Results tagged “jfkairport”

On Thursday, a 20-pound engine tail cone fell from a Boeing 777 plane headed from JFK Airport to Tokyo and onto the front yard of Michelle Russell in Roosevelt, Long Island. The Delta crew only realized the four-foot piece of metal was missing after it landed in Tokyo—14 hours later. While airline officials say the tail cone isn't necessary for the plane to operate (it helps with fuel efficiency), Russell said, "I'm a firm believer if you take off with something you should land with the same parts you took off with."

Add this to the list of the ways drugs are smuggled into the JFK Airport: WABC 7 reports that earlier this month, "A Worcester, MA resident apparently tried to stroll past U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officers at JFK airport with nearly 7 pounds of cocaine in his shoes."

According to the Post, two JetBlue flights had issues after take-off from JFK Airport last week, requiring both to return to the airport. On Monday, "smoke seeped into the cabin of JetBlue Flight 654, which was bound for Rochester, NY, and carrying 40 passengers, just after takeoff." The pilot told air-traffic control, "We need to return immediately. We have some smoke in the cabin," before "briefly" losing contact but ultimately made it back safe. The FAA found no cause for the smoke. Then on Friday, "an electrical smell filled JetBlue Flight 63, bound for Tampa and carrying 63 passengers, just after it took off"; the plane managed to land safely. And a JetBlue flight landed in Bahamas on Thursday just as a fire was spotted on the left wing. The Post says all planes were the Embraer 1910 model and have been taken out of service as JetBlue investigates.

On Friday, a Sun County flight to Minnesota from JFK Airport—usually a 2 1/2 hour journey—was stuck on the tarmac for six hours before take off—and now Senator Chuck Schumer and NY State Assemblyman Michael Gianaris want the U.S. government to pass the passenger bill of rights. Reports say that the flight was supposed to take off at 11 a.m., but boarding only started at noon and it didn't take off until 6 p.m.: "Sun County chief executive Stan Gadek said in a statement the airline regretted the delay and would issue refunds. Adding to the frustration, passengers said the flight crew brought out the food cart after three hours, but passengers had to pay for the items." One passenger said, "I was sitting in the 17th row, and all the food was gone." Earlier this month, a Continental Express flight sat on a Rochester, Minnesota tarmac for almost six hours—and overnight (it "smelled like diapers. It had no food and a full toilet")—prompting a Department of Transportation investigation.

Don't want to risk sleeping in JFK to wait for your flight? Screw the man, pilot your own damn flight. Last Sunday evening a "wingnut pilot" flew into JFK airport, where he briefly landed in the cargo area of a Brazilian airline and took off again before he could be arrested. One pilot waiting to get off the ground reported to a controller "Looks like some guy on a parachute -- pretty stupid." Steve Abraham of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association agreed, saying "If you're a paraglider or using a home-built airplane, you're pretty stupid flying near there." Gizmodo even got some audio of the pilot (sounding uncomfortably nonchalant) who first spotted him. NYPD helicopters were dispatched but could not find the contraption's pilot, but warned pilots to be on the look out for a "kite." Motorized paragliding (or "paramotoring") is a form of paragliding where the pilot wears a motor on his or her back, and requires no license or specific training. Maybe he was just trying to chase away the Jackrabbits.

A livery cab driver decided to keep the change when a foreign tourist didn't have anything smaller than a hundred and unwittingly ended up with a baby on board. 42-year-old Jean Pierre Lesly picked up a woman and her three children who had all just arrived from Nigeria yesterday morning, driving them from JFK to the Upper West Side's Milburn Hotel. When the 42-year-old cab driver from Huntington didn't have enough change for her $68 fare, he ran into a nearby laundromat to break the Benjamin. When Lesly returned and didn't see the woman, he decided to hit the road and pocket the full hundred. As a police source told the News, "He boogies, thinking he is going to get the extra $32." Bur Lesly quickly realized that he had inadvertently turned the woman into a generous tipper when he spotted that her baby was still sleeping in his backseat. Upon returning the child, he was greeted by cops who arrested him for petty larceny. Despite the napping kid, he avoided a kidnapping rap, but did rack up a couple more charges when cops discovered he was driving his own car without a TLC license and had a suspended driver's license as well.

Not so shocking: Queens DA Richard Brown said that a TSA officer and contract baggage handler at JFK Airport were arrested for stealing a Macbook Air laptop and a T-Mobile Sidekick from checked luggage. As part of an "integrity test," a suitcase with the laptop, two cellphones and an iPod were planted on a flight from Miami—and were apparently too tempting to TSA officer Brian Burton and handler Antwon Simmons. When the luggage left the check baggage room, the Queens DA's office alleges the two items were gone "and that the luggage tags had been switched - indicating a different passenger’s name and a destination of Los Angeles - in an effort to conceal the theft of property." Brown said, "When air travelers check their luggage with an airline, there is an implicit trust that their bags and their contents will meet them at their destination." Yeah, but that's also why people hate checking their luggage and insist on bringing too many carry-on items. Five years ago, Chevy Chase learned the hard way not to check his $10K watch in his suitcase.

The five French tourists who became unwilling passengers in a high-speed chase on Tuesday when police tried to bust an unlicensed livery van at JFK are getting a great taste of American instant-celebrity. Yesterday two of the tourists attended a big press conference to publicly thank the officers involved in the incident, which began after undercover Port Authority cops spotted a hustler steering them into the unlicensed van—when one officer tried to grab the keys, the driver sped off with the newly-arrived French visitors trapped inside.

Five French tourists got dragged on a crazy, high-speed chase after getting into an unlicensed livery van at JFK yesterday. The unwanted excitement started around 11 a.m. after Port Authority police spotted Ian McFarland, 57, hustling the newly-arrived French visitors from the Air France terminal to an unauthorized van. According to the Post, Officer Michael Bestany recognized McFarland as a "longtime steerer" of travelers to the illegal vans, and when Bestany reached into the vehicle to grab the keys, driver Khaalis Preacher floored it, knocking Bestany to the pavement, injuring his shoulder and knee. Captive tourist Gwen Dulugat, who injured her arm while trying to jump from the moving van, describes the high-speed chase that ensued: "It went very, very fast. We're going zoom, zoom, zoom. The police were fantastic. They were behind us all the time." Preacher led cops to East New York, where he finally crashed through the mechanical gate arm of a US Postal Service facility. The Post got great photos of the police, guns drawn, chasing down the two suspects and arresting them; the other tourists escaped with no injuries and an ultimate New York story.

A court order put a delay on the plan to auction off takeoff and landing slots at NYC's area airports. The Bush administration has said auctioning 10% of flight slots would help alleviate air traffic and raise money for upgrades, but the Port Authority (which manages LaGuardia, JFK, and Newark) as well as NY and NJ lawmakers hate the idea, arguing it would drive up ticket prices. The NY Times reports that the delay will likely push "the proposal into the Obama administration, where it may die." Senator Chuck Schumer said, "Slot auctions will cause chaos in the skies and on the ground, and must not be bum-rushed through by a lame-duck administration."

A pregnant woman flying all the way from Gambia to New York yesterday made it through thirteen-plus hours in a pressurized cabin only to go into labor and deliver her baby once she arrived in JFK airport. Fatou Jaw was with her three other young children in customs as she began "using limited English and pointing to her belly" in an attempt to signal to customs agents the impending arrival. She then gave birth to a healthy baby boy before paramedics were able to arrive. While there is no word on his first name, his middle name is apparently "JFK." The woman was flying in from Gambia to meet her husband here in hopes of receiving asylum within the States.

The alert about a "suspicious package" at JFK Airport said there were hand grenades in a piece of luggage. The JetBlue terminal was evacuated, only for the grenades to turn out to be World War II grenade replica paperweights. Next time, mail them! JetBlue is having an opening ceremony for its new Terminal 5 today. And yesterday, a Newark Airport terminal was evacuated after many "false positives" on a suspicious bag, which was eventually deemed safe.

The Queens DA announced that two American Airlines baggage handlers at JFK Airport were charged with stealing $280,000 of jewelry from a suitcase checked in and bound for Los Angeles. Apparently Albert Acevedo and Angelo Riviello had a code to let each other know about certain bags; in this instance, Riviello said, "Wow, that’s heavy," and Acevedo, baggage crew head, came over and opened the bag. Acevedo took some of the suitcase's envelopes and later told a colleague, “I made a good find today. These rings add up to $1000.” Riviello later admitted to hiding his take of the jewelry in his microwave while Acevedo admitted he put his stash under his bathroom sink. The Post says the victim is "gem merchant David Diamond," who alerted the police when he bag went missing.

The federal Department of Transportation has been looking to reduce congestion at airports, especially the NYC-area ones, but the Port Authority says auctioning departure and arrival slots would "have a severe negative impact” and “would be illegal without Congressional authorization.” The Port Authority said today it will deny any flights at JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark that are result of government auction. Hmm, that sounds like a good way to reduce congestion!

The world's largest passenger airliner touched down at JFK yesterday. The NY Daily News has a thorough description of the "superjumbo jet" that includes amenities such as an on-board lounge with a massage system, bathrooms where passengers can shower, and an entertainment system with more than 1,200 channels to choose from. The Emirates Airbus A380 completed its 13 1/2 hour flight from Dubai in such comfort that passengers "felt like they had just emerged from a heavenly limousine ride. " The A380 burns 20% less fuel and costs 17% less to fly than the standard 747-400.

Yesterday's glitch with American Airlines' baggage system that delayed flights and kept checked bags from traveling with their owners is now, as of 6 a.m., fixed, but some prior flights were canceled. An AA spokesman told the AP baggage was sorted by hand yesterday and they are "marked and ready to go to their destinations." It's still unclear what caused the system to fail (it's only a year old). And while most of the affected checked bags were for international flights and therefore not subject to the check bag fees, domestic travelers with less than three checked bags had the fees waived.

Yesterday afternoon, a Delta Air Lines flight headed for Salt Lake City from JFK didn't get too far: One of the plane's tires blew out during takeoff, forcing the plane to circle the airport and dump fuel before making an emergency landing back at JFK. The AP reports, "Passengers say they heard a loud explosion and started praying." According to Delta, there were no injuries and passengers are being rebooked to other flights. Additionally, it's unclear when the tires of the 737-800 were last replaced. It hasn't been a good week for Delta passengers--a flight from JFK to Las Vegas sat on the tarmac for seven hours on Sunday.

After two incidents where planes nearly hit each other at JFK Airport, the FAA is offering ways to increase runway safety. One is to use a system of warning lights (sort of like traffic lights) that will change color to let pilots know when runways can cross--the near hits at JFK occurred on its perpendicular runways--and will be installed at JFK and LaGuardia. The FAA is also offering a $100K salary incentive for veterans air traffic controllers to work at NYC-area airports.

The FAA made immediate changes to the take off and landing procedures at JFK Airport, after two jets came within 600 feet of crashing into each other yesterday afternoon. The incident was the second near collision at the airport in a week, and personnel from the National Transportation Safety Board were at JFK investigating the circumstances of the first incident when the second occurred.

Air traffic controllers say two planes were within 100 feet of colliding at JFK Airport this past weekend.

A business consultant is accused of "falsely claiming there was a bomb in her suitcase" after she was unable to get onto her JetBlue flight at JFK Airport last week.

A two-alarm fire was ignited on the Van Wyck Expressway when a tanker crashed near North Conduit Avenue - and JFK Airport - around noon. The driver could not escape and died in the blaze.

American Airlines refuted a family's claims that a Brooklyn woman died because of faulty equipment and attention. The airline's spokesman said, "American Airlines, after investigation, has determined that oxygen was administered on the aircraft, and it was working."

Some dogs traveling to the U.S. from Iraq weren't dogs of war or trained to sniff explosives. Instead, they provided a little comfort and unconditional love to soldiers stuck in a war zone. With the help of the International SPCA's Baghdad Pups program, two dogs named Liberty and K-Pot have been adopted by soldiers' families.

On Friday, a woman traveling from Haiti to New York City died on the American Airlines flight. Her cousin say the crew initially refused to give her oxygen and that when they did, the oxygen tanks were empty and the defibrillator wasn't working.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting on East 39th St. in Manhattan, a large fight on 2nd Ave. in Manhattan, and a child in cardiac arrest on Pitt St. in Manhattan.
• Police in Nassau County are conducting an active homicide investigation in New Cassel, after they were called to a home where three children--all under the age of seven--were found dead in a room. Their mother has been hospitalized.
• Ripples of Kosovo's recent independence are being felt in New York City's Central and Eastern European immigrant communities.
• Thousands of students fasted for a 30-hour period over the weekend to raise awareness of world hunger.
• To celebrate the system's 100th anniversary tomorrow, everyone can ride the PATH trains to and from NJ for free.
• A large number of the panels being removed from the stained glass window at American Airline's JFK Airport Terminal are going to the group lampooned as a cult that recruited members as they cleaned one's carpet for free in an episode of Seinfeld.
• A Greyhound bus traveling from New York City to Syracuse and then across the border to Toronto flipped over in northeastern Pennsylvania early this morning. 41 of the passengers were treated at a hospital and released.
• Grammy Award-winning singer Rihanna is working with an international bone marrow donor network to help Lisa Gershowitz Flynn, a New York City mother of two young children who has leukemia.

After January hype - which resulted in rain - and a brief moment of snow last week, a winter snow storm finally made an appearance this year. Two weather disturbances resulted in many inches of snow falling in the region: By 2PM, more than 6 inches fell in the city, which is the biggest snowfall in two years and the biggest daily snowfall on the books (old record: 5.7 inches in 1948).

Workers are almost done dismantling the 317 feet long, 23 feet wide stained-glass exterior to the American Airlines’ vacant Terminal 8 building. The red, blue and white wall, comprised of 900 panes of glass, was designed by artist Robert Sowers and was completed in 1960; at the time it was the world’s largest stained-glass window and the first to heavily incorporate stained glass in a secular building, an aesthetic that soon became fashionable.

A 7-year-old New York City boy has joined a growing number of children who’ve had the horrifying experience of getting their feet mangled by escalators while wearing popular plastic clogs made by Crocs. The boy’s mother says the accident happened in a Kentucky airport:

”All of a sudden I hear this excruciating screaming from Nicky and I turn around and his little foot is being sucked into the side of the escalator. It's just like chewing up his foot.”

Continue reading "More Crocs Escalator Nightmares!"