Literally.

Sewage flows down aisles of trans-Atlantic flight

Passengers on a Continental Airlines flight had to hold their noses for hours as sewage overflowed from toilets while they were high over the Atlantic. It was a week ago on a Continental Airlines flight 1970 from Amsterdam to Newark, New Jersey. “I was forced to sit next to human excrement for seven hours,” said a passenger.

Last Wednesday the plane left Amsterdam. Roughly two hours into it, the passengers were told the lavatories were out of commission. An unplanned landing in Shannon, Ireland was made to fix the problem. A pit stop became an overnight stay. The next day, the same plane headed for its original destination of Newark, New Jersey, but just after takeoff, the sewage overflow began. This time, there was no turning around.

There was one half-working restroom on the plane for the more than 200 people onboard. The flight attendants - who were serving meal service in a stinky, unappetizing cabin - told everyone to not eat or drink too much.

Continental gave out $500 vouchers for a future flight for the “inconvenience”.

It seems air travel is full of a lot of crap these days. Remember the 11 hour nightmare?

In the “Valentine’s Day Disaster at Kennedy Airport.” ten Jet Blue planes, filled with passengers, were stranded on the JFK tarmac for up to 11 hours. Jet Blue’s plan was, apparently, to hope the weather would clear and that the ice on the planes would melt. That didn’t happen. Word from stranded passengers–with food running out, restrooms reaching the limit and patience running very thin — was that the crews on Jet Blue weren’t doing such a great job communicating. Updates were rare and inconsistent; in some cases, communication from the cockpit came an hour or more apart. Jet Blue passengers were not told ahead of time about the delays which might have allowed them to make other flight plans.

Passengers said the worst part of this experience was the lack of consistent communication from the cockpit and crew, which was unacceptable. One also wonders what the crews actually knew. It was essential they be given information so they could communicate to frustrated passengers, even if the message was “we don’t know when or if we will take off.” The long periods of silence in between announcements may have communicated more powerfully than anything that was actually said.

As someone from ZMag put it:

Let’s face it, JetBlue and the rest of you: Anything more than three hours on the ground isn’t an airline delay, it’s a hostage situation.

And here’s more bad news:

FAA Reports Spike In Near Mid-Air Collisions

The month of May saw a strange spike in near misses over skies in the northeast. The Federal Aviation Administration reported five near mid-air collisions during the month.

On May 1st, a Jet Blue airbus over Orange County came within 800 feet vertically and only 30 feet horizontally of an unidentified plane. Four days later, a Continental Express jet over Sparta, New Jersey came within 300 feet vertically and less than a mile horizontally of a glider. On May 9th, another Jet Blue flight over Newark came within 500 feet vertically and two and half miles horizontally of an unknown plane. A week later an American Eagle flight came within 200 feet of a helicopter on the runway at JFK International Airport. And on May 21, a Continental 757 over Robbinsville, New Jersey came within 200 feet vertically and a mile and half horizontally of an unidentified plane.

Senator Chuck Schumer came out with scalding criticism of the system in charge of air safety. Schumaer called for a complete reorganization of the FAA in which he says it puts money ahead of safety. Air traffic controllers agree. They say they’ve lost 1,000 controllers in recent years who have not been replaced, leaving those on the job overworked and stressed. Airline passengers say they want to feel safe, but aren’t sure who to believe.

Yes, my friends, air travel is hell. Hours with the TSA, getting strip searched, having to give up your toothpaste, lost luggage, damaged luggage, delays, being herded into small metal tubes like cattle, having to sit between fat people for hours on end, screaming children, super-small alcohol drinks for $5, plastic knives, bathrooms that don’t work…

This didn’t use to be the case.:

YuppieJournal says:

Air travel now is marked not just by inconvenient security policies but by a general crassness that pervades everything. Whether it’s your seatmate, in sweatpants, cramming everything he owns except his toiletries (assuming he uses any) into the overhead bin while you pray nothing tumbles out and gives you a concussion, the crappy bag of potato chips provided as your snack, the bland polyester-blend travel blankets you still have to fight your plane-mates over, or the delays, overbookings and rude service, it’s enough to make you reach for the Xanax and hope you don’t need them later for turbulence. And don’t even think about using your frequent flyer miles to upgrade to first class. On most planes, it’s nonexistent to near-nonexistent now.

Read the essay at Centennial of Flight:

By the 1960s, air travelers were still mostly wealthy people and business people on expense accounts, who flew repeatedly.

In the 1970s and 1980’s, a few visionary people began to open the skies to the average American with low fares. Since 1938, the Federal government had strictly regulated airline fares and routes. The government kept fares high to please airline investors and airline-employee unions. This policy kept airline costs high and priced air travel out of the reach of most Americans.

A Texas attorney named Herbert Kelleher figured out that if an airline flew just within a state, it would escape federal regulation. He founded Southwest Airlines, serving only Texas, in 1971. Backpackers, students, retirees, and even children commuting between divorced parents packed Southwest’s Boeing 737s.

In 1978, President Jimmy Carter and Congress changed the situation drastically when they deregulated the airlines. Airlines could now choose their own routes and fares. Kelleher promptly expanded Southwest outside of Texas. By the 1990s, Southwest had become a national powerhouse. By the mid-1990s, the U.S. airline industry had, as Petzinger explains, “bifurcated” into two side-by-side airline industries.

First, there is the informal cartel of high-cost, large-network carriers such as American and United Airlines. They carry business people, and some leisure travelers, and fly the international routes. Second, there is the low-fare airline industry, of which Southwest, JetBlue, and AirTran are major players. Low-fare airlines vastly increase enplanements at airports nationwide, where the cartel would charge much higher fares.

Air traffic figures soared from 205 million in 1975 before deregulation, to 297 million in 1980 just after, to 638 million in 2000. By 1990, more adult Americans had flown than owned a car. But air travel’s transformation from rarefied white-glove luxury to something like a public utility changed its public perception. “Though a novel experience” for millions of new travelers, according to Petzinger, “flying did not long remain a glamorous one for most. As something sold cheaply, flying was no longer something most people felt the slightest compulsion to dress up for, or otherwise regard with marvel.” Families of the 1960s, he explained, would observe the airplanes they couldn’t fly, from airport observation decks. By the 1990s, passengers booked tickets and endured overcrowded terminals.

I suppose I should be happy that air travel is affordable for most people these days. But it seems to me that it has been transformed from what was a luxury into a “right”, which means “the people” won’t stand for it being expensive. But where are my choices? Why is First Class shrinking, and why is the quality of First Class being reduced so drastically? The reason nobody considers First Class worth it anymore is because all you really get these days is a bigger chair.

Forbes list of 10 best first class service 2005
Forbes list of 10 best first class service 2006

Not one is an American airline. Not one. I guess they have to fix their bathrooms first.

-Bill G