AllThingsD » Northwest Airlines

Fears of Electronic Travel Restrictions Spook the Blogosphere

Marisa Taylor — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 09:00:31 +0000

As if removing one’s shoes for the sake of airline security wasn’t already hassle enough, the attempted bombing on Northwest Airlines on Friday prompted worries about new security measures, including the unthinkable: could in-flight use of electronic devices be banned?

Numerous blogs discussed the possibility that electronic devices like laptops and MP3 players could be barred altogether on international flights arriving in the United States. The speculation came after various news outlets posted details of new security measures, including requiring passenger to remain seated during the final hour of flights.

Gizmodo, for example, on Monday posted what appeared to be a leaked memo from the Department of Homeland Security, in which the Transportation Security Administration’s acting administrator Gale Rossides wrote that airplanes should “disable aircraft-integrated passenger communications systems and services (phone, internet access services, live television programming, global positioning systems) prior to boarding and during all phases of flight.” The TSA on Monday appeared to relax some of the rules detailed in the memo.

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Did Laptops, Not Napping, Distract Northwest 188's Pilots?

Andrew LaVallee — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:30:15 +0000

The latest possible reason that Northwest Flight 188 overshot its destination by more than 100 miles is that the pilots were distracted by their laptop PCs, The Journal reported Monday.

According to people familiar with the interviews held over the weekend between the pilots and the National Transportation Safety Board, the pilots said the snafu occurred as they were discussing work schedules over their laptops.

It’s not unheard of for members of a flight crew to pull out a personal computer during quiet periods of a flight, but investigators are still considering whether fatigue played a role, since the pilots didn’t respond to air-traffic controllers for more than 75 minutes.

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Roy Bostock's Other Merger Gets Done

Kara Swisher — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 08:22:28 +0000

Well, there’s one niggling deal off the desk of Northwest Airlines Chairman Roy Bostock–Delta Air Lines (DAL) and Northwest (NWA) finally agreed to merge after three months of tiresome back-and-forth wrangling.

Sound familiar?

Bostock (pictured here)–apparently, the hardest working man in U.S. corporate board rooms–also happens to be the chairman of Yahoo (YHOO), which is in the midst of a takeover wrangle with Microsoft (MSFT).

So, if he managed to reach some sort of deal–either with AOL (TWX) or Microsoft–that would settle the fate of Yahoo this week, as some are speculating, I think some kind of medal would be in order.

And let’s not leave out the irony of the fact that the former top ad exec is also on the board of Morgan Stanley (MS), which is repping Microsoft!

Roy Bostock=Human pretzel!

Of course, there are still a lot of outstanding issues in the Delta-Northwest deal–including possible employee resistance and regulatory insistence. But getting this far in such a deeply troubled industry as airlines is a good sign that the much easier Yahoo situation can be settled.

Interestingly, under the proposed Delta-Northwest deal, Bostock would become vice chairman of the combined entity, which would use the Delta name.

Also a good sign–a willingness to shed your corporate independence and be OK with it.