BREAKING NEWS Chaos as American Airlines is hit by outage leaving thousands stranded on runways
American Airlines has been hit by an outage, leaving people stranded for hours.
All flights have been impacted due to computer issues that struck systems around 1:30pm ET.
Some travelers have shared their frustrations on social media, saying they have been sitting at the gate for more than one hour.
This is a developing story... More updates to come
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Daily Mail
9 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Grand Teton Tourist Dives Headfirst Through Open Car Window To Avoid Grizzly
A tourist dove through an open car window to escape a possible attack from a massive grizzly bear in a Wyoming national park. The heart-stopping image was captured on the winding roads of Grand Teton National Park - a nearly 310,000-acre expanse with 40 miles of rugged Rocky Mountain peaks. Traffic had suddenly came to a standstill in what park regulars dubbed a 'very large animal jam.' More than 50 people stood frozen on a hillside with binoculars and high-powered cameras in hand to witness a very large bear from afar. But one tourist suddenly came face-to-face with the beast - and in a split-second decision, hurled himself through his car window, narrowly escaping unscathed. 'When the bear emerged from the trees, it was right in line with his taillights,' Molly Hagan told Cowboy State Daily. 'He did not hear the crowd yelling at him to get in his car.' 'He dove into his car window and tucked his feet just as the bear came around the driver's side and crossed the street,' she added. On June 3, Hagan, social media coordinator for Backcountry Safaris Jackson Hole, was spending the day in Grand Teton. But while on the road, she witnessed a saturation of vehicles - all stopped and lining the road - in what she immediately recognized as an 'animal jam.' 'With the level of traffic present, and having already seen plenty of elk that day, I figured it had to be a bear,' Hagan told Cowboy State Daily. Spotting nearly five dozen people gathered on a hillside, using scopes and high-powered cameras to peer across the road, Hagan pulled over and got her camera ready to capture whatever had everyone on edge. Assuming the wildlife was far off, she wandered to a better vantage point - but saw nothing in the open field. It wasn't until Hagan hurried toward the growing crowd that she realized what had captured everyone's full attention. 'When I finally got to the crowd, I saw what they did: A huge grizzly, standing 10 feet off the left-hand side of the road,' Hagan told the outlet. 'And it was on the move.' But this wasn't just a charming, nature-documentary-style bear sighting - this bear, it was later discovered, was on a mission: to mate with an awaiting bear in a picturesque meadow just across the road. With her background in wildlife, Hagan quickly recognized the potential danger and put distance between herself and the bear, weaving her way to the back of the crowd. At the same moment, wildlife guides recognized that the huffing, puffing bear could strike at any moment - and swiftly sprang into action. 'Three wildlife guides, all armed with bear spray, put themselves between the bear and the crowd,' Hagan told Cowboy State Daily. 'The bear was huffing, looked at the crowd multiple times, but stayed at least 10 feet off the road,' she added. However, curiosity seemed to get the best of those stuck in the animal-related jam, as they began stepping out of their cars - unaware that the bear was close enough to strike at any moment. 'At this point, the wildlife guides were yelling, telling everyone to stay in their vehicle,' Hagan explained to the outlet. 'The bear continued north, and the crowd slowly moved south.' But urgent warnings from tour guides didn't seem to register with everyone - including one unsuspecting tourist who stepped out of their vehicle just as the bear briefly disappeared behind two trees along the road. The bear reemerged from behind the trees in an instant - right in line with the unidentified tourist's taillights - and began moving toward the passenger door. Unaware of the danger creeping up behind him and the frantic screams urging him back, he fully stepped out of the car, closing the driver's side door just as the huffing bear drew nearer. Just seconds later, he spotted the bear and realized the danger he'd naively walked into. His first instinct: get back inside the car. But the door was locked. His next move was to dive for his life through the open window of his black Kia, bearing Florida license plates - a heart-stopping moment perfectly captured by Hagan. In the photo, the tourist's peril is unmistakable: his outstretched legs, caught mid-jump and fully sideways, hang out of the open driver's side window. Just feet away, the muscular, huffing grizzly stalked closer - but fortunately, it showed little interest in the tourist's dangling feet and continued its intimidating march across the road. Thankfully, both bear and man escaped unscathed - the man safely back in his car, and the bear free to continue its journey to join in on Grand Teton's peak mating season. 'The photos tell the story better than any words can,' Hagan told Cowboy State Daily. While exploring Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, the National Park Service urges visitors to maintain a safe distance of at least 100 yards from bears roaming the natural surroundings. Most rangers and ecologists in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem agree that bear spray is essential for anyone traveling in grizzly country, according to the outlet. If you unexpectedly come face-to-face with a grizzly at close range, the best course of action is to 'play dead' - though the safest defense is to avoid these furry bears altogether. 'The best tool you have is your own situational awareness and both mental and physical preparedness when in grizzly bear occupied areas,' Dan Thompson, bear expert and large carnivore biologist with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, previously told Cowboy State Daily. 'The reason we promote the use of bear spray is that it's been shown time and again to effectively stop a bear attack,' he added.
Daily Mail
14 hours ago
- Daily Mail
People are just realizing why there are still ashtrays in airplane bathrooms
If you've ever noticed an ashtray in an airplane bathroom and wondered why it's still there despite the no smoking signs lighting up all around you - you're not alone. Even though smoking has been banned on all US flights for more than two decades since 2000, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) still requires ashtrays to be present near airplane lavatories. The reason? Some passengers still just can't resist lighting up at 35,000 feet. The FAA says people still try to smoke onboard and airlines need a safe way for them to take the light out. 'The installation of an ashtray on or near the lavatory door will ensure that uninformed persons who find themselves with lighted smoking materials on the airplane will have an obvious location to dispose of smoking materials before entering the lavatory,' the FAA explains. The FAA believe it's better to have a designated place to extinguish a cigarette than risk a smoker tossing it into a trash bin full of paper towels and flammable waste. A European flight attendant, who previously worked for a major US airline, told Marketplace she has personally caught multiple passengers trying to sneak a smoke mid-flight. 'What people don't understand is that a fire on board is one of the most scary things to have,' she told the outlet. The FAA regularly investigates 'unruly passenger' reports and lighting up on the flight is included. In 2021, the FAA proposed a whopping $16,700 fine against one Allegiant Air passenger who was caught smoking in the bathroom. Although the FAA itself can't press criminal charges, it can refer extreme cases to the FBI. The agency also can impose civil penalties of up to $37,000 per violation. Also in 2021, a woman on a Spirit Airlines flight to Fort Lauderdale was walked off by police after lighting up a cigarette on the tarmac, drawing scorn from fellow passengers. The unnamed woman pulled out a cigarette after the plane took more than an hour to make its way to the terminal after it arrived at the Florida airport from Detroit. It is not clear why it took that long to taxi. Alexa Majdalawi, 31, who was sitting behind her and has asthma, told Fox News at the time: 'She literally took out a cigarette and just started smoking.' Majdalawi said the woman 'turned around' and blew it in her face. And just this April, a brazen business-class passenger was caught on camera vaping on a flight - with footage showing the premium flyer sneakily tucking the device beneath a cushion between each inhale. The incident, which involved a male passenger seated in executive class, took place on a Garuda Indonesia flight from Jakarta to Medan, Indonesia, on March 27. A shocking clip shows the passenger, who had been filmed by a fellow flyer, subtly lifting the e-cigarettes to his lips from under a red cushion placed on his lap. A former flight attendant who worked on planes in the 1970s previously revealed to Daily Mail that the cigarette smoke on planes used to be so thick her makeup would drip down her face. Mary Mckenna recalled her memories of working on American Airlines from 1976 to 2010. While her career had many highlights, the now-outlawed act of smoking during flights posed various concerns for her. She recalled: 'The smoke was so intense on the plane that my eye makeup would be dripping down my face, I couldn't breathe.' Mary also explained that she would have to take extra caution to watch out for passengers falling asleep with lit cigarettes in their hands due to the fire risk.
Times
15 hours ago
- Times
This pervasive dining trend is set to wreck my summer holiday
I've just spent three marvellous days in Greece — sun, sea and some great friends, with whom I relished sharing precious downtime. I did not enjoy sharing my taramasalata. Each mealtime our group of six gather would around the same table — either at the hotel where we were staying or in local restaurants. As friends travelling together, of course we did. It was with a sinking heart, however, that I quickly realised we were to share our meals too, thanks to the pervasive — and frankly unwelcome — trend for 'sharing plates'. My joy at perusing each mealtime menu was tempered by the near certainty that my choice would not just be for me, but for all of us. A choice, no doubt, that my dining companions would instantly find more alluring than theirs, and which would fast disappear before my eyes, leaving me to dip into a selection of confusing and dissatisfying alternative mismatched 'bites'. The phrase 'for the table' has become the mantra of those with short-term tastebuds but is the curse of the single-minded diner; the gustatory deficit disorder that plagues our palate in the same way that the smartphone meddles with our minds. The culture of sharing plates is no longer limited to restaurants that specialise in suitable dishes — tapas, for example, or thali, where one can at least expect compatible flavours. In fact it's just one iteration of a wider trend for communal dining, a term applied to a range of set-ups, from disparate diners sharing food and tables, to restaurant guests sitting around a communal table eating individual à la carte orders. It is a veritable buffet of culinary experiences. That said, I can just about cope with starters 'for the table', when I can program my brain to accept dipping in and out of different dishes — I think of it as seated canapés. And puddings, well, I'll rarely have more than a spoonful anyway and it's often off my husband's plate. But main courses? If Iberico pork was meant to be eaten with vegetable biryani, it would come as a menu suggestion, not as carelessly deposited spoonfuls of incongruous flavours rattling around my dinner plate. Even worse, is the expectation that diners share elbow room with complete strangers along trestle tables, now common in even the most traditional of tavernas. It's all very lovely in theory. Meals out, whether on holiday or not, are often a celebratory, convivial affair. Why not share the love — and your food — with other people? Psychologists point to communal eating as a way to connect and to support mental health — the 2025 World Happiness Report ranks shared meals as one of the greatest factors in wellbeing, on a par with income and employment status. Research published in the journal of Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology suggests that social meals stimulate endorphins and are vital to connection with other people — a time when you are more likely to open up, swap stories and discuss ideas. This may well be true, but surely this doesn't mean being forced to sit with a group of strangers and pay for the dubious pleasure? Because, please, the conversation I most want to have over the rare treat of a meal out in an equally rare moment of downtime is with my husband or friend, not small talk with someone I don't know. The sceptic in me wonders if this is a case of providence disguised as preference — after all, those hotels and restaurants that offer it are not just benefiting from the economy of space (more customers per square metre) but from the novelty value too. A straw poll of my fellow Greece guests revealed that, unlike me, most were in favour of the sharing plate, although there was less enthusiasm for communal tables. Nearly all said that they would prefer to dine with their chosen companions than be seated with strangers. So who is it that is feeding this pernicious trend? • 16 of the best quiet Greek islands Back in the London office, I'm surrounded by 'people people' who proclaim to love a shared table. 'It's a study in psychology and I love it!' says one such minded colleague. 'Watching marital breakdown over a schnitzel is my favourite pastime,' she adds. 'I can always spot the signs.' (I too can spot said signs, but prefer to do so from at least a table's distance. Still, each to their own.) There are places, I acknowledge — beyond the family meal or domestic dinner party — where it works, by and large, where every diner eats the same menu, at the same time, and often has a shared experience too. Take, for example, a safari. Here, it's essential. How else can you effectively download the wonder of your game drives and those of your fellow campers? (Or, if you're unlucky with your cohort, trade information on house prices in London, Suffolk and the Cotswolds?) Similarly, communal dining has long been a customary part of the cruise ship experience, particularly river cruises, and is something passengers are almost uniformly enthusiastic about. Here, forewarned is forearmed, and with a greater pool of people to play with (or avoid) there are ways for even the uninitiated to enhance their experience. These are, I'm reliably informed: get to dinner five minutes before the restaurant opens to occupy a seat that's near the window with a view. Prime positioning is important because you may find that people want to sit in the same place every night, but remember, it's first come, first seated. If your first night found you alongside international-level competitive travel bores intent on proving that they've been to more places than you, you are going to want to know your table rights for the next night. But, Wendy Atkin-Smith, the managing director of Viking UK, says, such lengths are rarely required, and in fact these tables are where lifelong friends are made on board. 'Our river ships offer a very intimate experience and our guests all get to know each other very quickly,' she says. 'Our communal tables are very popular and are definitely part of the whole river voyage experience — we don't have any kind of fixed seating so guests are at liberty to move around each evening to meet fellow travellers in a very relaxed and convivial setting.' But what of hotel restaurants — those rarefied centres of intimacy, of romantic dinners, of illicit encounters, and of well-deserved quality family time. Why would they want to mix it up with one big table of potentially gastronomic and social discord? Well, it turns out they are often bringing people together around a shared experience too. For some, it's nothing new. Stuart Smith, the brand home manager at Glenmorangie House, a farmhouse-turned-boutique hotel for visitors to the distillery, says communal dining has been at the heart of its Highland hospitality for 30 years. 'Our dinner party format fosters a uniquely warm and convivial atmosphere,' he says. 'We've even seen groups who first met around our table continue to reunite here every few years, a testament to the enduring bonds formed in this special setting.' Others are doing it to create connections with the past. Flore, the restaurant at De l'Europe in Amsterdam which reopened in April after a makeover, has created a communal table crafted from a single elm felled not far from the hotel. 'It creates a connection between guests and the city's natural heritage,' says chef Bas van Kranen. 'Seating has been designed to allow solo diners, couples, groups of four, and larger parties to all sit together around the same table. The communal table experience pairs diners randomly, they don't get to choose their seat — we find that this breaks down the traditional barriers of fine dining in a way that brings people together rather than isolating them.' At Killiehuntly Farmhouse in the Cairngorms, part of the Wildland conservation network, guests in the main house begin their day together over bowls of porridge with cream and fresh berries at a long, scrubbed farmhouse table. At Lundies House, 120 miles further north in Lairg, dinner is more refined, but no less social. Here communal dining is not a gimmick but a way of life, Ruth Kramer, the head of design at Wildland, says. 'In an era of individualism, there's something quietly radical about sitting down with strangers to eat a meal. It's a gentle return to something older and simpler: the table as a place of welcome, nourishment and unexpected connection.' So I guess if, like me, you don't want an unexpected connection that goes beyond the food, then research before you reserve. Leave the trestle tables and the small plates for the more caring, sharing diners out there, and raise your glass to a summer of enjoying your own dish from the comfort of your own table. Do you enjoy communal dining or would you rather eat alone? Let us know in the comments below
