bag is still in the terminal - according to the airtag location.  She says she won't go if her bag isn't going and since it shows in the terminal she wants to deplane.  So, radio calls made to ground crew (flight now delayed) who check the bagroom, various carts, locations and they report "no bag found, must be on the airplane".  Nope not good enough, she's not going because the airtag shows it's location in the terminal.  

The passenger deplanes and is standing on the bridge but now they have to find and locate the bag.  Eventually they sort through the baggage compartment and find her bag - it was on the airplane the whole time!  Who knows what limitations there are to receiving updates - probably just happened that nobody on the ramp crew had an iPhone or the signal wasn't picked up or whatever.  Anyway, now the passenger says, "Oh good you found it, now I want go, put the bag back on the airplane."  I'm happy to report the answer was, "Nope, both you and the bag are off the airplane and we'll rebook you for tomorrow."

Yes, an airtag can be a useful device but I wouldn't be making any go/no-go decisions based on what I'm shown on my iPhone.

For the record, I'm an Android guy and they have a virtually identical system - works perfectly 95% of the time.

Good old Gabor.  Today he says airlines have to pay more in compensation, tomorrow he'll be complaining that fares are too high, then it will be not enough competition, then it's complaining about airlines going under.

1 hour ago, UpperDeck said:

 

Finally....culture....Hollis Harris met regularly with Gary Dean and it seems that much was accomplished ( for good or bad) by relying on a personal relationship than on a union structure. I may be wrong but I don't think any union leaders have that kind of perspective and relationship any longer.

How does that saying go?  The best system of government is a benevolent king and the worst is a malevolent one.

Same goes for corporations;. A generous and open CEO will generate productivity far beyond what he/she pays in dollars.

Of course they don't teach that in the MBA course and most CEOs will think it's a good idea to install time punch clocks for half a million dollars if they might save a hundred dollars on payroll.

IOW, union leaders do not have the ability to create a "good relationship" if the boss isn't interested.

That is literally one of the stupidest things you could do in a modern aircraft.

17 hours ago, PinC said:

How many months before we hear "wow this ALPA deal didn't do anything at all, same reps and same problems...and all of our increased dues are heading to the US"?

The unrealistic expectations that the Pilots-for-spare-change group have created are going to make it almost impossible for any MEC to negotiate and deliver a new Collective Agreement.

News flash, no one is getting 34% or 40% raises.

 

 

The general sentiment, amongst the people I have asked, is that ALPA could not possibly do worse than ACPA has done and therefore it's worth the gamble.

23 hours ago, dagger said:

Everyone’s going to be paid on time,” he assured employees.

 

Exactly what every company that has ever declared bankruptcy and locked the doors in the middle of the night said immediately prior to doing so.  Of course some companies do pull through so it could happen but if I was an employee at Flair I think I'd be refreshing the resume or, at the very, least getting the chief pilot to sign my logbook and/or getting a letter-of-reference from my supervisor. 

I guess that's probably unfair.  The employees no doubt have a better feel for the state of the company and as an outside observer I can only guess based on the news reports (which are typically flawed as we all know).

1 hour ago, Kip Powick said:

awwww snap .....not sure what you mean. I'm old...having trouble comprehending 

When Flair had their aircraft seized it left the impression (completely understandable) that they had a cash crunch and were, basically, on the rocks and a bad bet for making a forward booking.

If they were to win the lawsuit it would show that they actually were financially secure and that the leasing company acted in bad faith.  Of course this will take a year or two to determine.  In the meanwhile they hope that simply filing the suit will assure enough people to continue booking that they don't run out of cash.  Hoping people will think; "Well, they wouldn't file a lawsuit if they thought they would lose so they must be safe to book with."  A real hail Mary attempt here, I think.

43 minutes ago, dagger said:

Flair also peddling the idea that Westjet was behind all of this to get planes for its own use.

Does WS even need more airplanes?  From what I hear they have been cancelling groundschool classes because potential newhire pilots aren't even showing up.  The pilots are in contract negotiations (and looking for substantial pay increases) and the CEO is on record saying; "we'll never pay more in pilot wages and will park aircraft if we don't have the pilots to fly them or can't hire the pilots needed".  AC has been running 2 groundschool classes per month (40 each I think) and each one has several pilots who have quit WS to come to AC.  Doesn't sound like WS is in the market for aircraft.

On 3/5/2023 at 5:06 PM, Kip Powick said:

Yeh...I think it might be called "feathering" but civilans and "jet jockeys" are probably  not familiar with that term

Yeah, one of the biggest problems with props is that even untrained observers can tell when it's not turning.  

Cool EAA video about high altitude glider research:

2 hours ago, Innuendo said:

Just saw an article in some site called Narcity, (sorry can't seem to get a link), saying that AC are recently enforcing carry on sizes at YYZ quite seriously.

Fine by me. 

Yes and the other thing they do is make multiple PA calls in the boarding lounge encouraging people to turn over their bags to be tagged and placed in the belly at no cost.  Personally, I've always thought this was a bad idea - to charge the people who check baggage outside security and then give the same service to people at the gate for free but it does usually result in many people taking advantage.

What I'd like to see is anyone who has a bag at the gate that doesn't fit the sizer to be charged for the bag and anyone who voluntarily gate checks a "legal" size bag gets it for free.  Of course this would lead to turmoil but it does bother me that some people will sneak an oversized bag through security and then get a freeride.

I have seen AC following both of your suggestions lately - intercepting and checking the bags with a sizing unit prior to screening and again at the gate to catch those who slipped through.

7 hours ago, J.O. said:

Given the decision to part them out, someone must have decided there’s more money in that than in doing the heavy check.

Yeah, the title of the thread is a little misleading.  Sent to the crusher?  Not so much.  More like; "carefully disassembled for high value parts." 

I also hope this goes through.  Licensed professionals need their own representation.

1 hour ago, YYZ said:

Bombardier is going in beside Fedex off Bramalea Rd.

 

Correct.  NW corner of the field.

As far as I'm concerned the decision to allow this to happen at Pearson should have resulted in the termination of the board of directors and CEO.  It clearly shows that they have no concept of the reason for Person's existence or they are tainted.

Oh yeah, it's total nonsense.  Amusing none the less that there are 3 Canadian airlines in the "most hated" category and 3 in the "most loved".

Bearskin could say, "We're the world's most loved airline"  (only 46.6% of our passengers have something bad to say about us!)  Aren't statistics fun?

Most loved airline in the world - Bearskin!

https://www.bosshunting.com.au/travel/fly/most-hated-airlines/

The Most Hated Airlines In The World

1. Go First (India) – 73.8%
2. TAP Air (Portugal) – 68.4%
3. Jetstar Airways (Australia) – 67.5%
4. WestJet (Canada) – 67.4%
5. Flair Airlines (Canada) – 65.2%
6. Vueling (Spain) – 64.6%
7. Air Transat (Canada) – 63.3%
8. Spirit Airlines (USA) – 62.2%
9. Frontier Airlines (USA) – 61.9%
10. SpiceJet (India) – 61.1%

The Most Loved Airlines In The World

1. Bearskin Airlines (Canada) – 53.4%
2. Pacific Coastal Airlines (Canada) – 48.5%
3. TAP Express (Portugal) – 47.8%
4. Canadian North (Canada) – 47.4%
5. Auric Air (Tanzania) – 46.3%
6. Fiji Airways (Fiji) – 43.2%
7. Tropic Air (Belize) – 43.1%
8. Manta Air (Maldives) – 42.3%
9. Airkenya Express (Kenya) – 42.2%
10. Proflight Zambia (Zambia) – 40%

8 hours ago, Kargokings said:

Only if the headline was as you propose.  Otherwise it was a traffic stop that discovered illegal weapons.  .....

I rest my case.

30 minutes ago, Kargokings said:

I defer to the rest of you but it was an airport incident, despite the incorrect headline.

Let's suppose that the guy drove to the airport with the firearms in the trunk of his car.  On the way he gets stopped for speeding in a school zone and they discover the firearms - in the trunk!  Would you think that headlines calling him a potential school shooter would be appropriate?  I mean, after all, he was discovered in a school zone with loaded firearms.  They were in the trunk and he did have an airline ticket and claims to be on the way to the airport but don't let that spoil a good story.

4 hours ago, Kargokings said:

quite right but "anyone" would not know if the baggage contained arms....

Ahhhh, well, what's he's saying is that if the intention of the dude was merely to get the firearms into a baggage area to create havoc that he could have done it without taking a flight somewhere first.

You seem to be missing the point.  The news articles have framed this as an airline/aviation/airport incident which it clearly isn't because the firearms were inaccessible to him in checked baggage.  This was pointed out to you and you say, "But he could have accessed the firearms in the baggage area on arrival and OMG, what would have happened?" 

This makes no sense.  Why would the dude go through the hassle and potential risk to fly to some other airport to shoot up the baggage area when he could simply do the same thing at his home airport if he wanted to?  It seems clear to me that the guy had something illegal in mind and the whole airport/airline thing is incidental - just transportation.

If the guy was apprehended in a rental car should we up our security procedures for renting a car?

If the guy was apprehended on a city bus should we up our security procedures for buying a buspass?

23 minutes ago, J.O. said:

No kidding. Hamilton would have been a much better location for a myriad of reasons. 

Or, even better, YKF.

And how about the moronic decision to allow an aircraft manufacturing plant to be built at the country's busiest airport.  Idiots.

20 minutes ago, Kargokings said:

Then I guess you need to move it or delete it. 

The post is fine where it is.  What I'm talking about is the original source and the editor that gave it a "catchy" headline.  I couldn't care less where it ends up on our forum - that's insignificant.

12 minutes ago, Kargokings said:

Quite right, but without the inspection he would have gotten off his flight and then access the weapons upon arrival (baggage carousel). You do have to wonder WHAT-IF re what would have then happened. 

No doubt but the story is headlined as if it was an "on-board the aircraft highjacking kind of thing" and it's not.  Whatever this dude was up to I don't think it has anything to do with an airport - he was simply trying to get somewhere with his guns.  Illegal and concerning but not an aviation/airline story at it's heart.