No sexting allowed in the friendly skies

Reuters brings us this update on travel news…

(Reuters) – Two Emirates airlines cabin crew have been ordered jailed for three months in Dubai over sexually explicit text messages, the latest in a string of indecency cases against foreigners, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

The pair, an Indian flight attendant and her cabin services supervisor, were convicted of “coercion to commit sin” over the messages and initially sentenced to six months in jail, The National newspaper said on its website, citing court documents.

The sentence was reduced on appeal last week to three months and deportation orders against the pair were lifted, it added. It did not reveal the content of the messages.

Dubai’s foreign population has expanded rapidly in recent years as expatriates flocked to the Gulf Arab trade and tourism hub for its tax-free earnings and year-round sunshine.

The changes have challenged the Emirati population, which is now vastly outnumbered by foreigners, raising concern that their emirate’s rapid pace of growth is a threat to their social and religious identity in what remains a deeply conservative region.

An Emirates spokeswoman declined to comment on the case as it was still ongoing.

The paper said the case emerged after the flight attendant’s husband filed a lawsuit against his wife a year ago accusing her of being in an illicit relationship with her supervisor. It said the couple had been embroiled in a divorce battle since 2007.

The case is the latest decency case against foreigners accused of not respecting local mores.

In a separate case, a British pair caught kissing in public in Dubai is appealing a month-long jail sentence handed down after an Emirati mother complained her child had seen their indiscretion.

The pair, a British man living in Dubai and a female friend, were arrested in November on accusations of kissing and touching each other intimately in public and consuming alcohol, their lawyer said. They were ordered jailed for a month.

In a high-profile case in 2008, a British couple narrowly escaped jail after a court found them guilty of engaging in drunken sexual activity out of wedlock, and for doing so in public on a beach in the emirate.

They were sentenced to three months in prison followed by deportation, but had their jail terms overturned on appeal.

In a separate case this year, a British couple who shared a hotel room managed to escape trial in Dubai for having sex out of wedlock by producing a marriage certificate.

Is there anyone on board who can fly a plane?

Aviation news from Reuters…

A Swedish pilot with a fake commercial license was arrested in his cockpit at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport as he prepared to fly 101 passengers on a Boeing 737 to Turkey, Dutch police said Wednesday.

The 41 year-old Swede, who was at the helm of a jet bound for Ankara, had been flying for 13 years and logged more than 10,000 flight hours using forged documents for airlines in Belgium, Britain and Italy, authorities said.

The pilot, whose name was not disclosed, was said to have expressed relief when confronted and taken off his pilot’s stripes.

Sleeping airline passengers’ pockets picked

Travel news courtesy of Reuters…

PARIS (Reuters) – French police are investigating whether a pickpocket stole thousands of euros from passengers as they slept on an Air France flight from Tokyo to Paris.

“There is an investigation under way,” a spokesman for the border police at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris said when asked to confirm a report on the website of the Le Figaro.

The paper said around 4,000 euros ($5,744) appeared to have been stolen from five business class passengers as they slept on the overnight flight.

“On this flight, which takes off from Tokyo Narita at 10 p.m., passengers often sleep deeply before waking up shortly before arriving in Paris at around 4 a.m.,” Le Figaro quoted one of the alleged victims as saying.

A woman alerted the cabin crew when she woke to find a large sum missing, the passenger said.

“This lady called staff to say that all the cash in her handbag had been stolen. Counting Swiss francs, euros and yen, there was apparently about 3,000 euros,” the passenger said.

A spokeswoman for Air France said the pilot had alerted police who were waiting when the flight touched down.

“I would say that it is really extremely rare to have several passengers at once reporting thefts on board,” she said.

She said that while the company was responsible for baggage carried in the hold, passengers had responsibility for possessions they had with them in the cabin.

Pilot wanted to fly the happy skies

More travel news from Reuters…

LONDON (Reuters) – A United Airlines pilot admitted in court on Tuesday that he had turned up at London’s Heathrow Airport to fly a plane to Chicago while three times over the alcohol limit.

Erwin Washington, 51, of Lakewood, Colorado, had been due to captain a Boeing 767 bound for Chicago last November with 124 passengers and 11 crew members when a colleague smelled alcohol on his breath.

The flight was “imminent” when police arrived and arrested him. A breath test recorded a reading of 31 micrograms of alcohol per 100 milliliters of breath. The legal limit is nine micrograms.

When arrested Washington, who has a military background, replied: “Okay, fine.”

He pleaded guilty at London’s Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday to being above the alcohol limit for flying a plane, the Press Association reported. His lawyer Chris Humphreys said the pilot was “remorseful.”

Humphreys told the court that legislation relating to airline staff over the legal alcohol limit for flying had only been used seven times. “There are, thankfully, very few cases of this sort,” he said.

Washington will be sentenced on February 5 and was released on unconditional bail.

United Airlines said he had been suspended pending a full investigation.