leadnews

Dramatic Photos Of Rumored No-Hydraulics Landing… Although no one in officialdom has publicly confirmed it, the landing of a DHL Airbus at Baghdad Airport after being hit by at least one surface-to-air missile last Nov. 22 has been rumored as one of last year’s most incredible feats of aviation. Extensive damage to the aircraft’s left […]

Capt. Dale Robin Hersh discovered the Brazilian authorities’ preferred level of etiquette after last Wednesday allegedly offering the middle-digit salute in response to Brazil’s new requirement that American visitors submit to photographs and fingerprinting … which is how Brazilians are welcomed to the U.S. under new security rules. Hersh’s alleged gesture (maybe that’s how he […]

A Shuttle America flight Friday was aiming for University Park Airport (UNV) in Pennsylvania, when it touched down at Mid-State Regional Airport (PSB). The airports are 11 nautical miles apart, offer identical runway orientation — 16/34 and 6/24 — with different layouts, and both fields are non-towered (a reminder to self-announce, listen AND look when […]

Making GA Look Good: Disruption In Philly… With CBS’s big eye glaring last week at GA as a security risk, you’d think all pilots might be on their best behavior — it doesn’t appear to have worked out that way. When authorities finally arrested John Salamone after chasing him for four hours around Philadelphia-area skies, […]

An opinion piece by John Lott, of the American Enterprise Institute, ran in the press in various forms last week, on the op-ed pages of The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, and elsewhere. Lott argues that commercial aviation needs more armed pilots, and quickly. “The Bush administration has done what it can to […]

The TSA has apparently disqualified many pilots who apply. “The screening is subjective,” Darling said, “and in our view, many qualified pilots are not being allowed into the program.” Some pilots also have complained about a lengthy and time-consuming application process, an invasive psychological exam, and the requirement to pay their own travel expenses to […]

Guns Scarce In Cockpits… Heads of European aviation agencies will meet in Brussels tomorrow to discuss whether they want to allow armed sky marshals on commercial flights, but meanwhile, some U.S. pilots trying to go a step further — carrying their own (approved) weapons in the cockpit — are finding it a slow and painful […]

It is a possibility that Congress could decide to appropriate zero funding for GA, despite the provisions of the reauthorization bill. The upside (no, not really) is that decision would maintain the perfect zero-funding record held by all other GA relief bills that have wandered in and out of Congress for the past two years, […]

Congress (unlike the rest of us) is still in recess, but will be back in session Jan. 20. The appropriations process is high on the agenda, but is nonetheless likely to drag on through the session, and even through the summer. “We’d be lucky to get an appropriations bill passed by October,” Eric Byer, director […]

A Simple Question — Where Is That $100 Million For GA?… Last month, President Bush signed into law the FAA’s four-year reauthorization bill, which included, among many other items, $100 million in relief to GA businesses hurt by the airspace restrictions following 9/11. But, in the words of one Washington insider, nobody should start planning […]