Seattle-Tacoma International Airport

What’s with the laser at Sea-Tac Airport?

Safety, Security,

I’m due to fly home to Seattle tonight after testing out Alaska Airline’s Wi-Fi equipped “WI FI ONE” plane and wondering if I have to worry about our plane getting lasered on the way in.

According to  the Seattle Times newspaper, the pilots of four planes reported seeing a bright laser light Wednesday night as they headed to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The planes landed safely, but everyone is understandably concerned because those lights are very distracting to pilots.

This isn’t the first time lasers have been focused on airplanes here.  According to the newspaper a dozen planes were targeted on February 22 and the pilots of another plane reported seeing a green laser last Sunday night.

Cut that out!

scissor

Stuck at the airport? Play a game or watch baggage go round

Baggage, Entertainment, Fun Stuff, , ,

Need ideas for what to do when you’re stuck at the airport?

The folks at CreativeApplications.net are inspired and impressed by Jetset – a game about airports that you can play on your iPhone or iPod touch.

jetsetgame

According to the game’s creators,

“Security is there to make you feel safe and get you to your plane in one piece. However, today’s regulations change frequently and are often different from airport to airport. Now, you too can stand in the shoes of a security agent trying to avert terrorism while getting everyone through a checkpoint quickly. This is a game that’s just as fun as waiting in line – and one you can play in line as well.”

Prizes? Digital airport souvenirs.  Cheap and easy to carry.

If you buy it and play it, let me know what you think.

searainmakers-baggage

(Norman Andersen’s Rainmaker’s Baggage installation at Sea-Tac Airport)

If, like me, you don’t have an iPhone or iTouch, you might be looking for free airport entertainment. How about watching luggage move along on the luggage carousels?

The folks at FlightsfromHell.com are inspired this week by a web report about airport luggage carousels from the Dull Men’s Club, which is keeping track of how many airports have carousels that go clockwise, how many go counter-wise and how many have no carousels at all!

I kid you not. Here’s a link to their listings of airport carousels and their directions.

Stuck – in stone – at the airport?

Art

If you end up staring at the walls at some airport on your way home from your holiday gathering this year, consider using some of that down time to really stare at those walls.

seatac-fossil

(Courtesy: David Williams)

As David Williams discovered while hanging around Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) recently, there are some cool-looking fossils in the limestone used to build the wall of the food court in Concourse A.   He says eagle-eyed travelers will probably find fossils in other parts of the airport – and in other airports – as well.

Williams in the author of the soon-to-be-published Stories in Stone: Travels through Urban Geology and writes more about these fossils on his blog.

New exhibit at Sea-Tac Airport honors the Berlin Airlift

Art, , ,

An exhibit honoring the 60th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift opens today at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport with a ceremony honoring four Washington State veterans who participated in the airlift.

(A view of the “Friends Always” exhibition at a stop in Delaware. Photo: German Embassy)

The traveling exhibit “The Berlin Airlift – A Legacy of Friendship” commemorates what many agree is one of the greatest humanitarian efforts of all time, when U.S. and Allied forces saved more than two million men, women and children in Berlin during a Soviet Union blockade beginning in 1948.

More than 60 photo panels will be on display through December 31st next to the Airport Office Building elevators on the south end of the Seattle airport ticketing Level. After that, the exhibit moves over to Seattle’s Museum of Flight and, later in January, to Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Meyers. To learn more about the exhibition and find out if it will be on display at an airport or museum near you, check the dedicated “Friends Always” page

New tool helps travelers reach new runways at three airports

Delays, Safety, , , ,

Yesterday was “New Runway Day” at three major U.S. airports. Washington Dulles International Airport, Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and my hometown Seattle-Tacoma International Airport all cut the ribbon on new runways.

What do these high-ticket investments in airport infrastructure mean for air travelers? Ideally, improved safety, reduced delays, and space for an extra 330,000 take-offs and landings each year.

We’ll see….

(Courtesy: Port of Seattle)

Of course, who cares if more planes can take-off and land unless you can actually get a seat on one of those planes?

So I was pleased to have a chance to stop by the world headquarters of Yapta this week to check out their poker table and learn about their new service that sends travelers e-mail alerts when frequent-flier award seats become available. As someone who recently spent way too many hours trying to figure out how to “spend” a chunk of expiring miles, I totally get the usefulness of this feature.

You can read about Yapta’s free frequent-flier award search service and a few related tools in a recent New York Times article. Or just sign up, snag a seat, and go try out one of those new runways.

(Photo: Daniel Schwen)

Cheap, car-free, airport side-trips

Museums, , , , ,

Airline route cuts and drastic schedule cutbacks mean you’re probably going to be spending a lot more time hanging around the airport waiting for a flight.

You could use that time to snooze, eat, or work. Or you can head out for one of the cheap, educational, car-free side trips I list in my most recent At the Airport column on USATODAY.com.

For example, the Louis Armstrong Museum is a short bus ride away from New York’s LaGuardia Airport; the movie theaters, theme park, and other attractions at the Mall of America are a ten minute light-rail ride away from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport; and the Museum of Flight, home of the Aerocar (below), is a short bus ride from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

(Photo: courtesy Museum of Flight)

Have you discovered a great airport side-trip destination? Add a comment below.

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport goes green with goats

Environment,

This morning, (Friday, August 29), the folks at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) conducted a little test.

In an effort to rid the airport’s property of invasive plants, airport officials invited a herd of goats (and three sheep) over for lunch. No need to cook up anything special: the herd was happy eat its way through Scotch broom and other invasive plant species.

The Port of Seattle, which operates the airport, is testing this environmentally friendly way to protect and improve its property. The goats are owned by a local business, Goat Trimmers, which puts rescued sheep and goats to work. Sounds like a perfect match!

(Photos courtesy: Goat Trimmers)

Sea-Tac Airport: “Pay no attention to the dead people on the runway”

Safety,

The Federal Aviation Administration requires airports to test their airfield disaster preparedness and response at least once every three years.

That’s probably a good thing.

But airport runways are busy places, so it’s sort of hard to go all out and have a “true to life” test of what it would be like if there was a real disaster.

Luckily, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport has a runway that’s not yet operational. So they’re putting it to good use: today, between 9 am and noon, Sea-Tac’s soon-to-be-activated third runway will be used to conduct a full-scale emergency exercise simulating an aircraft crash.

They’ll be 100 volunteer ‘victims’ strewn about next to a mock-up aircraft fuselage smack in the middle of the runway and lots of wrecked cars. Dozens of police and fire agencies will “respond” with fire engines and aid cars.

Sounds gruesome; but if Sea-Tac Airport does have an airfield disaster, it’s good to know they’ve at least had a run-through on the runway.

Can’t you just hear the pilot’s announcements today? “Ladies and gentlemen: don’t be alarmed by all those dead people on the runway.”

This is only a test….