Aloha Airlines, the Hawaiian inter-island carrier, has stopped all flights and is going out of business. The airline is a victim of the rising price of jet fuel and a fierce price war. Hawaiian Airlines willaccommodate passengers who already hold tickets on Aloha Airlines, but only through tomorrow. Both Aloha and Hawaiian Air have been posting losses since the launch in 2006 of discount airline Go!.

USA Today story about Aloha

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I find it very easy to relax on a Hawaiian vacation. There is something about that tropics that de-stresses me. Maybe this also happens with airline pilots. How else could you explain a recent incident where a plane flying to Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii forgot to land.

It’s one thing for passengers on a short flight to grab 40 winks.
But it’s quite another for both the captain and his co-pilot to take a power nap at 21,000 feet.

Last night, two pilots were accused of falling asleep at the controls of a passenger jet and overshooting the airport by 15 miles.

Going, going, gone: The pilots overshot the Hilo airport runway by 15 miles

The aircraft was left on auto-pilot as the crew went off the radar and the jet drifted off course over the Pacific.

The captain and his co-pilot have been grounded and are under investigation for allegedly snoozing through 11 calls from air traffic controllers desperate to reach them.

When the skipper finally picked up a call and was asked by a panicked controller if there was anything wrong, he responded: “Uh, no emergency situation.”

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One of the things that I have always liked about the Hilo side of the big island of Hawaii is that it gets more rain so it is more lush than the Kona side of the island. Unfortunately, Hilo has apparently been getting quite a lot of rain recently as is evident from this video.

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