Life isn’t all peaches and cream. Sometimes we find ourselves in negative situations, and when things don’t go our way we just have to put up with them the best way we can. A noisy person in a movie theater, bad customer service in a restaurant, or an annoying passenger sitting beside you during an 8-hour flight all can ruin the day. Speaking of flight horror stories, just be thankful that the following didn’t happen to you…

Last month I was flying to Israel with my family on Continental Airlines. Since we are a family of 5, my son and I sat in the middle while my wife and 2 daughters sat across the aisle.

A man sat down next to my son who must have weighed at least 350 lbs. The man attempted to raise the common arm rest next to my son in order to get more room. In addition, he was ultra-religious wearing heavy clothing and had body odor. He also sat with a large fur hat in his lap the entire flight.

My son was forced to lean into me for the entire 11 hour flight. We tried to get the flight attendants to do something about the situation but they ignored me, my wife and my son.

I was recently on a red eye flight across the U.S. - after a 2 hour delay we were finally airborne. I proceeded to recline my seat when the elderly man behind me starting throwing a child-like temper tantrum, hitting and kicking my seat complaining that he had no room. I decided to be the bigger person and put my seat upright which did nothing to aliviate the kicking of my seat. Every time I would almost fall asleep (sitting straight up) he would kick or hit my seat. In addition, there was a small child seated next to me who slept with her feet on my lap while her mother slept comfortably in the aisle seat. I requested to move but the only other seats available were middle seats and I didn’t want to punish those lucky passengers with an open middle seat. I arrived at my destination completely exhausted after getting zero sleep overnight.

On a flight from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles, I found myself lucky enough to sit in front of a family of two parents and a toddler-aged child. For the entire four hour flight, the child would scream intermittently and kick my seat constantly. About half way through the flight, I turn around and ask the child nicely if he could please quit kicking my seat. His mother proceeds to give me a nasty look and inform me that “he’s just a child,” to which I respond, “if you tell him to stop, you know, he just might.” The mother looks at me with disgust and doesn’t say anything to the child. When we finally arrive, I tell the parents that I just wanted them to know that I’ve never seen such a misbehaved child before. With that, I turn and exit the plane.

All stories are from the Flights From Hell website. If you want read more of other people’s horrible flying experiences, visit www.flightsfromhell.com.

Washington, February 18, 2008 - After grueling years of the War in Afghanistan and Iraq, modern replacements are urgently needed for the Airforce’s aging jet fighters, bombers, cargo aircraft and gunships.  

According to Maj. Gen. Paul Selva, strategic planning director of the Air Force and other senior Air Force officers, there will be an extra $20 billion each year.  Starting 2009, there will be a proposed Air Force budget of about $137 billion instead of the $117 billion proposed by the Bush administration shall solve the budget problem.  Though the Air Force will be facing a major procurement crisis since the budget allocated might not be sufficiently enough for the much needed materials and equipment. 

The Air Force should rethink their strategy and proceed with forgone opportunities. 

 One of the reasons why the Air force’s equipment has aged so much was that they proceeded with the development and acquisition of new weapon systems, costing up to two or three times as much as the systems that were being replaced.  Since the mid-1990s, there were many aircraft added such as the B-2 Spirit Stealth bomber, the C-17 Globemaster airlifter and the CV-22 tilt-rotor, which flies like a helicopter or an airplane.  The Air Force is also planning to spend between $30 billion and $40 billion over the next 15 years for new refueling tankers but these new tankers won’t be scheduled for flight until 2013.  Another reason for the aging of aircraft was that some aircraft had excessive flying hours such as the current F-15s and F-16s, which were more than 20 years old.  The Air Force is generally spending more money on extensive repairs which is a very bad investment. 

The Air Force should carefully deal with these problems.  Otherwise, it will only lead to a much worse problem for the years ahead.

Recently this month, A Somali immigrant attempted to hijack a New Zealand domestic flight. The Air New Zealand flight from Blenheim to Wellington was carrying a 33 year old woman who attempted to hijack the jet with demands to fly her to Australia. The woman stabbed a pilot on the hand and another pilot was injured on the foot. One passenger suffered a minor hand injury cause by the attacker.

After the attacker was subdued, the severely injured pilots made emergency calls reporting that she said there were two bombs and landed on a Christchurch airport. Army and police bomb squads closed the airport for three hours and inspected the plane but found nothing.

The woman, who was not identified by name, was charged with attempted hijacking, wounding and other offenses and ordered to appear in court.

The hijack attempt was a result of lenient security of the airline and admits that:

“Air New Zealand was reviewing security measures nationally following the incident. In New Zealand, passengers and their luggage on short-haul flights are not subject to security checks. This incident has naturally given us cause to conduct a thorough review of our safety and security systems and processes on regional domestic flights.”

If such leniency occurs in every airports and airlines, another “9/11” incident will happen again without any wonders will not surprise us anymore. Deaths and injuries of many will only fall under statistics and not mere tragedy to mourn for.

The E-2 Hawkeye is an aircraft carrier-based tactical Airborne Early Warning (AEW) aircraft and is used for missions including surface surveillance coordination, strike and interceptor control, search and rescue guidance and communications relay. It was manufactured by Grumman Aerospace Corporation and Northrop Grumman.

In 1964, after replacing the E-1, the Hawkeye has been the eyes of the fleet and has served the US Navy around the world. The E-2Cs has provided the command and control for successful operations during the Persian Gulf War. The original E-2C Hawkeye became operational in 1973 and has been through several upgrade programs since then. The E-2 aircraft served and have worked extremely effective with US law enforcement agencies in drug interdictions. During the late 1980s and the early 1990s, the E-2C Hawkeye has supported numerous naval engagements including the 1985 intercept of the aircraft containing the hijackers of the liner Achille Lauro. It has also participated in the strikes against Libya in 1986.

The E-2 Hawkeye has a maximum speed of 374 mph and a range of 200 nauticla miles. It has a crew of five, including equipment operators. The primary users and operators of the E-2C Hawkeyes are the United States Navy, French Navy, Israeli Air Force and the Japan Air Self-Defense Force.