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Happy Monday

This week's travel news is packed with a crumbling mountain road, exploding volcanoes, and how an technology can save your lost or stolen luggage.

🚗  Wyoming Woes  
🌋  Volcanic Fury
😱  Pilotless Panic?
⌚ Apple Watch to the Rescue and More…

🚀⏰ Grab Your Boarding Pass, Let’s Go…

| Weekly Travel Tidbit

World's Highest Railway Station: Tanggula Station in China sits a staggering 16,627 ft. above sea level, making it the highest railway station in the world.

“Your Dose of Travel IQ”

| Mountain Road Calamity  

Wyoming's Twisting Teton Pass Crumbles Into Gaping Chasm

A vital commuter highway connecting Idaho towns to the Jackson Hole resort area has met an untimely demise. A large section of the serpentine Teton Pass road in Wyoming collapsed this weekend, leaving a massive crevice. This road is the main artery used by many Idaho residents commuting to their Wyoming workplaces.

Jaw-dropping drone footage shows the shredded pavement where the mountain road simply...disappeared. Engineers are assessing the geological nightmare as officials scramble for detour routes over 60 miles out of the way.

• It's a commuting calamity that's leaving regional travelers feeling the ground has fallen out from under them!

Emergency: Gov. Mark Gordon signed an executive order declaring an emergency, which his office said would help the state access additional resources from the Federal Highway Administration to begin repair work.

🚗 🏞️ Vital transportation artery for over 2,500 Idaho workers commuting daily to jobs in Teton County, Wyoming

💼 ⚠️ 15% of Teton County's total workforce impacted, disrupting businesses and services

🏔️ 💸 Tourism impact feared with Teton County generating over 1/3 of Wyoming's travel tax revenue in 2022

🚌⏳ Alternative commuter bus route now takes 2 hours instead of 45 minutes

| A Scary Situation

The Nightmare Scenario: When Both Pilots Are Out

Ever shudder at the thought of both pilots suddenly becoming incapacitated mid-flight?

A viral TikTok video from @pilotpete.fly offers a fascinating peek behind the curtain. A passenger successfully landing the plane is highly unlikely, the pilot explains the crucial first step: communicate with air traffic control for emergency assistance using the radio.

Studies show in-flight pilot incapacitation is incredibly rare. But, not impossible due to medical emergencies or intense psychological stress.

• A survey last year found half of men think they could pull it off with a little help. Hold on there, Mavericks, those Microsoft Flight Simulator hours don't exactly translate to real-world experience.

Weekly trip around the world

"Your passport to the latest travel news around the world!"

✈️🌋🚨 A powerful eruption from Mount Kanlaon, one of the Philippines' most active volcanoes, sent a massive ash plume into the sky on Monday night. Over 700 residents fled to evacuation camps as authorities raised the alert level. The eruption forced evacuations in nearby areas, with no casualties reported yet.

🇮🇸🔥🌊 Iceland's got a fiery temper! A volcano near Grindavík just unleashed another eruption, spewing lava over 160 feet high. This is the strongest blast out of five eruptions in the area since December, forcing the evacuation of the town and the famous Blue Lagoon geothermal spa.

Apple Watch Exposes Airport Employee's Sticky Fingers

Airline passenger, Paola Garcia, used her Apple Watch to track down her stolen luggage containing valuable items like a MacBook and jewelry.

Her luggage went missing after she checked it in with Spirit Airlines at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Garcia's Apple Watch pinged the location of her belongings at an airport worker's home. The worker, Junior Bazile, an employee of Paradise Shops at the airport, was caught on CCTV rummaging through the luggage.

• He was subsequently arrested and charged with grand theft. Spirit Airlines reimbursed Garcia but denied any involvement of their employees in the theft.

  • Checkout history's most audacious airport heists, worth millions in diamonds and cash.

"They're Going Out of Business"

Spirit Airlines CEO Ted Christie maintains bankruptcy is "off the table" and the carrier is "encouraged" by plans to eliminate fees and bundle perks in a more customer-friendly model post-JetBlue bid.

United CEO Scott Kirby blasted Spirit and Frontier's "fundamentally flawed" mistreatment of customers. Kirby predicted the ultra-low-cost carriers' demise, slamming policies like excessive bag fees, stating "The customers hate it...they're going out of business" due to poor service that won't retain flyers.

• List of U.S. Airline Bankruptcies since 1980 is wild 🫢 

| News Travels Fast

Quick Trip Roundup 🧳🚀

Quick travel news & updates for your weary, jet-lagged mind.

• ✈️🔄 Left side or right? The weird reason planes always board this way will surprise you.

• 🏆🛫 Dallas/Fortworth tops the list as worst airport with discputions, see the rest of the list.

• 🚶‍♂️🇨🇳 Hiker discovers China's "greatest waterfall" powered by a pipe dream.

• 🚗🔧 Motor City eyesore to tech haven: Ford restores Detroits century-old train station which opened in 1913 and closed in 1988.

• 🏙️🇺🇸 Pie-in-The-Sky Idea: Developers plan to build America's tallest skyscraper in this unlikely city?

• 🎢😙 Disney and Florida have kissed and made up after a fight over a law. Disney can now expand its Florida theme park, $17 billion.

| You Gotta SEA This

• 👣🗺️😲 The oldest known human footprints in North America have been discovered at White Sands National Park in New Mexico.

| This Day in Travel History

June 10, 1869, the Transcontinental Railroad was completed, linking the eastern U.S. with the west. This reduced cross-country travel from several months to one week, revolutionizing American travel and commerce.

| Travel Stock Performance

The STAYnTELL travel pulse. Stay up-to date each with the the Top Travel Gainer and Loser for the week.

LAST WEEK’S TOP GAINER & LOSER

* Prices as of June 7th, 5:00 PM EST

| Thanks For Reading & Refer Your Friends

We've reached our destination, we hope you found our weekly flight through the news enjoyable. See you in the clouds ⛅