Discussion: parallel error

looks like airline pilots are prone to it as well...

Yup, another incident with a bigger (but passengerless) plane from last November.

I wonder if this plane had the same Southwest flight attendant as I had on Friday. When we landed in Philly he kept saying we were in Pittsburgh as a joke. (In addition to adding quite the comedic spin on the safety instructions at the beginning of the flight.) Only this time they really were in the wrong place.

I think I've flown with that guy...

Did he say that if the oxygen masks drop, "stop screaming and let go of your neighbor", or something to that effect?

He said "your neighbor's mask will inflate, yours will not" and "if you are traveling with multiple small children, determine which one has the most potential"

The comic ability of Southwest flight attendants (humor is an important part of their training!) is much of why I greatly prefer SWA over any other American offering. I imagine after this incident there might be an increase in hilarity coming from them... "Please remain seated until the plane has come to a complete stop, the captain has turned off the seatbelt sign, and we have double-checked that we're in the right state."

Sounds like the guy I saw changed up his bit, or he has at least one protege...

He also said, "secure your own mask first, then your child's; if you have more than one child, pick your favorite..."

This landing happened a few years ago.

From 2000. http://nypost.com/2000/06/01/italian-army-invades-...

I find SWA humor tacky, intended to paper over the facts that they charge the same or more than others while hypocritically advertising to the contrary, and have an abysmal recent safety record compared with the big three. The parallel error adds nothing to my confidence that they'll get me where I want to go in one piece, with the plane still in one piece, and without running over little children. Sorry for the digression. If live entertainment is your top priority, you probably disagree.

Back in my travel agency days I remember the industry had it's list of the most frequent ticketing bloopers. I think this was the "Big 5":

Dallas (TX) instead of Dulles (DC)
Portland (ME) instead of Portland (OR)
Rochester (MN) instead of Rochester (NY)
Jackson (MS) instead of Jackson (WY)
Oakland (CA) instead of Auckland (NZ)

Nice hyperbole there re: recent safety record.

SWA humor can be quite beneficial -- I was once on a flight with a very turbulent approach and one of the flight attendants managed to tell (funny!) jokes and sing the entire way down, keeping all 137 passengers calm until wheels down. Quite a feat!

(I prefer to fly SWA for many reasons, but #1 might be that it's just so much fun to make someone's day by giving them free drink coupons!)

You can have my DAL free drink coupons as I enjoy a complimentary first-class beverage.

I remember humorous pre-flight briefings on ValuJet back in 1996. I think the notion is that by making them more interesting, people will actually pay attention. It certainly doesn't work perfectly -- I flew a round trip on Southwest a few weeks ago, and I assume they did a briefing, but I missed it completely on both legs, which is typical for me. (But I do open up the safety card and read it as soon as I get to my seat and buckle in.)

I remember the first SWA planes being flight tested while I was working the flight line at Boeing Field, 737-100s - anyone flown on those? 85-90 pax. We couldn't imagine this new airline going against those big many, in those days, and only able to fly within Texas. Later still restricted to how they could fly out of TX, but always good service and low fares in those days. My recent flights have been on time with friendly service.

You can have my DAL free drink coupons as I enjoy a complimentary first-class beverage.

You, people from Golden Billion, actually don't know what does it mean to feel hunger (I know from 90th - but now situation in Russia Australia is better, of course) and what does it mean to fight every day of your life for surviving.

And half of year we have in Australian summer (real summer with temperatures 30-45 C). People have to spend a lot of money to sunscreen, ice cream food and aircon. When almost all of you money are coming to food and utilities, then your life is really tough (and I am not talking about criminals, incredible corruption, and environment problems).

abysmal recent safety record

SWA has ZERO passenger fatalities in the history of its existence. ZERO. Yes, unfortunately, one child was killed in 2005.

From your "recent" history (12/2005 to present) of the other "big 3"

Southwest/AirTran
5 accidents/incidents
0 passenger fatalities
1 bystander fatality

United/Continental:
2 accidents/incidents
0 fatalities
4 additional accidents, 0 fatalities from United Express & Continental Express

American/US Air
7 accidents/incidents
0 fatalities
4 additional accidents, 0 fatalities from US Air Express & American Eagle

Delta/Northwest
5 accidents/incidents
0 fatalities
5 additional accidents, 49 fatalities from Delta Connect

There's a 99.999998% chance you'll make it to 1/14/2015 without dying because of an airplane.

Your statistics are flawed:

-one is not ZERO
-4 is not "big 3"

-one is not ZERO

The child was not a passenger, but a bystander (the airplane overshot the runway and crashed into a car). Yes, it's still SWA's fault, but it's listed separately in the incident report data.

-4 is not "big 3"

SWA is the largest carrier in the US, but until recently, did not fly internationally (and only now flies to a few locations in Mexico/Caribbean because of its acquisition of AirTran). The "big 3" operate internationally.

I have no idea about American airlines. I was just making conversation.

I have to agree with T/D here. I find SWA's humor mostly trite, affected. But, others may like that, which is fine.

What soured me on SWA is when they converted their eminently simple Rapid Rewards program, in which you secured a free flight after N flights, with something just related to how much you spend on tickets. Or maybe I misunderstand it? In any case, I've lost interest in their legerdemain.

abysmal

This.

That

That.

That.

We can go on all day. I'm not a homer for SWA (I prefer Alaska), but they aren't an order of magnitude more "abysmal" than any of the other majors.

Same order of magnitude in the first two cases (as to what was assessed and actually paid), the third case is an order of magnitude less. The difference is the two actual incidents that seem to stem from the same root problem as the problems for which SWA was already fined before (although assertions are made to the contrary).

Please relate to orienteering.

That's easy tRicky... lot's of point scoring and pedantry. :-)

As a friend of mine pointed out, the real important question here is how many people were late for their Yakov Smirnoff show?