What could be this magic? Has the Concorde been resurrected? Have the major aircraft builders finally struck on that magic hypersonic plane that we’ve been promised? Or is it – even worse – alien spacecraft who have finally decided to conquer the earth, but in a nice way?
No, sadly, it’s far more mundane than that. But, what it is is actually a pretty snappy way to get from one side of the planet to another, and it was discovered (and now is being trumpeted) as simply clever route planning. (But we know it’s more than that.) Watch the video below to see what we mean.
Behold the flight that is less than 5 hours from to St John’s Newfoundland Canada to Gatwick, UK. And it even makes the whole endeavor by a plain vanilla plane: a WestJet premium economy. 737 Max 8. World expeditionary Noel Philips has been making a name for himself with his heroic and funny attempts to visit – well, almost everywhere.
As per the title of the video, he achieved a single flight from Newfoundland Canada to Gatwick, UK. Five Hours. That’s impressive! But it does take some planning, as Noel explains.
However, there is a catch, of sorts and that is what your level of comfort is when it comes to flying Boeing’s 737 Max 8. The Boeing 737 Max 8 has been deemed safe by authorities after being grounded in 2019 and returning to service in 2020, but there have been recent safety concerns: Who can forget this image below? A door flying off of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, another Boeing 737 Max 8. That image, released by the National Transportation Safety Board shows a gaping hole where the paneled-over door had been at the fuselage plug area of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024, in Portland, Oregon.
(A panel used to plug an area reserved for an exit door) on the Boeing 737 Max 9 jetliner blew out Jan. 5, shortly after the flight took off from Portland, forcing the plane to return to Portland International Airport. (National Transportation Safety Board via AP) Scary stuff.) See below.
In September 2024, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued an urgent safety recommendation for some Boeing 737s, including the Max, due to the potential for a jammed or restricted rudder control system. The warning comes after an incident in February where airline pilots reported their rudder pedals were stuck in neutral during a landing.
Also, the Max 8 was involved in two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people. The crashes were widely attributed to the malfunctioning of MCAS, an automated system designed to stabilize the pitch of the plane. In other words, Boeing has been under the microscope for some time. Take that into consideration when you ponder this adventure.
We may be stirring up the pot here a bit, but Boeing still appears to be having issues. There have been big management changes, for example: recently, many employees have been divulging problems with quality and how they’re being treated by Boeing. Additionally, there have been considerable layoffs because of that. Not a pretty picture.
So, you might want to consider a solid and versatile alternative. For us, that’s AirTransat. We prefer Airbus, planes by far, and AirTransat use them. There are reasons that we like to promote AirTransat when it comes to flying. See below.
Separate of Noel’s adventure, we always choose AirTransat. Airbus planes, flexible booking options. Click, excellent safety record. Click here.
Separate of Noel’s adventure, we always choose AirTransat when we can. Safe, Airbus planes, flexible booking options and an, excellent safety record. They even have holiday packages. Click here. And, by the way, the opinions in this post are ours, and not necessarily reflective of other writers.