Flying Lessons

Masnoor in his studio in April 2014

One night in Spain, I took a walk down to the edge of the Mediterranean where a brilliant white moon seemed to turn the water into a sea of graphite. I had no camera and so I challenged myself to recreate the scene with words.In his 2012 trip across the Atlantic in a Pilatus PC 12, Malaysian painter Masnoor Ramli Mahmud was asked to do the opposite, tell the story of trans-oceanic flight in pictures. The result is the one-man show, PATHFINDER#PC12, which will open in Kuala Lumpur on November 27th.

Riza Johari while at ABC News

I got to known Masnoor through his wife, Riza Johari with whom I worked while covering the disappearance of Malaysia Flight 370 for ABC News. Masnoor and I met in his sunny studio and he told me, until the invitation came for him to fly on the Pilatus from the United States to England, he had little interest in aviation. His art primarily focuses on social issues and cultural identity.

But a collector of his work approached him with a proposition, would he go to America and accompany a Malaysian businessman and five other pilots on a private flight across the Atlantic? The sponsor of the trip asked only that Masnoor produce with paint or photography, his vision of the journey.

Masnoor told me he was nervous throughout the flight, crossing a big ocean in a small plane. By the time we met, was long-home safely but working on the painting he titled Kaleidoscope, he was still remembering his mixed emotions. A man stands by the Pilatus single engine turbo prop while white butterflies symbolizing positive spirits, swirl above.

Immigrant

Even before boarding the Pilatus in Minnesota, Masnoor was getting a glimpse of the link between aviation and geo politics. Arriving at Los Angeles International Airport with no return ticket, customs and border patrol officers gave him a hard time. To Masnoor, who crew up cheering on the cowboys in American Western movies, that experience combined with flying over the Rocky Mountains became a central question in two paintings; Immigrant and Go My Hero For the Love of the Country.

“From Denver, when I saw the landscape and it reminded me of when I was a kid and I saw a movies with Indians and the U.S. military fighting each other. At that time I felt the Indians are bad people, and the white men are trying to give them civilization.” Revising his childhood impressions to a more mature perspective Masnoor uses the canvases to juxtapose colonialism with immigration policies and asks, “What does the word ‘immigrant’ mean?”

Go My Hero For the Love of the Country

Masnoor traveled through six countries, in some spending just a few hours on the ground. He was inspired by the small child he met at the Narsasuaq airport in Greenland to create the painting, NARSASUAQ and by the statute of William Wallace he saw in Scotland. (Every Man Dies, Not Every Man Really Lives).

NARSASUAQ

Though the majority of the paintings in the exhibit do not stray too far from the artist’s interest in social justice, one stands out for its simple and joyful discovery of the serenity of flight and the miraculous machine that enables it.

Over Greenland, Masnoor is awestruck by a landscape of color rather than texture. “I saw in that area so peaceful and without anything, just light and snow and ice,” he explained of the painting, This World Which Is Made of Our Love for Emptiness. “It struck me how the place is so big and me I am only a small creation in this planet feeling that moment, that moment in that space just man and his creator.”

This World Which Is Made of Our Love for Emptiness

So it was a man who had become more attuned to flying who I met earlier this year. It was during the time when the missing Flight 370 dominated the thoughts of all Malaysians. Masnoor’s take, that the disappearance of the airliner is more than a tragedy for the families but an illustration of political dysfunction, is the theme ofAt The Edge of Nowhere, the one painting in the exhibit not directly inspired by his trans-Atlantic trip.

Against a Chinese-inspired background of a roaring ocean, a dragon and an eagle spar. An egg embossed with the image of an airplane is precariously atop the horn of a buffalo. Is the egg the airline, the airplane or the nation itself? The painting suggests it could be all three.

When Riza first introduced me to her artist husband, I thought we would have little in common, different as we are in age, culture and profession. Now, as I look at the works of this wordless story-teller, I am reminded of my evening in Spain and re-inspired to push at the confines of my own writing as I join him in tackling similar themes, for Penguin Books; aviation, mystery and the ongoing quest for answers.

PATHFINDER#PC12 will open at Artcube Gallery, 3-10 & 3-13, Level 3, Intermark Mall, The Intermark, 348 Jalan Tun Razak, 50400 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

A UA 787-9 photo courtesy United

Passengers on United Flight 98 from Los Angeles to Melbourne, Australia on October 26, participated in small slice of aviation history; flying on the world's longest Boeing 787 route. They not only flew the longest route, but on the first American airline to fly the new stretched version of the Dreamliner, the dash-9.

Many factors contribute to the spike in international air travel, which the International Air Transport Association reports is up from 80 million in 2008 to nearly 100 million this year. But we can't ignore the role of the 787, Boeing's trimmer wide-body in this global trend. In his jubilant response to the United flight, Randy Tinseth, the face of Boeing Commercial Airliners, (VP of marketing is his official title) said, "It's exciting for us to do exactly what we promised customers we would do, open up new routes all over the world."

Capt. Blaszczak on another 787 flight

Capt. Jim Blaszczak, a United pilot who flew one of the first LA to Melbourne flights told me the plan was for fifteen hours and 22 minutes in the air, but arrival was actually quicker. What really got Jim's attention, and mine, was the black and white demonstration of its fuel economy.

His Dreamliner trip was scheduled to depart for Melbourne at 10:30p.m., the same time as United Flight 839, a Boeing 777-200 which was headed to Sydney. While the journey to Sydney is nearly 45 minutes shorter, the 777 burned 7,500 gallons more fuel getting there.

"They burned 238,000 pounds of fuel compared to our 188,000," Jim told me, taking obvious pleasure in being the man who flies the younger, hipper, and waaaaaay more fuel efficient airplane. "The 777 carries 260 passengers our 787-9 carries 252 passengers, 8 less."

He is not alone in his glee. Using the wide-body plane Boeing promised would provide a 20% fuel savings, United and a host of other carriers are able to open routes between cities previously considered too small to support service.

So I should not have been startled, though I was, to see an ANA 787 flying over my head while I was in San Jose, California in October. This was the daily trip from Narita. Controversial as it might be for political and labor reasons, Norwegian has been adding flights from Scandinavia to moderately populated cities in the U.S. like Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando and in Europe, to Malta and Larnaca.

In an article by David Flynn of Australian Business Traveller, United's Matt Miller reinforced the significance of the Dreamliner's market niche, “Melbourne to LA is a market that we have wanted to serve non-stop for many years.” The route is “a perfect fit for the Boeing 787-9. It’s the right size, the right range and the right economics,” he told David.

Airline route planning always seems like hocus pocus to me. Some folks say it is aviation's dark magic. Still, judging from the numbers Jim gave me from his Flight 98, the Dreamliner gives United and all the other airlines flying it, a little economic wiggle room if they aren't immediately able to fill the seats.

Crossing the international date line on UA 98

My friend enjoyed first class treatment on Thai

I don't often sit outside of the economy cabin when I fly and neither do most of my friends. So when I or someone I know gets an upgraded experience it is fun to compare what the various airlines consider a lux experience.

An acquaintance told me that he cashed in all his mileage points for a first class seat from somewhere in Asia to San Francisco. His journey required him to fly one leg on Thai Airways and change in Bangkok to United.

He could not stop raving about his experience on Thai; how comfortable was the seat, how delicious the food, how accommodating the flight attendants. On and on and on.

At Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, he switched to Chicago-based United where, when he entered the first class cabin the flight attendant pointed to his backpack and greeted him saying, "That's not going to fit in the overhead bin."

Having just removed it from the Thai Airways bin he replied, "I think it will."

"Suit yourself," she said.

Not all first class experiences are equal and sometimes the airlines that you think should get it right, get it terribly wrong, as in the story above. Other times, a great flight comes from an unexpected carrier, such as the new Mint service on JetBlue.

All employees pitch in to clean at JetBlue

Remember, JetBlue began 15 years ago as a quasi low-cost carrier, that is, discounted fares with benefits, like live TV and leather seats. It also distinguished itself with an innovative way of keeping turn times down. All employees from non-rev passengers to the pilots, tidy the plane on arrival. This is a refreshing personality characteristic as far as I'm concerned and I hope now that ALPA represents the airline's pilots that doesn't change, but I digress.

Mint is the airline's first foray into coddle class and it is offered only between New York and San Francisco or Los Angeles. For $599, travelers get a first class experience, and by that I mean, I don't know what else they could to do to enhance the six-hour journey.

Mint cabin Photo from JetBlue

The spacious lie-flat seats are either two abreast or, holy smokes!, a single suite. Each passenger gets a 15-inch video screen, wifi, amenity kit, priority everything, two free checked bags and scrumptious meals that kick off with a per-departure cocktail. On my flight, the cabin attendants were energetic and agreeable, reinforcing the airline's deserved reputation for friendliness.

Lie flat in Mint. Photo courtest JetBlue

Greta Mettauer, a technology executive from Los Angeles who is six feet tall, pays to fly premium on long flights. Comparing her trip on Mint to American Airlines trans continental first class, she told me JetBlue's seat with 6' 8" of sleeping length was more comfortable. She paid $1284 for her round trip ticket LA to Boston on American and $1198 LA to New York on JetBlue, but had to then buy an onward ticket to Boston upping the JetBlue price beyond the cost of flying there on American. Even so, Greta told me she would change planes in New York rather than fly American's first class direct to Boston.

When customers vote with their own dollars, an airline knows it is doing something right. Mint service is often sold out, spokesman Anders Lindstrom told me.

Everyone is welcome in the Porter lounge

Tiny Porter Airlines, based in Toronto at the adorable Billy Bishop in-town airport, is another air travel treat. There are no "premium seats" on Porter's Bombardier Q400 turboprops. All passengers traveling to any of the airline's 20 North American destinations wait to board the plane in a comfortable lounge stocked with food and drink. On board, beer, wine, snacks and wifi are all included in the ticket price.

In October, I flew from Singapore (Lordy, I love that airport!) to Istanbul, a 9 hour flight made to seem considerably shorter because I was flying in business class. Yep, I sleep better when I can lie down, who doesn't? But most carriers offer that. The touches that separate Turkish Airlines from other airlines bragging about their "product" are tiny.

Turkey's signature tulip, adorns the lav

A fresh flower arrangement in each bathroom is a cheery find you won't see on a Qatar Airways airplane. Low-light luminaria placed on the armrests of each seat create a warm, non-sleep-disturbing glow and goes a long way to reducing the risk of bruised shins when moving around the cabin in the dark. Etihad isn't offering that yet.

On my recent visit to Sydney, Qantas invited me to see to their Center of Service Excellence, where before I actually entered the heart of the building, I was treated to a 10 minute video about the struggling airline's aspirational goals for treating its passengers better. The Qantas video was jaw-dropping no doubt about it, as was the state-of-the-art training and meeting center.

Meanwhile in the business class lounge the following day, I found wet towels piled on the floor in the bathroom and dirty dishes and food residue remained on tables long after the flyers had departed.

The luminaria at my seat on TK 67

Chasing the well-heeled traveler is practically every airline's goal these days as I reported for The New York Times, though follow through remains challenging for a number of them.

The innovative carriers are focusing on the clever detail, the small but unexpected treat which like those Turkish luminaries, can warm up the passenger experience just as well, if not better, than high wattage promises that dim in the delivery.

Firefighters at Logan Airport NTSB photo

How many ways did the company producing the lithium ion batteries on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner fail to meet safe standards? I'm still wading through the 100 page report and the exhibits in the thick docket accompanying it, but so far, the list is lengthy.

On Monday, the National Transportation Safety Board released the result of its near two year investigation into the battery fire event on a Japan Airlines 787 at Boston's Logan Airport in January 2013. The NTSB follows by three months, a similarly exhaustive probe by the JTSB, its Japanese counterpart, into another Dreamliner battery problem nine days later that same year on a All Nippon Airways flight.

ANA Dreamliner on Jan 16, 2013

Neither agency pinpoints the exact trigger of the thermal runaways that occurred on the world's newest airliner, more than 200 of which are in revenue service in far flung places from Chile to Poland to New Zealand. But both probes conclude with the same frightening message; there's a lot the experts don't know about how to safely incorporate this volatile battery chemistry into aviation. Even now.

One would think that GS-Yuasa, the 97-year old Kyoto-based company hired by Boeing had enough experience to safely churn out the batteries that would provide start-up and emergency power to the 787. GS-Yuasa was already producing lithium ion for satellites and electric vehicles. But during its tour of the company, the NTSB investigators found manufacturing processes that increased the possibility of defects - including opportunities for foreign objects to be embedded inside the cells - and inspection procedures that made their discovery unlikely.

NTSB photo

The most surprising find, was that the use of aluminum at cell joints can create temperatures high enough for the cell to fail and even cause thermal runway. And while the use of an underrated material was not in Boeing's specs, neither the plane maker, nor its subcontractor, Thales, noticed that discrepancy or that the required terminal attachments were missing a compression system.

"Without such devices, additional causes of joint degradation," could be many, the NTSB reports in a footnote.

When the men and women who would one day fly the 787 Dreamliner, worried in 2007 about the inherent risk of fire if the lithium ion batteries were to suffer a thermal runaway, the pilots were given this assurance by the Federal Aviation Administration; There will be no fire. That's how convinced the FAA was by assurances from Boeing that it understood the complexities of lithium ion and had caged its hazards.

The dangerous nature of cobalt oxide lithium ion batteries was certainly well-known in 2006 when Boeing made the decision to use the powerful and fast-recharging source to provide start-up and emergency power on the airliner. That was the year that laptop, cell phone and other electronic devices powered by the same flavor of lithium ion were spontaneously erupting into flames. Millions of batteries were recalled, in the largest such event in history.

Still, the FAA did not require that Boeing consider the "most severe effects" of using the chemistry; in effect keeping their eyes tightly shut to even the possibility of thermal runaway. There was no requirement that the batteries include a failure mitigation system.

This explains the NTSB's statement in the final report, that "Boeing failed to incorporate design requirements in the 787" batteries that would "mitigate the most severe effects of a cell internal short circuit."

From my initial reading of the Japanese and American examinations of the January 2013 battery events, two possibilities emerge. Either Boeing, Thales, GS-Yuasa and the FAA simply ignored the risks in their race to bring the revolutionary fuel-efficient airplane to market, or they vastly underestimated the challenge.

I'm told by someone in the know, Boeing and the FAA were guilty of nothing more than ignorance. Boeing relied on GS-YUASA and the FAA relied on Boeing.

"They did what they thought was right, but you don't know what you don't know," this source told me, adding, "and the FAA did the same."

TWA 800 wreckage at NTSB center in Virginia

The scenario presented in the 100-page report reminds me very much of the 1996 inflight explosion of TWA Flight 800. (My e-book on the crash available by clicking here.) Although it was clear early on that the plane's center fuel tank blew up, the ignition source was unknown. Only after the safety board investigators began creating lists of what could have triggered the blast did they realize how often planes were flying with fuel tanks in a volatile state. The specifics became less important than finding a way to make the inevitable survivable.

Several months into its investigation into the Dreamliner fire, the NTSB held a symposium to learn more about nature of these pesky batteries and in the process began creating a similar list; how many ways could a lithium ion battery fail?

GS-Yuasa battery deformations, NTSB photo

Thousands of pages document the tests, inspections and analysis the Japanese and American safety authorities have conducted searching for the answer and many things remain unknown. The list gives way to a number of recommendations for better ways to handle lithium ion batteries on airplanes and explains the conclusion that as of now, they are not safe enough.

This post has been updated to include comment from the U.S. FDA.

One of the largest sellers of high powered laser pointers has done an about face, discontinuing sales of devices that are styled to look like Star Wars light saber toys but are strong enough to blind in seconds. Wicked Lasers issued a press release explaining its decision and attributed it to the sale of the company to a "government-backed optoelectronics manufacturer" in China.

Many of the laser pointers carried by Wicked Laser can not be sold legally to the general public in the United States because they exceed the radiation level set by the Food and Drug Administration for pointer devices. While a permit is required to purchase a hand held laser with an output greater than five milliwatts, Wicked Lasers seems unconcerned about the law as it advertises hand held lasers with close to one thousand milliwatts (or one watt).

Putting the kibosh on the sale of these products seems like good news to anyone who pilots or flies in a plane and worries about laser wielding ignoramuses on the ground about whom I have written for The New York Times, Air & Space and FLYING LESSONS. Still, there is a downside. In advance of the policy change, Wicked Laser has slashed prices by 40 percent on super-powered lasers, making it likely that even more of them will be in circulation in the new year.

From the Wicked Laser online store

This made me wonder if Wicked Laser is engaging in a marketing ploy timed to align with the holiday shopping season. The company's Steve Liu insisted the new policy was authentic while admitting that the goal of the sale was to "liquidate stock" because "the new owners are not purchasing" the products the FDA considers unsafe for the consumer market.

Jenny Haliski a press officer for the FDA said the agency would not speculate on what motivated Wicked Laser's decision, while noting, it is not the only supplier of laser pointers.

One of Wicked Lasers most popular sellers, according to Liu, the company's boss, is The Krypton, a 750 milliwatt-powered device that sold out once its $999 price was reduced to $600. Lord help the pilot who flies into the beam of "bargain toys" like these.

Arrest photo of suspect Elhelw

This September, within a four minute period, flight crews on four airliners reported being hit by laser light on approach to Tampa International Airport. Air traffic controllers quickly altered the departure and arrival paths and a police helicopter was dispatched to the area where pilots reported having seen the light. The helicopter was also lazed before 24 year old Ahmed Maher Elhelw was arrested. The man told police it was a prank.

News accounts don't detail what kind of laser Elhelw was reportedly using or where he bought it. But it doesn't take a legal scholar to figure out that if a Wicked Laser device contributed to an air accident, the company would have serious liability issues.

Samuel Goldwasser, a laser expert and author of Sam's Laser FAQ has had his eye on Wicked Laser for years. He describes products like the Krypton as flashlights that can ignite fires and blind in moments. These pose the biggest threat to general aviation pilots who fly slower and are lower longer. These pilots may be less able to handle a startling event than airline professionals. "If they've read the popular press about laser burns and eye damage," he said, they might panic.

"I'm worried about the weekend pilot who flies a Cessna," Sam told me. "He is going to get hit at low altitudes, that’s the guy who’s going to crash," he predicted.

With the year about to end, the Federal Aviation Administration reports laser attacks on airplanes from January to mid November have gone down 6 percent over the same time period of 2013. Even so, on his website, laserpointersafety.com, Patrick Murphy points out that with longer nights, events have started to increase this fall, rising to an average of 13.6 instances a day. That's more than a dozen times a day that somewhere in America someone, out of ignorance and/or easy access to a laser device, takes a shot in the dark that threatens the lives of people traveling by air.

Darned if I know if Wicked Laser is contributing a solution or exacerbating the problem.

Now. While we are celebrating the Wright Brothers historic flight 111 years ago, let me tell you the story of two other brothers; pilots and tinkerers who, in their own small way are commemorating the achievement and contributing to the Wright Brothers legacy.

Nick and Giles English are founders of the Bremont Watch Company, based in Henley-on-Thames in England, who struck a deal with the Wright Family Foundation to embed in a limited edition watch, a scrap of fabric from the wing of the original Wright Flier. Even while the popularity and necessity of conventional watches is on the wane there is a small and well-heeled minority who collect fancy watches and no surprise here, aviators are well represented among them.

Giles (L) and Nick English photo courtesy Bremont

The English brothers grew up mucking about with clocks and watches under the supervision of their dad and flying with him in historic war birds. As adults, the two worked in corporate finance until 1995, when their father Euan English was killed in the crash of a Canadian Harvard trainer. Nick, flying in the front seat was seriously injured.

"For us, that was the tipping point in our lives," Nick told me when I met him at LaGuardia Airport last month. "It made us go off and do something we wouldn’t have done," that being to start a watch company in England and take on some of the biggest names in the business.

What is propelling the fledgling company upward into the ranks of watch makers known for their association with aviation; Breitling, IWC and Zenith, is a savvy business decision to associate with the Wright Brothers. This particular watch goes a long way towards establishing Bremont among its competitors according to Michael Thompson, editor in chief for International Watch magazine.

Nick English with Michael Thompson at LaGuardia

"It is a treat for any aviation enthusiast," Thompson told me of the Wright Flyer watch. "It does have an authentic part of aviation history within it."

When Nick and I met at the airport, he was on his way to Dayton, to not only unveil the new Wright Flyer watch, but also to see for the first time, the home, workshop and museum of the brothers who established an industry that is dramatically different today but remains highly reliant on timekeeping.

"You’re flying, you’ve got x amount of fuel. You can fly for x amount of time," Nick explained. You can go places with a compass and a map and a watch."


Lane arranged for the fabric sale photo courtesy Bremont

The Wright Flyer watch, is the result of a license agreement between Bremont and the Wright Family Foundation, one of many Orville and Wilbur's descendants have arranged to provide financial support for historical sites associated with the brothers' activities. The Bremont deal goes farther though because of the Foundation's sale of a piece of the original muslin used to cover the wings of the Wright Flyer.

The 450 limited edition Wright Flyer watches range in price from $27,000 for stainless steel to over $40,000 for gold, so clearly they are for serious collectors. But it doesn't cost anything to view photos of the watch, the turn-of-the-century style font of the numbers, the small, moving, engraved propeller and the tiny scrap of irreplaceable fabric and appreciate it for what it is, a symbol of trailblazing and perseverance.

This is why I'm so thrilled with what the English brothers are doing. One need not build or buy a fancy watch to know that those qualities didn't start or end with the Wright Brothers. Anniversaries are the perfect time to stop and remember that.

The Air Asia communication executives sat at a round table with chaos all around, trying to concentrate on banging out a press release, twitter updates and Facebook posts while absorbing, processing and regurgitating each bit of new information about the disaster that had just befallen their airline.

They faced a gaping maw; an unfulfillable appetite for information and not just from reporters and family members, but from the dozens of agencies that would also be involved. The minutes clicked by like milliseconds.

This was just two months ago, but the disaster was not real. They and dozens of other communication professionals, journalists and air safety officials were at an industry conference on crisis management; table-top war gaming a disaster hoping to be ready for the unimaginable. I was there with them in the mock disaster. I'd been asked to attend by the International Air Transport Association given my experience covering the disappearance of Malaysia Flight 370 for ABC News and my forthcoming book on aviation mysteries for Penguin.

The ABC News crew in Malaysia in March

It was nightmarish working with these airline executives that afternoon and we knew we were just play acting. Now that it is real, I can't imagine how they are coping. Their boss, Air Asia chief executive Tony Fernandes calls the disappearance of QZ8501, "my worst nightmare." No doubt it is theirs' too.

As of this writing the Airbus A-320 en route from Surabaya to Singapore has been missing for 19 hours. It disappeared after the pilot radioed for clearance to change course to avoid weather. News reports say there were no further calls from the cockpit.

What happened? Like a reoccurring bad dream this question is back for the third time for a Malaysian airline. What makes this event different is how Air Asia is avoiding the missteps taken by its larger, legacy competitor.

Fernandes in 2007 Photo courtesy Air Asia

Fernandes immediately took to Twitter, confirming a loss of contact with the plane, re-tweeted the airlines fact-packed statement and got himself on a plane to Indonesia - home to the majority of the passengers and perhaps the flight crew as well.

To answer the "what happened?" question requires time and patience neither of which is found in abundance in the population at large. And it cannot be expected from those who had loved ones on the flight.

Malaysia learned this from the hammering the airline and the government took for the stonewalling followed by confusing and contradictory statements after Flight 370 disappeared March 8th. Air Asia has learned too. It is not holding back when it comes to telling what it does know.

Outside the Kuala Lumpur Airport Hotel in March

What to tell? Well, in this case and with any commercial aviation accident, there are many, many, many known facts. Everything about the age, history and maintenance of the plane, the experience and performance of the flight and cabin crew, nationalities of passengers and operations at the airport and along the flight path. Air Asia has so far done an impressive job in putting these tidbits out there to feed the worldwide appetite for information.

This is to be applauded because prompt and accurate communication right from the start helps establish trust between the public and the families and the airline and the safety officials. Acting with integrity and displaying concern is the most effective way to minimize hostility and prevent wild speculation. Both of which lead to conspiracy theories and conspiracy theories never die.

If past is predictive, investigators will find out what happened to QZ 8501 and that information can be used to make flying even safer. The link is that direct.

So spend time on Facebook Air Asia, tweet what you know as soon as you know it @tonyfernandes, and don't be afraid. The worst has already happened. If you handle it right, you can elevate Air Asia from the depths to which Flight 8501 has fallen.

At the Adam Air crash scene. US Navyphoto

If the wreckage of missing Asia Air Flight 8501 is found at the bottom of the sea, as Indonesia's search and rescue chief, Bambang Soelistyo suggests, let's hope that the nation of islands does more than it has in the past to thoroughly investigate the disaster. In a statement to reporters on Monday, Soelistyo admitted Indonesia does not have the equipment to search underwater for the Airbus A-320.

This does not sound good, in light of how the Indonesians frittered following the New Year’s Day crash of Adam Air Flight 574 in 2007. A Boeing 737 sunk in the Makassar Strait off the west coast of Sulawasi killing all 102 people on board. Three were American, everyone else was from Indonesia.

A Navy ship in the region, the USNS Mary Sears, pinpointed the debris field within a few weeks and provided the Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee with the precise location for the cockpit voice and flight data recorders.What happened next still baffles.

The Indonesians did nothing.

Mark Rosenker NTSB photo

Mark Rosenker was the chairman at the time of the National Transportation Safety Board, the US safety agency which, while not in charge of the investigation, had an interest because the plane was made by Boeing an American company.

“Nothing was happening,” Rosenker recalled, describing the pace as frustrating and not just for the NTSB. “I can’t speak for Boeing, but I’m sure they were finding this happening not as efficiently as they would like to have seen.”

Sometime in the Spring, Rosenker can’t remember exactly when, he had a meeting with the Indonesians to see how he could hasten progress. That’s when he learned what was behind the delay. The Indonesian wanted $2 million dollars to pay for the underwater recovery of the black boxes.

The Adam Air accident was largely a domestic tragedy and Adam Air, which was founded by the country's speaker of the house of representatives, held an insurance policy for $2+ million to reimburse the airline. Even so, the Indonesians thought the United States should foot the bill. Rosenker was having none of it.

“This is your responsibility and it seems to be your responsibility to do it,” Rosenker said he told his counterparts from Indonesia.

Another participant in the meeting recalled that Rosenker blew his stack, but that’s not how the former chairman remembers it.

“I was frustrated. I was disappointed and I was firm,” he told me, “but I don’t blow my stack in public very often.”

Adam Air FDR photo from Phoenix Intl.

Whether leaving Washington empty handed, prompted the Indonesians to act, I can't say. Another source suggested the European Union’s inclusion of some Indonesian airlines on a list prohibiting them from flying into the EU was the trigger. Either way, by June, the American underwater recovery company, Phoenix International was hired and on the scene.

Steve Saint-Amour, who worked with Phoenix at the time said the location data from the USNS Mary Sears was "critical.” The search that took six months to launch took just seven days to conclude. And even though Phoenix had the boat, sonar devices and retrieval equipment and they were right over the debris field; 5 to 6 thousand feet below, Adam Air did not want them to bring up anything else but the boxes.

It is worth nothing the following facts

Indonesia is a country with 237 million people
Its population is spread across thousands of islands
Residents of these islands are highly dependent on air transport
Nearly two dozen airlines are registered with the Indonesian government

Which is to say that this nation has many reasons to want a vibrant air transport industry but at this point in time it is rife with problems. This was acknowledged by its presence on the European Union black list and its downgraded status on the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration International Safety Assessment Program.

An air travel boon should be good for residents and the nation's economy. To promote and encourage it though, the government must also figure out how to afford to foster safety . Otherwise it will pay dearly for the accidents that are sadly and surely, still to come.

Bookending the aviation news for the year 2014 is the Dreamliner battery; the sizzling lithium ion-flavored power source that I suggested in January was already being reviewed by the eggheads and pocket protector-wearing engineers at Boeing. The end of the year arrives and the Japan Transport Safety Board is asking for the same thing.

I'm not bragging about being prescient here because any reasonable person can see that the risks outweigh the benefits of using this high-density battery chemistry. It's the recipe used more than a decade ago for laptops and handheld devices that started to spontaneously combust prompting the world's largest industrial recall.

In a report issued just before Christmas the Japanese put coal in Boeing's stocking, telling the planemaker, fire containing box notwithstanding, further improvements of the "battery system are necessary."

In the U.S., the very first 787 battery event occurred on an empty Japan Airlines plane sitting at Boston Logan Airport. The National Transportation Safety Board finished its investigation in December, concluding that the battery was still not safe enough.

The Federal Aviation Administration does not agree and does not seem to be too concerned about a report it presented to the NTSB suggesting that lithium ion batteries could bring down an airplane at a rate of one every two years. Perhaps its all a matter of perspective, reminiscent of how Woody Allen's character in Annie Hall views sex?

Steve van Zandt is mobster Giovanni Henriksen

Speaking of sex, (not to mention Dreamliners) what's sexier these days than the icy-cool, red-hot, airline Norwegian? Not since the premier of the Netflix TV show Lilyhammer, has the country's profile ascended so quickly. Still its namesake low cost, long haul carrier remains the airline that international labor organizations love to hate.

Norwegian takeoff company photo

Norwegian has had a busy year starting service to New York, Orlando, Los Angeles and Oakland, while getting bloodied but not beat, by the challenge filed to their application to fly in the U.S. by American carriers and their unionized pilots. I can only wonder, faced with a geopolitical impasse like this, what would the TV mobster Giovanni Henriksen do ?

Boeing 747s began flying out of the passenger fleets of Delta Air Lines, Cathay Pacific, Air New Zealand and All Nippon Airways, but United has not only kept its twenty three 747-400s, it flew one in a dazzling, take-my-breath-away low level flight over the San Francisco Bay at the 2014 Fleet Week air show.

The United 747 at Fleet Week 2014 in October

My stories and some sensational photos from this event will appear in upcoming issues of Air & Space and Airways magazine.

Carrying people around the world by the hundreds is part of 21st Century life so its worth noting that commercial flight turned 100 years old in 2014, an event being celebrated online by the International Air Transport Association.

Who could have imagined what it has become? For the coddle class there are 3-room suites with butler service on Etihad's A380, spa services and an Alain Ducasse restaurant at the Paris lounge of Air France.

Hawaiian pilot Tyler Westhoff on the ukelele

Those of us in the cheap seats can't complain too much for missing out on those bennies because airlines like Hawaiian, Icelandair and Ethiopian bring their unique charm and tradition to the back of the plane, too, so we fly just about anywhere in the world in reasonable comfort for less $$ than what our great and grandparents had to pay when ticket prices are adjusted to present-day dollars. How cool is that?

This year, in Flying Lessons I shared my experience flying with two pilots on opposite ends of the experience spectrum; Australian aviation legend Dick Smith and Malaysian flight instructor Nur Uzmana Husamudin.

I exposed the shenanigans of aviation ambulance chasers and opportunists and continued to fret (as is my wont) about safety issues such as laser targeting of airplanes, airport ground operations and the false risk/benefit analysis of American-style, for-profit helicopter medical transport.

Signs of sympathy in Kuala Lumpur April 2014

A review of the year in aviation news is not complete without discussion of two events in southeast Asia, the still-mysterious disappearance of Malaysia 370 which I covered for ABC News and about which I am writing a book for Penguin (Come on, you know you want to read it.) and the latest air disaster, the plunge into the Java Sea of AirAsia Flight 8501.

Travel by air is booming in this part of the world and there are plenty of questions about whether the aviation authorities are keeping up with the responsibilities that go along with it. Nations like Indonesia enjoy the fruits of the growth in aviation, but are they tending the garden?

Regarding the AirAsia flight from Surabaya to Singapore, which seems to have killed all 162 aboard, anything I write about the possible cause is bound to be out of date in the just-around-the-corner New Year, except for one thing. Tom Haueter is right.

The former NTSB investigator is 100% correct when he says that one data point changes everything. What we think we know today can and probably will change with the arrival of the next fact, so keep an open mind.

And if that's not true about everything in life, I don't know what is.

Best of the New Year, safe travels and happy contrails to you.

The lawsuit filed by the husband of a woman who disappeared on Malaysian Airlines 370, may be headed back to court. An appeals court in Illinois has ruled that the request for discovery filed against Boeing and Malaysia Airlines on behalf of Lee Kim Fatt was improperly dismissed by a judge in Chicago.

The much-publicized filing by Monica Kelly of Ribbeck Law Chartered came just 20 days after the plane disappeared. Cook County Judge Kathy Flanagan considered it for two weeks then tossed the claim as she had done to three previously filed by Ribbeck Law. In the process, the judge threatened to sanction the law firm if it brought any more "frivolous" cases before her.

The rush-to-the-courthouse in the United States, was seen by many as none-too-subtle publicity-seeking effort to raise the profile of Ribbeck Law in order to get more clients from the Malaysia 370 disaster. Indeed, making the first legal filing after the Malaysia Boeing 777 went missing put Ribbeck and Kelly in newspapers around the world.

In an interview with The New York Times, Ms. Kelly said she was telling MH 370 families in China they could potentially receive millions of dollars from a successful lawsuit.

All this may well have been in the mind of Judge Flanagan as she considered the motion for discovery in Fatt V. Boeing because on March 31, she ruled that Kelly's petition was "unfounded" and without basis.

On that point, Judge Flanagan has support because even as the three appeals court judges overturned her ruling, they sympathized with her. The court was "understandably frustrated" they wrote, noting the similar petitions for discovery, one on behalf of another MH 370 victim, one in Asiana flight 214, and one in Lao Airlines flight 301.

Still, laws are laws, and in the eight page ruling issued in November, the appeals court said Kelly's filing to discover who might be responsible for the loss of MH 370 was entitled to a hearing.

Monica Kelly did not respond to my call for comment on her reversal of bad fortune. At this point the appeals court judges have the last word. In a footnote to their ruling putting what might be a frivolous claim back before a judge they pose a rhetorical question, "We wonder what has happened to ethics in our profession."

Read the full decision, here.

OSHA photo of the graffiti

How long does it take to undo years of effort to improve the way flight crews communicate and share safety-related concerns? About two and a half hours if we're talking about United. That's how long the airline allowed a reported safety/security issue to spiral out of control until 13 experienced flight attendants refused to fly a Boeing 747 from San Francisco to Seoul last summer losing their jobs in the process.

The whole sorry episode began when Jeff Montgomery, a conscientious first officer doing a walk-around of United Flight 869 on July 14, 2014, spotted graffiti written in grime on the underside of the jumbo jet's tail, some 30 feet above where he stood on the tarmac. How it got there and when was anybody's guess. Montgomery took a photograph of what he told one flight attendant was a "disturbing" image; two crudely drawn round faces - one smiling one enigmatic - and the words "Bye Bye", then took the photo to the cockpit for review by the flight crew.

Maintenance and ground security were called to examine the message, causing a delay in the closing of the doors and more significantly causing the cabin crew to start wondering what was going on.

San Francisco International Airport

Oh these flight attendants were not unaware that something was amiss. From one whispered comment from Captain Willard Bowman to the chief purser along with the request that she keep it to herself, "Captain said not to talk to you, not to scare you, security issue!"Angel Wan reportedly told co workers, to the arrival of airline "suits" and customer service representatives, worry was spreading among the cabin crew like ink seeping out of a fountain pen at high altitude.

This might be the time, you would think, for all those discussions about crew resource management to start kicking in. CRM of course being the idea that sharing information and encouraging discussion among crew members improves decision-making. Instead some anti-communication campaign seemed to be underway.

Ms. Wan had been taken down to the tarmac to view the drawings and on her return to the cabin she drew a finger across her lips as if zipping them, when her co-workers asked her about it. The airline's assistant chief pilot at SFO, also called to the plane said a security issue was being investigated but provided no details.

In the days after MH 370 went missing

In the absence of complete information, who can blame flight attendants for worrying? Four months earlier Malaysia Flight 370 had disappeared without a trace. One week before, the Transportation Security Administration warned that cell phones could be used as explosive devices.

Ultimately, Capt. Bowman suggested that the graffiti was the work of an airport worker in Korea who was making a joke though he did admit there was no confirmation of that. He was not certain when, where or who really did the drawing. Neither was anyone else, apparently. Even so, fight attendants were expected to put their concerns aside and work the flight. The captain's comfort with his own, coulda'-been was expected to suffice for everyone else.

I'm not going to argue whether the flight attendants were right in demanding a total examination of the plane, the baggage and passengers. I'm suggesting that had the flight crew and United management handled the communication better from the start, the cabin attendants probably would not have gotten worked up into a frenzy of fear.

An absence of information is a hot house for speculation and no one ought to know that better than an airline. A top-down, unilaterial method of risk assessment and decision making - while not unheard of - is a practice the industry has been trying to eliminate since the 1977 runway collision of two Boeing 747s in the Canary Islands. That, the deadliest aviation disaster ever, inspired the birth of CRM.

Michael Huerta (L), Anthony Foxx and A4A's Nicholas Calio

Less than a week ago, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx, the president of Airlines 4 America and the administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration announced with great fanfare, a new rule mandating that all U.S. airlines have a safety management system in place by 2018. This will be a "organization-wide approach to mitigating risk," Administrator Michael Huerta said, adding that an airline has to create a safety culture, "encouraging employee professionalism so they always do the right thing, even when no one is looking."

Few were looking on July 14th, when the United workers made their stand but everyone is looking now. Will the airline continue with its decision to fire employees who acted on their concerns or will it recognize that CRM and SMS and so much else associated with aviation safety is complicated, painful and expensive? Thirteen former United flight attendants know that doing the right thing often is.

Tip for more laughter, watch the IT Crowd

Yes, I have tech support, you don't think I churn out posts on two blogs, YouTube, Twitter, my personal website, Huffington Post, and the Seattle PI, maintain Facebook groups, Google groups and an Instagram account without a lot of background help do you?

I'm so needy, I actually have two; my Chinese-speaking, still-in-college technology prodigy Zach Naimon and my friend, Henry Ferlauto, who advises me on organization, apps, expense tracking, note keeping and as an added benefit, makes me laugh by sharing with me the oddball aviation news he uncovers.

His tip that I check out this skit in which Sir Patrick Stewart acts out the behaviors of the most annoying passengers on a plane, had me LOLing and kicking the seat in front of me. I think you'll do the same. So here, courtesy of Henry and the folks at Jimmy Kimmel Live, is the four minute clip.

Go ahead, it's Friday, you'd waste 4 minutes somewhere else without nearly as much payback. And by the way, I'm busted on applauding the landing and kissing the flight attendant. How about you?

The Most Annoying People on the Plane starring...by shomaad

FBI video of laser illumination of an airliner cockpit

No less a brainiac than Albert Einstein could have weighed in on the phenomenally ineffective efforts of American aviation and law enforcement to combat laser attacks on airplanes. The German American physicist defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."

For the past eight years, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other authorities have taken a blame and shame approach to miscreants who aim laser pointers into the night sky causing momentary blindness or distracting pilots during a high workload phase of flight. I've written about this disaster in the making for The New York Times, MSNBC and Air & Space.

Speaking about the laser threat on MSNBC

But by the end of 2013, when despite all efforts, there were 3960 attacks reported, the highest since the FAA started keeping track, I was tired of hearing the officials complain they were helpless to do more. I took aim at the federal government's nonsensical approach to the problem and its complaint that there is no money to conduct a more sophisticated publicity or social media effort. That article can be read on Mary Kirby's Runway Girl Network.

Every night, the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department Aero Bureau launches Eurocopter AS 350 helicopters with flying cops at the controls. These men and women engage in a variety of crime fighting, but part of their job is responding when pilots report being hit by lasers.

MacNair and Dailey near LAX

When I flew with David MacNair and Ken Dailey last summer, we hadn't been in the air more than 15 minutes when a call came in that a Southwest Airlines crew had seen laser activity on approach. Off we went. MacNair and Dailey's job was to note the location and hover over the spot until ground officers could arrive to arrest the laserist but the light did not appear again.

This is the high-tech, heavy-metal, dollar-intensive approach to the problem. And it certainly has its place. Where the program has gone terribly wrong is that all the energy has gone into arresting, prosecuting and jailing the tiny number of laser wielders who have been caught with an eye towards riding the wave of publicity when the perpetrator is marched off to prison.

Here's why that hasn't worked. Everyone who has studied the problem says the vast majority of those using lasers are teens and young men, as ignorant of the law as they are of the possible catastrophic consequences of their actions. Patrick Murphy, a expert who participates in the laser aviation safety committee tells me, "There are so many cases, even now, where perpetrators say they never heard that lasing aircraft is unsafe and or illegal. The word is simply not getting out to the demographic likely to do this."

On laser patrol with the LASD

These folks don't watch television news, read the daily newspaper or log on to the FAA laser education website before heading out into the night with their nifty green or blue laser pointers.

Sometime around 2008, when traditional news organizations were well into their downhill slide, my tech-savvy friend, Steve Hart, suggested the industry wouldn't recover until it recognized how younger people consumed information. "If the news is important enough, it will come to me," is how Steve described the news reading habits of the digital age. He was right. Just look at how many people now learn about significant events on their Facebook and Twitter feeds.

Hollywood gets it right explaining the crime of piracy

This summer, the FBI started off in the right direction by creating an ad to be shown in movie theaters. Rather than take the opportunity to educate young people in a fun and imaginative way like Hollywood's now legendary anti-piracy campaign You wouldn't steal a car! the captive audience got the far less entertaining message that if they provided information leading to the arrest of someone using a laser to target an airplane they could earn a $10,000 reward. The FBI has also posted a four and a half minute video on You Tube. Its no Oscar contender, but hey, its a start.

Educating the masses doesn't have to be rocket science but it takes some creativity. Just ask the great minds behind the #ALSIceBucketChallenge, or good old Albert Einstein. But to keep on doing what doesn't work and what hasn't worked for years, well that's #insane.

Chart courtesy of Patrick Murphy http://www.laserpointersafety.com/

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Nadia Marcinko, a popular figure in the online community of pilots and a role model for women interested in aviation seems to have had a less-than-model-perfect past as an acquaintance and possible enabler of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, two British newspapers are reporting. If they are accurate, it is not clear whether the blonde aviatrix was victim or co-conspirator.

A civil lawsuit filed in Florida is breathing new life into the long-known pedophile inclinations of American hedge fund manager Epstein because of new allegations that Prince Andrew was a participant in Epstein's organized trysts and orgies with teenagers.

In an 2007 article in New York Magazine, Philip Weiss writes that Epstein had brought 14 year old Nada Marcinkova to Palm Beach from the Balkans to be his "sex slave". In the article, the reporter states that Marcinkova became part of the Epstein household and over the course of a decade eventually started participating in the sexual abuse of underage girls.

All this is old news and unlikely to be confirmed by court records unless lawyers for Virginia Roberts and two other of the then-juvenile victims are successful in overturning a non-prosecution agreement between the U.S. government and Epstein.

But the fallout from the not-unexpected publicity concerning famous and powerful men abusing underage girls has engulfed former Gulfstream Girl Marcinko. Now known as Global Girl, two British newspapers are reporting that Marcinko is Marcinkova.

I know Nadia because in November of 2013 she participated in a pilots drive great cars event I sponsored at Danbury Municipal Airport.

No one was more surprised than I to read the news accounts that that Marcinko/Marcinkova took the fifth (right not to incriminate oneself) rather than testify about whether Prince Andrew participated in Epstein's abuse of underage girls.

While we are on the subject of cars, the Guardian and Daily Mail also report that Sarah Kensington, now an interior designer and the wife of NASCAR driver Brian Vickers was also an associate of Epstein who took the fifth and changed her name.

When I reached out to Nadia, asking her to speak to me and promising fair coverage and an understanding ear, she replied that she could not comment publicly but that the "accusations are obviously bizarre, untrue and clearly motivated by money."

Who can say how much of the Nadia-slim threads of this complicated mess are true? The geopolitical implications are and have been huge. Still, it is disappointing and not a good sign, that on the website of her own company offering Groupon-like discounts on aviation products and services, Nadia has taken a page from Epstein's book.

Visitors to the site can buy flying lessons sure, they are also encouraged to view the "gorgeous" deal attendants and enter to win a one-on-one video chat with "fashion models with exciting backgrounds."

Nadia holds FAA licenses as a single and multi engine, instrument-rated pilot and ground and flight instructor. She has told us and we know - because her lovely face adorns every channel of the many she maintains - that she was a fashion model herself. Runway to runway, she likes to say. Nadia is also posed somewhat provocatively and certainly when she was much younger, as one of her company's deal attendants.

Nadia Marcinko center featured as a "Deal Attendant"

I hold out hope that Nadia will, "set the record straight in due time," as she suggested she would in her email to me. In the meantime, the current, sure-to-be unpleasant round of publicity headed her way should encourage her to tone down the blatant sexualization of women in aviation, as demonstrated by the mini skirt-clad deal attendant on her site asking, "So what are you waiting for Captain."

Many young women aspire to be involved in this field we love. They want to be more than the sum of their looks and youth. They are are looking up to Nadia. Should they be?

The Facebook page of Global Girl

See previous post on this subject here.

The owner of the flight school where popular online aviatrix Nadia Marcinko received her private and commercial pilots licenses says Marcinko also used the name Nada Marcinkova while attending the school in Palm Beach, Florida, linking the Gulfstream Girl / turned-Global Girl to the Jeffrey Epstein sex scandal.

Police in Palm Beach claim that the New York billionaire and convicted sex-offender identified Marcinkova as his friend to some of the teenagers he paid to have sex with him at his Palm Beach mansion in 2005 and 2006.

After a long investigation, the police in Palm Beach presented a shocking account of how Epstein lured high school-aged girls to his home paying them for various sex acts. The police quoted the girls saying Marcinkova, who must have been barely out of her teens herself, helped Epstein and participated in some of the sexual activity with the girls.

Epstein served 13 months in jail after pleading guilty to one count of sexual solicitation of a minor. The light sentence along with an agreement that no one else would face charges did not sit well with a number of the victims. They have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government for failing to include them in the prosecution discussions which the government is required to do under the Crime Victims' Rights Act.

Some of the now-adult women claim that Epstein also forced them to have sex with Britain's Prince Andrew and American lawyer Alan Dershowitz on several occasions. This is what has breathed new life into a case Epstein might have thought long settled.

And while newspapers are chasing the big names - Dershowitz and Prince Andrew are each royalty in their own countries in their own way - those in the aviation community, thousands of whom follow Marcinko's flying adventures on Facebook and YouTube are shaking their heads over her role in the sordid mess.

Nadia holds FAA licenses as a single and multi engine, instrument-rated pilot and ground and flight instructor. She is often seen in selfie-videos practicing aerobatics or pre-flighting something fun she is about to take to the sky. She spent an autumn afternoon with me in 2013, participating in a pilots drive great cars event I sponsored at Danbury Municipal Airport and flying with my friend David Paqua in his home built Acro Sport.

Her wholesome adventures and squeaky clean image couldn't be any farther from the tales told about her in the graphic and lengthy probable cause affidavit filed by Palm Beach police in 2006.

So far, Global Girl has declined to speak to me about the new and unseemly past of her alter ego, Nada Marcinkova, beyond characterizing the claims as "salacious fiction".

And yet on that same YouTube channel, Nadia is seated in the right seat of a Gulfstream G-II bearing an uncanny similarity to the Gulfstream with the tail number N909JE used by Epstein for a decade to ferry friends and an assortment of models and actresses around the world. According to flight logs signed by Epstein pilot David Rogers and filed in another lawsuit (Epstein v Edwards) Bill Clinton, Naomi Campbell, Kevin Spacey and Ron Burkle were among those flying on Epstein's Boeing 727 or his black and white 1974 GII.

Is that the same plane we see Global Girl piloting from the right seat, and fist pumping the captain on landing? I don't know. But the captain bears a remarkable resemblance to Larry Visoski, who various court records and the British newspaper The Daily Mirror claim is Epstein's pilot.

What I can say is that Marcinko's journey to online pilot celebrity started at a flight school in Palm Beach where she paid for her lessons and used both Marcinkova and Marcinko. "I knew her by both names," the school's director Marian Smith told me.

Who wouldn't want to fly away from a past linked in any way to Jeffrey Epstein? But when it comes to calling news reports about her relationship with him, "fiction", it could be that Global Girl is writing some of her own.

When Air Asia first learned it had lost flight 8501, en route from Surabaya to Singapore on December 28th, the airline was somewhat prepared; its communications department had recently attended an IATA event focused entirely on handling crises in the digital age.

It would not be the first airline to lose an airplane, or even the first to have one mysteriously disappear in some vast expanse of ocean. Why not learn from the experience of others? The benefits seem clear, at least as far as the airline is concerned. The same cannot be said for Indonesia's government.

This is a country with more than its share of air accidents, at least four planes in the last two decades have crashed into the water. After all, Indonesia is country of 17,000 islands, the world's largest archipelago .

So it is mystifying that the national effort to recover the Airbus A-320 and the remains of the 162 people on board looks as if it is being handled by first-timers. Wreckage is hauled up and repeatedly dropped back into the sea. Twenty percent of the Navy's divers are sidelined by decompression sickness.

"I told them safety first. But as we know soldiers, they are always working hard to find the bodies," Indonesia Navy commander Rear Adm. Widodo was quoted as saying on CNN. "They are not thinking about safety but about doing their duty."

When the military ship assigned to haul up QZ8501 raised and dropped segments of the plane for the second time, I dialed up Steven Saint Amour, who has been involved in the deep water recovery of a number of airplanes over the years from the 1994 recovery of Itavia Flight 870 (Read more in my forthcoming book, The Crash Detectives) to Air France 447 in 2009. I called because I wanted to understand what could cause lines to snap when hauling wreckage out of the water.

Saint Amour with wreckage in 2002

"When a plane crashes you end up with a million razor blades. Everything has sharp edges," he told me. When using lifting straps he described a belt and suspenders approach that involves wrapping the straps in duct tape and then running all that through fire hoses to protect the lines from bare, shredded, knife-like metal. “Chain works great too, but the disadvantage is that it is heavy,” and difficult to manage when trying to thread under wreckage or through windows and other openings in the plane.

Steve’s company Eclipse Group, based in Maryland, actually contacted the Indonesians looking for a contract to provide its services to find and retrieve QZ8501. “We never heard back from them,” he told me. As far as Eclipse is concerned that was just as well, as their next assignment was locating and recovering another missing airplane.

Larry Glazer Twitter photo

On September 4, 2014 controllers lost contact with a Socata TMB 700 piloted by New York businessman Larry Glazer who was traveling from Rochester to Naples, Florida with his wife Jane. Glazer reported trouble with the airplane and asked to descend to a lower altitude but there was no further contact. The plane continued to fly on a straight course until running out of fuel northeast of Jamaica.

On January 21, while the Indonesian Navy was struggling with high seas and military divers who could work 10-15 minutes at most at the 120 foot depth where the AirAsia plane rests, the adult children of the Glazers were issuing a press release thanking Eclipse and the Jamaican government for the recovery of their parents and parts of the plane from seas more than nine thousand feet deep.

Saint Amour isn't trying to sound smug, when he describes the six-day survey and recovery operation in the Caribbean, “We’re proud of the fact that we had an aircraft that nobody thought we were going to find and we had a successful mission.”

Itavia DC-9 photo courtesy Werner Fischdick

In fact, he spent some time during our call describing how during the Itavia Airlines recovery from ten thousand feet below the Tyrrhenian Sea, the crew dropped the DC-9s wing back into the water.

“Nobody got hurt, we realized what we had done and adjusted accordingly,” he said. Left unsaid is how that experience and others over two decades of wreckage recovery contributes to success.

Today, after pulling 70 bodies and the plane’s black boxes out of the Java Sea, the Indonesian military announced it was calling off any further recovery and apologized to the families. There are many words to describe the work the Indonesian government has done over the past month, but “success” wouldn’t be among them.

Hawaiian Airlines at New York

For every up there's a down, and no industry knows that better than the airlines. No, I'm not talking about takeoffs and landings, but the good news/bad news of declining fuel prices.

As an airline, Hawaiian may have spent an unduly long time on the ground. It formed in 1929 but when commercial aviation reached its mid-century heyday it was the Pan Ams and the Uniteds and not Hawaiian that was lifting travelers by the plane full.

"The pathway to where we were then and where we are today has been a torturous one," Mark Dunkerley the airline's CEO told me recently. It has been "filled with many disappointments to outright resistance through the years, principally in the regulatory years but even in the period since then."

Dunkerley opens an island route Photo courtesy Hawaiian

Of course the Hawaiian of today is vastly different. In the dozen years Dunkerley has been there it has come out of Chapter 11 reorganization, opened routes to Asia including Manila, Tokyo, Auckland, Sydney, Seoul and just recently, Beijing, beefed up service from mainland USA (including its first ever non stop service from New York) and dominated its home state as the carrier of choice.

As Dunkerley sees it the airline's profitability these days is based on this triad. "All three contribute to our success. We are not a business where we have a single gem and everything else is along for the ride."

All of this is the up. The down is that even a clever and diversified business strategy can hit rough air. On Thursday, the airline reported that profits were down the last quarter of 2014 over 2013 and pinned the blame on the one factor that many others - airlines and individuals - are celebrating; the declining price of fuel.

A number of airlines protect themselves against this highly variable expense by committing to buy a certain amount for a certain amount regardless of the market price. Hawaiian did this, paying $2.82 per gallon when the actual price was 32 cents a gallon less, according to numbers reported by Associated Press.

Last fall, I spent two days visiting the airline, speaking with Dunkerely and executives in charge of dispatch, safety, communications and the airline's regional carrier, Ohana. All painted a bright picture of the airline that despite its earlier difficulties is now fast on the rise. Its hard not to be impressed with their operation and the environment in which they are flying. Pacific rim aviation is booming, leisure travel is growing, fuel prices are dropping, it all seems to be good news, except for the downsides.

After the earnings report was released, Dunkerley told reporters he remained optimistic. In fact, the stock price this week reached an all time high. Maybe getting the airline back to making its revenue goals might be hinged just a little bit on that "gem" he denied relying on, the durability of Hawaii as a place people around the world want to visit.

"Our raison d'être is to sell Hawaii as a destination. Everything we do is focused on that," he said. Profits may rise and profits may fall, but paradise seems like a good hedge to me.

Writing a book is not all about writing. This weekend, I've added Boeing Versus Airbus, the 2007 John Newhouse book about, yeah, that's right and Kenny Kemp's Flight of the Titans Airbus A380 vs. Boeing 787 Dreamliners, which I just downloaded on my Kindle, to my reading list. This will fill my Saturday and Sunday and both books may end up in the bibliography of The Crash Detectives.

That's a lot of reading even for a snowy weekend, so in order to get started, I'm leaving the Flying Lessons wordsmithing to my Aussie friend Stephen Tomkins, a former Boeing pilot who now flies the Airbus. His "rap" on his conversion comes from his blog at www.ponderingpilot.com.

THE AIRBUS RAP

Stephen Tomkins, pilot and poet

By Stephen Tomkins

29 March 2014

For those who don’t speak chic Français,

My footnotes might help ease the way!

Yo! You fools! I’m Stevie T!

I’ve got a message so listen to me!

That Boeing Crew just gives us crap,

That’s why I made “The Airbus Rap”.

They seem to think they’re the only ones

Who can fly a plane – they’re all Top Guns!

We Airbus guys, though, know the truth.

We’ve done our testing, got the proof!

With trusty sidestick at my side,

That Normal Law[1] gives one sweet ride.

We’re autothrusting up and down,

Trimming’s[2]for fools! You crazy clowns!

Triple Click[3]! Triple Click! Yeah! What I say!

A Cavalry Charge[4] and I’m away!

With autopilot now disconnected,

My flying skills are resurrected.

Wrestling Fifi[5]? No! No! No!

You’ll come unstuck, that’s not the go!

With sweet caress, you’ve got to treat her.

Trust me now – not trying to preach ya!

Airbus loves its acronyms

So learn them all or you’ll seem dim.

The AADs[6]the place to start;

Get moving now and learn them by heart!

Sometimes Airbus can be unkind

But don’t you pay it any mind.

She says some things I won’t repeat

As wheels and runway gently meet.

The Boeing guys still seem to grapple

With Fly By Wire stuff made by Apple,

And even though that’s not quite right,

The concept still gives them a fright.

They see our flight deck, start to frown

But who would want it painted brown[7]?

We eat our meals off sliding tables[8].

Our flight controls don’t need no cables!

By FMAs[9], we live and die.

Without them, Fifi wouldn’t fly.

A daily litany of them we pray;

It’s another language! No cliché!

Which brings me to my favourite part

(And that includes cool autostart!)

By phase of flight she changes screens!

I’ve yet to find out what that means!

Mon Dieu! I can’t believe the time!

To go on so long! It’s just a crime!

By Airbus cleverness, we’re inspired!

We hope by now, you’re not too tired.

You Boeing dudes are still our friends

And here’s how you can make amends:

Stop talking ‘bout your moving sticks[10]

Defect to Airbus! Quick! Quick! Quick!

To those who’ve not yet seen the light:

Give ‘Bus a go, it’s quite alright!

When not flying, Tomkins writes at www.ponderingpilot.com

[1]The normal operating system for Airbus Fly By Wire (FBW) flight controls.

[2]Manual trimming of the elevators (when in manual flight) is required on Boeing but done automatically on Airbus.

[3]The warning sound made when a flight mode changes automatically to a more basic mode.

[4]The warning sound made when the autopilot disengages.

[5]An affectionate (?) name given to Airbus aircraft.

[6]AAD is an acronym for Airbus Abbreviation Dictionary – 91 pages of funky acronyms!

[7]Boeing flight decks were, for some time, painted in “pleasing tones of brown” while Airbus flight decks are grey.

[8]Airbus aircraft have retractable tables in front of the pilots, made possible by the absence of large control columns (which Boeing retains) between the pilots’ legs.

[9]FMA is an acronym for Flight Mode Annunciator/Annunciation

[10]Moving thrust levers (when autothrottle/autothrust is engaged) is a major and contentious point of difference between the two manufacturers.

Flight attendant Kama Iona, on an Ohana by Hawaiian flight

When I peeled back the foil on my in flight meal somewhere over the Pacific between Tokyo and Honolulu, I was not thrilled to discover a thin sheet of seaweed, a rectangular wad of rice and a chunky slice of spam. "This can't be a traditional Hawaiian dish," I harrumphed. "Where are the Waikiki meatballs with pineapple?" But the funny thing about authentic cuisine is that sometimes it has a way of undoing Betty Crocker-inspired notions of what various cultures eat.

Turns out Spam Musubi is a traditional island favorite. Judging from the hearty appreciation for the dish shown by my fellow travelers on Hawaiian Flight 458, it is also popular among the hordes of Japanese who flock to the island at a rate that necessitates various airlines sending a total of 18 jumbo jets to Honolulu per day, according to Hawaiian Airlines' president and CEO, Mark Dunkerley.

"It's on a scale that people don't appreciate," he told me of the Japanese fascination with all things Hawaii during a wide ranging conversation in his office on Monday. I am visiting the company HQ because I've been intrigued by the airline since reporting for The New York Times in June of 2013 about its new service from New York to Auckland via Honolulu. Only this east to Pacific route is new. Hawaiian operates from 11 US gateways on the mainland and offers service to six international destinations from its base in Oahu.

"Japan, Korea, Australia, people there have a positive view of Hawaii and we benefit from that," Dunkerely told me. "It creates a demand that we try to meet."

I might have thought that Hawaiian was looking to create a tropical, Dubai-like transfer hub here in one of American's most beautiful and culturally exotic cities, by providing onward service to New Zealand, Australia, and other points east, but Dunkerley set me straight.

Dunkerley accepts ukulele from Reyes in Molokai

"Our raison d'etre is to sell Hawaii as a destination. Our product is focused on that destination. We differential ourselves from our competitors who want to be all things to all people but are clearly not that."

Hawaiian comfort food like Spam Musubi is part of the differentiation and it doesn't stop there. The marketing plan may have started out with the airline wanting to give slices of the Hawaiian life to travelers, but when executives resumed long-idled service between Honolulu and the sparsely populated islands of Lanai and Molokai, the locals wanted to make their own cultural contribution.

Molokai residents Kauila Reyes and Julie Hoe presented Dunkerley with three ukuleles; one for each of the ATR 42s to be flown on the routes. They are intended to be used by any passenger who gets a hankering to play on the brief flights. Don't let it get dusty, Hoe told the airline bosses. "Bring it out and jam."

Vic Walters (L) and Tim Komberec of Empire with Hawaiian's Watt (center) and the ukuleles

The gift thrilled Dunkerely, Ohana executive Haddon Watt and Empire Airlines, the Idaho-based company which holds the lift contract with Hawaiian. "We must be the only airline in the world that has a ukulele as inflight entertainment," Dunkerely told me.

For both Dunkerely and Watt, Hawaii is an adopted home with a potent identity that has proven seductive. Here in the state many Americans seem to forget, Hawaiian is attempting to elevate generic air travel to something unique, not unlike Icelandair and Ethiopian which have also had success incorporating their identity into their marketing programs.

No one was inclined to play the ukulele on my flight to Lanai on Monday, but to be fair, tourists occupied most of the seats and they can be shy. After we landed, however, first officer Tyler Westhoff did agree to strum it for me, while insisting if his wife was around to sing, they could have really put on a show.

Again this month, the International Air Transport Association announced another hike in the number of people traveling by air. How would the industry could keep up with this continued growth without the big and oftentimes, bland legacy carriers? They have their place. At the same time, seaweed-wrapped spam and ukuleles are tiny but powerful reminders of how creative companies can put some of the joy back in the journey.

Airlines got a $373 million dollar gift from the government when it eliminated the Aviation Security Infrastructure Fee last year. What with the slide in fuel prices, these 37 U.S. and 71 foreign airlines have to be feeling pretty flushright now.

The fee, called ASIF was imposed after 9-11 so that airlines would contribute to the government takeover of airport security - which up until the terror attacks was the airlines' responsibility. In exchange for getting out from under the ASIF fee, I am told, airlines agreed to drop their opposition to doubling the security fee that air travelers pay.

For each one way segment of a journey, the passenger security contribution rose from $2.50 to $5.60. And just so that you are clear, airlines would pay not a dime.

What prompted American lawmakers to conclude that passengers should pay full freight and the airlines nothing, I can’t say. I was told that the politicians concluded that the burden of security should be placed on those who directly benefit, that being travelers.

That’s a curious rationale considering that one of the biggest burdens on airport security over the past few years has come as a consequence of bag fees. Once airlines started charging for checked bags, travelers who couldn't or didn't want to pay between $20 to $45 per bag, started toting them on the plane, which of course requires that those bags be added to the workload of TSA screeners.

In 2014, fifteen U.S. airlines collected $2.65 billion in bag fees, from Delta’s $654 million to Mesa’s $883,000, that’s a lot of money. But for every three passengers who pay up and fork over, one will cart the thing onto the airplane which is how some 59 million more roll-aboards, back packs and duffels went on the belt in 2011 than in 2010 as I reported for The New York Times at the time. It is a good guess the number has increased over the past 4 years.

That airlines have found new ways to make money is fine and dandy. That’s their business. But how they run their business becomes our business when their new revenue stream creates more work for federal workers and rather than pick up the cost, airlines shift them on to passengers with the U.S. government's help.

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