Flight Attendants Seek Counter-terror Measures

The nation’s flight attendants say the government needs to ratchet up security measures inside airplanes and we couldn’t agree more. This four point plan outlined by the Assn. of Flight Attendants is simple and effective.

The new rules seek to strengthen in-cabin security through hand-to-hand combat instruction, personal radios and standardized size limits for carry-on luggage.

From The LA Times. The Assn. of Flight Attendants has been lobbying Congress for the last month or so to adopt its strategy for stronger counter-terrorism measures. The group hopes that lawmakers will include money to put some of their ideas into action under an upcoming funding bill for the Federal Aviation Administration.

The group, which represents more than 55,000 attendants at 20 airlines, wants to implement a four-point plan:

• Institute mandatory hand-to-hand combat training for all crew members.
• Equip flight attendants with portable communications devices so they can speak to the pilots during emergencies.
• Standardize the size of carry-on luggage so that flight attendants can look for suspicious passengers instead of struggling with oversized bags.
• Shut down onboard wireless Internet during high-threat periods to prevent terrorists from communicating with collaborators on the ground.

Read More – latimes.com.

Senators Ask For Investigation Of Pilot Licenses

ABC News and The Blotter report that a bipartisan group of U.S. senators has asked the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Inspector General to investigate why suspect individuals including terrorists and drug kingpins have been able to retain their Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) pilot’s licenses.

In a letter to DHS Inspector General Richard Skinner, the senators cited media reports, including an ABC News investigation, that questioned the ability of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to purge the FAA’s aviation list of individuals.

In one high-profile case reported by the Blotter, a well-known drug boss named Fernando Zevallos Gonzalez was able to keep his U.S. aviation license despite being on a “black list” of foreign drug kingpins since 2004.

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12 Osama Kin Hold Federal Aviation ‘FAA’ Licenses

An interesting side-note. According to an ABC news report, at least 12 members of Osama bin Laden’s family currently hold Federal Aviation Administration pilot’s licenses that make them eligible to fly aircraft anywhere in the United States, including three who received their licenses just this June, according to an analysis of FAA records provided to ABC News by a computer security firm, Safe Banking Systems.

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TSA To Inspect Jet Repair Shops Under New Proposal

Thousands of airplane maintenance shops in the U.S. and abroad would get increased scrutiny to make sure they are not easy prey for terrorists looking to sabotage U.S. jets during routine repairs, a government proposal says.

Some experts and lawmakers have warned for years about potential terrorist saboteurs infiltrating airplane repair shops, and have urged security oversight. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says the greatest danger is posed by repair shops that are on or next to airports because a terrorist could take control of an airplane.

A TSA regulation proposed Monday would for the first time enable the agency to inspect airplane repair shops. If the TSA found a problematic repair shop, the agency would tell the Federal Aviation Administration to suspend the shop’s operating license.

TSA Assistant Administrator Lee Kair said the new requirement “guards against the potential threat of an aircraft being destroyed or used as a weapon.” The agency is soliciting public comments on the proposal and could finalize it later this year.

Airplanes ranging from small recreational planes to wide-body jets are repaired at more than 4,200 shops across the U.S. as well as at 700 shops abroad, in countries such as France, Germany, Singapore, Egypt and Jordan.

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Stolen Canadian Plane Lands In Missouri

Police captured the pilot of a stolen Canadian plane late Monday night, ending a bizarre pursuit that began in Thunder Bay, Ont., and ended in a small Missouri town.

The pilot took a single-engine Cessna 172 from a Thunder Bay aviation school and soon crossed into U.S. airspace. Authorities scrambled two F-16 fighter jets to track the aircraft as it made its way over Wisconsin and Illinois.

Nearly eight hours later, at about 10 p.m. ET, the pilot landed on a dirt road in the southern Missouri town of Ellsinore and fled on foot.

Officials with the Federal Bureau of Investigation then arrested 31-year-old suspect Yavuz Burke, a native of Turkey who became a Canadian citizen last year. He was formerly known as Adam Leon.

Earlier, the North American Aerospace Defense Command had scrambled two F-16 fighter jets to track the plane.

Lt.-Cmdr. Gary Ross, a spokesperson for NORAD, said the pilot did not respond to radio calls from the jets or the FAA.

He also said the pilot refused to acknowledge the nonverbal communications from the F-16 jets to follow them. It appears the plane only landed as it came close to running out of fuel.

The plane was reported stolen at about 2:30 p.m. ET and was spotted flying erratically.

At about 5 p.m., the state capital building in Madison, Wis., was evacuated before the plane passed near the region. Police cars cordoned off the streets around the building and officers told people to move away from the area.

The small plane belongs to Confederation College’s aviation program and was taken off from the Thunder Bay International Airport.

According to local radio, someone jumped the fence and took off on an unauthorized flight.

City police are at the scene at the college’s hangar. Police spokesperson Chris Adams says officers have little to go on at the time.

According to Cessna’s website, the Cessna 172 Skyhawk is world’s most flown airplane. It has a maximum cruise speed of 233 kilometres an hour and a range of 1,130 km.
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Pilots Landing at Seattle-Tacoma Airport Report Lasers

Pilots on 12 jetliners landing at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Sunday reported that someone was shining a green laser light into their cockpits, bringing renewed attention to a problem that has plagued pilots since the introduction of cheap laser pointers several years ago.

All the planes were targeted during a 20-minute period Sunday night, and all landed safely. But the incident led to pilots simultaneously trying to avoid being temporarily blinded by the light while trying to help authorities pinpoint its source, believed to be about a mile north of the airport.

Air traffic controllers continuously cautioned pilots about the light during the episode, which lasted from 7:10 to 7:30 p.m. PT.

“All right, I’ll keep an eye out for that,” one pilot responded before correcting himself. “Er, I’ll keep an eye away from that,” he said in radio traffic captured by LiveATC.net.

Another pilot reported the source to be a block and a half west of an interstate. Airport authorities said they conducted two searches of the area but did not find the culprit.

Laser attacks on aircraft have increased in recent years, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. There have been 148 incidents this year, FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said.

Source

Commuter Plane Crashes Into Home In Upstate NY – Up To 50 Onboard Flight 3407

New York state police say a 50-passenger commuter plane has crashed into a home in suburban Buffalo.

Unconfirmed reports state this is Flight 3407 from Newark to Buffalo.

State Trooper John Manthey says the plane hit a house in Clarence around 10:10 p.m. Thursday. The house is engulfed in flames.

He says they don’t know whether there were any passengers on the plane. They also don’t know if there were any injuries in the home.

Manthey says the plane may have been headed to Buffalo Niagara International Airport. He says authorities have called the Federal Aviation Administration.

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FAA Says Computer Problem Causing Massive Flight Delays

Travelers are facing mass flight delays today as the result of a computer problem at the Federal Aviation Administration.

The Federal Aviation Administration said that one of its two systems that process flight plans is down on Tuesday, Aug. 26. All flight plans are now being handled out of Salt Lake City.

The FAA has two systems that process flight plans one located in Atlanta and the other one in Salt Lake City. But the Atlanta system went down at 1:30pm today, and all flight plans are now being handled out of Salt Lake City.

As a result, delays could pile up at airports across the country. Delays up to 90 minutes are already surfacing at several airports.

According to the FAA, about 6,500 airplanes are in FAA system, though the aviation agency has not said how many were in the sky and how many were on the ground when the problem occurred.

Boston is the currently affected by the problem, while New York City area airports are not feeling its effects. Still, with such a heavy volume of air traffic typically converging on the East Coast, delays could spread depending on how much time it takes to iron out the problem.

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