Flight Attendants

A popular new Thai soap opera about love and infidelity in the high skies has angered Thai Airways flight attendants, who demanded Monday that the show be canceled for casting their profession in an unrealistic and immoral light. "The Air Hostess War," which broadcast its first three episodes last week, has captivated viewers with a story line about a dashing, married pilot having an affair with one of his tall, slim flight attendants. Love triangles lead to fighting in the aisles and steamy sex scenes at stopover cities.

NEW YORK - Minutes after a JetBlue flight took off from New York for Las Vegas, the pilot began muttering things that didn't make sense to his co-pilot. He started talking about the need to "focus," lamented that "things just don't matter," and yelled at air traffic controllers to keep quiet. At some point, Capt. Clayton Osbon purportedly told his first officer that "we're not going to Las Vegas" and launched into a sermon. That set off a chain of events that culminated in a federal charge of interfering with a flight crew being filed against Osbon on Wednesday, a day after he was tackled by passengers at 35,000 feet and later carried off to a hospital.

NEW YORK - Minutes after a JetBlue flight took off from New York for Las Vegas, the pilot began muttering things that didn't make sense to his co-pilot. He started talking about the need to "focus," lamented that "things just don't matter," and yelled at air traffic controllers to keep quiet. At some point, Capt. Clayton Osbon purportedly told his first officer that "we're not going to Las Vegas" and launched into a sermon. That set off a chain of events that culminated in a federal charge of interfering with a flight crew being filed against Osbon on Wednesday, a day after he was tackled by passengers at 35,000 feet and later carried off to a hospital.

A Jet Blue pilot who began ranting and acting erratically as his flight headed from New York to Las Vegas -- forcing the co-pilot to lock him out of the cockpit and make an emergency landing -- has been described as a seemingly content family man who once hoped to be an astronaut. Jet Blue identified the pilot as Clayton Osbon, who lives in Georgia but who maintains an apartment in the New York City borough of Queens because his flying base is New York. In a statement Tuesday night , it said that the captain of Flight 191 was receiving medical treatment.

Southwest Airlines flight attendants are considering a federal discrimination claim against a pilot whose cockpit rant about "gays and grannies and grandes" on his flight crew was accidentally broadcast to the control tower and other planes in the airspace over Texas. The incident happened on a March 25 flight from Austin to San Diego but was only made public Tuesday when KPRC-TV inHouston obtained the cockpit conversation and posted it on its website. Here is a link to the TV station's audio clip and a caution: Although some of the language has been "bleeped" out, there is other inappropriate and offensive language that is audible.

Re the Sept. 21 article on Japan Airlines and its new flight attendant hiring plan, I feel compelled to set the record straight about U.S. flight attendant salaries in comparison to theirs. I am a flight attendant for American Airlines and am currently in my fifth year of service. Last year my annual gross salary was just shy of $20,000. (I am a full-time employee and work overtime when I can fit it into my schedule.) The article stated that "at JAL, an average attendant's wage of $80,000 year is about twice as high as pay for attendants on U.S. airlines, according to company officials."

The federal government has made clear its strategy for cracking down on potential terrorist attacks in airplanes: more sophisticated scanners and increased scrutiny of passengers at crowded airports. But now the nation's flight attendants say the government needs to ratchet up security measures inside airplanes. The Assn. of Flight Attendants has been lobbying Congress for the last month or so to adopt its strategy for stronger counter-terrorism measures. The group hopes that lawmakers will include money to put some of their ideas into action under an upcoming funding bill for the Federal Aviation Administration.

Twenty-eight Polish flight attendants who were given visas just months ago to live in the United States are challenging an order that they leave or be deported, the group told a Manhattan news conference. The Delta Air Lines employees were offered jobs in the United States after the airline closed its Warsaw office over the summer, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service issued them visas.

Four United Airlines attendants suffered minor injuries Thursday during a flight from Denver to John Wayne Airport when their airplane encountered turbulent weather and they were tossed around in the cabin. An airline spokeswoman said no passengers were injured in the incident because they were all seated and wearing lap belts. The spokeswoman said the attendants, all women and ranging in age from 20 to 51, were sitting in the galley area on Flight 347.

Question: The question in On the Spot about Greece's ability to weather its financial crisis ["Greece's Reality," Feb. 5] prompts this question about the consequences of American Airlines' bankruptcy: Two months ago, I bought a round-trip ticket from L.A. to New York City on American for next month. Now I hear that American will slash thousands of jobs and restructure, so is it likely that hundreds of flights will be canceled and I will be forced to wait at airports for hours?

From a magazine cover, a near-naked Molly Sims confesses, "I wasn't born with this body," which right away makes me curious: Whose body was she born with? Carl Reiner's? No, the shoulders look different. Boomer Esiason's? Not with that tan, she wasn't. Let the record show that, whichever body Sims was born with, she has certainly transitioned well to the person she is today, not a chest hair or surgical scar in sight. I was lucky enough to be born with my own body, and I don't even look that good.

American Airlines, whose parent company filed for bankruptcy protection in November, is closing its operations at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank and ending flights from Chicago to New Delhi. In addition to closing operations at those two airports, the airline said it plans to cut 150 positions. "Our objective is to make our company competitive and more efficient in an increasingly challenging industry," the airline said in a statement Monday. The flights from Bob Hope Airport will end Feb.

Hello, Angry Birds. Until recently, we thought Hello Kitty was the campiest highflying animal. That was only because we didn't know about Angry Birds (and a tip of the hat to Ellen Creager of the Detroit Free Press for informing us). Taiwanese airline EVA on Monday debuted a new generation of Hello Kitty aircraft, with A330-300 jets decorated using Sanrio 's iconic Japanese feline. You can see the cat on the craft , of course, but according to an EVA news release issued before the debut flight, "At check-in, passengers on these aircraft receive Hello Kitty boarding passes and baggage stickers.

You have to be a sucker to think a big hunk of an A330-300 jet looks cute with Hello Kitty painted on it. After all, the wide-body A330 is kind of a manly man jet that can carry 150,000 pounds of cargo and 335 passengers. Isn't this kind of like putting a tutu on a pit bull? Maybe, but that might be kind of cute too. The photo above is EVA Airways ' second round of kitty craft. It launched the first of its Hello Kitty planes in 2005 and the next the following year and retired the last one in 2009.

Steven Slater, the fed-up flight attendant whose spectacular exit down an emergency chute drew national attention, has been sentenced to a year of probation after completing year-long counseling and substance-abuse treatment . . . .   Runners will gather at the Grand Canyon South Rim on Nov. 12 for the Run on the Edge Grand Canyon Full Marathon , one of the most scenic and unusual marathons in the world. The course covers terrain over a mile high in elevation between 6,500 and 7,000 feet.  As of late Wednesday, 300 spots remained for the marathon and 600 for the half-marathon.  Register here . . . . Lake Tahoe's Homewood Mountain Resort has installed a child-safety system in its chair lifts that keeps kids in place with an electromagnetic seatback and corresponding magnetic vest.

Question: What is the protocol for complaining about a child who continually gives shrill screams and/or cries for the entire flight, especially when the parent does nothing to help? Stan Sewell Dallas Answer: I want to love babies. I really do. But I'd rather listen to a dog barking all night while the theme from "It's a Small World" plays in the background than listen to a squalling infant on a plane. My rational self knows that a baby isn't crying because she or he wants to create a little drama or because there's just been a horrid fight with his or her spouse after bouncing a check for the property taxes.

Chris Clark first discovered the joy of hot rollers during a theater production of "Little Shop of Horrors" at Southern Utah University, where he had enrolled with the intention of becoming a Shakespearean actor. "Doing those big, '60s bouffant wigs was a total transformation," he said. "Once that roller went into my hand the first time, the acting was over. " The heated hair implements are a routine presence behind the scenes of "Pan Am," ABC's new period TV series about a group of high-flying stewardesses in the 1960s that premieres Sunday night, with Clark serving as hair department head.