Co-pilot forced to land Air India plane after pilot locked out of cockpit

Published May 15, 2013

Associated Press

Air India says the cockpit door of one of its planes got jammed during a flight while the captain was using the toilet, forcing an unscheduled landing by the co-pilot in central India.

An airline statement says the captain couldn't return to the cockpit because the door was locked and that all efforts to open it, even from inside, failed during Tuesday's flight from New Delhi to the southern Indian city of Bangalore.

The co-pilot landed the plane at the nearest airport. The door was fixed by ground maintenance staff and the plane resumed its flight.

The airline said the incident posed no danger to the passengers.

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Delta employee had pizza delivered to stranded plane

Published March 21, 2013

FoxNews.com

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A Delta employee ordered 60 pizzas for delayed passengers on an Atlanta-bound flight from Tennessee after the plane was stranded on the tarmac for three hours on Monday.

Michele Carson-Vaughn, Delta Director of Field Services for the Southeast, says the airline's Knoxville station manager who has not been named was behind the idea, reports the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

Department of Transportation rules require airlines to let passengers leave a plane after a three-hour tarmac delay and to provide food and water after two hours.  Pizza, on the other hand, is not required --and neither is a police escort for the food.

Delta reportedly worked with TSA to clear the delivery through security and the pizzas were delivered to the plane by a police car that had its lights flashing, reports the Chronicle.

One passenger told NBC she and her fellow passengers were pretty excited to see the Pizza Hut pizza. 

"Everyone appeared happy after the pizza feed -- "but they just wouldn't serve us beer," said Vazmina."And yes we asked a bunch of times."

Let's just hope they gave the delivery guy more than a $10 tip for his efforts.

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2 dead, several injured after private plane crashes into Indiana homes

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  March 17, 2013: The front end of a Hawker Beachcraft Premier jet sits in a room of a home on Iowa Street in South Bend, Ind.AP/South Bend Tribune

SOUTH BEND, Ind. –  A private jet apparently experiencing mechanical trouble crashed Sunday in a northern Indiana neighborhood, hitting three homes and killing two people aboard the plane, authorities and witnesses said.

The Beechcraft Premier I twin-jet had left Tulsa, Okla.'s Riverside Airport and crashed near South Bend Regional Airport, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Roland Herwig in Oklahoma City said. Two of four people aboard the plane were killed, Herwig said.

It was not clear if anyone on the ground was killed, and Herwig did not have any additional information.

South Bend Memorial Hospital spokeswoman Maggie Scroope said three people injured when the plane crashed were being treated there; one was in serious condition and two were in fair condition. Scoope did not know if they were on the plane or the ground.

The plane was registered to 7700 Enterprises of Montana LLC in Helena, Mont. The company is owned by Wes Caves and does business as DigiCut Systems in Tulsa, Okla. It makes window film and paint overlay for automobiles.

A woman identifying herself as Caves' wife answered the phone at their home Sunday and said, "I think he's dead," before hanging up.

In South Bend, Assistant Fire Chief John Corthier said the presence of jet fuel from the aircraft made the situation "very dangerous," Corthier said. The plane was lodged inside a house.

"It's still a rescue operation," Corthier said about three hours after the crash. Referring to one of the damaged houses, he said, "Because of the collapse in the house it's a very dangerous situation. We have to shore up the house before we can enter the house. "

Part of the neighborhood southwest of the airport was evacuated. Buses transported up to 200 people to a nearby shelter, Red Cross volunteer Jackie Lincoln said.

Mike Daigle, executive director of the St. Joseph County Airport Authority, said the jet attempted a landing, went back up and maneuvered south to try another landing, but eight minutes later the airport learned the plane was no longer airborne.

"There was an indication of a mechanical problem," Herwig said.

Stan Klaybor, who lives across the street from the crash scene, said the jet clipped the top of one house, heavily damaged a second, and finally came to rest against a third. Neighbors did not know if a woman living in the most heavily damaged house was home at the time, and a young boy in the third house did not appear to be seriously injured, Klaybor said.

"Her little boy was in the kitchen and he got nicked here," Klaybor said, pointing to his forehead.

His wife, Mary Jane, regularly watches planes approach the airport.

"I was looking out my picture window. The plane's coming, and I go, 'Wait a minute,' and then, boom," she said.

"This one was coming straight at my house. I went, 'Huh?' and then there was a big crash, and all the insulation went flying," she said.

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Shake on a plane? FAA investigating after students film Harlem Shake video during flight

The latest craze to sweep the Internet is bringing college students the wrong kind of attention -- from the Federal Aviation Administration.

During a flight from Colorado Springs to San Diego, a group of students started the Harlem Shake, a dance to a song of the same name.

In the suddenly popular YouTube videos, one person starts dancing, then the video cuts to a large group of people dancing, many in costume.

Matt Zelin, a sophomore, told the Colorado College newspaper, The Catalyst, he asked a flight attendant for permission beforehand.

FAA spokesman Allen Kenitzer said Thursday they're looking at what phase the flight was in during the dance in the aisles.

Frontier Airlines says the seatbelt sign was off and safety measures were followed.

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5 dead after small plane runs off runway and crashes in eastern Georgia

THOMSON, Ga. –  Five people were killed and two injured when a small jet crashed Wednesday night off the end of a runway in eastern Georgia.

Thomson-McDuffie County Sheriff Logan Marshall said the jet crashed after 8 p.m. Wednesday. He said the two survivors were taken to area hospitals but did not have information on their conditions. He said the identities of those killed were being withheld pending notification of family members.

The Hawker Beechcraft 390/Premier I en route from Nashville, Tenn., crashed around 8:30 p.m. at the Thomson-McDuffie County Airport, about 30 miles west of Augusta, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said in an email.

Seven people were aboard, she told The Associated Press in the email. She added that she had no immediate details about a possible cause.

The Augusta Chronicle cited Assistant County Fire Chief Stephen Sewell as saying there were at least two survivors identified as a pilot and a passenger. But he provided no additional information about those aboard in that account.

The newspaper said a brush fire flared near the crash scene, quoting witnesses who reported local power outages that prompted a utility to send workers to the site. A photograph posted on the newspaper's online site showed ambulances with lights flashing.

The plane was on a flight from John Tune Airport in Nashville, Tenn., to the Thomson-McDuffie airport, Bergen said in her email, adding the aircraft is registered to a company based in Wilmington, Del.

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