What's Wrong with JetBlue?

Since its inception more than ten years ago I have been a big fan of JetBlue. Whenever I have the choice of flying JetBlue or another airline, I pick JetBlue. I like the airline's culture, its fleet and its service. It's just fun to "jet" with JetBlue. Their fleet consists of the newest planes in the North American market, operating only A320s and Embraer 190s - two of my favorite aircraft.

However, on a flight from JFK to Vegas last week, at least one person on board flight 191 did not seem to have too much fun - the A320's captain, Clayton Osbon. According to various media reports, the pilot suffered some kind of mental breakdown while flying the A320. According to media reports, first officer Jason Dowd noticed Osbon's weird behavior shortly after take-off. Dowd asked Osbon to leave the cockpit and then locked the door, so the confused pilot could not re-enter. According to CNN, Osbon said "Pray f***ing now for Jesus Christ" and mumbled about Jesus, September 11, Iraq, Iran and terrorists. Eventually, a group of passengers could subdue Osbon and the flight was diverted to Amarillo, Texas. Luckily, there was another JetBlue A320 pilot on board who took over (which would not have been totally necessary, but it's always easier to fly and land a plane with two people in the cockpit).

This is not the first time a JetBlue cabin crew member has acted weird on board one of the airline's planes. Remember the weirdo JetBlue flight attendant at JFK airport in 2010? The one who said "I've been in this business 20 years. And that's it, I'm done!" over the speakers and then activated the emergency slide and left the plane on the tarmac? What is it with JetBlue that encourages its employees to go nuts? Well, honestly, this is not really a JetBlue-only problem. Just recently, an American Airlines flight attendant said funny things about the plane crashing and the 9/11 attacks. Everybody who has been on a Southwest Airlines flight would agree that some of their flight attendants are crazy, but at SWA, it's integrated into their job - they rap over the speaker phones, dance, etc.

We should never forget that pilots and flight attendants are human beings like everyone else. They have personal problems, work long hours and don't really make a lot of money. So let's be realistic - four or five such incidents over the last couple of years are not really that disturbing. I am a bit surprised things like this don't happen more often. Whenever I'm stuck between two 200-kilo people on a plane I want to go crazy. I can't imagine dealing with all these stupid passengers every day.

I don't even think Osbon should go to prison for this. He had a mental breakdown. I really don't think he did this intentionally. I'm not sure he should ever fly a plane again, but this man was ill and he needs treatment, no prison.

United A320 Makes Emergency Landing in New Orleans

I am sure it must have been a very unpleasant landing for the passengers (and crew) on board a United A320 that made an emergency landing in New Orleans yesterday.

United flight UA 497 was on the way from New Orleans to San Francisco when it encountered severe technical difficulties. Apparently, there was smoke in the cockpit and the pilots "lost all instruments" according to a Bloomberg article. Other reports mentioned that the Airbus's primary flight computer wasn't functioning.

As U.S. media love to do (see Sullenberger Hudson landing), the pilots were quickly portrayed as heroes. Big U.S. broadcasters described this landing as a "blind landing," which is a very misleading term as non-experts may believe the pilots didn't see anything. This is not true - blind landing means that the pilots do not have any working navigational instruments. They can still see when they look out of the cockpit.

United's A320 was still functional and returned to New Orleans. With help from the folks in the tower, UA 497 performed a visual landing, which pilots do every single day at airports across the world (e.g., at DC's Reagan Airport). The plane's fly-by-wire system worked, the flaps were retracted and the landing gear worked as well. Pilots should be trained to handle situations like these.

The incident was likely caused by a cable that was heating up and starting to burn, causing the instruments to black out. This has nothing to do with Airbus's technology, flight computers or fly-by-wire system and could have happened on any plane.

To read the Bloomberg story, please click here.

Virgin America Orders 40 Airbus A320

It has been a great Farnborough air show for Airbus so far and the orders just keep coming in. Virgin America today announced it will add 40 Airbus A320s to its fleet. The list price for the planes is around $81 million, but Virgin probably got a decent discount.

The U.S. airline, which is partly owned by UK billionaire Richard Branson, has an Airbus-only fleet and, at this point, only serves cities in the U.S. from its California hubs Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego. With the additional aircraft, Virgin Atlantic is planning to extend its routes. New destinations in the U.S. will likely be Austin, Chicago and Dallas. The airline also plans on flying to its first ex-U.S. destinations by year's end. Those international destinations will likely be Cancun and San Jose del Cabo, both in Mexico.

To read the Bloomberg piece, please click here.

Emirates to Order More A380s

I have to start this post with a big WOW! I couldn't believe what I read today: Dubai's official airline Emirates will commit to more than 30 additional A380s, according to Bloomberg. The airline already owns 10 A380s, has 48 additional orders and now - 30 more! Emirates is becoming one of Airbus's most important clients. When all of the planes are delivered, the carrier from the UAE will own 88 A380s and will be, by far, the largest operator of the Airbus. But the Dubai-based airline does not only like this super jumbo. Emirates also firmly ordered 50 A350-900 and 20 A350-1000. The patriotic American might ask: How many 787s has Emirates ordered? The answer: None! This further underlines the impact of Asia and the Middle East on airplane manufacturers. So far, not a single airline from America has ordered the A380...

To read the Bloomberg piece, please click here.

Bloomberg - Boeing Boosts Output on 777s and 747s to Meet Demand

I wasn't surprised to read that Boeing is boosting the production of its 777. The 777 is an awesome plane and it has been really successful with airlines from all over the world. But I was a bit stunned to read that Boeing is also increasing its 747-8 production. I am not a big fan of the 747-8, since I don't really understand why you would need a plane like it at all. I don't understand its unique selling point. The 747-8's design is a bit obsolete and it looks like a 747-200 with new engines (and apparently a fly-by-wire system). To me, it is just a "we need to build a successor of the 747-400" plane to compete with Airbus's A380. Airlines feel this way too. Only two passenger airlines (Korean Air and Lufthansa) have ordered the 747-8 so far and demand is less than expected. For a while, Boeing even considered axing the passenger version of the new jumbo jet altogether. Well, we'll see if the 747-8 turns out to be a success. Several dozen freighter versions have been sold already.

To read the Bloomberg piece, please click here.