Should this journo be shot?

[BahrainLad]

THE SUN 5th AUGUST 2001

MY FLIGHT WAS DEAD SCARY

EXCLUSIVE

By ANDY WILKS

PANICKY passenger Julie McGrath turned up for a flight which had the booking code K3DEAD.

Then she was shaken by being given a seat in row 13 — before learning to her horror that the pilot was a woman.

Julie said: "I know it shouldn't matter if the pilot is female, but there's something calming about the deep voice of a male pilot."

Teacher Julie's ordeal began when she and boyfriend Warren Kitson arrived at Dublin airport for their Ryanair flight to Luton.

Julie, of Richmond, South West London, said: "When I realised the code, I thought 'Oh my God, this must be a bad omen'.

"My heart sank when we got seats 13a and 13b. Then, when we were about to land, the plane reared up and starting climbing at a frighteningly sharp angle."

Warren said: "Julie was nearly in tears and had assumed the crash position."

The plane landed safely.

Last night a Ryanair spokeswoman said: "The numbers are generated by computer.

"Ryanair hope Miss McGrath will travel with us again."

But Julie, 32, said: "The only way will be if I'm personally escorted on to the plane by Brian from Big Brother."

:mad: :mad:

[The Nr Fairy]

Not shot, just forced to fly Ryanair to see what it's really like.

That's a dreadful piece of reporting which shouldn't have made it past a sub-editor's desk.

[Edited having read the original post properly !]

[ 06 August 2001: Message edited by: The Nr Fairy ]

[FrontWindowSeat]

A classic example of a non-story to fill up the pages during the Summer. Makes a change from stripy donkeys and ice-cream bans in Frinton.

I wonder what Ms. McGrath teaches - my guess is drama...

[The Guvnor]

Considering that FR doesn't have assigned seating, how on earth could she have been 'given' 13A/B?

Sounds like a case of "My editor wants me to fill some space and I was out partying too late last night; my hear hurts and let's see what cr*p I can come up with that looks good and appeals to the intellect of our outstanding readers" time to me!

Incidentally, I know how FR's OpenSkies system allocates PNRs - it's in alphanumerical order. I last bought a ticket on them about four weeks ago, and the PNR was R519BG. I also had one at the beginning of March which was R39KBB; and in April I had R422AF; R4A6AD; R4A4AD; and R4AZAD.

Logically, then, this alleged passenger would have had to have travelled years ago - in fact I'd say before Ryanair even started in its present guise (now that's spooky!!) based on the usage of alphanumerics.

You know what the initial 'R' in the PNR stands for? You got it - Ryanair! (According to someone at OpenSkies, anyway) D - on the other hand - stands for Dunce ... which is what this journo is for being so easily caught out! :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Yes, take him out and shoot him. Next!

[Vfrpilotpb]

What the journo missed though, was the allocation of the VERY low cost external overwing seats, these are always the first to go on account of the view and leg room, but its a well kept secret, so perhaps we should'nt talk about it!!

[Kermit 180]

Make her do an article on flying with Aeroflot. That should shut her up.

Kermie :D

[ScottishBurd]

TAKE THE TRAIN NEXT TIME YOU SILLY VACUOUS COW! The types of girls who fly planes generally aren't of the airhead,hysterical PMT prone variety,so don't worry your useless little head about it...
Christ..GIMME PATIENCE>> :mad: :mad: :mad:

[126.9]

:D The Sun; British Tabloid Trash. Feeding the masses. What do you expect? :D

[Max Angle]

In BMI we don't have a row 13 on any of our a/c. Not many people, cabin crew, pilots or pax. seem to notice. How many others don't have it?.

[Lou Scannon]

Give this person who wrote the article a break folks. Put yourself in his place: Whenever he meets any of his old friends in the business and they ask,"...and who do you work for now Andy?"...and he replies, "Er umm actually I'm at the Sun".. Picture his embarrassment when they smile and become patronising.
Add to that the way in which his attempts at accurate reporting keep coming back with the exhortation from the sub-editor: "Make it more interesting and stop including facts!"

Would-be journos who write that sort of drivel for the Sun should be pitied-not castigated by those who work in decent industries.

[ 06 August 2001: Message edited by: Lou Scannon ]

[Unwell_Raptor]

No, I don't like The Sun either, but you have to admire the paper for being very good at what it does. It is the most successful paper in the country (along with its Sunday sister) and its graduate training course is hugely oversubscribed. If it is irreverent, bigoted, downmarket, or whatever, that is because there are a lot of people like that, and many of them buy the paper.

You have to compare apples with apples; the red-top papers are primarily for entertainmeent, but there are alternative grown-up papers on your local news stand.

[swashplate]

UR:

You're not seriousley defending that Rag are you??? :eek:

Don't you remember it's sister paper 'inciting to riot' last summer. Prseume you're not a paediriatician? :rolleyes:

What alternatives are there? Even the broadsheets are covering 'tabliod' stories nowadays.

Boycott dead tree products!! Save the rainforests!!! :D :D :D :D

[Unwell_Raptor]

I'm not defending it, Swashplate; I'm trying to keep it in perspective. It's a free country with a free Press and if over 3 million people want to buy The Sun every day, that is their decision. My decision is not to.

The Sun is very good indeed at capturing the mood of its readership. Unfortunately that mood is usually stupid and usually wrong!

[GustyOrange]

I've got to agree with scotburd, the stupid cow should not be allowed on another aircraft. :mad: :mad: :mad:

[Doodles]

Watching a review of the weekend papers on Saturday morning TV made me shout at the telly (& the wife, kids and dog). Some serious news was around (terror attacks in London, Middle East troubles, NI peace process, possible recession, FMD fraud claims, Royal parade in London etc. etc.) Not too bad for a summer Saturday, however the Sun front page spread was all about theat bloody Big Brother Helen :mad:

Is it not about time some of these Red-Tops were reclassified as an entertainment daily's or something, then they may not have to fill columns with rumour and scaremongering and seemingly made up trash like the article above. Then, even if they did, it would be seen as entertainment (read fiction) instead of so called news
:mad: :mad:

[JPJ]

Scarily, more people voted on Big Brother than at the Election. That's why the papers think it's so important.

[What_does_this_button_do?]

I quote a previous poster:
[…] the stupid cow should not be allowed on another aircraft

How do you know that the passenger, apparently named, Julie McGrath actually exists?, this may have been a fictitious story beginning to end!


:eek:

[CaptSensible]

I agree, stupid piece of nonsense from a stupid newspaper.

However, FR get fawningly favourable publicity from the media most of the time.

If you make a pact with the devil you'll eventually pay for it.

[clockworkclown]

Rumour has it that a large number of the UK people who buy a red top on a daily basis are wondering why that shining globe that appears in the sky during the day is named after their favourite 'news'paper!

[Deep Cover Gecko]

Along the same lines, with stories just being used to take up space - I read in the paper about a family who were flying to CDG to go to Eurodisney, and had to get off 4 aircraft as they were tech. Strangely, I seem to remember reading exactly the same story a week or two ago!

[Yak Hunt]

Pathetic :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

[Top Loadie]

I don't suppose FR minded getting the free publicity, considering the price of ad space in the "Currant Bun".

Maybe The Guvnor was onto something... ..I was out partying too late last night..
...was he larging it in Bishop's Stortford with some covert FR guys plugging him with "great ideas for a story"?

"Get the blindfold on him..."
:rolleyes:

[ 06 August 2001: Message edited by: Top Loadie ]

[five percent]

You learn something new every day! I did not realise that The Sun was a newspaper. Thought it was one of those joke comics like Viz.

Though it does see to be a sad truth that people in the UK can be manipulated by trash that claims to represent their views!

[CARR30]

Last year Ryanair had one of their 737's painted with the Sun logo to coincide with a ticket promotion in the rag.
Ryanair decorated EI-CNT for this purpose, I thought this entirely appropriate since most tabloid journos are, of course, a bunch of...

[Top Loadie]

EI-CNT is allegedly notorious for having tech problems, therefore the engineers refer to it as a the... :D

[SkyClear]

The Sun a/c has been painted up for a long time now, with the News of the World on the other side just for good measure.

I read the article today, she couldn't have been that concerned otherwise she wouldn't have got on the flight.

It was the 'page 3 girl' right next to it that took up most of my attention! Very nice!

[tiger burn]

Maybe....just maybe....it was the Sun's ploy to get Brian from Big Brother a few more inches.....afterall, didn't our wining wimp "Miss Julie McGrath" state at the end of the piece that she would only fly Ryanair again if she was escorted by Brian onto the aircraft?

Fabricating stories such as these, with even the most tenuous link to some celeb is common practise sadly amongst our red tops.

The Sun & the Mirror are battling it out between them right now re juice on Brian & Helen. Wait for it.....the Mirror will have Helen & Paul consummating their lust on the inaugural Concorde flight!!

Shoot them all!

On the other side of the press page - why do well established aviation rags insist on not paying for articles? Methinks they generate enough revenue from adverts etc to warrant a decent renumeration. Aviation journalists, I'm sure are not charities......and who today needs the "priviledge" of publishing for nowt? :eek:

[Epsom Hold 2]

They print the most bizarre stuff about aviation. I read a few years ago in The Sun about a cargo door opening on a "jumbo jet" over Canada and a coffin flying out and landing in a field. Well, this definitely happened - to an AA DC10 over Windsor Ontario...in 1972.

F***wits.

[Delta Wun-Wun]

"QUICK....QUICK....Look there on page 7.There it is.......Oh...no it`s not it`s an advert.....Sorry I have a copy of the Sun here and I thought I had found an item of news in it."
:rolleyes:

[OzPax1]

Also FR has free-seating on most of it's flights!! Sound like somebody wanted their NAME in the paper and their 2 min of fame!! :rolleyes:

[Deadleg]

Max Angle, Brymon Dash8 have row ...11,12,14(no 13)Don't know about the EMB145.
Christ I hope we never get this bird on a flight into Plymouth on a dark dirty windy night, she'ed sh%t herself!

[PAXboy]

Suggestion:

Since this Sun 'story' is probably cobblers and may well have been re-hashed from some years before (given the flight number discussed at the start of the thread) - why does someone not write to the Press Complaints Council?

OK, OK, I know they are spineless, but it has to start somewhere. Writing to the paper or anyone in Murdoch's empire is pointless but these c*** stories about the airline business are not good for anyone (other than Murdoch).

If we can keep a note of the rubbish stories and letters of rebuttal, in due course there will be a useful file of material. What then?

A chance to use that material to MPs, responsible media outlets, Newsnight for example, as well as the broadsheets.

Yes we all moan and bewail the story - and others have surfaced in the thread - so can we do something about it?
:confused:

[Hunter58]

I just wonder about the next headlines...

'Jet had to turn sharply shortly before landing... According to YX Ailines this is a normal procedure, but we here at the BRIGHT newspaper ask: how can a manoever that freightens even experienced pilots be 'NORMAL'? According to Aviation Specialist Randy McDowell the intercepting of the localizer course (a weird highly electrified beam) is feared by most of the pilots. WHen will the government stopt this dangerous practice?

[25F]

This story is dated 5th August 2001. That's a Sunday. Is there a new Sunday edition or did someone fail to be accurate (tut tut) or is this a wind-up?

[northern boy]

The fact that the SUN is so popular simply reflects the tastes and intelligence of those who read it.To illustrate this fact, next time you do a night Ibiza have a quick look down the back at the serried ranks of tatooed and pierced cattle.To further ram the point home, when the dreaded flight deck visits stand there slack jawed and picking their noses, try engaging them in conversation.You will then understand why the SUN,Jim Davidson, Big Bloody Brother and that F*****G "Bubble" occupy such an important place in our national life.

Yes I know they pay our wages.As long as I dont actually have to mix with them.