SHAME ON ALL OF YOU!!

AERO-NEWS Network ^ | May 13, 2005 | Kevin R.C. "Hognose" O'Brien

[bvw]

The small plane incident was handled pretty well, very well. What is not so well is all the panicky caterwalling after -- the attacks on civil aviation, specifically.

[cynicom]

The airlines would love to have civil aviation confined to Montana only.

[arasina]

Excuse me, but this isn't the first time unadulterated PARANOIA has occurred at The White House. (And this time the reaction has a very reasonable precedent...can you say 9/11/01?)

White House Intruder's Gun Was Empty

"It was the latest in a string of security problems during the Clinton presidency, including a small plane crashing on the White House grounds and a man firing at the front of the mansion with a semiautomatic rifle."

[samtheman]

Repeat: A Cessna 150 does not a warplane make. Stop the hysterics, already. Please. Grow up!

Repeat: Any plane loaded with bioweapons is a warplane. Size doesn't matter. In fact, a smaller, slower plane might even be more effective at delivering bios into a crowd with maximum effectiveness.

But thank you for avoiding my points and simply calling me names instead. That makes you so much more grown up than me. Really, I thank you for the name-calling. Please continue.

[samtheman]

the instructor considered himself lost it would seem to me that it would be prudent to turn on the radio, yes?

Good point. This plane was operated unsafely, and is the cause of whatever problems ensued.

[bvw]

Be a man, Sam! Use the common sense G-d gave you. It is the stupidest way to deliver such weapons over DC. It is way too obvious, easily shot down and has no fall back, no back up.

Any motor vehicle, some pvc tubing, black paint, duct-tape and a $40 K-mart fan will do better and survive doing so far longer. With some biologicals -- anthrax included -- folks won't even notice until the vehicle is long gone.

Please don't call for banning duct tape and K-mart fans!

[Brett66]

If the terrorists wanted a test on whetheror not a small airplane could deliver a nuclear device to the heart of DC, I think they know the answer to that now.

[OldFriend]

There had been a previous discussion about flying between two no fly zones.

One think for a quick fly over the countryside, quite another to fly into such 'dangerous waters' so to speak and then not have the communication line open.

NO EXCUSE

The powers that be must punish this stupidity.

If the runaway bride is going to be fined for the cost of her search, then surely this instructor needs to be fined, big time, for the costs to our government for his disregard for safety.

[rattrap]

Finally a voice of reason. Thanks

[auboy]

Thanks for the suggestion. I plugged in my zip code and easily located where I live (okay, living on a rural river/lake makes it a lot easier). BTW, does flying without instruments include not using a compass?

[samtheman]

It is the stupidest way to deliver such weapons over DC.

Stand down, men. Everybody knows --- especially all those experts on Free Republic --- that this is the stupidest way to deliver a weapon. So at ease, men. Go on liberty. Forget you ever saw an unauthorized aircraft in restricted airspace.

(Oh yeah. That's the way it should happen. Right.)

[samtheman]

Please don't call for banning duct tape and K-mart fans!

Greetings from Earth. On this planet, we already have a ban on flights over Washington DC airspace. No one here on earth is calling for such a ban, since it already exits.

Are you saying we should lift the ban? If not, based on all your arguments so far, why not?

[HairOfTheDog]

The writer is too hyper to be logical.

[HairOfTheDog]

The small plane incident was handled pretty well, very well. What is not so well is all the panicky caterwalling after

I couldn't agree more. This incident went exactly as it should have. It was a success. It's too easy for people to forget that in their zeal to find fault.

[samtheman]

bvw:

Try to calm down and think about this:

One think for a quick fly over the countryside, quite another to fly into such 'dangerous waters' so to speak and then not have the communication line open. NO EXCUSE The powers that be must punish this stupidity. If the runaway bride is going to be fined for the cost of her search, then surely this instructor needs to be fined, big time, for the costs to our government for his disregard for safety.---OldFriend

Please explain to me (without getting so excited) how OldFriend is wrong here.

[bvw]

Yes. Lift the ban. Not that a high priority -- secure the borders first, get all the "undocumented" vistors into some accounting and checking out next. Further win the war on terror. Lift the airspace ban over the Beltway.

Lifting THAT airspace ban might well be the kicker that motivates all the rest. Let the Beltway know they are no more protected than the rest of us while the borders are wide-open, illegal vistors allowed free-roam and the war on terror is un-won.

[Ditter]

Yeah! Ain't hindsight great?

[HairOfTheDog]

Well, that doesn't make any sense.... I agree with the airspace restrictions, just like restrictions over any other military base or command area.

I just don't think anything needs to be necessarily re-written by knee-jerks after this successful practice run. It was good practice for US, not them. Any tweaking that needs to be done with procedures will be done by cooler heads than are found here.

[toddlintown]

"Oh, really? Not even with anthrax, or sarin, or ricin, or whatever?"

Exactly. What might have happened if the plane had started dumping the stuff all over the area?

If that would have happened, the Bush critics would have been all over security for not having shot down the plane.

P.S. I find it disturbing the Brit Hume also seems to have the same ho-hum attitude towards a Cessna flying into the Capital or White House.

Back to watching the moron Biden bloviate.

[bvw]

Why should the Runaway Bride be fined at all? People wander off, grooms and brides-to-be scoot away in the days right before -- it was the choice of the authorities to mount a search, Willibanks did not request it, nor could she or anyone else in her shoes prior to that circus have reasonably forseen all the official interest in that kind of a case. The normal course of events in such cases -- and they happen every day -- is much quieter and private.

The fine, as best I understand, is ridiculous. Mob hysteria.