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Well done, John. Peaceful landing indeed.
The Jet Blue airliner was an Airbus and had to burn off it's fuel before it landed. I'm wondering what this Boeing did about it's fuel before it landed.
Flight Attendant's love to talk.
I think the aspect of the public address system, in the plane, being a 'tool' and not a matter of PR is an interesting observation by Mr. Tilmon. The aspect that it is times like this when people realize the pay a pilot receives is understandable is an unfortunate reality. Air flight is thought of as 'common place' but when one realizes what happens all along the way in a flight no matter how common place it is, is to realize exactly 'the pay' the pilots make. I am concerned about the 'trend' these planes are having. This is the third landing gear issue in a few months. Besides the Jet Blue landing gear is also Nike Plane with similar problems.
Nike plane safely on ground after landing-gear drama
By BRAD CAIN
Associated Press Writer
HILLSBORO — Nike CEO William Perez and other company executives went through a six-hour drama in the skies over Oregon on Monday as a wheel on their jet got stuck in a partially extended position, but the plane landed safely after aerial maneuvers meant to shake the wheel into landing position.
Portland International Airport and Hillsboro airport — where the Gulfstream V plane took off at 6 a.m. on a flight for Toronto — had both prepared for an emergency landing.
http://www.dhonline.com/articles/2005/11/22/news/oregon/state02.txt
There seems to be issues with maintenance.
Then there is the accidents one has yet to hear about investigations:
The wing of a seaplane that crashed off Miami Beach, Fla., is lifted by a crane on a barge from the waters of the crash site Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2005. The crash on Monday killed all 20 people on board. The rest won't be raised until Wednesday, Coast Guard spokesman Dana Warr said. Rosenker called it a delicate operation because moving the plane too quickly could cause it to break under the weight of the water. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1427011
Amazing. A passenger from the Midway flight. Well done. "The doors of the landing gear and sensor problem. …. The bearings turned out to be the problem." Bearings? What are they packing the bearings in? Water? Maybe vegetable oil? Is there a problem with maintenance equipment and not the mechanics at all? A mechanic can't work miracles if they don't have quality equipment to work with. Are these airlines cutting corners they aren't supposed to? There was this 'scandal' a while back. Something about 'out sourcing' the mechanical issues. What air crash did that come out? Hm.
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The Midway Airliner, the Boeing, dumped the fuel. Provides for a faster landing scenario. A safer plane.
HERE IT IS. It was involving the airline crash here in North Carolina.
Are Airlines Outsourcing Safety?
Eyewitness News Investigation
Steve Daniels
(05/09/05 - RALEIGH) - An Eyewitness News investigation is uncovering a new trend in outsourcing -- the outsourcing of airline maintenance.
Some airlines have been outsourcing nearly 80 percent of their maintenance. It's a way to save money, but we've discovered disturbing safety issues at one North Carolina maintenance company.
You can hear terror in the voice of the captain on US Airways Express flight 5481.
"We have an emergency in the cockpit for Air Midwest 5481," she said on a cockpit voice recorder tape.
The plane, operated by Air Midwest, crashed in Charlotte in January 2003, killing all 21 people on board.
"It came own nose first into a fireball," said Tracy Right, who saw the crash.
Flight 5481 was headed to Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina, then to Raleigh-Durham International Airport. The NTSB blamed the crash, in part, on an outsourced maintenance company in Huntington, West Virginia. Two nights before the crash, a mechanic who had never worked on that kind of plane made a major mistake. He incorrectly rigged critical cables that control the plane.
Just last week, the president of Air Midwest, Greg Stephens, apologized to the people who lost loved ones in the crash.
"We are truly sorry and regret and apologize to everyone affected by this tragedy," he said.
Ernie Kiss has spent his career as an airline mechanic. Now he's in charged of safety at the nation's largest mechanics union. When Steve Daniels met him at RDU International Airport, he told Eyewitness News what his union members are seeing on the job.
"Approximately 84 to 90 percent of our technicians have seen mistakes made at third-party vendors," Kiss said. "We're having to re-work maintenance that is farmed out, and it's costing the carrier more to farm out than if we did it in house to start with."
In fact, our Eyewitness News investigation is uncovering disturbing safety issues at a TIMCO in Greensboro. United Airlines, Delta Airlines, Fed Ex and America West all outsourced maintenance work to TIMCO.
A source showed us pictures of a panel above the wing that flew off a United Airlines Boeing 757 on a flight leaving TIMCO.
The source says workers at TIMCO forgot to screw in panels during a maintenance overhaul. Another United plane a wide-body Boeing 767 also had serious safety problems after it left TIMCO, according to our source and documents obtained by Eyewitness News.
A panel under the wing nearly ripped off in flight. Cockpit warning lights indicated repeated problems with the slats and flaps on the wings. The cockpit control sticks were not working properly, and the emergency evacuation lighting system wasn't working properly.
"It sounds like it's a total quality management problem, there at TIMCO with their quality assurance and their lack of training," Kiss said.
We also obtained documents revealing problems on another United Boeing 767, which our source says was at TIMCO in December 2003. Pilots reported a series of cockpit warnings connected to the slats and flaps on the wings. Our source says another 767 had problems with the emergency evacuation lighting after going to TIMCO last October.
Back in 2001, the FAA fined United Airlines for work that TIMCO did on a Boeing 737. The report said TIMCO "failed to properly re-install fuel system components, rendering the aircraft unairworthy."
TIMCO would not answer our questions about the documents we obtained. They did release a statement saying TIMCO is an industry leader in safety:
"In fact, our safety standards surpass those required by both the FAA and commercial airlines. TIMCO performs millions of maintenance tasks annually. Just like airline maintenance operations, we are not immune to an infrequent service issue. If there are service issues, we are quick to investigate to determine the root cause and to implement corrections actions."
The statement also said TIMCO has an experienced, well-trained workforce.
During our investigation, we discovered the NTSB has blamed maintenance outsourcing at other companies in several other crashes, including the ValuJet crash in Miami in 1996 and the crash of an Emery cargo plane in Sacramento, Calif., in February 2000.
"It doesn't cross anybody's mind that these things are being maintained by unlicensed technicians at a third-party vendor," Ernie Kiss said. "I don't think the American flying public knows that."
Greg Stephens, the man whose company operated the US Airways Express flight that crashed in Charlotte, says his airline has learned some tough lessons.
"We have taken substantial measures to prevent similar accidents and incidents in the future, so that your losses will not have been suffered in vain," he said. Stephens also said his company is following all of the NTSB safety recommendations that emerged from the crash investigation.
United Airlines says in a statement:
"We have worked cooperatively with TIMCO for maintenance work for years. At no time has the safety of United's passengers, employees or aircraft ever been compromised. Safety -- the cornerstone of United's business -- is the company's number one priority. Outsourced and internal maintenance operations are in strict compliance with United Airlines' FAA-approved maintenance program and all applicable Federal Aviation Regulations. FAA safety inspectors and United's own Quality Assurance division also provide additional oversight to our maintenance programs."
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=investigative&id=3054470
Okay, everybody, how much of these problems are outsourced?
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commercials
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Frankenstein? John you have got to be joking? Junior Achievement's voice toy of Glitz and Glitter? This is nothing but garbage and cheap stunts. Anderson needs a permanent vacation. Heeerrreeee's Johnny !
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Stuff about airliners.
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The News Round Up.
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The Transit Strike. They hold out long enough the million dollar a day fine will become irrelevant.
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Spying of Citizens without a warrant. A letter requesting a joint investigation. It needs more than that. This is a national emergency concern. Bush is impeachable and so is Cheney. This 'poor state of repair' of this country is not a desirable position for a nation at war and an illegal war at that. We need relief from this situation as a nation concerned with the security of this nation. We don't know if this president and his administration is abusing their power to 'blunt' efforts that secure this nation that they PERSONALLY don't approve of. This abuse of power is at empowering their personal and political control over this country. That is no longer a democracy, it's a dictatorship. This abuse of power has NO PROOF of it's benefit.
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commercials
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The plane that crashed off Miami. "A great deal of science that goes along with this type of recovery, I assure you." Science? Are you sure? I thought is was all luck.
Engineers approve latest Boeing contract offer
By ROXANA HEGEMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WICHITA, Kan. -- Engineers at the Boeing Co.'s defense operations in Wichita on Tuesday overwhelmingly accepted a new contract offer that looks a lot like the one they turned down earlier this month.
In their second election, 73 percent of the engineers who voted approved of the three-year contract. The vote was 184-69 to accept the company's latest proposal.
The contract covers 788 engineers represented by the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace at Boeing's defense operations in Wichita.
"The engineers were ready to move on, rather than fuss over the contract," said SPEEA executive director Charles Bofferding.
Boeing spokesman Forrest Gossett said the company was obviously pleased that engineers accepted the region-leading contract.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_KS_Boeing_Wichita.html
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The News Secretary
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Senator Stevens plays blackmail with piers.
For Stevens, drilling in Alaska is personal payback
By LAURIE KELLMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- The Incredible Hulk appeared Tuesday on the Senate floor, adorning the necktie of Sen. Ted Stevens - a familiar sign that the veteran from Alaska is pumped for the fight to open part of an arctic wildlife refuge to oil drilling.
But to hear his colleagues tell it, Stevens is more like the Grinch who would steal Christmas - and New Year's, if need be - to collect on his end of a vote-swapping deal he struck with two Democrats 25 years ago.
"A promise made is a debt unpaid," Stevens, 82, is fond of repeating. "This is a debt unpaid to this Senate, to the country, to Alaska."
Back in 1980, the deal went like this: Vote yes on setting aside 19 million acres of wilderness, said Sens. Henry "Scoop" Jackson of Washington and Paul Tsongas of Massachusetts, and Congress will support permission to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Stevens agreed. Tsongas and Jackson, meanwhile, died before Congress could grant permission to drill.
Their debt survives, Stevens insists. And he's playing procedural hardball to make the Senate pay up.
"We're going to have to face up to ANWR either now or Christmas Day or New Year's Eve or sometime," Stevens thundered from the Senate floor Tuesday, bucking criticism from drilling opponents furious that he succeeded in attaching the drilling permission to a must-pass bill to fund the military.
Off the floor, Stevens acknowledged he has little to lose by muscling opponents into this uncomfortable choice: Vote for a bill that allows arctic drilling or be seen as blocking money for troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, new aid for hurricane victims and subsidies to help the poor meet what are expected to be record winter heating bills.
"This is the toughest battle I've ever had," Stevens said Tuesday, a senatorial red handkerchief perched in a jacket pocket just inches from his surly alter ego.
The big green guy on the necktie is famous in the Senate for injecting a bit of playfulness into spending fights during Stevens' years chairing the Senate Appropriations Committee. "I've won every other battle with it on, so I'm wearing it for this one," Stevens said.
All-night sessions and a list of stalled bills have left little humor on Capitol Hill as the clock ticks toward the end of the year.
"This is, after all, Christmas!" Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., complained on the Senate floor.
The showdown vote could come as early as Wednesday.
The 1980 law doubled to 19 million acres the size of the Alaska wildlife refuge. Stevens said he supported that law only after Jackson and Tsongas promised him that Congress would later consider allowing drilling on a 1.5 million-acre tract bordering the Beaufort Sea.
Democrats disagreed on whether current senators are obligated to pay what Stevens calls a "debt" owed him by Jackson and Tsongas.
"The Grinch Who Stole the Defense Bill," they called Stevens in a news release put out Tuesday by the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee and Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
"Every Sen. in Washington liked the defense bill a lot," they added, channeling Dr. Seuss. "But Stevens, who lives north, in Alaska, did NOT."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_Stevens_Hurrah.html
COMMERCIALS
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Joe Johns
There is no such thing as 'responsible exploration.' The oil industry is exploitive and that is all it is.
The Alaskan Coastal Plain could produce more than all of Texas. ANYWHERE these days produces more than Texas. Texas is mostly DRY. Try again.
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Cantwell vows Senate fight to stop oil drilling
Democrat may lead filibuster to preserve Arctic refuge
By CHARLES POPE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Maria Cantwell vowed Monday to keep the Senate in session until the brink of Christmas to defeat legislation that would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.
"If this language is allowed to stand, one of our nation's most pristine wildlife areas will be lost," Cantwell, a Democrat, said as she outlined plans by her party and its allies to defeat language offered by Alaska Republican Ted Stevens to open ANWR.
"This is nothing more than a sweetheart deal for Alaska and the oil companies," Cantwell said. "That's why I am prepared to use every procedural option available to me as a senator to prevent this language from moving forward."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/252683_anwr20.html
commercials
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Passenger's perspective
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Jim Tilmon's perspective.
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The News Round Up
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The Happy Living Together Ever After Crowd. Good for them. 86 million single adults. The "Marriage Discrimination" issue. It's real and Bush's agenda promotes it.
Unmarried persons raise children well, too.
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Commercials
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Intelligent design is theology. Their arguments, including DNA, is very poorly put forward. It's all political. There is no basis in fact. Part of what this might be, could be good ole Texas politics. See the idea is to allow the opposition to feel confident and boastful only to be defeated later by the 'self-righteous.'
It is upto the 'MATURE' citizens of the USA to see through the political volleys laughed at in back rooms and continue to pursue the 'correct' path regardless the idiocy otherwise.
That 'type' of politics allows for the opposition to Bush/Cheney to exist regardless of their domination. It tells me the calls to impeachment are being heard and returned in ways to underhandedly control.
Impeach ANYWAY. (This is PSYOPS used by Bush/Cheney for personal agendas while telling the mlitary it is a matter of national security.)
This is a tactic of control at some levels.
This decision will make it's way to the 'pre-loaded' Supreme Court. If this country wants to promote 'Anti-Intelligence' then it has lost it's basis of validity in the greater international community of science.
The country is in sad shape. It has been lead by an Anti-American who believe in regression and not progress.
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Nelson Mandela. His mission never ended.
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Commercials
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Secrets.
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John's good night.
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