This story is a few hours old now, but an interesting read indeed:

 

http://www.cnn.com/2....html?hpt=hp_t1

 

 

I also went ahead and retrieved the audio recordings for the tower and departure for the flight, I'd recommend downloading for a full account of what the crew and tower were encountering in real time. Fun fact, the 757 has no fuel dump capability, so the crew was forced to circle nearby the airport at about 4000 ft for some time (4 hours!!) to burn off excess fuel, as the flight was a transatlantic longhaul.

 

The internet is amazing, isn't it? You can follow any real time story though so many different ways, I love liveATC.

It is great to see when these events go 'by the book'. You can't help these mechanical incidents but the crew fall back on there years of training and experience.

 

That 757 doesn't have in-flight entertainment at your seat so the passengers would not be able to see events unfold live, over the internet on CNN as it happens. That happened with JetBlue once before. With the newer 787's coming they will be able to tune into the Internet to get information from online sources (unless the airline blocks access in emergencies).

 

Cheers

Yeah, it's pretty cool to have internet access on the plane itself. I have never tried it, as most of the flights I was on recently were relatively short, but I have seen Delta's live TV and was amazed. We tend to take the insane speed of technological progress for granted, at least I do, but sometimes I step back and think to myself, we are now in the future, and it's even more amazing than I could have hoped for just 8 years ago. The credit goes to cheap broadband access, and smartphones. I can't keep up with all the crazy things we can do now, and if I have an idea pop into my head about using the internet to solve a real world problem, chances are it's already been thought of by now.

 

It is so neat to see a flight pass overhead, and all I need to do to find out what the aircraft is, where it's going, it's altitude over my house, is to just go on flightaware. I enjoy following the local air traffic with tools like flightaware and liveatc, it helps me learn how air traffic works, and I apply those lessons into my own simulator sessions. I've got the flight patterns, sids/stars, shortcuts to speed up traffic memorized for my local airport all thanks to the internet. 15 years ago before the internet, I'd only be guessing.

 

In regards to the flight emergency, maybe it's just me, but it seems KEWR has the most emergencies declared. I think it was about 2 years ago that a Continental 777 declared a similar emergency and had to dump fuel, and that event had also received a decent amount of coverage from traditional and social media. Also, a copilot on Continental 777 died inflight, and a flight attendant had to assist the pilot with radio comms during the approach to KEWR. KEWR sure seems to be incident prone.

I was just checking KEWR on Wiki and it does seem a bit of bad luck. I was there not long ago (January 2011) and the airport was under major renovations. KEWR is amazing for all of it's European destinations so it is a great place for planespotting. Lots British Airline, Virgin Atlantic, El Al, Lufthansa, Air France, Air India, etc. Loads of long haul routes out of there.

 

The flight I was on was a Porter Airline Dash 8 Q400, and we were loading right next to an Air India 747-400...kind of like David and Goliath right next to each other.

 

Cheers

In regards to the flight emergency, maybe it's just me, but it seems KEWR has the most emergencies declared. I think it was about 2 years ago that a Continental 777 declared a similar emergency and had to dump fuel, and that event had also received a decent amount of coverage from traditional and social media. Also, a copilot on Continental 777 died inflight, and a flight attendant had to assist the pilot with radio comms during the approach to KEWR. KEWR sure seems to be incident prone.

 

Does it really have a higher incident rate, or have incidents at KEWR just stuck in your memory? To really make a statement like that you'd have to look up the incidents at all major airports, and then compare to the amount of traffic. On wiki I count 8 accidents for KEWR since 1951 (which includes 9/11 and the Colgan crash in Buffalo). In the same period JFK had 13. Both airports have roughly equal traffic movements (though in the past that might have been different).

Whenever I fly, I use EWR. Fortunately it's only once or twice a year for vacation and I try to relax as much as I can.

 

1) Airfrares are generally more expensive than LaGuardia or JFK. Getting to either of those airports is easily an extra hour, depending on traffic if you live in NJ.

 

2) getting there is a pain at least for me, it's a 50 minute drive (doing the speed limit).

 

3) the parking and fees are horrendous, which I is why I now just bite the bullet and use a limo to ease a lot of these pain points. If you want the cheapest parking you have to park on the north side of the field (or off airport parking), if you can find it. Once you finally find a spot, you have to take a 10 to 15 minute bus ride to the terminals. Whenever the air temperature is below 40 or above 85, your guaranteed to be frozen or sweating by the time you get to the terminal. It's very open on the approach end of 22s, so it can be windy, noisy and smelly.

 

3) The volume of people going through terminal C (United) is amazing. The check in is very painful.

 

4) if you get through the checkin, the next pain is the TSA. Somehow with my luck, the TSA changes around or I get stuck behind someone who is very slow at going through checkin, while others pass me up. I've flown First a couple times and my luck runs out there too at TSA.

 

5) ok, one saving grace is the maybe shopping, o, I wish I was a drinker, maybe that would help?

 

6) Fortunately, I haven't had too many or bad of delays, but try to always leave early (6 a.m.) before any weather sets in. In general three hours, none that I can think of due to weather.

Pretty much the same reasons why I use KEWR over KJFK or KLGA....

 

When I fly into New York, You land in KEWR, Take the monorail over to the train station (5 to 10 minutes), take the train to Penn Station (about 25 minutes) and you are there....very easy, and I like Penn Station.

 

Cheers

I've lived around and worked around EWR since going to college to my career advanced. I've seen two incidents personally. (UAL Aibus engine #2 blow out in the early 90s and FedEx MD11 flipping over)

 

IMO, it's not terribly better or worse than any other International airport. Anything near NYC seems to get more attention than normal. IMO, "accident prone" does not quite fit.

 

From a social standpoint, I've read that most people prefer flying to EWR to get to Manhattan as it is less painful than going to LGA or JFK. With that convenience comes a hefty price tag.

 

The TSA are rampant everywhere. The last two business trips I took to CVG and IND were even MORE intrusive than EWR was.

 

Terminal "C" is a really great terminal, but if you want to see chaos go to Terminal "A" in the AM. They depart JetBlue, South West, UAL Express all from a few gates and to get in is a super PITA. At least "C" is spacious...

From a social standpoint, I've read that most people prefer flying to EWR to get to Manhattan as it is less painful than going to LGA or JFK. With that convenience comes a hefty price tag.

 

Unless you get caught in traffic on the Holland or Lincoln Tunnel! :lol: