Filed under: Travel News

A Thomson Airways plane had a ‘scarily close’ near-miss with a glider as it was coming in to land at Glasgow Airport, an inquiry has found.

The Boeing 757 was carrying holidaymakers from Verona back to Glasgow when it dropped to 3,000ft to prepare for landing.

But air traffic controllers warned the crew that their radar had detected an aircraft in the area, and told them to watch out for it.

The pilot spotted the glider just two miles away, and with a flight speed of 230mph carrying 289 passengers, this meant they were just 30 seconds from disaster.

The glider had a wingspan of 49ft, and the pilot managed to miss it by just 1,000ft by banking the plane to the right.

According to the Express, the Airprox Board inquiry officially rated the incident a risk B, the second highest category where ‘safety is not assured’ and ‘the safety of the aircraft was compromised’.

The near-miss took place in Class E airspace, meaning that it can be used by any aircraft, including those not in contact with air traffic controllers.

But, since the incident, the Civil Aviation Authority has changed the area to Class D, so gliders or light aircraft must be in touch with air traffic controllers.

The Discus BT glider pilot was midway through a cross-country flight south from an airfield at Portmoak, Fife, when the almost-accident happened on 27 July at around 4pm.

Discover the most luxurious airlines in the world:

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The over 55s are throwing caution to the wind and enjoying the most holiday romances abroad, according to a new survey.

Two in five Brits are finding love on holiday, with 56% saying the change of scenery makes them feel less inhibited.

The study by hotels.com also unearthed another surprising result: one in five of the over 55s admitted to enjoying more than one faraway fling on the same trip.

But, rather than leading to a long-lasting relationship, less than 6% of getaway get-togethers went the distance, and 28% admitted lying about which hotel they were staying at to avoid further contact, according to the Express.

Meanwhile, earlier this month it was revealed that Newcastle was named the ‘one-night stand capital’ of Britain.

Vacation Reviews

Harry Potter-mad Muggles can now book a day ticket to the boy wizard’s film studio, and an overnight stay at a nearby hotel with a new tour package.

Superbreak has just launched its package for The Making of Harry Potter tour at the Warner Brothers studio in Leavesden, Hertfordshire, which has been home to Harry, Hermione Ron and the gang for the last 10 years.

The studio is 150,000 sq-ft of Harry Potter nostalgia. Not only can you go through Hogwart’s Great Hall, Dumbledore’s office, the Gryffindor common room and Hagrid’s hut, but you can also take a peek inside the Creative Effects workshop and check out the film’s animatronics, including Buckbeak the Hippogriff, Aragog the giant spider, Fawkes the phoenix, and the Basilisk head.

The operator has a package for £61.50 per person, which includes the tour and a night’s stay at the Travelodge in Watford, with breakfast, based on two sharing in April.

The tour opens on 31 March 2012… Get booking!

Visit wbstudiotour.co.uk for more information about the tour.

Discover these brilliant days out for kids:

 


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In what has been called an ‘unprecedented’ legal action, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is filing a lawsuit against SeaWorld that accuses it of keeping five killer whales in conditions that violate the 13th Amendment ban on slavery.

A federal court is being requested to grant the animal constitutional rights, an action that has sparked further debate over the expansion of animal rights.

The plaintiffs are the five orcas, Tilikum and Katina based at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida, and Corky, Kasatka and Ulises at SeaWorld San Diego.

The lawsuit asks the court to order the release of the orcas to the custody of a legal guardian, who would then find a ‘suitable’ habitat for them.

PETA’s general counsel, Jeff Kerr, whose five-strong team spent 18 months working on the case, told news.com.au: ‘By any definition, these orcas are slaves – kidnapped from their homes, kept confined, denied everything that’s natural to them and forced to perform tricks for SeaWorld’s profit.

‘The males have their sperm collected, the females are artificially inseminated and forced to bear young which are sometimes shipped away.’

The suit is based on the fact that the13th Amendment prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude, but does not specify that only humans can be victims.

Under US laws, animals under human control are considered property and do not currently have legal standing of their own.

They are protected by animal cruelty laws like the federal Animal Welfare Act, but do not have an outlined set of rights.

The field of animal law is, however, evolving. Rutgers University law professor Gary Francione, for example, suggests that animals deserve the fundamental right to not be treated as property.

Law professor David Favre of Michigan State University has proposed a new legal category called ‘living property’ as a step toward providing rights for some animals.

SeaWorld, meanwhile, said efforts to extend the 13th Amendment’s protections beyond humans ‘is baseless and in many ways offensive’.

The company added: ‘SeaWorld is among the world’s most respected zoological institutions. ‘There is no higher priority than the welfare of the animals entrusted to our care and no facility sets higher standards in husbandry, veterinary care and enrichment.’

The statement also highlighted the company’s ‘global efforts to promote conservation of marine mammals’, and said the orcas’ performances ‘help give the public a better appreciation and understanding of these animals’.

The six-tonne male at SeaWorld in Orlando, Tilikum, hit the headlines earlier this year when he grabbed a trainer at the end of a performance and dragged her underwater to her death.

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The world’s largest privately-owned sailing yacht has docked near Dartmouth in Devon.

The 300ft vessel is worth £100 million, and is owned by movie mogul Barry Diller, the husband of fashion designer Diane Von Furstenberg.

The boat is five years old and boasts state-of-the-art navigation systems, electronic sails, 200ft high masts, and a handful of speed boats to transfer crew and guests to land.

Billionaire Diller made his fortune when he was chief executive of Paramount Pictures in the 70s and 80s (when it produced hits like Grease and Beverly Hills Cop).

He went on to form the Fox Broadcasting Company, where he green-lighted The Simpsons, and became chairman of travel website Expedia and CEO of InterActiveCorp (parent company of Ticketmaster), after selling a £25 million stake in QVC.

His awesome yacht is called Eos, after the Greek Goddess of dawn, and tourists in Devon were suitably impressed.

Assistant harbourmaster Nick Clarance told the Daily Mail: ‘We had Eos in a few years ago and there was a lot of interest in her then.

‘It is exactly the same now, we’ve seen large groups of people lining the harbour to catch a glimpse of her and take photographs.’

He added that she was the most imposing boat you are ‘likely to see anywhere in the world’.

Meanwhile, the world’s most expensive superyacht was recently revealed to have cost £3 billion.

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San Francisco is an incredible city packed with loads of things to see and do. Around every corner is a world recognised icon or location of a scene from a film, but there is also as much intrigue in people watching as there is in the landmarks.

From the Golden Gate bridge to Alcatraz, the windy Lombard Street to the hippyish Haight, San Fran provides a surprise at every turn and always offers entertainment. Whether you explore it on one of the many trams wandering the city or take the modern option of a stroller you’ll find it hard not to fall in love with the city.

It really is a travel destination which offers a feast for the eyes, which is why i’ve decided to let the pictures do the talking in this post, as they’ll do a far better job than i ever could:

If this has whet your appetite than why not book a hotel in San Francisco now and go out an sample it for yourself. It’s certainly a great backpacking destination and well worthy of a visit. And while you’re there you could extend your trip and see some other great travel destinations in the USA too…

This is a sponsored post.

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Sailing on the Icefjord in Svalbard in beautiful weather, towards the glacier giving fine Svalbard photos. Photo Copyright

To travel to Svalbard has been a big wish for me and my wife for several years. To refresh your memory of Svalbard it is the Norwegian Svalbard archipelago lying up in the Arctic far north of Norway (74° to 81° North,).

Svalbard is a rough country with much of the land surface covered by glaciers, see Svalbard map below. Other parts of Svalbard is lying as barren slopes and hillsides with very little vegetation at all. The artic climate here is far too cold or at least the summers are too short to give trees a chance to live.

We had our travel to Svalbard just recently with a cheap travel possibility as we could use some SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) bonus points that otherwise would be lost. The beauty of this travel arrangement was that you only use a minimum of SAS bonus point when you as we travel from Denmark to other Scandinavian countries.

Svalbard map showing the full Svalbard Archipelago with glaciers and fjords and straits in the Artic Ocean.

In fact the drain in our stock of bonus points was very little as a SAS bonus travel from Copenhagen to Svalbard is only the same as a bonus travel from Copenhagen to Oslo. Oslo (the capital of Norway) is situated in the southern part of Norway, and Svalbard is as said far north to Norway in the Arctic Ocean. As SAS is a member of The Star Alliance cooperation you might be able to combine such a cheap artic adventure to one of your more traditional flights to one of the Scandinavian countries, for example from Germany, France, Italy or The Netherlands.

Just to finish these travel tips I should also mention that it was possible for us to go for a fine travel to Svalbard just with an extended weekend. We left Copenhagen (Kastrup airport) on Tuesday evening the 18. June and returned from Svalbard Sunday evening the 21. June.

Part of the island Spitzbergen of the Svalbard Archipelargo in the Arctic Ocean with the Icefjord.

We thought that we would be regarded as crazy travellers to go to Svalbard just for a weekend, but we learned in Svalbard that a lot of other visitors were going there in a similar way.

What we had expected though was that many people go to Svalbard for several weeks of discovery, by boat, hiking or otherwise. As you can see from the map the countryside of Svalbard isn’t that easy to around, and ships and boat cruises are the most convenient way of travel in this arctic archipelago.

As we stayed in Svalbard over the Midsummer days we had bright sunshine all night long and extremely wonderful sunshine during the days. The weather forecast for Svalbard isn’t really trustworthy, the locals underlined, but in our case the fine weather forecast I had found from home online kept its promise.

As you can see from my photos a sunny day in a ship on a calm day sailing at the Icefjord delivers unmatched beautiful views of the artic natural scenery.

When you arrive to Svalbard you will arrive to Longyearbyen with the international airport just nearby. Longyearbyen is the main settlement from old time and where most tourists will stay for a shorter or longer period. Longyearbyen has a number of hotels in all price categories; even the general price level isn’t cheap, dispite the fact that Svalbard is a tax-free zone of Norway. Due to the high transportation costs far out to Svalbard and probably low demand; the prices are as they are.

Snow scooters lined up for the summer in Longyearbyen in Svalbard

Svalbard is a magnet for bird watchers and other nature lovers, not to mention that Svalbard is one of the best places in the world to experience polar bears in true natural surroundings.

I should also mention tha Svalbard has an interesting history about miners, whalers and internatinal politics.

Find travel guides and travel book among many other books about Svalbard /Spitzbergen here.

In future posts I will go through many of our fantastic experiences during our short stay in Svalbard.

Vacation Reviews

That’s why I want you to see this remarkable presentation of Frans Lanting’s photography project Journey of Life through Time. I have seen the big exhibition of his amazing photos in poster size in Berlin, and they are really great and the work of Frans Lanting is a great achievement of photography.

I really hope you can take your time to see and listen to this video record of the presentation of Frans Lanting. Don’t feel annoyed by his voice, listen carefully and enjoy the remarkable pictures of our living earth and try to bring this insight with you when you next time go on vacation somewhere in the world. Or when you just browse for travel ideas at the website of Island Vacation Tips.

For example remark that Hawaii is playing a special role in the pictures of Frans Lanting – and in fact many other islands.

Vacation Reviews

As I have earlier been informing about the situation in Dubai with the focus on Dubai Islands (The Palm Islands etc.) I cannot avoid show a little about the amazing things going on in Dubai even it isn’t directly related to island vacation but at least related to island vacation activities if you go to spend the holyday in Dubai Islands. The Burj Dubai will for certain be visible from the Gulf and from the Palm Islands as Burj Dubai is over 800 meters tall.

Experience the view on Dubai when Dubai is viewed from the top of this 826 meter high Burj Dubai by a rather nervous cameraman:

And here more about the building process – now all history, as well as my pictures of Dubai that I created a year ago when I had vacation in Dubai with my wife. So get an impression of the building of Burj Dubai in this short video:

More Burj Dubai – Burj Khalifa facts and figures, numbers and records.

Vacation Reviews

Lanzarote Guidebook is the comprehensive guide to the popular holiday island of Lanzarote.  The small Canary Island that is a hot favourite with British and Irish tourists.  Who last year collectively accounted for over 50% of the islands 1.37 million foreign tourist arrivals

The Spring 2010 edition is packed with all of the information tourists need to make the most of their holiday on the Island of Fire. Encompassing in depth guides to all of Lanzarote´s resorts, beaches, museums and attractions, island maps, an introduction to the work of the famous local artist César Manrique and a handy Essentials section covering all of the holiday basics, such as shop and bank opening hours and emergency telephone numbers.

Copies of the Spring edition of Lanzarote Guidebook can be downloaded free of charge by visiting www.lanzaroteguidebook.com.  Whilst a further 10,000 copies are distributed direct to holidaymakers on the island entirely free of charge via car hire companies, private villas, hotels and official tourist information offices.

This indispensable, 96 guide is published quarterly so all of the information is up to date and is researched and written by locals, so providing tourists with the inside track to the real Lanzarote.  Featuring some fantastic pictures of the islands dramatic scenery courtesy of photographer James Mitchell.

The Spring edition also offers readers the chance to win a fantastic holiday at Villa Mirador in Matagorda.  A prize provided by the island villa specialists Lanzarote1, who offer a range of top quality rental properties in key locations across the island, such as the most popular resort of Puerto del Carmen.

The competition can also be entered online by visiting the Lanzarote Guidebook website.  Where visitors will find a wealth of information about the island, interactive maps, the latest weather reports and a wide array of flight, car hire and accommodation options.

Vacation Reviews