Bird Strike? More Like Bag Strike (Morning Round Up)

Here’s a round up of interesting aviation and travel stories around the web for November 4, 2024.

Aerocord Let L-410 suffers Bag Strike, resulting in damage to right engine

Usually you hear about airplanes and birds colliding, resulting in structural damage to the aircraft’s skin or engine. But a bag strike?

An Aerocord Let L-410 departing Chaiten Airport in Chile was forced to return to the field after a bag from the right forward compartment fell out and struck the engine.

It’s quite common for turboprops to have storage bins in the nose area, and it seems this was a case of either the compartment door lock failing or not being properly secured before takeoff. I’m favoring the latter.

Credit: Oleg Belyakov/Wikimedia | CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported

Hertz tries to charge customer $10,000 for rack up excessive mileage on “unlimited miles” rate

It seems the word “unlimited” does not necessarily mean what you think it does, at least according to Hertz can rental. In a now viral video, a customer started filming a Hertz rental manager after he was told he would have to pay $10,000 for abusing the agency’s “unlimited miles” policy.

The driver returned the car, clocking 25,000 miles in just one month. While driving an average of more than 800 miles a day is very impressive, it would be interesting to see how this case turns out if it reaches to court.

If Hertz did not specify reasonable limitations regarding its unlimited mileage policy, then shouldn’t it be unlimited? This is definitely one of those scenarios that test those limits, and it would be interesting to see how things play out if this reaches litigation.

QantasLink operates final Boeing 717 flight

Credit: Qantas Group

Australia’s QantasLink has operated its last Boeing 717 flight on October 26, marking an end of an era for regional carrier. The carrier now operates four fuel efficient Airbus A220s, and is expected to take on 25 more units over the coming years.

QantasLink Chief Executive Officer Rachel Yangoyan said:

“The 717 aircraft have a long history in Qantas and Jetstar’s fleet. From being the aircraft that launched Jetstar’s first ever flights in 2004 to serving major cities, regional towns and the mining sector in the West as part of QantasLink for more than 20 years, we know our people and customers have loved flying on the 717.”

With one less operator, Delta Air Lines and Hawaiian Airlines are now the last two remaining 717 operators.

Icelandair retires its Boeing 757-300s

Credit: Mark Harkin/Flickr | CC BY 2.0 Generic

After more than 22 years in service, Icelandair retired its fleet of Boeing 757-300s on October 28. The carrier still operates 11 757-200s, but plans to retire those by 2026, replacing them with Airbus A321LRs and XLRs.

Mauritius-bound Austrian 777 turns into 10 hour flight to nowhere due to airspace issue

An Austrian Airlines Boeing 777 headed to Mauritius was forced to turn around five hours into its journey after the crew was informed that they could not overfly Eritrea airspace. It’s unclear why authorization was not granted, given that they flew the same route just some days before.

Unfortunately turning around was their best course of action as flying around the airspace would have burnt into their landing fuel reserves, and diverting elsewhere would have added even more logistical problems.

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