Ask the pilot

Can it really get too hot to fly? And what was it like to be in the air on Sept. 11?

By Patrick Smith

Aug. 2, 2002 | "Please don't disrespect the cabin crew?" mocked a reader in response to my earlier explanation about safety briefings. "Do you realize how much disrespect is dished out to passengers every day by the cabin crew? When was the last time you flew coach? "

Um. I was merely addressing an issue, as I tend to do, with a habit of wry undertone that apparently is not picked up on by everybody. What can I say except I feel your pain, and those of you who've read my earlier columns and articles will recall me lamenting the insults and affronts of flying as much as I've begged people to glean some wonder from it. I recommend, as a kind of therapeutic remedy to whatever nastiness was thrown your way by a flight attendant, a round trip journey on Singapore Airlines, or Thai Airways, where the cabin crew hands you a flower and bows a respectful wai to each passenger.

And I travel in coach, just so you know, most of the time.

What is the largest airline in the world?

It depends on the criteria. In terms of passengers carried, the three biggest airlines in the world last year were, in order, Delta, American, and United. Delta carried 105 million passengers. American carried 78 million (prior to the TWA acquisition), and United ranked third with 75. However, both United and American have more airplanes than Delta, and thus the rankings change if you gauge via fleet size. American had the largest fleet in 2001, with 712 aircraft (again, prior to TWA). Going down the passengers-carried list, the first non-U.S. airline to appear is Japan's All Nippon Airways, or, measuring by airplanes, British Airways.

Before the breakup of the Soviet Union, Aeroflot was the perennial size champ, and at its height was roughly the size of all the major American carriers combined. It has since split into dozens of smaller independent airlines.

Flying from Mexico City, several passengers were bumped from our flight. We were told it was too hot for the plane to depart fully loaded. Can this "it's too hot to fly" explanation possibly be true? Is an airplane so delicate that a few degrees change in temperature renders it unable to fly?

The author once got stranded at the airport in Cuzco, Peru, in a similar situation. Increasing temperature and altitude negatively affect an airplane's performance by decreasing the density of air, though this does not actually mean anything so over-the-top as a plane being unable to fly. Rather, a plane may no longer meet the very strict performance requirements for a runway. These include the distance needed to stop following the rejection of a takeoff at high speed, and required clearances over obstacles in the departure path, which would be important in the event of engine failure. All of this is figured out beforehand by the flight planners and dispatchers, and a maximum takeoff weight is determined. Mexico City sits at about 7,400 feet, and is a great candidate for a performance hit.

This is one of those areas where airlines really could do themselves a favor by offering more coherent, technically explicit explanations to passengers rather than churlish announcements like, "it's too hot to fly."

And to continue this point ...

Next page: Flying over Manhattan just minutes before the WTC attacks