How often are emergency exits used? Are seats getting smaller? Can you open an emergency door in midflight? And answers to other questions you always wondered about airline travel but felt too moronic and paranoid to ask
Two weeks ago, a disturbed man aboard a United Airlines flight out of Chicago had to be subdued after claiming to have a bomb and attempting to open a cabin door during flight. Passengers, along with three Secret Service agents en route to join President Bush's entourage in California, wrestled Jose Manuel Pelayo-Ortega to the floor of the Sacramento-bound Airbus A320. The jet was diverted to Denver, where Pelayo-Ortega was taken into custody.
A few things are wrong with the AP's rendering. First off, there's no such thing as an Airbus "A-320." Lose the hyphen; it's an A320. This may strike the average reader as an eminently excusable infraction, but it's one newspapers and wire services make repeatedly.