Disaster tips

If you’re a member of the National Rifle Association, you may have gotten accustomed to enjoying member discounts from a number of prominent travel suppliers. If you check today, you’ll find that most of those NRA partner companies are no longer listed on the NRA website.

Hawaiians have delivered a petition asking to delay tourism reopening following the summer wildfires.

Yesterday’s crash landing of Emirates flight EK521 in Dubai generated a flood of images of panicked travelers, loaded down with their carry-on bags, fleeing the burning B777-300. The headline of Bloomberg’s coverage of the incident said it all: “Crashing, Burning Planes Don’t Stop Passengers From Grabbing Their Luggage.”

In just the past month, there have been two major airline service disruptions, inconveniencing hundreds of thousands of travelers.

In a fact sheet issued last month, IATA, the International Air Transport Association, calls them “unruly passengers,” and deems them a “significant problem.”

In a stunning and comprehensive report, the Tampa Bay Times has uncovered systemic mechanical problems on Allegiant Air’s planes.

Adding to the already-high levels of stress associated with air travel, systemwide computer outages have become an increasingly common occurrence, raising the prospect of not only a cramped, uncomfortable flight, but a cramped, uncomfortable flight that is delayed or cancelled.

In a blow to smartphone giant Samsung, and a scare for a plane full of passengers, Southwest flight 994 last night was evacuated when a Galaxy Note 7 overheated and began smoking. According to USA Today’s report, the phone in question was a replacement for the owner’s original phone, which was among 1 million Note 7s recalled and replaced because of overheating batteries. The replacement phone was supposed to be the fix. Apparently it wasn’t.

Remember those exploding hoverboards, the once-popular self-balancing scooters that most airlines banned late last year due to their proven combustibility?

There’s nothing mysterious about a solar eclipse. The moon blots out the sun for a few minutes, completely, in a spot about 80 miles in diameter. Places within that totality spot experience total darkness—just like a moonless midnight—for more than two and a half minutes near the center, a bit less than a minute at the edges. Areas hundreds of miles on either side of the totality spot will experience partial darkness.

The “Do Not Disturb” sign is a ubiquitous part of the hotel-stay experience. And many would argue that it’s essential to a restful stay. After all, who wants to come out of the shower to find a housekeeper tidying up your room?

UPDATE: As if United weren’t already getting enough bad press from the dead-dog-in-the-overhead incident, just days later the airline mis-shipped two dogs to two different destinations. A Kansas City-bound German shepherd was flown to Japan, while the Japan-bound Great Dane landed in Kansas City. Once again, United issued an apology, and “is looking into the matter.”

It’s the rare year during which no one dies in a commercial jet airline crash. For whatever reasons, 2017 was such a year.

I recently spent a week in Hawaii, splitting my time between Honolulu’s bustling Waikiki area and the lush shores of Kauai. My trip was completely unaffected by the Hawaii volcano eruption that’s been going on since early May, despite the scary pictures I’d seen of spewing ash and fiery lava. My flights were on time, the air was fresh and clean, and I was able to enjoy the pristine landscapes and local hospitality for which Hawaii is famous.

Click on the image below to view the interactive version of this story.

In the three weeks since the FAA grounded Boeing’s 737 MAX aircraft, we’ve learned a lot about the plane and what likely caused the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes. But we’re still waiting to hear when, exactly, Boeing will have a fix for the aircraft to return to the skies.