TSA Managed To Find Some Stuff And Other Transportation Stories

If you were trying to get from the northernmost point in the U.S. — Utqiagvik, Alaska — to the southernmost point in the U.S. — Key West, Florida — how would you do it? Chances are you’d hop the next flight to Anchorage and then it’s a hop, skip, and jump through Denver, Houston, and Orlando to get to Key West International Airport. A quick $1500 and nineteen-ish hours later, you’ve made it. But what if you turned travel into a game show, split into teams of two, and had to earn your transportation each day by completing a series of competitive challenges? That’s exactly what these foolish internet video geniuses have done. - Bradley Brownell Read More

The American Transportation Security Administration is often accused of being little more than security theater. They exist to make the average everyday traveler feel safer about their flight. “Well, if they make me take my shoes off and throw away my water bottle, surely the terrorists won’t get through their iron defenses,” is more or less the agency’s raison d’être. Sometimes I’ll get to my destination and notice an xacto or Swiss army knife stuffed into a pocket of my backpack I haven’t opened in months that went completely missed by their scanners and fallible human eyeballs. - Bradley Brownell Read More

Following the Alaska Airlines door plug blowout last week, airlines have launched independent probes into the airworthiness of their Boeing 737 Max 9 airframes. Investigation into the cause of Friday’s catastrophic failure unveiled the possibility of loose hardware allowing the door plug to become dislodged, shifting upward and disengaging the twelve “stops” intended to keep the airborne human transport tube whole. In looking at its own fleet of 737 Max 9s, United Airlines discovered at least five aircraft with loose door plug hardware. Both United and Alaska have grounded their commercial fleets and cancelled hundreds of passenger flights until the issue is sorted. That’s not great. - Bradley Brownell Read More

As a reminder, eVOTLs aren’t the future of transportation. Yes I know I said it already, but I’ve had to keep saying it for years. Aside from public transportation uses — which are questionable themselves — no one knows exactly who these things are supposed to be for. While the timeline for many eVTOLs to come to market keeps getting pushed further and further out, one company has actually managed to offer one for sale. - Lawrence Hodge Read More

If you’re getting ready to fly anywhere in the coming weeks, you may be a bit nervous over wondering if the plane you’re boarding is safe. Seeing 737 on the side of a fuselage can be enough to give even the most stalwart traveler with a hefty pile of frequent flier miles pause. Luckily, there’s now a website with one simple purpose: to tell you if your flight is in one of these seemingly cursed aircrafts. - Erin Marquis Read More

Passengers on an Alaska Airlines flight leaving Portland, Oregon endured a harrowing ordeal when a door plug blew out the side on the flight’s Boeing 737 Max 9 just minutes after takeoff. The massive hole in the fuselage’s side at 16,000 feet caused the cabin to depressurize, the lights to flicker and oxygen masks to drop from the ceiling. Luckily, no one was sitting directly next to the plug as the back of an unoccupied seat was ripped out of the aircraft. - Ryan Erik King Read More