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http://pages.prodigy.net/rockaway/newsletter494.htm

Aviation Conspiracy Newsletter 
#494...............................................................................August 
17,  2008 Past newsletters can be accessed at: 
http://pages.prodigy.net/rockaway/ACNewsmenu.htm  If you want to get the 
newsletter sent to you every week, sign up to AviationWatch. Bill Mulcahy 
rockaway@prodigy.net

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Quote of the Week:  "marks consistent with rubbing of elevator control 
cables" and a broken railing that "impinged upon elevator control cables." 
excerpt from a preliminary NTSB report on the condition of Midwest Airlines 
plane that reported an emergency with Barak Obama on board

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FAA Lied About Obama Plane Emergency!!!

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 As Bill Sees It (Editorial): FAA Lied About Obama Plane Pilot Having 
Declared An Emergency!!!  Once again the FAA has shown what bold-faced liars 
the are when last month they claimed that there was no emergency declared by 
the pilot of a plane carrying Barak Obama. The FAA waited a MONTH before it 
admitted that they initially lied and only told the truth after ABC News 
pressured them on it!!! It seems that lying to protect the airlines on 
safety issues is the standard knee-jerk reaction of the FAA bosses and 
another reason why congress must clean house with this corrupt agency. 
Unfortunately, the congress itself is just as, if not more, corrupt than the 
FAA itself; which is why the FAA gets away with their contemptuous treatment 
of communities for years. Of course all FAA corruption can't be blamed on 
"our" corporate bought politicians. Most of them know if they dared to 
criticize the FAA their constituents would suddenly get a flight route over 
their heads.

Five States Prepare For Legal Suit Against The FAA!!! A story this week 
revealed that the FAA has managed to get all the organizations in 12 
northeast states lawsuits combined into one. Now they only have one court to 
corrupt. They plan to file their legal brief Aug. 29 with the U.S. Court of 
Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. I will report on any news 
about it.

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New Airspace Redesign Scheme Questions!!! With communities and groups across 
five states preparing their combined legal attack on a federal plan to 
redesign airspace in the New York-to-Philadelphia region, a leading opponent 
of the plan injected two new issues into the dispute. Rudy Marconi, chairman 
of the Alliance for Sensible Airspace Planning and first selectman of 
Ridgefield, Conn., said the Federal Aviation Administration needs to look 
again at how badly the changes are needed now that high fuel costs have 
forced airlines to cancel flights and scale back service. What's more, 
Marconi and others said, the FAA never considered how flight routes would be 
affected by Stewart International Airport, which the Port Authority of New 
York and New Jersey took control of last year, planning to convert the 
Orange County airfield into a regional airport. "We feel that the FAA ... 
has not fully exhausted nor studied all the alternatives and, more 
importantly, has not taken into consideration today's economy and fuel cost, 
which will have a huge effect on air travel," Marconi said. The alliance, 
which includes 12 Fairfield County, Conn., communities and the Westchester 
town of Pound Ridge, is one of the groups that sued the FAA after the agency 
approved the redesign in September. Rockland County also sued, as did 10 
other communities and organizations. The FAA successfully sought to have the 
12 cases heard together in one court. Lawyers for the communities and 
organizations in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and 
Delaware, plan to file their legal brief Aug. 29 with the U.S. Court of 
Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The FAA proposed the redesign 
of the airspace - among the most congested skies in the country - as a way 
to cut flight delays by 20 percent in the New York area while saving 23 
million gallons of airplane fuel and hundreds of millions of dollars for 
airlines in operating expenses each year. The change is also expected to 
benefit the environment by cutting carbon dioxide emissions. 
http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008808170330

Obama Plane Nearly Crashed!!! WASHINGTON, Aug. 15 (UPI) -- Federal Aviation 
Administration tapes reveal an incident involving U.S. presidential hopeful 
Barack Obama's plane was more serious than first indicated. FAA tower tapes 
contradict information the agency released a month ago indicating the pilot 
of the Illinois senator's campaign plane did not declare an emergency, ABC 
News reported. However, the tower tapes indicate the pilot, discovering he 
no longer fully controlled the plane's up-and-down movements, told an FAA 
air traffic controller "at this time we would like to declare an emergency 
and also have (crash equipment) standing by in St. Louis." An FAA 
spokesperson told ABC Thursday its "no emergency" statement issued when the 
incident occurred was wrong and based on erroneous reports from FAA air 
traffic managers. "We later learned there was an emergency declared," FAA 
spokeswoman Elizabeth Cory said. Obama's plane, an MD-81 chartered from 
Midwest Airlines, was diverted to St. Louis shortly after departing Chicago 
on July 7. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the 
incident. In a preliminary report, the NTSB said it detected "marks 
consistent with rubbing of elevator control cables" and a broken railing 
that "impinged upon elevator control cables." A spokesperson for Midwest 
said the company would not comment on the incident while the NTSB 
investigation is underway. Editor's Note: Of course Midwest is not going to 
make a comment. Better to wait a year or more after the incident is long 
forgotten. 
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Politics/Story?id=5581453&page=2

addthis_pub = 'upi'; 'Lap Children' At Risk In Flight: Adults traveling with 
babies may have no idea how dangerous it is to allow infants and toddlers to 
fly on commercial airline flights as "lap children."  The Federal Aviation 
Administration and the airlines don't require babies and children under age 
2 to travel in child safety seats, primarily for cost reasons. In August 
2005, the FAA said, "Analyses showed that if forced to purchase an extra 
airline ticket, families might choose to drive, a statistically more 
dangerous way to travel." At that time, FAA administrator Marion Blakely 
said, "Statistics show that families are safer traveling in the sky than on 
the road."  But the FAA has acknowledged the inherent danger: While most 
parents would do anything for their child - including holding on for dear 
life in an airborne emergency - the simple fact is they can't always hold 
onto the child. That's because commercial aircraft are designed to withstand 
tremendous G-forces, but humans are not. And therefore a 25-pound baby could 
easily weigh three or four times that amount when a parent is struggling to 
hold onto it during an emergency, let alone dealing with impact, smoke or 
fire.  In addition, a baby strapped inside a parent's seat belt can be 
crushed by the parent's weight during an emergency. 
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_10216991

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                                Important Aviation News Stories This Week

New Issues Raised In Airspace Redesign Flight-Plan Dispute!!! 
http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008808170330

With communities and groups across five states preparing their combined 
legal attack on a federal plan to redesign airspace in the New 
York-to-Philadelphia region, a leading opponent of the plan injected two new 
issues into the dispute.

Rudy Marconi, chairman of the Alliance for Sensible Airspace Planning and 
first selectman of Ridgefield, Conn., said the Federal Aviation 
Administration needs to look again at how badly the changes are needed now 
that high fuel costs have forced airlines to cancel flights and scale back 
service.

What's more, Marconi and others said, the FAA never considered how flight 
routes would be affected by Stewart International Airport, which the Port 
Authority of New York and New Jersey took control of last year, planning to 
convert the Orange County airfield into a regional airport.

"We feel that the FAA ... has not fully exhausted nor studied all the 
alternatives and, more importantly, has not taken into consideration today's 
economy and fuel cost, which will have a huge effect on air travel," Marconi 
said.

The alliance, which includes 12 Fairfield County, Conn., communities and the 
Westchester town of Pound Ridge, is one of the groups that sued the FAA 
after the agency approved the redesign in September. Rockland County also 
sued, as did 10 other communities and organizations.

The FAA successfully sought to have the 12 cases heard together in one 
court. Lawyers for the communities and organizations in New York, 
Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, plan to file their legal 
brief Aug. 29 with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia 
Circuit.

The FAA proposed the redesign of the airspace - among the most congested 
skies in the country - as a way to cut flight delays by 20 percent in the 
New York area while saving 23 million gallons of airplane fuel and hundreds 
of millions of dollars for airlines in operating expenses each year. The 
change is also expected to benefit the environment by cutting carbon dioxide 
emissions.

An FAA spokeswoman said the agency could not comment on matters under 
litigation and did not respond to Marconi's specific complaints.

Many Rockland residents fear that the 300 to 400 planes that would be routed 
over the county on their way to Newark Liberty International Airport each 
day would mar their quality of life with noise and pollution.

But the plan may give some Westchester residents a bit of noise relief. 
Flights that now head south over the county's skies to La Guardia Airport on 
the north shore of Queens would be redirected over Fairfield County.

"Potentially, there could be some relief there," said John Inserra, noise 
abatement officer with Westchester County Airport. "On paper, yes, it looks 
like they'll be getting some relief."

In June, he said, the county received 72 complaints about noise from 
airplanes that were not headed to or coming from Westchester County Airport. 
Most of those, Inserra said, were bound for La Guardia. But he said it is 
unclear what impacts the changes would bring. The county has hired a 
Massachusetts consultant, Harris Miller Miller & Hanson, to determine how 
Westchester residents would be affected. The county is not involved in any 
lawsuit over the plan, said Susan Tolchin, chief adviser to County Executive 
Andrew Spano.

Marconi said that, because of the uncertainty, Westchester should not take 
comfort in the plan.

Officials of Pound Ridge, on the Connecticut border in the northeast corner 
of Westchester, expect the noise to worsen there.

"There's no question there will be a lot more planes and they'll be lower," 
said Pound Ridge Deputy Supervisor Jonathan Powers, who is the town 
government's point man on the issue.

Powers said the FAA, in doing the evaluation, did not follow its own rules, 
which include evaluating how parkland would be affected by the change. He 
said Ward Pound Ridge Reservation, Westchester County's largest park at 
4,700 acres, would be affected by the change.

"The hope of at least the Connecticut towns that we're allying with is that 
the FAA follow their own rules," Powers said. "It doesn't mean it will 
significantly change what they're recommending. But the problem is, you 
don't know because they didn't do the work."

The plan also makes some changes at Westchester County Airport, Inserra 
said. It appears to push airplanes approaching the county airport from the 
east farther to the east. Those departing to head south would also see their 
routes changed, he said.

They would still head west to the Hudson River, then turn south, as they do 
now. But rather than continuing that way, they would then loop back east, 
climbing over Greenwich, Conn., to turn south near La Guardia, he said. The 
rerouting apparently would take them away from air traffic headed for 
Newark, he said.

Reach Ken Valenti at klvalent@lohud.com or 914-696-8255.