Good thing Alaska Air took note, literally

This story happened about a month ago, but is too comical to not post.  Over the summer Alaska Airlines had repaired a damaged wing flap on one of their Boeing 737 planes.  The repair had been approved as flight worthy by the FAA.  However, Alaska Airlines had not finished the cosmetic repairs before sending the plane airborne leaving the wing flap looking unfinished.  

Before each flight pilots will do a walk around their aircraft to report any exterior issues.  Pilots would see the repair as unfinished and submit it to their pre-flight report.  Maintenance workers, to stop receiving reports concerning the wing flap, physically wrote “WE KNOW ABOUT THIS” on the damaged looking wing flap with an arrow pointing to the questionable looking repair.

Unfortunately, this note scribed in permanent marker was visible from a window seat of the cabin.  This was noticed by an Alaskan Airline patron midflight flying from Burbank, California to Seattle Washington.  A photo was taken with a camera phone and sent to reddit.com where it was displayed.

An Alaskan Airlines representative responded stating, “We apologize for any alarm it may have caused.  It is not the best way to report an issue.  We have since removed the writing and the flap will go in for a full repair in October.”    

Despite a failed demonstration flight, Russian airline still receives order for 30 planes

Russian aircraft manufacturer, Sukhoi, failed to deliver earlier this year in spring with a demonstration flight for Indonesian carrier PT Kartika Airlines.  The plane was carrying 45 people when it disappeared in Bogor, West Java. 

Sukhoi was originally established in 1939 and since have been known for their attack and fighter aircraft.   The aircraft manufacturer only started designing commercial style planes in the last five years.  This is the first time commercial airplanes have been produced out of Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Despite this set back, the Indonesian carrier has no plans on cancelling their order of 30 Superjet.  Kartika Airlines remain interested as the Superjet 100 model is known for its capability of landing on shorter runways.  Nothing is known at this time about the cause of the crash.  It will be interesting to see the results of the investigation of the Transportation Safety Committee.