Extra, Extra
Extra, Extra
Extra, Extra
Extra, Extra
Early Addition
If you want to feel a little uncomfortable about how the Federal Aviation Administration is doing its job, read today's NY Times story about a near-miss at LaGuardia. Two weeks ago, a Comair Delta 50-seater and a Delta 737 were within a "few hundred feet" of colliding. A trainee had allowed the smaller plane to cross the runway, just as the 737 was descending to the very same one:
As the 737, Flight 1238, rolled down the runway at more than 150 miles per hour, an alarm flashed on a radar screen in the tower and someone realized a dire mistake had been made, according to details provided by officials from the Federal Aviation Administration and the pilots’ and controllers’ unions. “No delay, no delay,” a controller shouted to the pilots of the regional jet, urging them to hurry across.Here's video. The National Transportation Safety Board doesn't usually investigate near misses, but they are investigating this one.The two pilots on Flight 1238 heard none of that, having tuned to a different frequency. But they saw the lumbering regional jet. They hit the brakes, pressing 52 passengers hard into their seat belts and three flight attendants into their seats. The two planes came within a few hundred feet of each other— a handful of seconds — radar records show.
This comes on the heels of complaints from the air traffic controllers' union and Senator Charles Schumer about how the FAA is handling contract negotiations and staffing. In this case, there was a veteran air traffic controller supervising the trainee, who had been promoted to LGA from a smaller airport (the FAA says staffing was not a cause of this near-miss). Schumer recently called for FAA chief Marion Blakely to resign, blaming her for the delays plaguing NYC-area airports.
add to digg
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
email this
add to facebook
add to del.icio.us
Hey everybody! Jen read a book two years ago!
Huh?
Anyway, that is pretty scary.
Gasbag Schumer at it again. I really should keep track of this myself, but I'm curious as to how many members of the Administration that Gasbag has demanded to resign. I understand politics is politics, but he should understand that his voice would have more clout if he were just a little more selective. Message to Gasbag, we get it, you don't like the Bush administration. Neither do we. Start making solutions, and stop gasbagging all the problems.
The "hide guest comments" link is pretty awesome.
Personally given the sheer amount of air traffic in this country and the rapid-pace schedules that airlines are constantly trying to keep up, it amazes me that this kind of stuff (or worse) doesn't happen more frequently.
The "hide guest comments" link is pretty awesome.
Since you won't see this, YOU SUCK.
Air traffic is back to pre-9/11 levels. Was Chuck on the FAA's back way back in 2000 when there were record delays at LaGuardia? Of course not. A Democrat was in the White House.
Considering what a screw up Bush was excluding Iraq, the Democrats still couldn't win in 2002 or 2004. It took the country's backlash against Iraq for them to win 2006 by default (the two sweetest words in the English language according to Homer Simpson: de-fault). And now they are pissing away whatever goodwill they had and are going to make the 2008 Presidential race uncomfortably close - just like Gore did in 2000. Anyway, as they say, when you can't legislate, Investigate!
agreed on hiding the guest comments.
i can't seem to find the video - is the link correct? if so, did they take it down, or do i just need to be a subscriber?
Sorry, janelle - I linked to the wrong thing. Video should work - it goes to NY Times Feedroom.
LaGuardia has gone through very few changes since DC-6s and Lockheed Constellations were its main visitors. It needs expansion (not going to happen due to environmental concerns) or a relief airport (Upstate Stewart is not going to cut it given its location). The simple solution is to reduce the number of flights, but that is something that is not going to happen.
hey everybody! #1 is a loser!
bradedward, #1 is talking about this book.
Looks like we need some airplane congestion pricing!
I feel like this incident was just on the broadcast news last week. (If this is not it, it was a story about an extremely similar incident.) At the time it was a passenger on the commuter jet that was blowing the whistle, and the FAA was calling it a "non-incident" that did not need to be investigated.
(re-reading my comment) Did I mention it was an "incident"?
The real reason for all the issues surrounding the delays with Air travel has to do with the sheer volume of flights being booked !As well as the current Airspace available to Planes . Remember A few years ago the Air routes were altered to accommodate local communities . Posted by; "Still Not Amused "