Cathedral Struck by ‘Aeroplane Ice Block’ During Mass

BBC:

A block of ice believed to have fallen from an aeroplane crashed through the roof of an Essex cathedral during a Sunday service.

Father James MacKay was leading the Eucharistic prayer at Brentwood Cathedral when he heard an “explosion”.

The congregation looked on as a shower of roof slate and ice fell outside the building. The cathedral’s roof and beams were damaged.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said ice strikes from planes were rare.

‘Trembling with shock’

“Everything stopped as we heard this. I turned to my left to see lots of slate and what looked like white stuff, which we now know was ice, falling from the roof.

“I was trembling with a bit of shock.

“After a couple of seconds of shocked pause I said ‘right, let’s crack on’ and we did so.”

An usher who went to investigate told Fr MacKay the cathedral had been hit from above, possibly by ice from a plane.

Fr MacKay said: “You think this sort of thing is a myth. But when you see the damage in the roof, you realise it is not. It went straight through the slate.”

The CAA gets about 30 reports each year of ice falling from aircraft.

A CAA spokesman said: “Ice falling from planes does not happen that often – it can happen around hose connections and if washers fail.

“You can have a big lump of ice come off an aircraft as it descends into warmer air.

“But increasingly, a lot of these incidents are natural meteorological phenomena.”

The building, near the High Street, is England’s newest cathedral and was built between 1989 and 1991.

The damage caused on 1 July has been repaired and cost hundreds of pounds, the cathedral said.

 

South Africa’s Shocking Polygamy Kulula Airline Promotion

The Huffington Post reports:

Flying with family members can get expensive, particularly for polygamists. But a new airline promotion could provide big savings for gentlemen with numerous wives.

South Africa’s low-cost carrier Kulula Airlines is offering deal where a man’s fourth wife flies free, ABC News reports.

The cheeky promotion is timed with the South African president Jacob Zuma’s marriage to his fourth wife over the weekend, notes Fox News.

Promoted on the low cost airline’s Facebook page, the deal is only available until April to 30 for flights from Johannesburg to Cape Town…

Embarrassing.

 

Track the Pope’s Flight in Real Time

I post this because: 1) I never knew you could do it, and 2) I think modern technology is just great!

The Pope is flying over the heart of the United States this afternoon. Track his flight here in real time…

Check it out here.

Pretty cool!

 

Airline Ends Long Tradition of Giving Passengers Prayer Cards

With in-flight meals because an increasing number of passengers were offended by them.

Alaska Airline spokeswoman Bobbie Egan said the decision was made out of respect for all passengers, and follows feedback from customers that they preferred not to mix religion with transportation.

‘The decision reflects respect for the diverse religious beliefs and cultural attitudes of Alaska Airlines’ customers and employees,’ the company said in announcing the change.

‘Some customers were comforted by the cards and some didn’t feel religion was appropriate on the plane and preferred not to receive one,’ she said.

The cards began as a marketing ploy 30 years ago to differentiate the regional airline from its competitors. The company admits the idea was borrowed from another airline.

The cards offer a short excerpt of a psalm from the Old Testament printed on a beautiful photograph. One current example includes this excerpt printed over a beach scene: ‘Give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His love endures forever.’

A card with a mountain scene states: ‘I will be glad to rejoice in you; I will sing praise to your name O most high.’

Since 2006, when the airline stopped offering meals to customers in the main cabin, the cards have only appeared on meal trays in first class.

For a long time, Alaska Airlines got more positive comments than negatives ones. But lately, opinion has shifted.

Egan said the decision was made out of respect for all of their customers.

‘After carefully considering all sides, it was agreed that eliminating the cards was the right thing to do,’ she said.

‘Right thing to do…’ There is a little more on the above here.

So no more comfort by prayers for safe travel because the truth of Scripture ‘offends’ in the philosophical context of our post-modern pluralistic world? And so it is:

Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,  “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and, “A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the message… (1 Peter 2:7-8).

 

South Africa’s Accident-prone Taxi Union Launches Airline

The union representing South Africa’s accident-prone minibus taxi drivers has announced plans to set up a low-cost airline for the country’s poorest commuters.

Absolutely terrifying news!

Santaco said it would “travel where everyone else is scared to travel”, arrange a booking system for those without credit cards or access to the Internet, and even consider carrying goats in its hold.

But the move has struck fear into the hearts of many South Africans. The beaten-up minibus taxis and their kamikaze drivers transport more than half of the country’s population each day.

But their erratic driving means they are involved in a large proportion of road accidents. Last year, a taxi driver navigated around the lowered booms of a level crossing and into the path of a train, killing 10 schoolchildren. This week, a young lawyer was nearly killed after a taxi driver she had stopped when he rear-ended her fiance’s car drove over her and dragged her 200m along the road.

Santaco insists it is cleaning up its act, with a training academy for drivers and a face lift of taxi ranks. Its latest venture, launching the country’s first fully-black-owned airline, will see flights from Johannesburg’s Lanseria airport to Bhisho, in the Eastern Cape, and Cape Town.

Prospective passengers, many of whom do not own cars, will be collected from a central taxi rank and transported to the airport – the cost of a one-way air ticket is billed at around 500R (42GBP)…

There’s more here.

You Just Can’t Make This Kind of Stuff Up!

Terrified airline passengers panicked when two hives of bees smuggled onto a plane for a flight across Russia escaped in mid-air and began swarming around the cabin.

‘Smuggled onto a plane’?! The Telegraph reports:

The bees – sneaked on board in cardboard boxes – are understood to have become agitated in the pressurised cabin during the 10-hour Yakutia Airline flight to Moscow from Blagoveshchensk near Russia’s border with China.

The trafficker – who has not been named by the airline – claims an airport official at Blagoveshchensk had asked him to carry the boxes to Moscow where he would be met at the airport.

Official airport documents quoted a passenger as saying that the trafficker was “slightly drunk.”

Air hostesses eventually managed to seal the bees inside the wardrobe in the flight’s business section by sealing it with sticky tape.

But when the plane arrived at its next destination, Barcelona, a new crew discovered that the fumigation had not been completely successful with five bees still on the plane, Russian newspapers reported.

Now the carrier could be stung with a massive £100,000 bill for having the fumigate the Boeing 757 jet and to compensate for the delays caused to the plane’s ongoing journey to Spain.

The incident raises concerns about flight safety on Russian internal flights as well as the impunity of airport officials.

Baggage handlers in Blagoveshchensk told a Russian newspaper that a senior airport official could “carry on board anything he likes.”…

!

Scare on SAA Flight

Eyewitness News:

Passengers on a South African Airways (SAA) flight from Gauteng to Cape Town had a scare on Monday afternoon after the plane required rescue support on landing.

The crew called for help after detecting smoke inside the cabin.

However, Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) spokesperson Deidre Hendricks said all passengers were evacuated without injury at Cape Town International Airport.

“An SAA aircraft incoming from Johannesburg requested fire and rescue support on landing. This was provided and just after 2pm the aircraft landed safely.”

“No injuries were reported,” she added.