Cingular asks FAA to keep ban on in-flight calls
Cingular asks FAA to keep ban on in-flight calls — Cingular Wireless wants to maintain a ban on cell phone calls aboard airplanes, according to a published report. USA Today reported yesterday the company has taken that position in a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA and the Federal Communications Commission are looking at lifting the ban on in-flight calls and then using new technology. “We believe there is a time and a place for wireless phone conversations, and seldom does that include the confines of an airplane flight,” Cingular said in its June 8 letter to the FAA, according to the paper. (CNN)
Aussie caught by Air New Zealand with 16 million phony points — An alleged Australian scam artist exposed by Air New Zealand amassed 16 million frequent flyer points — even though he never left the ground, a court was told yesterday. An internal investigation by Air New Zealand in November 2002 found Austin Perrott, of Melbourne, was a member of its Gold Elite class of passengers but his “extraordinarily large amounts of points” were actually accrued through a computer at Melbourne Airport. Perrott, of the Melbourne suburb of Balwyn, appeared in the city’s Magistrates Court yesterday and reserved his plea on numerous charges, mostly of obtaining a financial advantage by deception. (New Zealand Herald)
New resort at former Elvis ranch — Horn Lake planners have approved prior zoning for a golf course and entertainment resort at the site of the old Circle G Ranch once owned by Elvis Presley. The 155-acre ranch is where Elvis and Priscilla spent their honeymoon in 1967. J.D. Stacy, the chief spokesman for developers CGR International, said Tuesday he expects his financial backers to close on 794 acres of land within 60 days. (USA Today)
When lost is found, Disneyland is a happy place — Sometimes Disneyland’s Lost and Found department returns the missing smile to a child’s face by recovering a lost toy. Sometimes it literally returns the hair to a man’s head by salvaging a stray toupee. But Kay McFaul, who ran the department for 20 years, witnessed perhaps the biggest change to a visitor’s face when she returned a missing item: the woman’s glass eyeball. “Immediately I put out a call and said, ‘Have the sweepers check their pans, because we have a woman who has lost her artificial eye,’ ” says McFaul, now 83 and retired for 15 years. “It wasn’t but a short time later that in came this young guy, and he just handed me his pan. He thought it was a marble. Then he got the call and realized  it was looking at him.” (USA Today)
The story of seat 29E — Dear Continental Airlines,
I am disgusted as I write this note to you about the miserable experience I am having sitting in seat 29E on one of your aircrafts. As you may know, this seat is situated directly across from the lavatory, so close that I can reach out my left am and touch the door. All my senses are being tortured simultaneously. It’s difficult to say what the worst part about sitting in 29E really is? Is it the stench of the sanitation fluid that’s blown all over my body every 60 seconds when the door opens? Is it the wooosh of the constant flushing? Or is it the passengers asses that seem to fit into my personal space like a pornographic jig-saw puzzel? (Snopes)
Superjumbo spied from space — Here is a view of Europe’s new superjumbo you will not see too often. The picture of the Airbus A380 was taken from space and shows the giant airliner at this year’s Paris Air Show in Le Bourget. (BBC)
Northwest Airlines chairman sells more shares, this time $334,000 — Northwest Airlines Corp. Chairman Gary Wilson, who has attracted attention for stock sales amid the carrier’s declining fortunes, reported Thursday that he has sold another $334,000 in company shares. Wilson sold 61,750 shares Tuesday and Wednesday through a trust under a prearranged trading plan he adopted in late April, according to filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission. (Chicago Tribune)
Delta can’t be sued for actions of passenger who got drunk — The Georgia Supreme Court threw out a suit seeking to hold Delta Air Lines responsible for a passenger who got drunk on a flight from Milwaukee to Atlanta and then was involved in a traffic accident on the way home from the airport. In a 6-1 decision Thursday, the court said an airline has no control over passengers once they deplane. (USA Today)
Boeing unit expects launch of airline mobile service by 2006 — Boeing Co. unit, Connexion expects to start selling moblie phone services to airline passengers as early as next year, despite opposition from the flying public, Reuters reported. (MENAFM)
Correspondents: Leslie Friedman, Charles Leocha, Stephanus Surjaputra