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Nearly two years ago, I bemoaned the fact that Japan was installing liquid testing devices at its airports, but the U.S. and Europe weren’t. It’s 2008, and not much has changed.

What’s perhaps even more frustrating is that this isn’t new technology: Osaka Kansai Airport started testing passenger liquids with a microwave tester nearly four years ago. By December 2006, the machines were installed across Japan.

I haven’t seen these machines in action myself, but the perpetually mobile Tyler Brûlé has helpfully published a photo of a liquid tester on the Monocle website. See below for a peek of what the rest of the world might get its hands on someday.

The bigger question remains: Why is this device good enough for Japan, but not the United States or Europe? There’s money to burn for backscatter x-ray machines and puffer-machines that scan for explosives, but a customer-friendly device like a liquid tester is out of bounds. Priorities.

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Uncovered: the previously secret blueprint for airline business plans. It’s all here: inventory management, pricing, flight scheduling, route selection, maintenance, and even duty free shopping. Courtesy of Monty Python.

American Airlines grounded its entire fleet of MD-80 jets to check wiring on the planes. As I write this, 325 flights are canceled.

Delta, also with a sizable MD-80 and -90 fleet, canceled several hundred flights for the same reason.

Earlier in the week, United took a number of its 747s out of service, also to perform maintenance checks, “to ensure compliance with federal maintenance standards.” All of a sudden? “The Federal Aviation Administration ordered the temporary groundings after discovering that test equipment used at a South Korea maintenance station was faulty.”

What’s going on?

After Southwest’s brief grounding of more than 40 737-300 jets because of possible damage to the aircraft’s metallic “skin,” the FAA is cracking down on maintenance. The agency “recently launched spot checks of compliance with safety requirements for all U.S. airlines.”

Well, good. After apparently not doing enough spot checking, the agency is playing catch-up. It’s encouraging, I suppose, that the inspections are being done now. But what does that mean for recent flights, like those, say, a week before these recent groundings? Wasn’t maintenance taken seriously before? Were you taking a risk?

There probably wasn’t much risk to passengers, frankly. I always comfort myself with the notion that the pilots are as much at risk as passengers. If they’re willing to get on board, then so am I.

But, as a matter of principle, I prefer that my airlines don’t cut corners and don’t skimp on maintenance. I also prefer that my government’s regulatory bodies do their job and actually keep companies under scrutiny in a clear, defined, and above all consistent manner. That clearly didn’t happen. And that is what needs to be addressed. The sky isn’t falling, but things could sure be better.

The airlines affected are canceling flights wholesale today, though they promise to be back on schedule soon. That’s the immediate bad news for travelers today. The fact that regulation has been haphazard is frankly of greater concern.

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Passenger bill of rights (PBOR) advocates were dealt a blow today, when a federal appeals court overturned New York’s PBOR law. Why? The state law is superseded by the federal Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, so the state legislature is deemed unable to re-regulate the airlines.

The challenge to the New York law was brought by the Air Transport Association of America, the industry trade group that represents many U.S. airlines.

As Sam Glover notes:

While the Second Circuit’s interpretation of the preemption clause in the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 seems at least reasonable, I have to wonder whether the air travel industry would have been better off losing this case. Now they just look like inhuman jerks who do not want to be bothered with giving trapped passengers some very basic creature comforts. Like air to breathe and a place to pee.

Fixing this at a state level may not work, after all. This will require leadership at the federal level. Write your House Representative. And your Senators, too.

(Thanks to Sam and Lar!)

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After 9/11, there was a debate over whether pilots should be trained in small firearms and permitted (or required) to carry a pistol in the cockpit. From the get-go, I objected. I felt that the risks of firearms exceeded their benefit, especially if the Federal Air Marshals program already had armed law enforcement officers on board.

The risk of an accidental discharge, or worse, a pilot with less-than-honorable purposes, makes guns in the cockpit a substantial risk. And now it’s happened: A US Airways pilot discharged his weapon during approach to Charlotte.

What on earth was the pilot doing with his pistol during the approach? Shouldn’t he have been working on landing the plane? And why wasn’t his weapon holstered, with the safety on? What were they doing up there, talking about their favorite (and still, to this day, most disturbing) scenes in Christopher Walken movies?

The whole thing makes me feel less safe. Both because I don’t like the idea of hot lead flying through the fuselage, and because I like my pilots to be flying, not playing with guns.

The pro-gun argument has always been that armed pilots serve as the last line of defense in the case of a hijacking or other incident. Or that armed pilots are themselves a deterrent to hijackers.

But it’s impossible to prove whether or not the arming of pilots actually improves safety by scaring potential bad guys from trying anything on board a plane. You can’t prove or disprove that proposition, unless you’ve got an al Qaeda focus group that you’re running.

A more concrete case that would support the pro-arming side would be incidents of threats who were subdued by an armed pilot. I haven’t heard of a single incident wherein a pilot was called upon to unholster his or her weapon in flight. If readers have a link to such a case, please send it my way.

As it is, the passengers on this plane were lucky that nothing worse happened. Arming pilots remains a bad idea.

(Thanks to David, Kim, and Richard for sending this one in!)

UPDATE:
Here’s a photo of the gunshot hole, via the Associated Press:

WELCOME TO THE 2008 TRAVVIES

As previously announced, it’s time for the 2008 Travvies, celebrating the best of the past year in travel blogging.

Things change quickly in the blogosphere, but the reasons for having the Travvies are still the same as last year: To recognize the great blogs out there devoted to travel, and to draw attention to the field of travel blogging as a whole. When I tell people that I write a travel blog, I still often get the retort, “You mean, you write about your trips?” Not exactly. There’s an ongoing misconception that all travel blogs are travel diaries — some of which are terrific — but the scope of the travel blogosphere is much larger, and the Travvies are here to expose readers to a broader array of good travel writing.

WHAT’S THE PROCESS?

1) Nominees will be solicited from the general public for two weeks, beginning today, Monday, March 24, 2008. Readers will be asked to post their nominations for each category via the comments section of the post announcing that category.

2) When the nomination process is closed, a panel of invited judges will investigate and select their top 3 selections in each category. The four blogs in each category that are most often chosen by the judges as finalists will be presented as the finalists for each respective category. Like last year, to prevent “tampering,” the judges’ names will be announced along with the finalists, not before. As I am organizing the contest, my own site, Upgrade: Travel Better, will not be eligible for any nomination.

3) Finalists will be announced after the judges’ votes are in. Thereafter, for one week, readers may cast ballots online for their favorites in each category.

4) The winner in each category will be that finalist that receives the most votes from the general public.

WHO IS ELIGIBLE FOR NOMINATION?

• Any travel blog that existed in 2007 and that generated at least 52 posts in 2007 is open for consideration.
• The primary focus of the blogs should be on some aspect of travel. They should be blogs about travel, not blogs about a range of topics, with only an occasional mention of travel.
• The content must be original, not aggregated from other sources, repurposed from another site, or (heaven forbid) a splog.
• While quality travel blogs are written in many languages, we will unfortunately only consider English-language blogs for the Travvies.

CHANGES IN 2008

• The “Destination” blog category has been changed to be the “Destination or Trip Narrative” category.
• New category: Big Media Blog. Most of the Travvies categories are pro/am. This category is designated for those in the mainstream media whose blogs are an extension of their company’s website.
• New category: Podcast/Video. Blogging isn’t just about text and pictures, after all.

Descriptions of each category are in the nomination posts. You will also be able to find the links to each category by clicking the 2008 Travvies logo on the sidebar.

Any questions or comments, don’t hesitate to leave a comment or use the contact link.

REMEMBER:
- You can nominated up to THREE blogs in each category
- Once a blog is nominated, it’ll be considered as a finalist. Multiple nominations don’t help (or hurt) that blog’s chances.
- Yes, you can nominate yourself.
- Yes, you can nominate the same blog in multiple categories. But choose sensibly.

Good luck to all bloggers!

Click below to go straight to any nomination category.

• Best Travel Blog
• Best Single-Author Travel Blog
• Best Group-Written Travel Blog
• Best Destination or Trip Narrative Blog
• Best Informative/Practical Travel Blog
• Best Photography on a Travel Blog
• Best Big Media Blog
• Best Podcast or Video Blog

BEST TRAVEL BLOG

This is the big one, the grand prize.

As the overall winner, this award will go to a blog whose travel-related writings have been consistently interesting, entertaining, useful, well-written, or otherwise worth spending time reading.

You may nominate UP TO THREE BLOGS by leaving a comment in this post. (Click here to do so.) If your favorite has been nominated already, feel free to show your love and nominate it again, though a blog only needs to be nominated once to be in contention.

Note: The comment form automatically asks for name, e-mail address, website (optional), and a text field. E-mail addresses will never be shared or visible publicly, in keeping with our privacy policy. Enter all nominations in the text field. Use the “website” field only if you are linking back to your own site.

Jump to other nominations here:

• Best Travel Blog
• Best Single-Author Travel Blog
• Best Group-Written Travel Blog
• Best Destination or Trip Narrative Blog
• Best Informative/Practical Travel Blog
• Best Photography on a Travel Blog
• Best Big Media Blog
• Best Podcast or Video Blog

BEST SINGLE-AUTHOR TRAVEL BLOG

This award celebrates the best travel blog written by an individual blogger. Again, the topic is open, as long as there is only one regular poster.

You may nominate UP TO THREE BLOGS by leaving a comment in this post. (Click here to do so.) If your favorite has been nominated already, feel free to show your love and nominate it again, though a blog only needs to be nominated once to be in contention.

Note: The comment form automatically asks for name, e-mail address, website (optional), and a text field. E-mail addresses will never be shared or visible publicly, in keeping with our privacy policy. Enter all nominations in the text field. Use the “website” field only if you are linking back to your own site.

Jump to other nominations here:

• Best Travel Blog
• Best Single-Author Travel Blog
• Best Group-Written Travel Blog
• Best Destination or Trip Narrative Blog
• Best Informative/Practical Travel Blog
• Best Photography on a Travel Blog
• Best Big Media Blog
• Best Podcast or Video Blog

BEST GROUP-WRITTEN TRAVEL BLOG

This award celebrates travel blogs consistently written by two or more authors, regardless of subtopic.

You may nominate UP TO THREE BLOGS by leaving a comment in this post. (Click here to do so.) If your favorite has been nominated already, feel free to show your love and nominate it again, though a blog only needs to be nominated once to be in contention.

Note: The comment form automatically asks for name, e-mail address, website (optional), and a text field. E-mail addresses will never be shared or visible publicly, in keeping with our privacy policy. Enter all nominations in the text field. Use the “website” field only if you are linking back to your own site.

Jump to other nominations here:

• Best Travel Blog
• Best Single-Author Travel Blog
• Best Group-Written Travel Blog
• Best Destination or Trip Narrative Blog
• Best Informative/Practical Travel Blog
• Best Photography on a Travel Blog
• Best Big Media Blog
• Best Podcast or Video Blog

BEST INFORMATIVE/PRACTICAL TRAVEL BLOG

This award goes to a travel blog that provides news, commentary, advice, or general insight into the workings of travel. Informative, and useful: You learn from such a blog. Unlike a destination blog or a personal narrative from a trip, this category is more practically minded.

You may nominate UP TO THREE BLOGS by leaving a comment in this post. (Click here to do so.) If your favorite has been nominated already, feel free to show your love and nominate it again, though a blog only needs to be nominated once to be in contention.

Note: The comment form automatically asks for name, e-mail address, website (optional), and a text field. E-mail addresses will never be shared or visible publicly, in keeping with our privacy policy. Enter all nominations in the text field. Use the “website” field only if you are linking back to your own site.

Jump to other nominations here:

• Best Travel Blog
• Best Single-Author Travel Blog
• Best Group-Written Travel Blog
• Best Destination or Trip Narrative Blog
• Best Informative/Practical Travel Blog
• Best Photography on a Travel Blog
• Best Big Media Blog
• Best Podcast or Video Blog

BEST DESTINATION OR TRIP NARRATIVE BLOG

This award celebrates the best travel blog focusing on particular destinations, either through local expertise on cities, countries, etc., or through a compelling trip narrative that documents the ins-and-outs of the author’s voyage. Quality writing and/or photography about that location that make you want to book a flight (or train, or ship) as soon as you can.

You may nominate UP TO THREE BLOGS by leaving a comment in this post. (Click here to do so.) If your favorite has been nominated already, feel free to show your love and nominate it again, though a blog only needs to be nominated once to be in contention.

Note: The comment form automatically asks for name, e-mail address, website (optional), and a text field. E-mail addresses will never be shared or visible publicly, in keeping with our privacy policy. Enter all nominations in the text field. Use the “website” field only if you are linking back to your own site.

Jump to other nominations here:

• Best Travel Blog
• Best Single-Author Travel Blog
• Best Group-Written Travel Blog
• Best Destination or Trip Narrative Blog
• Best Informative/Practical Travel Blog
• Best Photography on a Travel Blog
• Best Big Media Blog
• Best Podcast or Video Blog

BEST PHOTOGRAPHY ON A TRAVEL BLOG

Some blogs focus as much — or more — on the visuals as on the writing. This award celebrates the best in visual media on a travel blog.

You may nominate UP TO THREE BLOGS by leaving a comment in this post. (Click here to do so.) If your favorite has been nominated already, feel free to show your love and nominate it again, though a blog only needs to be nominated once to be in contention.

Note: The comment form automatically asks for name, e-mail address, website (optional), and a text field. E-mail addresses will never be shared or visible publicly, in keeping with our privacy policy. Enter all nominations in the text field. Use the “website” field only if you are linking back to your own blog.

Jump to other nominations here:

• Best Travel Blog
• Best Single-Author Travel Blog
• Best Group-Written Travel Blog
• Best Destination or Trip Narrative Blog
• Best Informative/Practical Travel Blog
• Best Photography on a Travel Blog
• Best Big Media Blog
• Best Podcast or Video Blog