Latest news with #flightsafety
Gizmodo
21-05-2025
- Gizmodo
Southwest Airlines Will Require Passengers to Keep Portable Chargers Out During Flights
Southwest Airlines announced it will require all portable device chargers to be kept in plain sight during all flights while they're in use. The new policy comes after a number of lithium-ion batteries fires on flights worldwide in recent years. The new policy will start May 28 and will require all Southwest passengers to make sure they don't have any portable chargers, including power banks and cell phone battery charging cases, in overhead bins or even just inside a bag in under the seat in front of them, while they're in use. 'Using portable charging devices while stored in a bag or overhead bin will no longer be permitted,' the airline told Gizmodo in an emailed statement. 'Nothing is more important to Southwest than the Safety of its Customers and Employees.' The airline told Gizmodo that it's okay to keep your portable charger in your carry-on bag if it's not connected to anything else. But any charger in active use, including one that may be connected to the phone in the form of a case, should be kept visible for the entire flight. The TSA already bans rechargeable and non-rechargeable lithium batteries for phones and laptops from checked baggage. Carry-on baggage is fine, but Southwest Airlines will soon require those chargers to be outside of all bags and visible while in use during the duration of the flight. It's unclear if other U.S.-based airlines will follow Southwest's lead, but other airlines around the world have also been cracking down on lithium-ion batteries in an effort to fight fire hazards. As the Associated Press notes, Singapore Airlines and Thai Airways both already prohibit the use of portable chargers on all flights. And Korean Airlines also bans portable chargers from overhead bins. The average U.S. passenger brings four different rechargeable devices with them on a flight, according to the UL Standards & Engagement research group, with the most common devices being smartphones (82%), laptops (41%), wireless headphones (39%), and tablets (36%). The most common incidents were caused by vaping devices, which accounted for 35% of all incidents on flights in 2023, while power banks accounted for 16% of all incidents reported. 'Flight crews are trained to recognize and respond to lithium battery fires in the cabin,' the FAA explains on its website. 'Passengers should notify flight crew immediately if their lithium battery or device is overheating, expanding, smoking or burning.' Indeed. If you see something on fire on your flight, battery or otherwise, please let the flight crew know. That's just generally a good idea.
CNN
20-05-2025
- CNN
How Safe Is It to Fly Right Now? - Terms of Service with Clare Duffy - Podcast on CNN Audio
Clare Duffy 00:00:01 So, I have a flight coming up, and just speaking for myself, it feels like kind of a scary time to fly. In the past few weeks, there have been reports of several radar outages at Newark Airport in New Jersey, where, for brief stretches, air traffic controllers couldn't see or communicate with pilots in the air. This happened even more recently at Denver International Airport. These outages have been traumatic for air traffic controllers. And caused major flight delays and cancelations at Newark. But luckily, it didn't result in any major incidents in the air. Unfortunately, that's not the worst aviation news from this year. Back in January, tragedy struck when a commercial plane collided with a U.S. Army helicopter over the Potomac River. All 67 people on board both aircraft were killed, an incident that's still being investigated. Two other plane crashes, a commercial flight in Toronto that flipped on the runway and a private medivac flight that crashed in Philadelphia also made national news. Amid these frightening headlines, one question is top of mind for me and probably anyone else gearing up for Memorial Day travel. And that is, is it safe to fly right now? To get some clarity, I spoke with CNN aviation and transportation correspondent, Pete Muntean. Pete helped me understand the technology that's powering aviation today. Hopefully this conversation will help you better understand this string of bad news and what's being done to address it. I'm Clare Duffy and this is Terms of Service. Clare Duffy 00:01:46 Pete, thank you for being here. Pete Muntean 00:01:48 Anytime, happy to be here. Clare Duffy 00:01:49 So, before we really get into it, you are not just a reporter when it comes to aviation and transportation. You are also actually a pilot. Tell me about how you got into flying. Pete Muntean 00:01:59 'I'm really lucky. I grew up around aviation and I have remarkable privilege in that way. Both of my parents were pilots, so I was in small airplanes when I was like two weeks old. And my mom was an air show pilot and an aerobatic pilot. She had a flight school also. Growing up, I announced for her at air shows. We were the only mother-son team, which was very fun. Clare Duffy 00:02:19 I love it. 00:02:20 My dad had a few aviation businesses. I was very much an only child, and so I got to go with them pretty much everywhere to trade shows and stuff. And so, Kind of grew up in the back of the family airplane. It's called a Piper Lance, which is like a big station wagon single engine airplane and have a ton of fond memories doing that. Clare Duffy 00:02:38 So I was gonna ask, you're still flying, and I wanted to know like what kind of plane you fly? Pete Muntean 00:02:43 'Yeah, so I fly, primarily I fly two different airplanes. So I have a airplane called a Super Decathlon, which is a two-seat airplane. You sit one in front of the other. It's an aerobatic airplane. It's sort of just a fun-flying airplane. And then I also fly a Beech Bonanza, which is a six-seater, single-engine airplane. You can go a little faster. You can get a little higher. It's not really a replacement for the airlines, but it offers a lot of utility and flexibility. It's pretty awesome. Clare Duffy 00:03:09 Okay, so I imagine that the answer to this is like a lot of things, but will you give us an overview of what kinds of technologies are involved in keeping planes in the air and having them navigate safely? Pete Muntean 00:03:23 'So let's sort of limit it to commercial flying. Air traffic control really sort of keeps airplanes separated, spaced out properly, the spacing can change based on the weather conditions and how much volume, they call it, an airport can handle at any one given time. So air traffic control is really critical to airline flying. It's a huge layer of safety, and when there's a hole in that layer of safety, it's called the swiss cheese model. And so usually if something bad goes wrong, something is able to sort of go through one hole in the swiss cheese, and then maybe not hit another hole at the next layer to keep things safe. So air traffic control is a huge thing. The controllers, though, are worked really hard. Many of them are working mandatory six-day weeks of 10-hour shifts. Clare Duffy 00:04:10 Wow. Pete Muntean 00:04:10 There's a shortage of controllers right now, 3,000 controllers short in the U.S. So there's sort of the infrastructure system at air traffic control, and then there's the people layer of the system at Air Traffic Control. And then in airplanes, there are technologies to avoid collisions, that's called TCAS, that traffic collision avoidance system, pretty literal. And it'll tell pilots of a commercial airliner, climb or descend or turn, if there is a collision sort of brewing in front of them. Those are the big two technologies when it comes to keeping planes from hitting one another. Clare Duffy 00:04:45 Can you describe what happens in an air traffic control center and how air traffic controllers are actually communicating with pilots? Pete Muntean 00:04:52 Yeah, so I think people have this image of air traffic controllers always being in a control tower where they're looking out the window, you know, they have binoculars or talking on the radio, and they're able to physically see what's going on. That is one version of the facilities that make up the air traffic control system. But then there are other facilities where controllers don't see anything but what's on their radar scope. So there are things called Tricons. Which are called Terminal Radar Approach Control Facilities, and centers. Centers control airplanes primarily up high. TRACONS control airplanes primarily down low, approaching the airspace that would be controlled by a tower and airplanes that have just left that space. Clare Duffy 00:05:34 So what do those rooms look like? Pete Muntean 00:05:36 It's usually a dark room. You're usually only able to see what's on the radar scope in front of you. You're responsible for a little sliver of airspace they call a sector. There are not only switch panels to be able to talk on different radio frequencies, but then there's usually a phone that they call the landline to coordinate between other sectors. And then every controller has in front of them something called strips. And that is actually what signifies a physical airplane. And it says the airplane type, where it's going, where it came from, what it's doing. So it's a pretty complicated system. The other big player here is the weather. And so when bad weather strikes, that can really throw existing flight routes and all best laid plans for a loop. Clare Duffy 00:06:23 How have we seen aviation technology evolve in the last few decades? Pete Muntean 00:06:29 'I'll tell you just from my experience and then I'll sort of tell you from my reporting. When I was a kid flying around with my parents, now I kind of know sometimes their judgment wasn't so great. They had in this little six-seater we flew around in, something called a Stormscope. It was just a little like probably the size of like the circumference of a coffee cup that was on the instrument panel. And the only piece of information you could get out of that was where lightning strikes were. And that's it. Like, it couldn't tell you where it was raining. It could just tell you there was a lightning strike here and a lightning strike there. So that is like ancient technology now. And, you know, my parents would fly using ground-based radio beacons. That is also essentially ancient technology. Now GPS has come into the fold. I can get weather and actually see where other airplanes are on my phone using a data link. So there have been leaps and bounds technologically in aviation. Commercial airplanes have had that TCAS system for decades. Now we have similar kind of systems in small airplanes, which are pretty, it's pretty amazing, the technological advance. So ADS-B is the biggest technological advance we've seen in aviation. That stands for automatic dependent surveillance broadcast. It's kind of a mouthful. It is a technology trotted out by the FAA, mandated in 2020 for all airplanes operating in the, what they call the National Airspace System, to have this technology. And it shows with more clarity where you are than what a radar would provide. So you've probably seen at least shots of a radar, like in Top Gun... Clare Duffy 00:08:10 Mhmm that like circular sort of screen... Pete Muntean 00:08:10 'Or like the big red sweeping thing. Yes, yeah, and it displays on a screen, and usually it's on a tower, and there's a big red sort of dish that rotates around outside, and that provides controllers in a tower or a radar facility where airplanes are. That is incumbent upon how quickly the radar sweeps around. So, there's a lag in what controllers can see on their scopes, the refresh rate for an airplane is like six to tweleve seconds with radar. With ADS-B, this new technology, it's about every second. So it provides controllers a lot more information, granular information, like real time, up to the minute, up to second really. And the other flip side of that is that if you have the proper equipment in your airplane or helicopter, it can show you that information that controllers are seeing also. So it provides not only air traffic control better information, but pilots better information. So it's a huge... Clare Duffy 00:09:12 Right. So they can communicate better because they know what each of them are looking at. Pete Muntean 00:09:14 Yeah, you're kind of seeing the same picture. So you're not having to interpolate in your mind's eye and figure out what this controller is talking about. And so it's very, very critical in avoiding collisions. It doesn't really replace what you can see with your eyeball, but it really provides a much better fidelity, much more clearer picture than you would say 20 or 30 years ago. Clare Duffy 00:09:37 So why is it that in the past few months we have seen so much bad news in the aviation space? You know, the crashes that we've seen, the communication issues at Newark International Airport. Is this year worse than past years? Like what's happening? Pete Muntean 00:09:53 'Well, the Potomac crash would have been news regardless, because that was the first major air disaster since the Colgan air crash of 2009. That was the last time there were major fatalities in a U.S. Commercial airline flight. So that was really significant. I think we had been paying a lot of attention to the warning signs. And so in 2023, there was a huge uptick in near collisions involving commercial flights at major airports, JFK, Austin, Boston, Burbank, huge airports that didn't typically have this problem. Then they rose to the level of news. And they were incidents, but they didn't turn into accidents. They didn't turn into injuries or fatalities. This year has been pretty remarkable when it comes to aviation because of the Potomac midair collision, because of reforms that will come out of that, because of attention paid to that. The news cycle is so short, but I think people really sat up and thought about, well gee, there are all these warning signs, a shortage of air traffic controllers, there was a brain drain during the pandemic where a lot of old hand pilots ready to retire, retired a bit early. A lot of new people coming into aviation. There's a pilot shortage at the commercial airlines. So a lot things are changing and the Newark issues are sort of a microcosm of all of that too, but on the other end. So that's all about infrastructure, the back-end technology at air traffic control facilities, which is getting very old now, and the shortage of people, the other end of the system. So that is a real microcosm and symptomatic of all of these things that have been going on in the air traffic-control world that can really degrade safety. And so people ask, like, are we just covering this stuff more? I think people do care more. Which in a way drives the coverage, but these are all significant enough that we probably would have been covering it anyway. Clare Duffy 00:11:55 Right. And what about, like, I mean, we saw the airplane that flipped upside down in Toronto. I think that was this year. This year feels like it's been a million months. Pete Muntean 00:12:03 Yeah. I know. Clare Duffy 00:12:03 We saw the plane that crashed in Philadelphia. Like, are those things connected, too, or these are just, like, bad things that all happen to be happening at the same time? Pete Muntean 00:12:13 'You know, it's a little hard to say, because a lot of those incidents, we have such a small snapshot into what actually went down. And so, you know, you kind of have to wait to see how the investigation pans out in order to sort of, if there's any chance at sort of building a thread between one and the other. I would say that the Philadelphia crash, which was a private jet on a medevac flight, was probably a bit of a one-off. The Toronto crash. There were some environmental conditions there. There was blowing snow across the runway. That makes things pretty challenging. The wind is pretty high. So that's a little different than a commercial flight and a helicopter hitting each other at night in clear weather. Everyone says that was very, very avoidable. And the more we learn about it and the position of the helicopter route there in reference to the approach path that commercial flight American 5342 is taking. That was essentially, everyone says, an accident waiting to happen. An untenable risk to safety is what NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy called it. So sure, there's a little connective tissue, but not the biggest. And I think the Philadelphia crash, we covered more because people were paying attention more just because it was like barely a week after the midair collision over the Potomac. Clare Duffy 00:13:33 Right. Pete Muntean 00:13:34 So, you know, I mean, aviation is risky and bad things happen and aviation is always very committed to safety and to try and figure out what went wrong. And in all of those cases, especially the Potomac crash, it's a very granular investigation to really sort of get to the bottom of it. Clare Duffy 00:13:58 'Coming up, we turn to the more recent radar outages at Newark. How did the technology there fail? And is it cause for long-term alarm? That's after the break. Clare Duffy 00:14:20 So, on Newark, what is actually happening at the airport that is causing these delays, we're seeing flight restrictions, but in particular, we've seen a number of these incidents where it appears that the air traffic controllers have lost communication with planes that in the air. Pete Muntean 00:14:37 That's the big thing here. And so we know that the incident where controllers in the approach control facility, which is the dark room facility that I described earlier, where they're just looking at the radar scope, and so they can only see airplanes via the scope and communicate with them via radio, they lost radar and radio for 90 seconds back on April 28th. Which a controller will tell you that's an eternity. Clare Duffy 00:15:07 Mhmm. Pete Muntean 00:15:07 Because things are happening so fast, these airplanes are moving at hundreds of miles an hour, covering a lot of ground every second. And so for controllers to not be able to see where airplanes were or communicate with them via voice is really problematic. And I talked to one controller in the TRACON there who said, he was there at the time of the incident, he says it's possibly the worst thing that can happen to you as a controller. The issue is now we're finding out that this happened a few times before that incident that really sort of brought this to light, and this also has happened a couple times after that incident. So there's four or five cases where controllers at the Newark Approach Control Facility lost radar and radio for 30 to 90 seconds in the last year. There was one in October, one in November, this one in April, and then essentially a couple of rapid fire one last Friday and then one the Sunday after. The FAA says it's installed this backup line and what is at the center of this issue is the infrastructure, an old copper wire, they say, that essentially runs this facility, which last July, moved to Philadelphia from Long Island. And so they're essentially running this new facility off of the old facility. Someone described it to our René Marsh as like running it like off an extension cord. Clare Duffy 00:16:27 That sounds horrible. Pete Muntean 00:16:27 I know. So this old copper wire essentially carries the radar data and the voice communications. And so when that goes down, and the backup doesn't kick in, it's essentially a blackout, meaning there's no controllers. Controllers cannot communicate and cannot see you. So that's a huge problem. It really all goes back to this move that the FAA did and the shortage of controllers. The FAA wanted to entice more controllers to work in this Newark sector of airspace and so instead of having them move to Long Island they thought well maybe we'll do it in out of Philadelphia and so they institute this move last July to try and sort of bolster their numbers but by moving this facility it introduced new problems. Clare Duffy 00:17:15 And is there not a world where they just say, do we just move back so we're not in this extension cord system? Pete Muntean 00:17:20 'I don't think they'll move back. I feel like that would be almost admitting defeat. The FAA insists that they have controllers in the pipeline, they've got trainees working there, doing on-the-job training right now, and that they've fixed the system. They have done an upgrade patch on the radars, and they've replaced the line, or they're replacing the line with a backup also. So they feel like they've built in some redundancy, which is so key in aviation. And so I don't think they'll move back. But a lot of people are watching, including me. In November, there was a failure. On November 6th, it was an overnight, and the controllers were trying to turn, they were talking to a FedEx flight, giving them vectors, turning them onto the final approach path into Newark when they had one of these blackouts. And so instead of this FedEx flight that they were communicating with making this critical turn, the FedEx flight just kept zooming east and into the busy airspace over LaGuardia... Clare Duffy 00:18:24 Oh... Pete Muntean 00:18:24 'And this one controller who I spoke with told me it's a by the grace of God he said it was a miracle that there was not a mid-air collision. Clare Duffy 00:18:32 Wow. Pete Muntean 00:18:32 Because that was really dangerous. Now there are systems in place there are procedures in place that pilots and controllers follow when they lose communication and we're going to get a bit more of a glimpse into that you know the Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby, they've both told me there's no major safety risk here, but lay that against what the controllers are saying that this could have been really bad. Clare Duffy 00:19:00 'Well, yeah, and you've reported that five air traffic controllers at Newark took a 45-day trauma leave after that April 28th communication incident. And I mean, I can understand why that would be so stressful if you think there's a possibility that a collision could have occurred on your watch because of that. Pete Muntean 00:19:17 Yeah, I mean they say it's the worst possible thing that can happen to them I can't imagine what that would be like. I've never been an air traffic controller although I've worked in the simulators for stories and it was hard and you really have to have in your mind's eye a knowledge of where things are and where airplanes are going things change really quickly and it's not easy. Clare Duffy 00:19:37 Is this something that might be happening at other airports and we just don't know about it yet? Or is this something that is sort of like this unique confluence of issues that Newark is dealing with right now? Pete Muntean 00:19:48 Newark is a unique situation. The staffing, trauma leave, and the infrastructure issues leading to these failures, that is a real perfect storm. But we know that those issues separately occur at different places all the time. There's a shortage of controllers nationwide. We know that. We know the air traffic control infrastructure is old. And there will be times when frequencies go down, so controllers can't communicate with pilots and so Newark is special but in a way not special. It's just kind of the intersection of all these bad things at once. Clare Duffy 00:20:27 So I hate to tell you that none of this is making me feel very good. Pete Muntean 00:20:30 Sorry. I hate to be that guy, you know, I like I clearly I love and and derive a lot of joy out of aviation I don't want to make people afraid. And the good news here is that Aviation has so many layers of safety There are so many safety nets built in that when one goes down, usually the other can pick up some slack. But it's not a good thing that these things keep happening. It's why we cover them and it's why we hold the powerful to account and question what the heck is going on here? Clare Duffy 00:21:03 As Pete and I were talking, news was breaking that air traffic controllers at Denver's airport experienced a similar communications outage last Monday. Clare Duffy 00:21:15 So is it safe to be flying right now? Pete Muntean 00:21:18 'I'd say generally it's very safe and I think that incidents make pilots and controllers and flight attendants and the professionals in aviation, essentially the first responders in aviation more vigilant. And I think everyone has their guard up in a big way, especially after the mid-air collision and also on the controller side too. I think people now, you know, recent incidents sort of make it top of mind so that aviation in general is sort of training for the next thing. In a way, you have to be a little reactionary and know what could go wrong and know that the most recent thing probably won't happen again because it just happened. Clare Duffy 00:22:06 Like, we learn from each thing that's happened. Pete Muntean 00:22:09 Yeah, generally. Incidents are a great teacher and failure is a great teacher, sadly. Clare Duffy 00:22:14 What does the government plan to do to address these issues? Pete Muntean 00:22:19 The big thing right now is that they're looking at trying to incentivize people to come into the controller workforce, giving them different essentially financial incentives when they reach certain benchmarks and scrambling to hire more people. And so the FAA under this administration and previous administrations have been trying to figure that out. It's not easy. And they're trying to hunt for ducks now where there are ducks. So sometimes they looked at people like gamers... Clare Duffy 00:22:50 Hmm, that makes sense. Pete Muntean 00:22:50 Who were really good at sort of like working a map and situations and moving things around and so that is a talent pool that may be undertapped and trying to make it so that people can earn a good living wage and live in a good place. So there are a lot of factors at play here people is the big one. Clare Duffy 00:23:11 Do we have a sense of how long it is going to take for us to be in a better place, and in the meantime, do we just kind of have to accept that the risk might be slightly higher? Pete Muntean 00:23:21 Um, the Trump administration says in there, they have trotted out this plan to redo the infrastructure at the FAA and at air traffic control facilities across the country. They say that will take two or three years. I've been publicly kind of skeptical about that because, um, to do a big build, they, you know, one of the things they call for is building six new air traffic controls centers, super centers, they call them, which I think two to three years, you may lucky to break ground. So it seems like, you know, they could dig their way out of the people shortage in a few years, but the stats aren't very rosy because if they're netting only a few dozen people a year and you're 3000 short, then you're talking about decades to fill the void. Clare Duffy 00:24:12 What about the airlines themselves? Is there anything that they can do to help improve safety? Or is it really incumbent on the government to address this issue? Pete Muntean 00:24:20 The airlines are actually calling on the government to address it and United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby has been particularly hard on the FAA for years saying that they need to fix the shortage of controllers, they need the fix the infrastructure and he's been very hard on them about Newark because that's a huge hub for United Airlines for transcontinental and transatlantic flights and beyond. So, he says that the way to fix the system is for the FAA to limit the number of flights into Newark, something they call slot rules, and making it so that if United scales down its flights when there's a huge meltdown like this at Newark that other airlines don't swoop in and fill the void and then make it too crowded, overcrowded. And so right now, the airlines and the FIA are meeting to essentially sort of put a new cap on that. The big thing is for airlines to sort of be realistic. There's a huge boom in travel, they want to fill every seat, there's a big corporate need for shareholder value and to make it so that they're making money and there's a lot of revenue, but they have to be realistic. Clare Duffy 00:25:32 I'm curious, for everyday travelers, are there certain airports or airlines that are going to be better or safer? Like, is there anything as individuals that we can do to try to keep ourselves safer? Pete Muntean 00:25:45 I will give you the tips that I give everybody. This is not necessarily a safety thing, but more a convenience thing, which is book the first flight out of the day. You have a much higher chance, statistically, of getting there on time. Try to book flights that are nonstop, connecting sort of builds in more unknowns into a trip. Sometimes that's hard, and sometimes that's way more expensive. And really just have a lot of patience for it because, you know, it wasn't all that long ago that the Wright brothers invented this. We're talking like 122 years ago. So it's pretty miraculous that the airlines do this with such reliability. I'd say wear your seatbelt. That's the big safety thing. Some people get really lax about that. And we see people, the top cause of injuries on commercial flights is turbulence. And I'm always on with my seatbelt and it's tight. Clare Duffy 00:26:37 Well, Pete, thank you so much for doing this. Really appreciate it. Pete Muntean 00:26:44 Anytime. Clare Duffy 00:26:44 Okay, so I can't say I feel totally reassured after that conversation, but I do feel more informed, and yes, overall, pretty safe. To recap, here are some things to keep in mind if you're gearing up for summer travel: First, the technology that helps air traffic controllers and pilots understand where planes are in the sky has gotten a lot more advanced and precise in the past few decades. Experts still say based on the data, you're safer flying than you are driving in your car to the airport. Next, incidents like the recent radar outages at Newark are undeniably scary, but they're also prompting the FAA to take a closer look at this infrastructure. It's hard to say how quickly the government will act to improve these systems, but as Pete said, the aviation industry tends to learn from past failures. And, finally, If you have a flight booked, it's probably not worth canceling it. But for future travel, consider booking flights early in the day to avoid delays. That's it for this week's episode of Terms of Service. I'm Clare Duffy, talk to you next week. Clare Duffy 00:27:59 Terms of Service is a CNN Audio and Goat Rodeo production. This show is produced and hosted by me, Clare Duffy. At Goat Rodeo, the lead producer is Rebecca Seidel, and the executive producers are Megan Nadolski and Ian Enright. At CNN, Matt Martinez is our senior producer and Dan Dzula is our technical director. Haley Thomas is senior producer of development. Steve Lickteig is the executive producer of CNN Audio. With support from Kyra Dahring, Emily Williams, Tayler Phillips, David Rind, Dan Bloom, Robert Mathers, Jamus Andrest, Nicole Pesaru, Alex Manasseri, Mark Duffy, Leni Steinhardt, Jon Dianora and Lisa Namerow. Special thanks to Katie Hinman, David Goldman, and Wendy Brundige. Thank you for listening.
The Independent
15-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
MP claims Red Arrows could crash thanks to solar farms
A Conservative MP has raised concerns about the potential impact of new solar farms on flight safety, suggesting they could even cause the Red Arrows to crash. Dr Caroline Johnson, who represents Sleaford and North Hykeham, argues that light reflecting off the solar panels could dazzle RAF pilots. Speaking out against plans for large-scale solar farms in her rural Lincolnshire constituency, Dr Johnson argued they were inappropriate as they could hinder farmland productivity in the area. She claimed solar panels could be potentially dangerous to pilots operating from nearby air bases, including one with historical significance from the Second World War and another serving as a crucial training facility. MPs in Parliament however, clarified that solar power farms absorb light and do not reflect light. Dr Johnson told the House of Commons: 'I also ask the minister to give due consideration to the three RAF bases local to my constituency, RAF Waddington, RAF Cranwell and RAF Digby. Glint and glare from reflective panels will cause problems for pilots flying over these areas. 'Our newest pilots undergo basic training at Cranwell, and RAF Waddington is home to the Red Arrows. It is a huge joy for me and many of my constituents to watch the nation's iconic display team practice the loop-the-loop and roll into turns at high speeds. 'But the miles and miles of aligned panels creating glint and glare could lead to disaster.' Labour MP Sarah Russell (Congleton) intervened and asked Dr Johnson to clarify. She said: 'Does (she) agree with me that pilots seem to fly throughout our nation and many others already, despite there being widespread solar panels in, for instance, Spain, where there is more sunshine than here. So it seems unlikely that they'll be unlikely to manage in her constituency.' Dr Johnson replied: 'I wonder if the average jumbo jet flying to Heathrow does a loop-the-loop on the way in?' She continued to raise concerns, this time about the impact on the home of UK signals unit, the Joint Cyber and Electromagnetic Activities Group, which provides support to the Army, RAF and Royal Navy. She said: 'RAF Digby is the headquarters of the Joint Cyber and Electromagnetic Activities Group. Any interference with these defence estates could cause significant harm.' Speaking from the frontbench, Liberal Democrat MP Edward Morello (West Dorset) said he could 'write a whole other speech debunking some of the things that were said today', adding: 'Any solar farm development requires a glint and glare report before it gets approved if it's anywhere near an air force base or an airport.' Energy minister Michael Shanks said: 'These solar panels are designed to absorb light, not reflect it, and… glint and glare is considered within the planning process already. So it is one of the factors that is taken into account.' Five large solar farms have already been approved for Lincolnshire, with more already in the pipeline. But there has been criticism that it will vastly reduce the amount of high quality agricultural land. Dr Johnson said: 'Lincolnshire is the nation's bread basket and produces 30 per cent of the nation's vegetables. 'The land in the county is also more productive than the UK average, with the wheat harvest over a difficult last five years 25 per cent above the UK average and much, much more productive than global averages. So this is land we can least afford to lose.'
Condé Nast Traveler
12-05-2025
- Condé Nast Traveler
Can You Move to an Open Seat on a Plane? We Asked Flight Attendants.
On board a plane, personal space—even the tiniest bit of extra elbow room—is a luxury. So it's understandable that when most passengers see an empty row or vacant spot on the aisle, they want to claim it for themselves. Even the most etiquette-minded fliers might be tempted to slyly trade a middle seat with armrest hogs on either side for an unoccupied section just a couple rows away. However, not only is this rude, according to flight attendants, it could also be a serious safety violation. 'Jumping to an open seat without permission is unacceptable,' says former flight attendant Lia Ocampo. 'There are aviation and airline regulations that the crew must adhere to. Always asking for permission is a courteous and professional approach.' Yes, just like using the call button or placing your bag in the overhead bin, there are certain rules to follow when you want to jump to an open seat. Here's how to go about switching spots the right way. First, don't try to jump spots during boarding. A good way to annoy your cabin crew is to try to sneak into a different seat during boarding. Chances are that flight attendants will need to track you down and ask you to move back to your original spot—a sequence of events that could hold up the boarding process for the entire flight. 'During boarding, passengers are required to remain in their assigned seats,' Ocampo says. 'However, there are situations where switching or moving seats may be necessary.' If you do have a legitimate issue with your seat assignment—you're not placed next to your child, say, or something at your seat is broken—politely flag down a flight attendant to assist you. In all other cases, passengers need to stay in their assigned seats listed on their boarding pass until boarding is complete, according to Ocampo. 'Even if there are several available seats, do not assume you can move without first asking for permission,' she says. 'As a matter of courtesy, passengers should always request permission from flight attendants before moving to an open seat. Flight attendants can verify whether a seat is occupied, which helps them manage passenger movements.' Keep in mind that safety could be at play. Another reason to check with a flight attendant before nabbing an open place? Aircraft balance. This is a finely tuned calculation made by pilots before takeoff and takes into account many factors, including the amount of cargo in the hold and where passengers are seated. 'Moving seats is not always allowed due to weight and balance issues,' says Ocampo. 'Pilots know the open seats, which is crucial in maintaining the aircraft's weight and balance." This is especially true for smaller aircraft, like those that operate regional flights. The issue is most dramatic for people moving from the back of the plane toward the front—or vice versa—which could compromise the plane's center of gravity. But several passengers moving from seats on one side of the aisle to the other could also affect the jet's lateral balance, according to information from California Aeronautical University. Flight attendants are highly trained safety professionals, so always check with them to verify when it's safe to switch seats. When is it appropriate to ask for an open seat? Cabin crew do understand there are legitimate reasons for seat switching, and there are a variety of situations in which flight attendants are likely to grant your request. 'These include mobility issues, claustrophobia, the need to rest or sleep when disturbed by a child nearby, or the desire to sit with a travel companion,' Ocampo says. 'Additionally, if there are issues with the TV monitor or seat, these may also warrant a request to move.' One special case is moving to an exit row seat. These spots always offer the perk of more legroom, but of course, they come with extra safety responsibilities. That doesn't mean they're necessarily out of bounds when accompanied by a polite request. 'If an exit row seat is available, passengers may courteously ask flight attendants for permission to move,' Ocampo says. 'However, you must be willing and able to assist the flight crew in an emergency and be at least 15 years old to occupy exit row seats.' Remember, courtesy goes a long way. As with anything in life, you're more likely to have your request granted if you're tactful. Being courteous, patient—and understanding when the answer is 'no'—also shows respect for your cabin crew, who have stressful and demanding jobs. 'Demonstrating kindness and politeness is behavior that is always appreciated,' Ocampo says. 'When you exhibit such qualities, flight attendants may grant you permission to move seats, and you might even receive extra snacks, drinks, or other complimentary items during your flight. Remember, your courtesy makes the boarding process smoother and makes you a respected and valued passenger.'
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Yahoo
Duffy: Federal government reducing flights out of Newark airport
GLEN RIDGE, N.J. — Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the federal government had reduced the number of flights out of Newark Liberty International Airport after two major air traffic control technology outages. In an interview with NBC's 'Meet the Press' that aired Sunday, Duffy sought to reassure Americans of the safety of flying through Newark, while acknowledging the need for significant changes. When asked if it was still safe to fly into and out of Newark, Duffy said, 'It is,' and he highlighted steps taken in response to the incidents. 'We actually have brought down the number of airplanes that come in and leave Newark because, listen, our mission is safety,' Duffy said. 'So — yeah, I hate delays. I hate cancellations. And I hate [how] families who come with little kids [are] sitting there for four hours,' he continued. 'I've done that myself on occasion. It's hard. But I want you to get to where you're traveling. And if that means slowing down flights into Newark, we slow them down to make sure we can do it safely.' For 90 seconds on April 28, controllers at a Philadelphia air traffic control center, who were responsible for monitoring air traffic in and out of the airport, lost radar and communications with the flights. They were unable to 'see, hear, or talk to them,' the National Air Traffic Controllers Association said, according to The New York Times. A subsequent outage on Friday deepened a major backlog of cancellations and delays at Newark, which is one of the three main New York-area airports and one of the busiest in the nation. When asked if there were other specific airports Duffy was worried about, he said he was 'concerned about the whole airspace' and the prevalence of outdated technology across U.S. airports. 'Is it safe? Yes, we have redundancies, multiple redundancies in place to keep you safe when you fly. But we should also recognize we're seeing — we're seeing stress on an old network, and it's time to fix it,' Duffy said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
