Worst lounge I’ve ever been in. Didn’t even serve food unless requested, the options were two crappy sandwiches that were mostly bread.
By far the most hilarious “lounge” I have ever seen was a Priority Pass lounge in STR - I think it was affiliated with some other European carriers. It was a stifling room the size of a large SUV with a couch, mini fridge, and it might have had a table. It had about 8 people in it and was way over capacity.
Makes me think of that Ron White bit “like a pack of gum with 8 people in it”
It was so bad it was actually incredible. Hate I don’t have a photo. .
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PF chang’s in DC is Great too
This may be a bad take, so please let me know, but this is stuck in my craw.
It seems very on brand of the private jet community to aim for the very crowded highway when they’re trying to land their malfunctioning equipment.
Incredibly fortunate that there were no deaths on the ground and the passengers in the plane survived. This just feels like making a bad situation worse at the expense of the commuters on the ground. It goes without saying that it’s sad the pilots lost their lives, but this felt reckless.
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I haven’t seen where the crash site is in relation to any runway, but if you are in a “we’ve lost all engines” situation, you look for the nearest piece of pavement and try to hit it. Runway is great, but if not, highways will do, and you don’t care how busy the highway is.
Side note: is that reporter in your link like 16 years old?
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I get your point, it seems pretty reckless, but when you look at the map of the area, they didn’t really have a choice. It looks like they were approaching 23 straight in when they lost power, and suddenly were confronted with the options of crashing in to trees/houses in front of them, or to dive left and try to ditch on the highway. I’m sure that if there was an open field somewhere, they’d had tried to ditch it there.
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First time flying into Hobby (HOU) this past weekend. Felt like a mid-size airport and had an easy time navigating with two kids. I haven’t been on a rental car shuttle that small in YEARS
The situation these guys found themselves in, aside from an inflight fire, is probably every pilot’s worst nightmare. A low-energy, low-altitude, double engine failure, over a densely populated area has an almost net zero chance of success or survivability.
It’s the reason why Sully saw the Hudson as his only option, basically any other option would have resulted in a high probability of casualty for people on his airplane, or on the ground.
Where you see the plane in that image is the last hit from its ADS-B position data. They’ve turned final for runway 23, they have presumably zero thrust, and are in the highest drag, lowest performance position they could possibly be in. They have likely less than 2-3 seconds to choose between houses to the left, a golf course to the right, or I-75, which probably looked like a gleaming beacon in comparison, just like Sully’s Hudson.
While not a business jet, this video is a sobering example of how quickly a low altitude all engine failure in a jet can go sideways. You can see how quick the decision-making process goes, and these guys had the opportunity/capability to eject.
Navy jet hits bird causing it to crash into neighborhood (youtube.com)
Almost 20 years ago, I lost two former coworkers, who I knew well, in a scenario much different than this, but with the same ultimate outcome, which is that they found themselves out of altitude, airspeed, and energy, trying to find a runway with no engines, at night, in a very similar jet.
This is the end of the CVR recording:
That used to keep me up at night. For a long time.
Just a couple months after this accident, I found myself flying into the same airport, at night, and as we were on final, I thought about what those guys were seeing out the windshield when they were trying to find a place to set it down, and all I saw were dim streetlights, and houses.
Regardless of whether or not an error or mechanical failure preceded the accident sequence, nobody should ever take for granted the gravity of the decision that has to be made.
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Point taken.
I was in a bad mood yesterday when I saw this story and it just stuck with me. I was thinking about some poor commuter getting crushed and/or burned alive. Would that person think the highway was the best option?
One could say the median would’ve been a nice target, but then you’re looking at a worse outcome for the aircraft itself.
The whole thing sucks and the pilots made the best choice out of the available options, all of which were bad.
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Probably doing the world a favor if you ditched a plane into one of those golf courses.
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The guy in the hat may be finding himself on the no fly list.
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Someone putting fish, let alone ROTTEN fish in their carry-on is just some otherworldly stuff
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I know the flight says it originated in Amsterdam, but I’m blaming a Scandi for this.
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Apparently the guy had started his journey in The Gambia or Senegal (where temperatures are well in to the 90s), and wasn’t happy about them taking away his fish…
What’s the crazy part to me is how anyone allowed him to board with fish in his hand luggage.
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Speaking of fish, what’s the best restaurant in Denver’s airport?
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Root down. C concourse.
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Gracias!
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Fucked around and found out…
3 months ago I booked us a 5pm spirit flight ACY to MCO. (I know dumb, but it had been 5 years since my last painful experience so the pain had faded). 2 months ago they moved the flight up 4 hours causing both of us to have to take off of work (was not easy for the teacher wife). Then we also had booked nonrefundable tickets to an event for tonight. Woke up this morning to find out spirit push the flight back 4 hours to its original time. Didn’t have to take off work and likely to miss a good portion of our event.
Went to the airport early and tried to get on the 12pm flight but it was oversold. Spoke to spirit employees on the phone, in chat, and in person at the front and at the gate. Not a single one could help in any way.
My guess is that the computer systems screwed up with the initial change to 1pm and there was never going to be a plane/pilots here in time for a 1pm flight. And just no oversight to catch these issues until day of. Or there was in fact a “maintenance issue” on the plane that has been at the airport for a few days and they failed to communicate it until day of.
Spirit Airlines: we have broken processes and won’t empower our employees to help you
Spirit Airlines: we already got your cheap ass money, welcome to hell
Spirit Airlines: you fuck around, you find out
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Sorry about your experience but Spirit is what it is…Also if I ever flew this route I’d literally be taking off from my favorite city and landing in my least favorite city
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