How to Evacuate an Airplane

"A hundred years ago, it could take you the better part of a year to get from New York to California; whereas today, because of equipment problems at O’Hare, you can't get there at all."
~ Dave Barry (Only Travel Guide you'll ever need)

Earlier this week, a United Airlines flight at Dulles International in Washington, DC had to be evacuated when passengers saw smoke. Everyone quickly left the plane via the the inflatable slides including Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. A reporter on board wrote, "Hearing of possible broken bones, from the slide landing, but no other serious injuries."

Slides were fun when we were kids but an airplane slide is serious and can be dangerous. A government study of airline evacuation drills in the 1970s and 1980s found that almost 5 percent of the participants get hurt. The slides are designed to handle 70 passengers a minute so that means you have less than one second to go out the door. So here's some advice:

1. Get out fast – DO NOT grab your luggage.
2. JUMP onto the slide. Don’t hesitate at the doorway or try to sit down. JUMP.
3. Keep your arms crossed over your chest as you go down the slide on your back. This will help prevent skin burns as you slide.
4. Get out of the way! When you reach the bottom of the slide – MOVE quickly. Another person is just one second behind you and will crash into you if you don’t move quickly off the slide.

Bottom Line

Keep in mind two things:
1. Move quickly - jump on, get off fast.
2. This is not a slow ride down on your butt. It's a fast ride down on your back.

The second leading cause of injury is broken ankles and leg bones at the bottom of the slide. Be prepared to hit the ground by having both feet ready and your legs tensed but not locked and rigid. Be a stiff spring and let your knees bend and absorb the force with your leg muscles as you resist the impact. Picture how your legs work when you land from a jump or fall. The slide is a controlled fall and you'll land with nearly as much force as if you had jumped out of the plane without a slide.

To the degree that the slide does slow your fall and lessen the impact, that slowing is caused by friction and "slide burns" from friction are the leading injury from evacuations. Always wear long pants when you fly. Never shorts or a short skirt.

Steaming Semen, no Bull!

“If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull----.”
-W. C. Fields

In today's security concious world, everything is seen as suspicious. Recently a United plane was returned to the airport because a passenger was reading a book about airplanes. Perhaps they thought he was planning his attack during the flight itself? Or brushing up on the details? A policeman quickly released the passenger when he saw the book was about "Snoopy Red Baron stuff...", i.e. triplanes from 1921.

On August 23 in Nashville, Tennesse, an on-ramp to Interstate 65 was closed and fire and emergency HAZMAT crews called to investigate unmarked canisters alongside the road which were smelly and steaming. Naturally foul play was suspected. Could this be a bomb or a chemical attack? Bus tickets were found nearby and it was determined that the canisters had fallen out of the cargo department of a Greyhound bus. The driver was located and he identified the canisters as containing frozen bull sperm packed in liquid nitrogen from Columbus, Ohio and en route to a breeding facility in Laredo, Texas. Depending on the quality of the bull parent(s?) the lost sperm could be worth as much as $80,000.

Since the canisters used liquid nitrogen, they are not allowed on planes and must travel by ground. A Greyhound spokesperson said it's not uncommon that the bus was carrying bull sperm. If that make you nervous (eew, cudies on my luggage), Greyhound says that cargo is stored in a compartment separate from passenger belongings.

Bottom Line

It's good to stay alert but let's not overdo going to extremes.

Death by Crocodile

"See you later, alligator. After a while, crocodile."
- Bill Haley

There are many odd ways to die. Being killed by a crocodile is unusual. Dieing in a plane crash is actually quite rare. (You are over 2000 times more likely to die in a car crash). Now combine the two, killed by a crocodile on an airplane, and you have a type of death that may be unique.

In August a small plane crashed in the Democratic Republic of Congo killing 21 people aboard. It was obvious that the crash was caused by a loss of balance in the small aircraft while landing. Why unbalanced? The passengers where stampeding into the cockpit. Why the stampede? That was not so obvious until the lone survivor explained what happened.

A crocodile had escaped from a duffel bag that a passenger was smuggling it in. The terrified passengers and crew were trying to get away from the crocodile. (I wonder how big it was? I suppose even small crocs have big teeth.)  Ironically the croc survived the crash (but was killed afterwards.)

Bottom Line

Sometimes our response to a threat is more dangerous than the threat itself. Long ago I was driving the family car with my mother on board when a bee flew in the window. I started to panic and was watching the bee. My mother admonished me to keep my eyes on the road. A car crash would be far worse than a bee sting.

Turbulence

Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn't know it so it goes on flying anyway. - Mary Kay Ash

Do you hate the seat belt sign on airplanes? Why do they force passengers to stay in their seats? Well a recent United Flight from DC to LA demonstrates why.

A plane with 255 passengers hit severe turbulence and 4 crew and 21 persons were seriously hurt. The plane was diverted to Denver where a medical triage center was set up at the airport and the injured sent to Denver hospitals. Injuries included bruises, sprains, whiplash and strains.

"It was a bit of a blur. People were screaming and yelling," recalled one passenger on board the flight. She also described watching as the woman in the seat next to hear "slammed into the side of the cabin, leaving a crack above the window, and a girl across the aisle flew into the air and hit the ceiling."

Bottom Line

When flying, keep your seat belt on. Turbulence can occur at any time.

Global Impact of Volcano

Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning
On an ever-spinning reel
As the images unwind
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind
- lyrics to "Windmills of Your Mind"

In our global economy everything is interconnected. And with "Just in Time" warehousing there is little margin for error in delivery schedules. CBSNews.com has listed some of the global side effects of the volcano in Iceland:

• The lack of refrigeration facilities at the capital airport of Ghana has hurt pineapple and pawpaw farmers who are unable to fly their produce to Europe.

• Kenya has thrown away 10 million flowers since the eruption. Asparagus, broccoli and green beans meant for European dinner tables are being fed to Kenyan cattle instead. Thousands of day laborers are out of work.

• In New York City's Flower District, thousands of dollars worth of tulips, peonies, daffodils and other varieties from the Netherlands are not arriving. Last weekend's weddings didn't have Dutch flowers.

• The U.S. economy is losing approximately $130 million per day in travel revenue. Every international flight bound for the U.S. is worth an average of $450,000 in spending from travelers.

• Three Nissan production lines in Japan will stop all day Wednesday because tire pressure sensors from Ireland have not arrived, 2000 vehicles will be delayed.

• A group from Sierra Leone and Liberia had to abandon a fact-finding trip to The Hague for the war crimes trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor.

• Cambridge University's modern and medieval languages faculty delayed oral exams after students and examiners were left stranded last week.

Bottom Line

Expect price increases in flowers and produce.

Out of town and out of cash

"It's not hard to meet expenses, they're everywhere." – T-shirt quote

Sorry for the spate of volcano stories but this is too good an event to pass up for a preparedness blog. It is rare events like this that test everyone and highlight weaknesses and problems.

A few asides before jumping into the main topic.

1. There is grumbling in Europe about lack of governmental preparedness dealing with stranded passengers and managing transportation alternatives. The train system is great (compared to the US) but overwhelmed now. Each country maintains its own airspace so some nations are flying, others grounded. Five days after the volcano, a Euro-level meeting of Transportation Officials was held to discuss common standards for safe flying.

2. Lot’s of grumbling over the airlines. Most have a terrible track record of handling massive flight cancellations. To improve profitability, airlines now fly fewer planes but each at full or near-full capacity. This leaves them with little space to accommodate stranded passengers.
Europeans stranded in Japan were told by Taiwan's EVA Airways that the earliest flight with openings is May 12 - but only if they are willing to pay an extra 150 euros ($200). Otherwise, they have to wait until June.

3. This problem could continue indefinitely. Eyjafjallajökull may continue erupting for a decade and it has a big brother 15 miles away, under deeper ice, that will cause an even bigger ash cloud if it wakes up.

4. A common element of many disasters is price gouging. A French tourist in Hong Kong reports, "Yesterday, we had a hotel room at 250 euros. At midday, it was 460 euros, and in the evening, the price was 800 euros for a room - we can't pay that." The hotel's general manager replied simply, "We dynamically price much like the airlines do, according to how many rooms we have to sell in the hotel." A British family in Sydney, Australia, had the same problem. Their first night stranded cost 150 Australian dollar ($138); the next day the hotel raised the price of the same room to AU$350 - simply because it could.

Which leads to the main point – having access to emergency money on a vacation or business trip. Don’t be like the family who said, "We're at the end of the holiday so we've spent all our money ... Because that's what you do on holiday."

So what are your options when traveling out of the country?

1. Credit Cards – you will pay a modest currency conversion fee but credit cards are accepted around the world.

2. ATMs – ditto on conversion fee and there may be an “out-of-country” access fee. It helps to have your money in a bank that has a global ATM network. The following banks support the “Global ATM Alliance” of mutually compatible ATM machines: Bank of America, Barclays (England), BNP Paribas (France), Deutsche Bank (Germany), Santander Serfin (Mexico), Scotiabank (Canadian), Wespac (Australia & Pacific), ABSA (South Africa), UkrSibbank (Ukraine), China Construction Bank (China). This group has branches in most countries.

Other international ATM networks include:
PLUS (allows Visa card cash withdrawals in over 200 countries.)
Cirrus (allows MasterCard cash withdrawals) Call (800) 424-7787 for locations in 210 countries.

3. Before using your Credit Card or ATM card overseas, call your bank first to warn them that you are traveling. Otherwise they may freeze your card for suspicious activity. Also write down the phone number for calling your Credit Card company in case your card is stolen overseas. Keep this number in a safe place.

4. Travelers checks – I have not used these in years. Now I find that credit cards and ATMs are easier than obtaining and then cashing travelers checks. Often the fees are lower too. Still it might not hurt to have a few $100 available just-in-case the global ATM system or credit card system breaks down due to attack or severed undersea phone/Internet cable. Also American Express Traveler Checks can be replaced if stolen – you’ll need to store the check numbers in a different place (or with a friend) so you can make a claim.

5. Commonwealth Bank of Australia offers Travel Money Cards that work like debit cards but in preloaded foreign currency. I assume other banks have something similar.

6. It's best to use a combination of money sources: a small amount of cash, a debit card, two credit cards (in case one is declined or stolen!) and some travelers checks. Some travelers swear by the ‘two wallet' technique. Keep all your documents and credit cards safely in one wallet, and then use an everyday old wallet for cash and a few less important cards. If you get mugged, just hand over the second wallet to minimize your loss.

7. Before going to a foreign country, I like to convert some money (say $100) in advance. This way if I need cash immediately (like for an airport Taxi) I’m not dependent solely on the moneychangers at the airport and their fees. Ask your bank if they can get you foreign currency (and at what rate.)

Bottom Line

In a few places above I mention storing important contact information in case you are robbed or your luggage lost/stolen. You many lose your purse, wallet or suitcase. So what’s left – a tattoo? One option is the Internet – if you can get free (or cheap) access to it. You could Google for your credit card company number, or American Embassy location, etc. Before the trip you could email yourself the list of Travel Check numbers, your passport number, and other vital numbers and leave this in your in-box. Be careful opening your email overseas. An Internet café or wifi could have someone snooping on Internet traffic or have a keystroke recorder on the PC to copy your account name and password. As a backup I’d email this same info to a trusted friend or relative that you could call.

Resources

Volcano flight chaos leaves many passengers broke

ATMs Abroad

Accessing Your Money Overseas

International Money Transfers

Travel Insurance vs Volcano

All my bags are packed I'm ready to go
I'm standin' here outside your door
... Don't know when I'll be back again.
- lyrics from "Leaving On A Jet Plane"

If you're worried about flying to Europe right now and are thinking about buying travelers insurance, "just in case" the flight is cancelled because of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano - forget about it. The Wall Street Journal reports that the volcano is excluded from all policies purchased on or after April 13.

"It’s called the theory of the burning house. If your house is ablaze, you can’t go out and quickly buy homeowners coverage. In travel, as soon as a storm or event is known, you can buy all the insurance you want but it won’t cover those “known’’ events. Once a hurricane is named, most policies won’t cover it
if the insurance was sold after the moment the storm was identified." - WSJ

The WSJ points out that even if purchased before April 13, travel insurance may be of limited use. When airlines refund tickets for canceled trips, there’s no claim with insurers. Many policies have limits on daily expenses if you are stranded away from home. If you can’t get to a hotel that you prepaid, insurance may not kick in because the hotel isn’t “uninhabitable.’’ It's your fault for not finding another way to get to it.

Travel insurance rarely covers your cancelling due to fear of unsafe travel or unsafe conditions—for example fear of terrorism is covered only if the attack happens in your destination city. Everywhere else is safe to fly. Same with hurricanes – your resort may have to be declared uninhabitable before your insurance would cover you. It's not enough that your resort was hit hard, barely functioning, and won't be the dream vacation you paid for.

Bottom Line

Read insurance policies carefully before buying. What you have in mind may require a more-expensive “cancel for any reason’’ policy that will cover pre-existing medical conditions, family emergencies, etc. Check the daily limits for reimbursing hotels, lost luggage and other expenses.

Eyjafjallajökull

Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me
Is there anyone home?
-Pink Floyd, "Comfortably Numb" lyrics

At work Monday morning I noticed two co-workers were missing. They had flown to Europe last week for a computer conference. It took a moment to put two-and-two together to realize, oh the volcano. They can not come home with airspace over France and England still closed.

Yesterday Astronomy Picture of the Day featured this photo of the volcano.

BusinessInsider.com had this photo of the ash cloud and an informative article on the volcano's impact.

The Map Room blog has a video graphic showing the spread of the ash cloud. Instead of a nice neat streamer it looks like the plume was caught in a washing machine as swirled around making a mess of everything.

Bottom Line

Why did this volcanic eruption in Iceland create so much ash? On April 14 Eyjafjallajökull opened up a vent under a small glacier. The eruption melted a large amount of glacial ice which poured onto the fresh lava fragmenting it into gritty glass particles that were carried up with the rising steam and ash.

Best Seat on the Plane

From http://xkcd.com/726/

Volcanic Ash

"We come nearest to the great when we are great in humility."
-Rabindranath Tagore quotes (Indian Nobel Laureate)

Tens of thousands of air travelers around the world are stuck today as a mammoth cloud of ash from the Eyjafjallajökull (EYE-ja-fyatla-jo-kittle) volcano in Iceland shut down all air traffic over Britain, Ireland and the Nordic countries on April 15. The U.K. banned all non-emergency flights until at least 7 a.m. Friday; most affected is London's Heathrow International with over 1200 flights and 180,000 travelers daily. While the majority of flights may be back in the air by the beginning of next week, it will be many more days before the airlines have got their schedules back on track. Some planes are stranded thousands of miles from home.

In addition to causing visibility problems, volcanic ash can wreak havoc with a jet's systems, clogging up engines, blocking sensors and more. Unfortunately ash does not show up well on airplane radar systems so difficult to detect and avoid. Popular Mechanics provides an example from history:

On Dec. 15, 1989, KLM flight 867 intercepted an ash cloud that Redoubt [a volcano in Alaska] had exhaled just 90 minutes earlier. Within 60 seconds, a maelstrom of microscopic volcanic glass shards shut down all four of the 747's engines. With 245 passengers on board, the plane plummeted 13,000 ft before the pilots managed to restart engines and steer the crippled craft to an emergency landing in Anchorage [100 miles away].

After this event the Federal Aviation Administration created the Alaska Volcano Observatory system to monitor 162 active volcanoes in the northern Pacific and give warning to pilots.

There is one bit of good news regarding the eruption. According to the British Health Protection Agency, the effect of ash falling on people in Europe is minor. (I suspect the impact is worse in Iceland.) People may experience itchy or irritated eyes, a runny nose, sore throat, or dry cough, or they may notice the smell of sulphur or see a dusty haze. Those with respiratory conditions like bronchitis, emphysema and asthma may notice the effects more than others and should keep adequate medications on hand.

Bottom Line

There are some things man can not control. Who would have thought in this day and age that your European vacation could be stopped short by a volcano in Iceland?

Because of "Acts of God" you always want to travel with enough cash, clothes, medicine, etc. to last an extra day or two in case you are stranded.

Terror over Detroit

“No man dies for what he knows to be true. Men die for what they want to be true, for what some terror in their hearts tells them is not true.” - Oscar Wilde

On December 25, a terrorist tried to blow up an airplane as it was landing at Detroit, Michigan. I encourage you to read the first hand account, Over Detroit Skies, by passenger Roey Rosenblith. He's very honest about the experience and his reaction to what happened. For instance he talks about the urge to flee but having nowhere to go when aboard a plane.

Another important thing to learn from this story is that the "incident" is just the beginning of a long process of response and recovery. Passengers were not allowed to leave the plane or even to leave their seats after landing. When they finally deplaned, they were escorted to private briefings with 250 police/custom agents/security personnel. Cell phone calls were not allowed to waiting family members. The processing took hours and connecting flights were missed. At least they got vouchers for a meal and a hotel room.

Bottom Line

In any disaster, the hurricane, tornado, fire, etc is just the beginning. There are survival needs and emotional shock immediately afterwards. This is followed by a long and slow recovery with lots of paperwork, bureaucracy, and delays. It is frequently weeks or months for life to return to normal.

Airline Fees

Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane
Don't know when I'll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go
- song lyrics

As a child I loved flying. It was an adventure with fun food and friendly attendants. My father was an air traffic controller for the Air Force and he would take the kids to the cockpit to meet the pilot and see the controls.

Now-a-days it is a different story. Take off most of your clothes to be scanned, have your bottled water confiscated, pay for any food on board, etc. Today flying involves lots of add-on fees. Who charges the most fees? The least? The answer can be found on a comparison chart at
http://www.kayak.com/h/airlinefees

Bottom Line

My wife and I fly a lot less today than 15 years ago. This summer we decided to drive halfway cross the country to visit my sister instead of flying. It was far but the driving was part of the adventure with many tourist stops along the way. As a rule we'll drive someplace if we can. There is much much "convenience" in flying.

Luggage Thieves

“Did you ever notice that the first piece of luggage on the carousel never belongs to anyone? -Erma Bombeck

Here’s a travel warning from the NY Daily News: Sting nabs sticky-fingered JFK airport workers going through Luggage.

"When air travelers check their luggage with an airline, there is an implicit trust that their bags and their contents will meet them at their destination," said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.

[…But] an officer with the Transportation Security Administration [TSA], was videotaped July 7 pilfering through the Miami-bound suitcase in an airport screening room while a baggage handler looked on.

He stole a laptop and cell phone from the decoy luggage as it moved through Kennedy Airport.

Bottom Line

Never pack valuables in a suitcase. Keep them with your carry-on and watch them as they pass through security.