As protesters continue occupying Wall Street, the working man was failing this week. We’ve had a pilot asleep at the wheel, another blown over by his plane, and fast food staffers refusing to roll out the red carpet for a traveling celebrity. Fight for your rights and vote for the worst failure in this week’s poll.
Tell Peter about your Icarus stories in the comments. Find another failure and you’ll win an exclusive Peter Greenberg prize.
Flying the Friendly Zzzzs
Cathay Pacific has another photo scandal on their hands. First the airline had Icarus-nominated racy crew pics, now photos are circulating of a Cathay Pacific pilot asleep at the controls mid-flight. In a surprising twist, Cathay Pacific is not investigating the pilot who was sleeping; a power nap or “controlled rest” is within code. Instead, the Hong Kong-based airline is investigating a privacy breach since company policy prohibits photography in the cockpit.
Foul Mouthed Failure
On Tuesday, a Southwest passenger had just about enough and his obscenity filled rant forced his plane to make an emergency landing. En route from Los Angeles to Kansas City, 29-year-old Ali Reza Shahsavari of Indialantic, Florida started acting disruptive and unruly. In addition to screaming profanities and damaging a lavatory, Shahsavari also attempted to rush the cockpit. Following the outburst, the plane made an unscheduled landing at Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport in Amarillo, Texas. On Thursday, a federal grand jury indicted Shahsavari on a charge of interfering with a flight crew.
image credit: Qantas
Kentucky Fried Fail
There are many in-demand restaurants where you can never seem to score a table and now it’s time to add the West Sussex Kentucky Fried Chicken to the list. A-list actor John Travolta was denied a reservation at the UK KFC branch after local staffers thought his request was a prank. Traveling to the Scientology center in East Grinstead, Travolta was in the mood for some finger-licking comfort food, so his rep called ahead to book a table and was promptly laughed off the phone. A KFC spokesperson confirmed the event and said that they would have honored the request if they had known it to be legit. The employee who denied the reservation argued that “customers are customers” and no one is above waiting in line for a bucket and a biscuit.
Strip and Fly
On Wednesday a panic attack caused a man to act out on a U.S. Airways Flight from Phoenix to Honolulu. Two hours before landing, the passenger started stripping off his clothes and demanded to get off the plane immediately. As he rushed toward the cockpit shirtless, two off-duty Jersey City cops tackled and subdued the passenger. The officers used plastic handcuffs to restrain the passenger, who was held in the back of the plane until the end of the flight. FBI agents, Homeland Security officers and members of the Honolulu Sheriff’s Department met the flight at the airport. The Jersey City cops then headed off to celebrate a colleague’s wedding.
Don’t Stand so Close to Me
In a freak accident, a Virgin Australia pilot was thrown off of his plane’s aluminum staircase at Brisbane International Airport after a nearby Qantas jet thrust its engine. The pilot fractured his arm and leg. Safety experts are now trying to piece together how this happened. Both Virgin and Qantas are refusing to budge and both say that their planes were in the right place and did nothing abnormal. Airline competition has always been intense down under, but a pilot casualty seems a bit much.
The Parachute High Club won last week’s Icarus Award. Check out past winners in our Icarus Award section. And vote here for this week’s most worthy contender:
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by Lily J. Kosner for Petergreenberg.com
Feature Image Credit Karen Blaha via Flickr Creative Commons
Related links: MSNBC, Jaunted, Asia One, Huffington Post, Huffington Post
