breaking: Plane carrying Michelle Obama aborted landing after it came too close to a military C-17

[spanone]

cargo plane.


WASHINGTON— A plane carrying first lady
Michelle Obama came perilously close to a
massive military cargo jet because of an air
traffic controller's error and had to an abort a
landing at Andrews Air Force Base, the
Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

Unnamed federal officials told the Post that
controllers at the air base in Maryland feared
the cargo jet would not clear the runway in
time.

FAA officials confirmed to the paper that the
first lady was on the plane, and issued a
statement late Tuesday saying they were
investigating the incident.

The Federal Aviation Administration is already
dealing with the fallout from several recent
high profile incidents of air traffic controllers
sleeping, or watching a movie on the job.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42669951/ns/politics-white_house/#

[slackmaster]

1. Not terrorism

Bush's fault.

[dipsydoodle]

2. Bit of a "whoops" moment.

.

[spanone]

3. bad week for air traffic controllers.....

[lunatica]

4. I'm relieved nothing bad happened to her!

Michelle Obama is one of the women I admire the most. And I love her too.

[spanone]

6. me too!

[anneboleyn]

10. And me. That was way too close.

[warrior1]

5. Jill Biden

was also on board.

[lunatica]

8. I'm glad he's OK too!

[AngryAmish]

7. The ATC needs to be tied to the White House fence and be horsewhipped within an inch of his life

We need him to be an example.

[Autumn]

9. Wow

That's harsh.

[RC]

11. OK, how about two inches?

[Autumn]

13. Give the poor guy a fucking foot

at least.

[Monique1]

15. Noting better happen to these

two beautiful women. They are the best .

[RC]

19. One woman and one guy.

It is a 6 inch high wood figurine I picked up on North Shore, Oahu.
It is also the graphic on my personal card. It has been known to raise a few eyebrows.

But whatever you see is fine.

[petronius]

40. I think she meant Michelle O. and Jill B.

:rofl:

It is a cool figurine, though...

[tnlefty]

28. Especially for the Amish who seems angry.

Can we discuss Raygun's busting up of the Air Traffic Controller's Union? I suppose not, just horsewhip the workers.

[Autumn]

29. Back to the "good old days"

when people can be tied up and horsewhipped. Well with all the crap that's going on I guess workers are nothing more than serfs, so it must be appropriate.

[tnlefty]

36. Well there was a part of me who thought the Amish were

basically peaceful, my bad. Beat'um, whip'em, make'em write bad checks, although, that check thing may be inappropriate, as would be a phone, etc.

[slackmaster]

21. Shouldn't they at least round up the usual suspects first?

You have to do things in the proper order.

[pa28]

30. Spacing errors like this happen many times a day.

If every approach controller who put two planes close enough together to require s turns got "horse whipped within an inch of their life" there would be quite a bit of blood flowing.

[petronius]

39. That's what I thought - I'd assume everyone who flies regularly has had a flight abort

a landing at least once, it's just that the pilots don't tell the passengers why...

[Marrah_G]

33. errr- did you forget the sarcasm smiley?

[mfcorey1]

12. Not good! Not good! nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. These are MILITARY ATC personnel

not FAA personnel.

Just a little factoid to add to the soup.

[EmmettKelly]

20. Looks to me, FTA, that a civilian ATC made the error when

handing the flight off from Warrenton control center to military control at Andrews AFB.

[eqfan592]

23. It's too soon to say if an error was actually made. (nt)

[Corgigal]

26. thank you

The military controller did right. They all use the same book and use the same rules.

[Obamanaut]

27. And they are certified by the FAA, just as the civilian controllers are. nt

[Dappleganger]

16. Heads should roll.

[monmouth]

17. LaHood needs to go. Said he had no idea the controllers were "tired."

JHC...

[malaise]

18. There will be major fall out this time

Believe me

[Tatiana]

22. What. The. F**k!??!

What the hell has happened of late... did we forget how to direct air traffic all of a sudden?

I wonder if LaHood's head rolls for this HUGE blunder.

I'm not ready to assign blame until more facts are brought forward but this does NOT look good.

[eqfan592]

31. If the plane had the C-17 in sight...

...and was cleared for the visual approach to follow the C-17, then the pilot is maintaining their own separation at that point and the 5 miles in trail no longer holds, something the media has failed to address at all. In fact, I'm willing to bet that this is the most likely scenario.

It is WAAAAAAAAAAAY to soon for people to be assuming this was an ATC error.

[RagAss]

24. "I want all inquiries made"

[SheilaT]

25. Every so often when I pay attention

to how very much the president, any president, flies, I'm a little amazed that nothing bad has ever happened. Then I remember that not only is flying remarkably safe, but when the president is in flight, the air space all around his plane is cleared of other traffic for a much greater than usual distance. So that helps.

I've always known how safe flying is. About ten years ago I was staying for about three days at the hotel at the St. Louis airport that is right at the end of the runways. My room overlooked the runway. I spent quite a bit of time watching plane after plane take off, and plane after plane land, and it was beautiful to behold.

[Obamanaut]

35. If you enjoyed the spectacle of aircraft landing/taking off at the airport,

you would be delighted at the excitement of an aircraft carrier flight deck.

Standing between the bow cats when to F4 Phantoms are in full afterburner is something that must be experienced to believe.

Or watching the planes come in at night, with the deck pitching, and going away from the returning aircraft at an angle (they come in to land on the angled portion) - also awesome.

[SheilaT]

37. Actually, that might be far more thrilling

that I'd want.

[librechik]

32. 2 miles apart--the limit is five

close call, but nothing to worry about

[eqfan592]

34. The limit is not always 5

If the pilot was cleared for the visual approach and had the C-17 in sight, then the pilot was instructed to maintain their own separation and separation can drop below the 5 mile mark.

[spanone]

38. update wed. FAA: Supervisors must oversee planes carrying Biden, first lady

The Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday issued new orders requiring that air traffic control supervisors oversee the arrival and departure of planes carrying the vice president and first lady.

The orders come two days after an incident in which a Boeing 737 carrying Michelle Obama got too close to a massive military cargo jet as both planes were trying to land at Andrews Air Force Base.

The managers in one air traffic control center were unaware of a potential problem, and the manager in the Andrews tower was reluctant to say anything when he noticed that the two planes were two miles closer than FAA standards allow, federal sources said.

Oversight by a manager already has been required when the president is on board a White House aircraft.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/faa-supervisors-must-oversee-planes-carrying-biden-first-lady/2011/04/20/AFbSPQEE_print.html