As promised, here are some pictures from my unexpected stopover in an Omaha airport maintenance hangar after a bomb threat diverted my flight from Vegas to Hartford. We didn't take too many, and were trying to be discreet about it since we didn't want anyone to take our camera. There are a few more in the Flickr set.

AP: Threat Forces Flight to Land in Omaha. I was on this flight, on my way home for Christmas from Reno. I was originally happy that we found a nonstop, non-redeye flight from Las Vegas to Hartford, but it turned into a redeye flight with a stop in an Omaha airport hangar.

Because the threat was made by a drunk person who didn't make the flight (according to the pilot), no one in the plane panicked, and we were mostly annoyed at the delay. They landed our plane in a remote part of the airfield, at the far end of which were waiting tens of emergency vehicles and police cars, I guess in case we exploded. They must not have been that concerned, since we waited in the plane nearly an hour for them to pull up some steps so we could deplane. It was 10 degrees in Nebraska, but they had buses ready to take us to the hangar.

We were treated kindly by Southwest staff, and given water and snacks. After asking us as a group a few vague questions ("Do you know a Janet?"), they bused us back into the plane, which refueled at a gate and continued onto Hartford. Generally, the whole experience was boring and tiring. Not quite Die Hard II.

I have a few pictures, which I'll post when I get a chance.

Today's Review-Journal has an article on an FAA proposal to divert flights departing McCarran airport to fly over different parts of the city. The purpose of the plan is to increase the efficiency of departures out of the Las Vegas airport, which is the sixth-busiest passenger airport in the nation.

In the proposal, upscale neighborhoods such as parts of Summerlin and North Las Vegas would be under the new flight path, and so these communities are obviously unhappy about the plans. Of course, the parts of Vegas that unfairly share the brunt of air traffic (the east for arrivals, the southwest for departures) don't have the wealth nor representation of areas such as Summerlin. I see the plan as a necessary step for a city that desires to have such an important airport smack in the middle of their city.

And I mean right in the middle. As you can see in the Google Maps snapshot above, the airport is immediately adjacent to the Las Vegas Strip, and is surrounded by UNLV and residential/commercial areas on the other sides (not pictured). This may have made sense decades ago when the center of Las Vegas was many miles north, but since then the casinos and hotels have developed south towards the airport (to avoid city taxes -- most of the Strip is in unicorporated Clark County, not the city of Las Vegas). I can literally see the airport from where I live if I walk on my street, but since I'm out of the flight path I almost hear no noise, just the occassional engine rearing up.

Las Vegas is growing, and the airport is only getting bigger, so I wonder why there isn't a movement to build a new airport outside of the valley where there's nothing but desert. Even from out there, one could get to the Strip within 20 minutes, which is better than average for airports in large cities. Certainly this would cost a nontrivial amount, but I imagine that the removal of McCarran airport could do wonders for urban planning in this city (if there is any).