Airplanes

Ask the pilot Ask the pilot

What is proper etiquette during an emergency evacuation? Plus: Confused pilots and angry readers
  • Ask the pilot

    Eavesdropping on pilots and air traffic control, missing captains, and a lesson on airspeed
  • All your questions about in-flight horrors

    Plus: What happened to "The Simpsons"? And REM? The weird phenomenon of pop-culture tailspin
  • Lockerbie: The flight she missed

    In 1988, Annie Lareau escaped death while her friends did not. Can she find compassion for the man responsible?
  • Airtime

    Severe turbulence, a midair collision and the latest stuck-on-a-plane horror story
  • Why are airline passengers such slobs?

    Plus, a crash in Iran spotlights the safety of Russian-built planes, and the latest misinformation from the press
  • Some stories just won't fly

    I'd love to move on from the Air France crash, but the media insist on getting things wrong again
  • Why the Air France plane crashed

    Flight 447 shouldn't have gone down, but it did. Were normally non-dangerous phenomena the culprits?
  • Ask the pilot

    Do pilots have a "romper room"? Do they fly the same routes over and over? Those questions and more
  • Ask the Pilot

    How did a suicidal passenger get the door of a pressurized plane open? Plus: Can't any pilot fly most planes? And: The autopilot was on during landing?
  • Ask the pilot

    The Buffalo crash revisited. Plus: Landing in the water, idolizing Sully and selling books.
  • Ask the pilot

    Did a stupid, inexplicable mistake cause the crash near Buffalo, N.Y.? Plus: The weird hell of working for a regional airline.
  • Ask the pilot

    Planes crash. The media descends. But why can't reporters get their facts straight? Plus: Kudos to an outstanding exception.
  • "Do not flush while seated on toilet"

    It would be easy to miss those seven simple words next to the flush button in the airliner bathroom. Pay attention, or ruin your life!
  • Ask the pilot

    Malcolm Gladwell claims cultural issues can play a big role in plane crashes. The pilot begs to differ.
  • Ask the pilot

    The smell of smoke in the cockpit, and it's back to Boston for a planeload of fixated Japanese tourists.
  • Ask Pablo

    I'm planning my summer vacation. Is it more ecological to fly or drive?
  • Ask the pilot

    When a routine flight is plunged into weirdness after the crew smells smoke, how to deal with a possible emergency -- and a plane full of foreign tourists.
  • Remember when it was fun to fly?

    As we inched through the airport security line, I seemed to be the only one grinding my teeth. Would anyone have defended me if I'd spoken up to the shirts?
  • Ask the pilot

    From cockpit check to walkaround to stocking the galley: The Zen of preparing the "Monster" to fly.
  • Ask the pilot

    If I've flown into the Port-au-Prince airport, does that mean I've been to Haiti? What, exactly, constitutes a trip to another country?
  • Southwest: Cover up! Playboy: Take it off!

    Kyla Ebbert, famously told to cover herself on an airplane, poses for Playboy.
  • Ask the pilot

    Oversized and overhyped, the world's biggest plane is here. Is the Airbus A380 the "most hideous airliner ever conceived"?
  • Ask the pilot

    The worst thing about hotel rooms? It's not the ugly carpeting. Plus: Why don't planes carry parachutes for passengers?
  • Ask the pilot

    Airport congestion and flight delays are making travelers insane. A look at what will and won't solve the problem.
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