Hasta La Gadget!

Airlines take security very seriously, even more so after 9/11. They certainly don’t take threats lightly, in fact, they report them to the FBI. That’s what American Airlines did when a 14-year old Dutch Twitter user fired a tweet to AA’s account, claiming she was from Afghanistan, a part of “Al Qaida” and that on “June 1st I’m gonna do something really big.” AA’s account promptly replied that they take these threats very seriously, and that her IP address and details would be forwarded to security and the FBI.

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Girl Tweets Mock Threat At American Airlines, Gets Arrested original content from Ubergizmo.

The FAA previously did not allow airlines to let passengers use their personal electronic devices during certain phases of the flight, such as takeoff, landing and taxiing. Many passengers, particularly frequent fliers, have been irked by this restriction. After receiving recommendations from a 28 member advisory panel, the FAA finally decided to lift these restrictions last week. American Airlines has now received approval from the FAA to allow its passengers to use their devices such as tablets and e-readers gate-to-gate.

Delta and JetBlue actually became the first airlines to allow gate-to-gate use of personal electronic devices. AA announced today that it has finally obtained the required approval, so starting 5 p.m. CST today, passengers onboard its entire mainline fleet as well as on the regional fleet operated by American Eagle Airlines can use their devices through all phases of the flight, within the U.S. The relaxation in rules doesn’t apply to larger devices such as laptops, they still have to be stowed during taxi, takeoff and landing. Furthermore, when the aircraft’s doors are closed prior to departure, passengers must switch on airplane mode and they can continue to use their e-readers, tablets and other such devices without any issues. American Airlines says that it is working with other regional partners to bring the same level of device access by the end of the year.

American Airlines Passengers Can Now Use Personal Electronic Devices Gate-To-Gate original content from Ubergizmo.

It was back in 2011 when pilots of American Airlines started using an iPad app instead of printed navigation charts. Later that same year, in December, the FAA allowed AA pilots to use iPads in all phases of a flight. American Airlines is the only carrier that has been allowed to do this, pilots can use their iPads even when the aircraft is below 10,000ft. The airline has said that all of its 8.600 pilots will be touting iPads by the end of this month instead of the traditional 40 pound flight bags. These iPads will contain over 3,000 pages worth of charts and manuals that will be updated digitally.

American Airlines has also said that eliminating the need for those heavy flight bags has virtually eliminated the number one reason of pilot injuries. Not only that, it saves the airline over $1 million in fuel costs and makes it more eco-friendly as revisions don’t have to be printed on paper any more. The airline has also equipped 16,000 of its flight attendants with the 5.3-inch Samsung Galaxy Note which they will use to keep track of meal services for premium passengers, weather updates, seat assignments and a lot more.

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Your American Airlines flight is definitely not taking off on time. The airline is facing some major computer troubles which have forced it to ground all flights. AA requested the Federal Aviation Administration to ground all of its aircraft. The airline says that its flights are likely to remain grounded until 5:00pm E.T. The computer troubles don’t end here, they have also affected regional American Eagle flights.

According to the statement on American Airline’s website, their network system is experiencing intermittent outages which is why they are currently in system wide ground delay. AA ensures that they are working to resolve this issue as quickly as they can. As of now it is estimated that American Airlines has cancelled 389 flights and American Eagle 291. This situation could lead to further delays as pilots will have to move their planes from gates in order to make room for scheduled flights. AA says that due to the network outage it is unable to modify today’s reservations, however they’ll offer refunds or update travel at no extra cost to passengers when they’re able to do so.

[Image via Mike Fuentes]

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Back in 2011 we reported that American Airlines was considering replacing their flight bags with iPads, ultimately saving a ton of weight while keeping things modern. Just to give you an idea, American Airlines has calculated that each flight bag will weigh around 35 pounds, and that’s per plane (per flight). They have estimated that by removing the flight bags, they should be able to save over $1 million each year. Well it looks like the American Airlines finally went ahead with their plan, and the folks at Gadling managed to get a tour of the cockpit of an American Airline plane to see what it would look like with iPads installed (video above).

So instead of lugging around heavy flight bags, pilots now get an iPad each and a Hypermac backup battery that will be able to extend the battery life of the iPad by an additional 24 hours. While going modern seems to be in everyone’s best interest, the folks at the FAA might not agree. It seems that with the tablets and their additional batteries, the FAA feels that this is tantamount to pilots carrying flight bags and may not necessarily see the point. In any case American Airlines has already gotten approval for the 777, 737, and MD-80 planes and are waiting for approval for their 757/767 fleet.

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