A tornado devastated Eppley Airfield in Omaha, and Finnair blamed Russia for jamming the plane’s GPS and finding Americans in the field. This Week’s Saturday Selection is a weekly roundup of interesting information from other sites on the interwebs.
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Tornado wreaks havoc at Omaha’s Eppley Field
I grew up in Nebraska (also known as the “High Country” for those of you who live along the coast). When I was growing up, no one could understand how people could survive the constant threat of earthquakes on the West Coast and hurricanes in the Southeast. When people talk about tornadoes, we dumbfound them and say, “Just go underground.” In fact, there were several tornado warnings each summer that required me to spend several hours in my basement with my radio and flashlight in case the power went out, but that rarely happened. Things have changed a bit since then. It seems like every summer we see reports of devastating storms destroying small towns in wider tornado paths that have expanded beyond traditional Midwestern boundaries. last week, Omaha was hit by several twistersOne even landed at Eppley Airfield (OMA) itself. The entire airport was evacuated for an hour while the tornado destroyed a hangar, more than 30 commercial aircraft, and threw debris into one of the runways. An hour later, the airport resumed normal operations, perhaps with some skepticism from those who had just spent an hour hiding in a bomb shelter.
Recently, my wife and I were having breakfast in the dining room of a hotel in India, and it was pretty full. There was a fair amount of background noise from various conversations, but suddenly two female voices appeared over the fray…and they weren’t even inside the restaurant yet. American. They were both from Texas, on tour together, and had drunk too much the night before and stayed out late (I could tell from their “stilted” conversation a few tables away from us). Ta).
Over the years, much ink has been spilled about “Ugly Americans Abroad,” both physically and digitally. We stand out like a single word. Monolingual, loud, wearing white socks, and usually interrupting everyone…or so the story goes. I discounted these stereotypes. Yes, there are certainly a lot of obnoxious American tourists flying around the world. There are also quite a few grumpy French, Italian, Chinese, Indian and Australian tourists…and plenty of polite and curious Americans too. That said, there is a grain of truth in every stereotype, and it’s exciting to read reflections on the particularities that set us “Americans” apart. Points from the crew I recently shared something fun: “40 Ways to Identify Americans Abroad”
SAS leaves Star Alliance and joins SkyTeam on September 1st
In 2022, Scandinavian Airlines declares bankruptcy and then Sold to a group of investors including Air France/KLM Royal Dutch AirlinesAs such, most of us assume that loyalty to the airline alliance will eventually change soon as well. Sure enough, by the fall of 2023, the airline will move to a more active partnership with SkyTeam (home to Delta Air Lines, Air France/KLM, etc.) versus Star Alliance (home to United Airlines and Lufthansa). notified that it was ready. Since that announcement, SAS and Star Alliance have not been able to live comfortably in the same house, awkwardly avoiding each other during breakfast hours and using separate bathrooms. A final divorce date has now been set and SAS will officially become a member of SkyTeam on September 1, 2024. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who flew across the Atlantic in the SAS. Business class benefits are fixed.almost as common as Delta Sky Club with no lines. But maybe now that they are joining SkyTeam, everything will change and we will have access to that SkyTeam. Highly rated business cabin For the low price of 1.2 million SkyMiles.
Finnair suspends routes due to Russian GPS interference
The war between Russia and Ukraine had a huge impact on civil aviation. Thousands of hours of flight cancellations, detour to avoid Russian airspace and Increased airfare (and operating) costs. There was further controversy last week when Finnair reported that one of its flights had experienced a “GPS failure”, making it unsafe to operate. As a result, the airline will suspend operations on the route (to Tartu, Estonia) until the end of May at the earliest. Russia has long been suspected of jamming GPS signals near its borders. Both jamming (if you can’t determine her GPS location of the plane) and spoofing (if the location is incorrect) are the culprits. Tartu is about 40 miles from the Russian border, and Finnair was the last international airline to serve it. Independent newspaper breaks the ice And what’s behind it.
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