A Spork in the Drawer

It's Called "Bribery"

The FAA at work:

The manager of the federal office that oversees Southwest Airlines accepted thousands of dollars in free pilot training from the carrier under an arrangement that violates rules of conduct, the Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday.

[...]

The training Hedlund received would cost a private citizen $15,000 or more, according to the officials and flight schools. It also would enhance a résumé, opening doors for employment at airlines or other private aviation firms. The FAA officials who testified at the hearing called the arrangement a conflict of interest.

Southwest claims that this was all "part of his routine duties" and denies that there are any ethical questions here.

Yah, right.

The FAA says that the matter is "under investigation."

Yah, right.

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Speaking Of Regulatory Agencies...

The FAA:

Three F.A.A. inspectors testified that their agency had allowed Southwest Airlines to fly uninspected planes, and that the airline had continued to fly the planes even after it later found cracks in some of them.

The inspectors said that when they complained, their bosses threatened their jobs and discouraged them from pursuing safety problems.

Here's the money graf:

“You’re looking at safety as a system, and the system itself has cracks,” [Representative James L. Oberstar] said. The F.A.A. now refers to airlines as its customers, he said.

It should go without saying that the "customers" should be the American people and not the airlines (or any other industry).

(As a side note, remember when we used to be "citizens" rather than "consumers"?)

One of the biggest and least noticed problems facing the next president (assuming a Democrat) will be to weed out the Republican apparatchiks and "Loyal Bushies" buried deep into the bureaucracy. That alone will take a full term.

Personally, I think anyone who wants to be president is nuts.

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Physics Made Simple

Terror in the skies:

A gun belonging to the pilot of a US Airways plane went off as the aircraft was on approach to land in North Carolina over the weekend, the first time a weapon issued under a federal program to arm pilots was fired, authorities said.

The "accidental discharge" Saturday aboard Flight 1536 from Denver to Charlotte did not endanger the aircraft or the 124 passengers, two pilots and three flight attendants aboard, said Greg Alter of the Federal Air Marshal Service on Monday.

"We know that there was never any danger to the aircraft or to the occupants on board," Alter said.

I hate to be the one to inform Mr. Alter of this but a small chunk of metal emerging from a tube at supersonic velocities is, in fact, a "danger to the aircraft or to the occupants on board" in and of itself.

And a note to airline pilots: Nearly all handguns have a little thing called a "safety." It's a little lever-looking thingy on the side. Go ahead, look for it, I'll wait. Okay? Now, can you see a little red dot? Because if you can that means the gun can fire at any time. Just click the little lever thing into a position so that you can no longer see the little red dot. There! Now your gun won't fire unless you really, really want it to.

A further note to the FAA: How 'bout a round of remedial gun safety classes for our civilian pilots? Good idea, yes?

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