Quote of the Week:  "I thought there might be more stringent checks. Some people coughed in the plane, I thought they might be questioned, but nothing happened." Passenger on a plane from Thailand

Aviation Conspiracy Newsletter #213..........................................March 30, 2003 Past newsletters can be accessed at: http://pages.prodigy.net/rockaway/ACNewsmenu.htm Affiliated with, but not a publication of, the U.S. Citizen's Aviation Watch http://www.us-caw.org/ 

Aviation Spread Epidemic Now In The US!! 

As Bill Sees It: (Editorial):  Bush Administration Doing NOTHING About Aviation Spread Epidemic!!! The deadly disease called SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) is spreading rapidly, even to the U.S., which now has 62 suspected cases.  I haven't heard it said anywhere, but I believe that if the Iraq War hadn't been going on, the media would have demanded that air travel, at least from Asia, would have to be temporally restricted. Where is the Bush Administration and the  FAA in all of this?  Apparently they are doing NOTHING!!! Maybe they are just waiting for the epidemic to get to the point where it is beyond control before doing recognizing the problem.    Airlines To Get  ANOTHER Billion Dollar Taxpayer Bailout?  Talk about throwing good money after bad. This week the airlines will have their congressional stooges attempt another raid on taxpayers pockets. While airline executives get multi-million dollar salaries and Amtrak has to beg for pennies WE are expected to prop up their failed businesses!!! Just corrupt political business as usual. Senator McCain said he will make some noises about airline executives salaries. Then, I'm sure, he will vote to give them more tax dollars. Bush Should Use The FAA For Real "Shock And Awe:" I've been watching the round the clock coverage of the bombing of Baghdad and I can't help thinking that at least they get some lulls once in a while. This is not the case in some American communities near large, busy airports with daily, round-the-clock flights over residential areas. As the government has been experimenting with using noise as a weapon in warfare, maybe President Moron could use the FAA's noise expertise in assaulting Baghdad residential communities. I'm sure that will break the will of all those who oppose their being liberated and set free by our great leader.

UN Says Potential SARS Carriers Should Be Barred From Air Travel: HONG KONG (CP) -  Worries intensified Friday that a deadly respiratory illness hitting Asia was spreading via air travel after world health officials said people exposed to the disease should be barred from planes. Underlining the concern, a woman in Singapore was hospitalized with the illness Friday, a day after arriving on a flight from Beijing, Singapore's health minister said. She was sick when she boarded the flight. Singapore nearly doubled the number of people under quarantine, but Hong Kong's health secretary acknowledged more people will get sick before it's over. SARS has infected more than 1,400 people worldwide, killing 54, mostly in Asia. Three of the deaths were in Toronto.  http://www.canada.com/news/story.asp?id=%7BB24C7E12-CF34-4059-BAC7-A7D695FEF99C%7D  SARS Blamed  For Hurting Asian Airline: SINGAPORE (Dow Jones)--Asian airline, gaming and retail stocks Friday continued to be pummeled by the spread of a deadly flu-like illness that has killed at least 53 people and sickened around 1400, and is now a global epidemic with no apparent cure in sight. The region's airlines, already struggling for business due to the war in Iraq, were hit further Friday by the World Health Organization's warning that severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, could spread on airplanes. http://sg.biz.yahoo.com/030328/15/39iar.html 

Republicans Agree To Give Airlines 2.8 Billion Taxpayer Bailout: WASHINGTON Senate Republicans agreed Friday on a $2.8billion aid package for the nation's airlines, much less than the industry says it needs to offset slowdowns caused by terrorism worries and the war with Iraq. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said next week he'll add the proposal to the nearly $75billion supplemental budget plan that includes funding for the war. Lawmakers want to approve the budget bill in the next two weeks. White House officials have said President Bush opposes a major bailout plan because he believes market forces should be allowed to determine which airlines survive.  http://www.presstelegram.com/Stories/0,1413,204~21478~1278865,00.html 

 Senator McCain Blasts Delta Airlines CEO Pay: Sen. John McCain has said he is outraged that Delta CEO Leo Mullin collected a multimillion-dollar pay package in 2002, while at the same time laying off workers and pleading for government aid. According to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mullin received a compensation package in 2002 valued at about $13 million, which is more than double his previous pay. McCain told reporters at Capitol Hill that if he saw Mullin among other airline representatives visiting Washington, D.C., this week, he would tell him: "You ought to be ashamed of yourself." http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2003/03/24/daily55.html 

New York Stock Exchange "Delists" United Airlines:  The New York Stock Exchange on Friday said it will delist UAL shares on April 3 because the stock has traded under $1 per share over a 30-day period. United CEO Glenn Tilton (left), who is trying to lead United Airlines Inc. out of bankruptcy, last year received a pay package worth as much as $9.65 million, a securities filing shows. United, which is based in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from creditors on Dec. 9. http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/030328/airlines_united_pay_4.html 

Calverton, New York: Is The Long Island "Reliever" Airport Plan For New York City Being Revived?  CALVERTON--A seemingly innocuous draft ordinance written to limit the height of new buildings near the runways at the former Grumman facility has airport opponents convinced that the town is indeed embarking on a stealth campaign to convert the now-quiet industrial park into a major jetport. http://www.indyeastend.com/detail.asp?cat=news&article=644  http://www.eastendcommunity.com/CAAP51100ed.htm 

Investigators Fail To Pinpoint Cause Of Flight 111 Crash: Halifax — After the most expensive and exhaustive air-crash probe in Canadian history, investigators have failed to pinpoint the cause of a fire aboard Swissair Flight 111 that crashed off Peggys Cove, N.S., in 1999, killing all 229 people on board. Although a probable source of the first electrical fault lies in the improperly installed entertainment and gambling system that the now-defunct Swissair used to pamper its highest-paying passengers in First and Business Class, investigators from the Transportation Safety Board acknowledge that they cannot be certain. And, they add, it is "unlikely, ... that this entertainment power-system supply wire was the only wire in the lead arcing event." http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030327.wswisspk0327/BNStory/National 

American Airlines Stocks Fall - Bankruptcy Predicted: DALLAS – American Airlines' stock shares continue to fall today amid reports that the world's largest carrier could file for bankruptcy as early as next week. In Friday morning New York Stock Exchange trading, shares of Fort Worth-based AMR Corporation fell 29 cents, or 16 percent, to a dollar and a half per share. The stock has lost 94 percent of its value in the past year. http://www.news8austin.com/content/headlines/?ArID=66456&SecID=2 

Queens New York City Schools To Get Money For Soundproofing: Queens schools will receive a total of $8,235,000 to replace old windows and doors with specially-sealed ones designed to block sound so classes won’t be interrupted when a plane flies overhead. Most of the money—$8 million—will be used to soundproof John Bowne High School in Flushing, which sits under a final approach path to LaGuardia. Other schools are the College of Aeronautics, which is located at LaGuardia, Lexington School for the Deaf in Jackson Heights, PS 146 in Howard Beach, and PS 195 in Rosedale, which will receive $40,000 each; and Monsignor McClancy Memorial High School in East Elmhust, St. Michael’s School in Flushing, and St. Pius X School in Rosedale, which will receive $25,000 each. Editor's Note: What about HOME soundproofing in New York City? While Chicago residential communities have gotten almost half a billion dollars in soundproofing money, New York City residents have gotten NOTHING!!! This is big political scandal and I believe there has been payoffs and deals made so that New York City politicians will keep their mouths shut about this inequity. By the way, New York City has a worse aviation noise problem than Chicago. http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1861&dept_id=152382&newsid=7515169&PAG=461&rfi=9 

England: Villagers can claim damages for Stansted crash trauma: A group of villagers who witnessed a Korean Airlines cargo jet crash shortly after take-off from Stansted airport has won the right to claim tens of thousands of pounds in damages for psychiatric injury. All four crew members died when a Boeing 747 on its way to Milan came down in a fireball on the edge of Hatfield Forest, near Great Hallingbury, Essex, in December 1999. Yesterday a High Court judge ruled that the 13 witnesses to the disaster could claim damages for psychiatric injury as well as physical loss or damage.Until the ruling nobody had been able to make a claim for post-traumatic stress disorder under the Civil Aviation Act 1982, which was held to refer only to physical injuries. But Mr Justice Simon ruled that the reference to "material loss or damage" was not limited to "physical loss or damage". He awarded the claimants 80 per cent of their costs and granted the airline, which denied liability, permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal.  http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/story.jsp?story=391798 

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 Important Aviation News Stories This Week

Port Authority Will Soundproof 8 Local Schools Near Airports