Results tagged “flying”

In June the Port Authority announced a plan to kill 2,000 geese during their molting season to prevent accidents like the one that brought Flight 1549 down in the Hudson River. Mayor Bloomberg immediately voiced his support for gassing geese, telling radio listeners, "There is not a lot of cost involved in rounding up a couple thousand geese and letting them go to sleep with nice dreams." Well, it looks like the mayor's winged targets finally sent a message on Saturday, when one flew into a jet carrying the mayor and about six others from the Hamptons to Senator Kennedy's funeral. In what is surely just the opening salvo between the avian empire and the imperial Bloomberg, the bird failed to fell the French-made Dassault 900EX, though the pilot was concerned that the strike had damaged the landing equipment, and requested emergency ground crews in Boston. The mayor was discreetly informed during the flight, which landed safely, but according to the Post he didn't inform his "entourage." Sure, Bloomberg's not sweating it, but if the rumored alliance between the birds and groundhogs ever happens, he's in trouble.

Because the cost of housing homeless families in shelters is so high, the Bloomberg administration has been quietly funding a $500,000-a-year program to buy one-way plane tickets for indigent individuals if they agree to stay away. Well, the program was quiet until it was featured in today's Times, so who knows how many New Yorkers will now start posing as transients for one-way tickets to Burning Man. So far the city has paid for more than 550 families to leave since 2007.

The Bronx man who was arrested Tuesday after going full monty during a flight bound from Charlotte to L.A. wasn't doing it to freak out the squares; he happens to be bipolar. Authorities have identified the U.S. Airways passenger as Keith Wright, a Navy veteran, and his wife Debra tells the Daily News that Keith left their Bronx home Tuesday without telling her, after spending days not eating or sleeping: "When I came home from work he wasn't around. Next thing I know I get a call from a FBI officer. That is when I knew."

An unidentified man from the boogie down Bronx just streaked half of America! The 50-year-old became naked as a jaybird for no apparent reason during a US Airways flight last night. One passenger says the 50-year-old appeared to fall asleep, but then started taking his clothes off. (Could a bad Ambien reaction be involved?) He refused to cooperate with flight attendants and threw off a blanket that was placed over him. Is it some kind of crime to fly au naturale? Probably, right? An off-duty police officer on board helped restrain the man, and the flight, which originated in Charlotte and was bound for LA, made a pit stop in Albuquerque to eject the mile-high streaker. WABC 7 says he may be transported "to an FBI facility. He will likely be taken to a local detention center in the meantime." Meanwhile, everyone who landed in California will be enjoying life naked in a hot tub.

Yesterday the Sun broke news that Democratic Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver has a weird habit of traveling from New York City to Albany by flying through D.C., racking up frequent flier miles for himself while costing taxpayers $500 to $760 for his round-trip airfare. Today the defunct paper takes a Parthian shot at the politician, interviewing watchdog groups who say Silver's costly (but legal) commute is proof that the state legislature needs to revise its transportation policy. And Bill Hammond at the Daily News goes further, deriding the assemblyman for his excess. Hammond (who bears a striking resemblance to accounts receivable accountant Herbert Kornfeld), says, "If there's a costlier, less direct and more wasteful way for state government to do something, count on Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to find it...It's time to ground Air Sheldon."

State Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver has a funny way of traveling between his Manhattan district and Albany: through D.C.! Instead of taking Amtrak or driving like other representatives, Silver prefers commuting by plane with a stopover 200 miles in the wrong direction. Depending on the length of the layover, the trip can end up taking four hours—not including the time it takes to get to the airport and pass through security. (A drive to Albany averages two and a half hours, and the train takes roughly the same amount of time.) The Sun speculates that for Silver it's all about US Airways' frequent flier miles, which Silver gets to keep while taxpayers pay for the tickets (usually costing $500-$760 for round-trip).

At this year's CitySol event, which took place over the weekend, Baltimore resident Dan Deacon (pictured) was set to perform after making a last-minute announcement following another New York show last week. BrooklynVegan notes that Deacon was a no-show, however, "thanks to some airline screwup that sent his equipment to Cincinnati." See, in order to play the solar-powered show, Deacon had to first unleash no small amount of greenhouse gas. After playing McCarren Pool last Thursday, Deacon flew to Atlanta Friday, only to have to turn around and fly back to New York for Saturday's show.

      

Yesterday evening the British Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, the Red Arrows, dazzled onlookers as they put on a 25-minute show over New York. Many in New Jersey and New York saw the nine-pilot team as they arrived and departed as well. For those who missed it, luckily some photographers were at the right place at the right time.

Yesterday, American Airlines started charging customers $15 for the first checked bag, a controversial but necessary move given rising oil prices (American, like many other airline carriers, also charges $25 for the second checked bag). Though full fare, gold/platinum frequent fliers, first and business class customers, are exempt from the fee, American expects 25% of its customers to be affected by the charge. And those fliers were not happy.

When it comes to driving routes for a JFK airport pickup, George Costanza advocates taking the Grand Central to the Van Wyck, deriding Kramer’s L.I.E. route as a “suicide mission.” In the current New York Magazine cover story, “How to Escape Airport Hell”, the editors invited chauffeur Kevin Sullivan to weigh in. While he comes down squarely on Costanza’s side, he also shares some invaluable alternative routes to all three airports in the unlikely...