I can’t help with the first part of your questions but here’s a great website that gives all sorts of information about seating.

http://www.seatguru.com/

Air Florida did it too on there 737-200’s

Unfortunatly, the day they decided to do it, the 737 ended up in the Potomac river in Washington DC.

Along with various other factors, The Tug couldnt get suffiecient grip to push back, so the captain opened up the reverse thrust to help out, blowing snow and slush on the wings that had been de-iced, but not in line with the regulations.. The snow and ice refroze onto the wings. The plane took off, adopted a tail heavy attitude, causing it to stall, the 737 hit the potomac bridge killing several people in cars befor going into the river! out of the 100 or so passengers and crew aboard, only 4/5 survived.

Not quite. From the NTSB report:

Witnesses estimated that both engines were operated in reverse thrust for a period of 30 to 90 seconds. During this time, several Air Florida and American Airlines personnel observed snow and/or slush being blown toward the front of the aircraft. One witness stated that he saw water swirling at the base of the left (No. 1) engine inlet.

Several Air Florida personnel stated that they saw an area of snow on the ground melted around the left engine for a radius ranging,from 6 to 15 feet. No one observed a similar melted area under the right (No. 2) engine.
When the use of reverse thrust proved unsuccessful in moving the aircraft back, the engines were shut down with the reversers deployed. The same American Airlines mechanic that had inspected both engine intakes upon completion of the deicing/anti-icing operation performed another general examination of both engines. He stated that he saw no ice or snow at that time. Air Florida and American Airlines Personnel standing near the aircraft after the aircraft’s engines were shut down stated that they did not see any water, slush, snow, or ice on the wings.

The official findings state that using reverse for backing up wasn’t authorized and that blowing snow may have adhered to the aircraft (even though none was observed). The biggest factor that aircraft lead to the accident was the blockage of the engine inlet pressure probe which lead to each engine producing nearly 4,000 lbs of thrust less than expected. The crew had not selected the anti-ice heat, which included heating of the engine inlet pressure probe, in heavy snow.

ExpressJet Airlines (Continental Express actually) developed the plug-type door for the EMB-135/145 back in ’97-’98. So their whole fleet is jetbridge capable. A few other operators in the US have opted to modify their ERJ’s as well but none to the extent of XJT.

For those that still have the airstairs (both ERJ and CRJ) they use a small ramp/bridge to lay from the jetbridge to the aircraft which allows deplaning similar to other aircraft.

From what I’ve seen in the US the CRJ operators rarely opt to use jetbridges and just board passengers from the ramp level up the airstairs. It seems only those airports where that isn’t an option do they opt for the jetbridge.

The rest of the EMB family only use jetbridges.

There aren’t too many -146 operators left in the US. Mesaba (Northwest Airlink) just got ride of theirs and from what I saw they always used a jetbridge.

I disagree. The Airbus is also on the verge of stall below an altitude a recovery can be made. They both were pushing the aircraft to the limits without leaving a decent margin of error. All it would take would be an electrical power surge, a gust of wind, a change of wind direction, wind shear such as an invisible dust devil, power surge, a bird strike, a minor miscalculation of the pilot, a slip of the controls, a minor failure, ect… stall-crash-explode-burn.

How in the world can you tell that the Airbus was “on the verge of a stall”? Seriously, you need to tone down the over dramatization of the event. Your list of possible catastrophic outcomes is the same junk we see on the evening news when some local thinks they have all the answers regarding an aviation event. Rarely, if ever, are modern airliners on such a razor’s edge of performance that a nearby cow fart could bring it down.

I think the only portion of the event that is rightfully drawing attention was the high bank angle turn at a low altitude.

Don’t United pilots have shares in the company

Most companies offer stock to their employees at a small discount and the airlines are no exception. You might be referring to the ESOP that UA emloyees had in the late 90’s, early ’00s. ESOP = Employee Stock Ownership Program or something like that. By buying enough shares the pilot group got a seat on the Board of Directors. Unfortunately the plan failed miserably after the airline collapse post 9/11 and I believe now the ESOP has been eliminated since.

Not only parcels, UPS used to carry passengers, not many people know that. Between 1997 and 2001, UPS used 727 QC’s on the weekend for people carrying. A great potted history of the company is below.

http://www.airliners.net/articles/read.main?id=66

I remember seeing a UPS 727 parked at the terminal (I can’t remember what airport it was) and thinking how out of place it seemed.

I think I read somewhere that the airframe was 3 months old. They’ve also called off the search for the aircraft.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/05/05/kenya.plane/index.html