A dozen planes violate no-fly zone around Bush event

[sabra]

Source: Baltimore Sun

Federal Aviation Administration officials said a dozen planes violated a temporary airspace restriction yesterday in Emmitsburg while President Bush was speaking at the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial and could face sanctions.

The FAA is considering disciplinary action against the pilots, officials said. All the pilots are expected to be interviewed and could face license suspensions, said Holly Baker, a spokeswoman for the FAA.

All the planes drifted within 30 miles of where the president was speaking, a no-fly zone that also included Camp David. Four of the planes were escorted out of the area by F-16s.

Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-faa1008,0,3102866.story

[Stephanie]

1. 30 miles?

The Crawford Coward needs 30 miles of clear skies before he'll set foot outside of his hidey hole.

[Benhurst]

2. Thirty miles seems reasonable. After all, the "ranch" is a working

pig farm. Nervous pigs make stringy bacon.

[BridgeTheGap]

12. I hate that stringy bacon!

Makes a terrible blt

[Xipe Totec]

8. 30 miles seems small

considering how popular he is these days.

[trusty elf]

9. I recall that after 9-11, smircus maximus appeared at a baseball game

to throw the first pitch. Of course, he must have been surrounded by a multitude of heavily armed guards.

I heard a tape of his saying "I'm so confident of the securities condition, I've came."

[tom_paine]

3. All Tyrannical Dictators, knowing they are mostly hated among their subjects

ALWAYS have much greater protections than the freely-elected Leaders of Free Nations.

Always. It's why the Bushies whacked the Kennedys so easily and why no one will ever get close enough to whack Bush, and why no one but his most trusted generals could get close enough to whack Hitler, and this only after eleven years of Bushie/Nazi Madness.

NOTE TO HOMELAND SECURITY THUGS MONITORING DU: I am NOT advocating that Bushler be whacked. You all know as well as I do that it would probably be a triggering for the Bush Final Solutions to the Liberal Problem, whatever those may turn out to be they will likely be as ugly as Commie China. So, Bushler should not have a hair on his murderous, criminal head harmed, except in the unlikely event he is convicted and pays for his crimes legally, like Saddam.

[Massachusetts]

5. You don't owe the SS (Hoe Land Security), any explanation!

Free Speech!!!!!!!!!

[aquart]

11. Or if lightning strikes him out of a clear blue sky.

Which I would take as a sign.

[tom_paine]

13. If only God worked that way, but God didn't kill Hitler with a bolt of lightning

therefore I postuulate that God will not kill Bush, either.

[aquart]

15. Damn.

Personally, I feel betrayed.

[tom_paine]

17. LOL, so did twelve million Jews, gays, Poles and gypsies.

I imagine a lot of atheists came shambling out of those horror factories.

[slampoet]

23. and don't forget the catholics in that total. Most people do.

[aquart]

24. Not true.

Because a survivor needs someone to thank. Because the unreasonable imprisonment only increases the value of the faith that was denied. And the determination to practice it.

And because the survivors most typically were those who helped others, and banded together to keep as many of them as they could alive. Altruists stop shambling as soon as they have decent nutrition.

What happened after 9/11? I remember crying with thankfulness because our ancient churches remained standing. And I'm not a Christian. I still visit St. Paul's when I'm downtown.

I've always thought the biggest problem Christians have is forgiving God for his sins and not the other way around.

[flordehinojos]

4. were they in essence taunting the pretzident?

i love them for what they did. i only wish they could have gotten to within eye-seeing distance of said pretzident!

Bravo Brave Men who commandeered the air even if within 30 miles of eye-seeing contact of the yellow coward skunk who passes himself for the pretzident of what has become this here land of oz these days by yellow skunk mandate.

[Heywood J]

6. No wonder air delays are hitting records

if he has to have a thirty mile security cordon. Imagine if he came near JFK or LAX... Hundreds of planes grounded until he was done. You know he'd do it on some kind of power trip, even if it wasn't necessary. "Whee! Look at me! I can make the shiney planes do what I want!"

[sybylla]

22. A friend of my was flying out of Minneapolis at the end of August

and the chimperor decided he needed to visit there. Her plane was at the end of the runway ready for takeoff and they stopped it. Essentially shut down the whole airport. It was two hours before they were allowed to take off. She arrived in Philly 5 minutes late to catch her connecting flight to Europe. The chimps landing caused her a total 26 hour delay.

[Festivito]

7. Antique planes, no radios, on way to show...

They did not know.

And, is that 30 miles from BOTH Emmitsburg AND Camp David? Sounds like that would cover a lot of territory.

They seem more worried than ever. Makes me wonder if even the Secret Service will revolt. At some point they won't be able to pay or threaten people enough to protect him if what I've garnered is half true.

[Heywood J]

10. "Sounds like that would cover a lot of territory."

Each of those no-fly zones, if it's a circle around him with radius of 30 miles, would have an area of 2827 square miles. Times two.

[Trillo]

14. I'd love to have no airplanes or helicopters flying overhead, too.

Makes for a more quiet and peaceful day.

However, it seems at least somewhat unreasonable to have a temporary no fly zone. WTF do pilots do? Buy a new map good only for each day they fly?

[JohnyCanuck]

16. "WTF do pilots do? Buy a new map good only for each day they fly?"

They should have checked for NOTAMs before departure

NOTAM is the quasi-acronym for a "Notice To Airmen". NOTAMs are created and transmitted by government agencies under guidelines specified by Annex 15: Aeronautical Information Services of the Convention on International Civil Aviation. A NOTAM is filed with an aviation authority to alert aircraft pilots of any hazards en route or at a specific location. The authority in turn provides means of disseminating relevant NOTAMs to pilots.

NOTAMs are issued (and reported) for a number of reasons, such as:

* hazards such as air-shows and parachute jumps
* flights by important people such as heads of state
* closed runways
* inoperable radio navigational aids
* military exercises with resulting airspace restrictions
* inoperable lights on tall obstructions
* temporary erection of obstacles near airfields (e.g. cranes)
* passage of flocks of birds through airspace (a NOTAM in this category is known as a BIRDTAM)
* software code risk announcements with associated patches to reduce specific vulnerabilities

Aviation authorities typically exchange NOTAMs over AFTN circuits.

Software is available to allow pilots to identify NOTAMs near their intended route or at the intended destination

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOTAM

[Aviation Pro]

18. Geez, why is Wikipedia so stuffy?

Just go here: http://www.duat.com

or here:

http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/notams.html

[DemoTex]

19. Eggs-actly, JohnyC!

"The planes were headed to a benefit for the Experimental Aircraft Association and the Hagerstown Aviation Museum and apparently were unaware of the restriction, in part because they are antiques and carried no radios."

Sorry, folks. The lack of radios does not change the pilots' responsibility to properly prepare for flight. That preparation includes, among many other things, checking the weather and pertinent NOTAMS.

These pilots may have themselves a FAR 91.7 violation (Dangerous and Reckless Flying).

[BrklynLib at work]

20. Too bad those F16s weren't as efficient on 9/11/01

[Vinca]

21. Curious, isn't it? nt