alaska airlines

Concerned About Flap Canoes

July 6, 2010

in Airplane Stories

I make my home in SE Alaska, so our only carrier is Alaska Airlines.

On a southbound trip out of Sitka, I was seated in a window seat on the left side, just behind the wing.  As I settled into my seat for the short flight, I noticed an anomaly on the left wing.  You’ve probably all seen those small pods that are attached to the trailing edge of the wing.  I’ve since discovered that they’re called “flap canoes.”  Their purpose is to house the machinery that controls the extension and retraction of the flaps, those movable segments on the back edge of the wing that can be extended to provide essential additional lift on takeoff and landing.  The canoes themselves are streamlined to offer less drag, and they taper to their rear.

Well, I noticed that the back half of the canoe housing was missing and that I could look up into the innards where the flap drives were located.  I didn’t think too much about this, figuring that the flight crew knew what they were doing.  Surely the plane had been given a walk-around inspection before flight and had passed.  We took off and the flight down to Ketchikan was uneventful.

About ten days later, I was once again traveling out of Sitka, also southbound, and was seated in approximately the same position on the left side of the plane.  As I took my seat, I realized that I was on the same aircraft as my previous flight, since the flap canoe housing on this plane was still missing on its rear half; the trailing portion of the canoe had not yet been replaced!  I had the same view of the machinery inside the canoe, still exposed to the Alaskan elements.

A couple of the guys around me also noticed this defect and we were discussing it when the flight attendant came by.  We told her that part of the plane was missing and inquired if this was safe.  She said she’d question the captain about it.  She returned a couple minutes later with the message that the pilot had said everything was OK, the rear portion of the housing “was not necessary for flight.”  Afterwards, we were all joking that they should just remove the other one, too, in order to balance out the aircraft.

Alaska Airlines pilots are among the best; they have to fly in terrible weather.  But you wonder a bit about an aircraft that goes unrepaired for ten days…

FacebookShare

Tagged as: alaska airlines, flight attendant, pilot

{ 3 comments }

Airlines Don’t Play Nice With Each Other

June 2, 2010

in Luggage Stories

About 6 months ago my wife decided it would be a good idea to use some of her frequent flier mileage to fly on Delta from Spokane to her parents’ place in Houston. When she booked the trip in May with Delta, the itinerary looked normal, Spokane to Salt Lake City, then on to Houston. But coming back, it said it was a Continental flight from Houston to Seattle, and an Alaska Airlines flight from Seattle to Spokane. We figured it was because it was a mileage flight. She picked an itinerary that gave 1-2 hours layover between flights as we normally do.

 The flight down to Houston was no problem at all. Coming back was a different story. First, she had to check in with Delta, then Continental, and give her bags to Continental. Ok, minor inconvenience, she had plenty of time. But when she got to Seattle, the Continental gate agent said she would have to go down to baggage claim, get her bag, check in with Alaska Air, go through security again, and all this in one hour on the nose from when the Continental flight landed in Seattle. Apparently Continental doesn’t play nice with Alaska, but Delta and Alaska and Delta and Continental do, which obviously is why the ticket was issued as such from Delta.

Now, I always was under the impression that checked bags were transferred from plane to plane no matter what airlines you flew on, that the transfer of the bags was basically an independent function of each airport (the obvious exception often being international travel), but apparently we have both learned that this is not the case.

Of course it took forever to get her bags, and by the time she was ready to check in with Alaska, it was already too late. Thankfully she was able to get booked on the next flight to Spokane 3 hours later.

I place some fault with Delta for not disclosing that this would be an issue when booking the ticket. We will still continue to fly with Delta, but will be more careful as to what airline carry our flights, esecially when booking award travel when the airline selections are much wider.

FacebookShare

Tagged as: alaska airlines, baggage, continental airlines, delta airlines

{ 0 comments }

Smelly, Portly Passenger Pours Over Seat

February 3, 2010

in Portly Stories

Upon boarding an Alaska Air plane for home from Seattle to Los Angeles just after Christmas of 2008, I sat in my aisle seat and put my belongings away ready for take-off. A husband and wife came along to take their seats in my row as well, whereupon it took the very, very large woman a very long time to get her big self seated right next to me in the center seat, her slim husband in the window seat. She fished and fished around for the seatbelt while I seemed to be helping her try to do everything. It came as no surprise that the seat belt, fully extended, could not fit around her girth and she kept raising her hand trying to get the attention of a stewardess. Every time she raised her arm, a stench would engulf our area. The flight crew brought her an “extension belt” and we were off.

She poured-over half way into my seat the whole flight and even more so when she fell asleep, snored and relaxed. I at first felt sorry for her and her situation, but soon that wore-off. Clearly she needed to have purchased two seats just for herself and that HAD to be obvious to the whole crew as she boarded. They know when someone will not fit properly into a seat. Instead she used half of my seat and her skinny husband’s and stunk all the way home. Geez, I was miserable but the plane was full and I didn’t know what to do. I just sat there, holding a napkin over my nose trying not to breathe her stench through my nose, pushing her off of me and clearing my throat loudly to try and wake her when she fell asleep on me. Never again; next time I will find a way to tell a steward and pray that they can do something for me.

FacebookShare

Tagged as: alaska airlines, holiday, odor, portly

{ 13 comments }

Oxygen Masks Deployed

July 13, 2008

in Airplane Stories

My husband and I had planned a quick 3 day trip over 4th of July weekend to Las Vegas. Our flight on Alaska Airlines from Seattle to Vegas was delayed over an hour due to mechanical issues. Finally they board the plane, close the doors and were almost ready to go when apparently there was an issue with the AC that had to be corrected; they decided to do this repair while passengers were on the plane delaying us another hour or so.

Finally the plane is ready to take off…up and out of Seattle things are smooth and all of a sudden all of the oxygen masks deploy. Talk about an eerie silence as nervous people were looking around at each other. After what seemed like forever the pilot finally announced that this was real and to put on your masks, the whole procedure. In the meantime the plane was making a rapid decent. We were on an MD80 and all I could think about was the crash Alaska Airlines had a few years back on the same aircraft type. At this point the flight attendants were walking up and down with portable oxygen tanks making sure people were breathing OK and their masks were working.

After the pilot got below 10,000 feet they finally came back on to tell us that the cabin had lost air pressure, causing the masks to deploy and the need for the rapid decent. Needless to say we made an emergency landing in Klamath Falls OR which was not even equipped to handle jets much less the 150 passengers on board.

This turned into a 10 hour delay as we had to wait for a new aircraft which came rather quickly, but because of one of the flight attendant’s refusals to get on the new aircraft another one had to be flown in to take her place. The Red Cross came to the airport to offer support and bring lunch; the airport was so small people were laying on the floors and sitting outside because there weren’t enough chairs.

Finally we made it to Vegas safely and Alaska Airlines compensated each passenger with a free roundtrip ticket for future travel.

Very scary, and although I am a nervous flier, it has not stopped me from traveling and I still love Alaska Airlines and am a frequent flyer.

FacebookShare

Tagged as: alaska airlines, delay & cancellation, flight attendant, holiday, near disaster

{ 4 comments }