Cheap airline goes belly up

From DNA Info:

Leon Seerran was supposed to be home in Guyana Wednesday. Instead, he was standing on Liberty Avenue in Richmond Hill, looking for answers.

Seerran was one of the many stranded customers waiting outside the New York offices of EZJet Air Service, an air charter service that operates between New York and the Caribbean using space on other airlines.

The company canceled all flights to and from Guyana last week, leaving customers stuck.

The sudden blackout came on Nov. 8, the same day the United States Department of Transportation revoked EZJet's ability to transport passengers.

"We notified EZJet last week that it no longer had charter authority from DOT because it did not have a direct air carrier to provide its flights," DOT spokesperson Bill Mosely confirmed to DNAinfo.com New York via email on Tuesday.

EZJet, which could not be reached for comment and whose office on Liberty Avenue and 131st Street appears to have been hastily vacated, posted a letter on its website and an announcement on its Facebook page Nov. 9 blaming its airline partners, the Phoenix-based airline SwiftAir LLC and the Virginia-based Dynamic Airways.

Wow, who would have thought that an airline being run out of a storefront on Liberty Avenue would be so shady?

How did he pass a background check?

From the NY Post:

In a colossal failure of 9/11 security measures, an illegal immigrant used the stolen ID of a Bronx man with an arrest record to get hired as an airline flight attendant, and flew several trips as a trainee before he was busted yesterday, authorities said.

Besides getting a job at American Eagle, Jophan Porter, 38, used the stolen ID to obtain a US passport, a US Department of Transportation ID card and at least three Florida driver's licenses, law-enforcement sources told The Post.

Porter was caught after ID-theft victim Anthony Frair of The Bronx was denied food stamps because government records matched him to the airline job.

A law-enforcement source confirmed that Frair, 40, has an arrest record. Public records show a man with his name and age was busted in Florida in 2008 on domestic-assault charges.

It's unclear how long Porter used Frair's identity, sources said. American Eagle hired him in March, and he worked from the airline's Miami base, said company spokesman Tim Smith.

Smith and spokespersons for several federal agencies couldn't explain how Porter cleared the security checks needed to become a flight attendant -- or why the airline didn't realize the ID he had stolen belonged to a criminal suspect.

Yet some electeds continue to support the idea of illegal immigration.

Regulating airline worker "crash pads"?

From the Forum:

Flight attendant Denise Grant has slept in crash pads near JFK for the last 16 years and managed one in Kew Gardens for the past three. She said “hot beds”—shared bunks—are a way of life for many in the airline industry, and that most attendants and pilots have lived in bad crash pads—loud, crowded and dirty apartments.

The home Grant runs is clean and quiet and everyone has his or her own bed, she said. “When the owner decided they didn’t want to maintain the house anymore I knew that I didn’t want to give it up, so I offered to run it,” she said.

She said that crash pads—even those with up to 12 tenants—are important for pilots and flight attendants who commute—living in one state and stationed in another.

“We’re here maybe six or seven days a month, sometimes the house is almost empty,” Grant said. “If we had to pay for a hotel—you can’t get a hotel near the airport for less than $250 a night in New York, and even then they’re probably all full.”

Her apartment is listed on a website hosting crash pads listings: It’s a three bedroom with six or more roommates; there is cable, Internet and a full kitchen. According to the listing, all a flight crewmember would need is twin sheets and a towel. The monthly rent is $240.

When asked about the possibility of new regulations restricting the use of crash pads near JFK, Grant hesitated before saying, “I’m not sure I understand; why would anyone want to do that?”

The legislation passed by Congress this month calls on the FAA to issue new regulations dealing with pilot fatigue. While the bill calls on measures that limit flight and duty time, the recent ABC News reports reflect similar stories in the past, which have led city officials to shut down crash pads.

According to a New York City Building Department spokesperson, any residential building must have 80-square feet of space per person and is allowed to house three non-related residents and an owner.

City Housing, Preservation and Development (HPD) spokesperson Eric Bederman said he was not aware of any complaints about crash pads, but added that the complaint would likely have to come from a tenant to reach the HPD.