Private Jet Charter News

[caption id=“attachment_312” align=“alignright” width=“300” caption=“Delta Flight 86 Enroute to Tel Aviv diverted to Boston Logan Airport Yesterday”][/caption]A Boeing 767 on a flight from New York to Tel Aviv was diverted to Logan International Airport last night when a 22-year-old man began screaming, running through the aisles, and banging on the cockpit door, a MassPort official said.

The unruly passenger identified as Itay Atmor an Israeli citizen, was forced to the floor by members of the crew and a handful of the 206 passengers aboard. The group used seatbelts to bind his hands and keep him subdued until the plane could be diverted to Boston, said MassPort spokesman Phil Orlandela.

The glamour has long faded from the job of a flight attendant, but the occupation still captures the imagination of a public fascinated by the constant travel and work above the clouds.

Excerpt from CNN.com

The glamour has long faded from the job of a flight attendant, but the occupation still captures the imagination of a public fascinated by the constant travel and work above the clouds.

“When my mom was a stewardess in the 1950s, they wore white gloves and they learned to serve lobster thermidor table-side,” said Rene Foss, a flight attendant for 25 years and the spokeswoman for the Association of Flight Attendants.

“Instead of wearing white gloves, I’m wearing rubber gloves; and instead of learning to serve lobster thermidor, I’m learning to put handcuffs on passengers.”

—-Thats just about all that needs to be said about today’s “Airline Experience” doesn’t it?

Thousands of airline flights cancelled due to dangerous ash plume

Earlier this week a volcano under an Icelandic Glacier erupted and spewed thousands of tons of ash into the atmosphere causing the cancellations of thousands of flights across the globe.  Currently all airspace in Great Britain Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Estonia, and the Netherlands, is completely closed to all aircraft while airspace was partially closed in France, Germany, Poland, Sweden, Norway, and Ireland.  US airlines are cancelling flights to/from Europe stranding thousands of passengers. It is simply too dangerous to fly.

Volcanic ash clouds are a serious hazard to aviation, reducing visibility, damaging flight controls and ultimately causing jet engines to fail.  Encounters between aircraft and volcanic ash can happen because ash clouds are difficult to distinguish from ordinary clouds, both visually and on radar, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.  Ash clouds can also drift great distances from their source. The eruption in Iceland sent a huge plume of ash moving across the Atlantic, disrupting air traffic across Western Europe.

According to Boeing, flying through an ash cloud should be avoided by all means. The aircraft manufacturer says experience has shown costly damage can occur to aircraft surfaces, windshields and power plants, while ventilation, hydraulic, electronic and air data systems can also be contaminated. Critically, it says the ingestion of volcanic ash by engines may cause serious deterioration of engine performance due to erosion of moving parts and partial or complete blocking of fuel nozzles.  One former pilot said, “it’s like throwing a bucket of beach sand into the engine”.  But it is actually much worse, while the sand would pit and gouge the critically balanced surfaces of a high performance jet engine, eventually the sand would work its way through the system.  But the ash is much more insidious.  Volcanic ash contains particles, whose melting point is below that of an engine’s internal temperature. During flight these particles will immediately melt if they go through an engine. Going through the turbine, the melted materials rapidly cool down, stick on the turbine vanes, and disturb the flow of high-pressure combustion gases.  In the worst case this disorder of the flow may completely stall the engine, causing a complete shutdown of not only the propulsion systems, but electrical, environmental, and oxygen/pressurization systems.

ECS owner Shares Recent Travel Experience

>You’ve heard the examples of how private aviation is superior to commercial aviation when traveling to a far flung location not easily served by the traditional regional and major airlines.  However, let me share a personal experience I had just last week flying from two major cities with direct airline service between them.  A new client was departing from the West Chester County Airport in White Plains New York and Executive Charter Services arranged a Hawker 1000 for the trip.  I try to personally meet as many of my clients as possible and this was a good opportunity to do so, as I had other business in New York on the same day. 
I had originally planned to fly down the night before, attend my meeting in NYC during the day, meet my new client that afternoon, and take the Amtrak Acela back to Boston in the evening.  However, with the Hawker 1000 being based nearby, I decided to fly down on the jet in the morning and take the Delta Shuttle back to Boston.
The flight to New York was about as easy and carefree as you can imagine.  The captain met me at the corporate terminal lobby, took my bag aboard the aircraft, and within 10 minutes we were airborne - 40 minutes later we landed at Westchester Airport.  I took a car into the city, attended my meetings and was back at Westchester by 3:30pm to meet my new client. 
After meeting my client and getting everyone loaded up, the jet departed on time for SC.  I jumped back in my car and headed to LaGuardia to catch my shuttle flight back home.  Little did I know, but my easy day of travel was over!
Upon arrival at the airport, I was informed that the flight was delayed for 30 minutes.  Then an hour…finally, already 2 hours late, it was cancelled.  At this point it was too late to locate another commercial flight to Boston, and the first flight out the next day with an available seat left in the early afternoon - I gave serious thought to renting a car and driving home.  But, I stayed the night and planned to take the train back first thing in the morning.  Checking in at the station, I found that the train was already running 1 hour late.  I finally boarded the train 1 hour and 22 minutes late for the 3 hour ride back to Boston. 
So, I arrived back at Boston nearly a full day later than planned due solely to the inefficiencies inherent to commercial travel.  While the weather in New York was overcast and rainy, the real culprit was a line of thunderstorms that ran from Atlanta to Dallas causing multiple delays and cancellations which had a rippling domino effect throughout the rest of the air traffic system.  Once an airline starts to cancel flights, the hub and spoke system virtually guarantees that many more will affected.
Needless to say, while aboard the train, I spent several hours thinking about how easy, convenient, and time saving my flight TO New York had been.  Here’s a quick clip from Cessna that shows exactly what I am trying to say here…Private Jet Vs Airline