Quote of the Week: "I simply cannot believe that one person, acting alone, can rip off taxpayers out of billions of dollars" Senator McCain on involvement of other Air Force officials the Boeing tanker lease scandal
Aviation Conspiracy Newsletter #299.......................................November 21, 2004 Past newsletters can be accessed at: http://pages.prodigy.net/rockaway/ACNewsmenu.htm The PASSUR airport flight tracking system at http://www.passur.com/sites.htm (you must have Java installed to view it) Bill Mulcahy rockaway@prodigy.net
Sen.
McCain Blows Lid Off Boeing Tanker Lease Scandal!!! 
As
Bill Sees It: (Editorial)
National Airspace Redesign Plan: New
Jersey Anti-Noise Group Sues The FAA!!! I was really surprised to see in
a story
(read below) this week that the New Jersey Citizens
Against Aircraft Noise (NJCAAN) was suing the FAA to reveal "data"
that is being used with the FAA's slimy (just take a look at its web site)
airspace 
redesign in the New York metropolitan area. I am
surprised because, when I saw that the FAA had included NJCAAN's controversial
"over water" routing plan (see excerpt on left) in their NY, NJ and
Pennsylvania Airspace Redesign Plan, I thought there had been a change in
policy. I believe the Newark Airport (located on the left of map) "over
water" routing plan is cleverly labeled to hide its impacts. Planes taking
this route have to fly over many miles of residential communities in New
Jersey and New York City before they get over the "ocean". I
noticed the "operational analysis" of the NY, NJ, PHL Airspace 
Redesign Plan has recently been completed. Perhaps the ocean routing plan for Newark
Airport was dropped (I don't know if it has) because of the
increased noise impacts on New York City, and that has NJCAAN upset. If this is
the case, maybe now they will work towards stopping Newark expansion instead
of getting flights redirected over their neighbors. Very telling is how they
don't have any maps of their "ocean route" plan on their web site. I
wonder if New Jersey going for Kerry had anything to do with this? Senator
McCain Reveals The Depth Of Corruption In
Boeing Tanker Lease Scandal!!! Just as there is a corrupt relationship
between the FAA and the airlines, similarly there is one between Boeing
and government employees who both work together to rip off the American
taxpayer. This was revealed this week when Sen. John McCain revealed emails
where Air Force Secretary James G. Roche a
sked a lobbyist for Boeing Co. to use
the company's Washington contacts to "quash" a deputy undersecretary
of defense and make him "pay an appropriate price" for objecting to
the Air Force's decision to lease Boeing 767 tanker aircraft. I have the feeling that McCain is revealing only the tip of
corruption iceberg which apparently even had the former chairman of the Defense
Policy Board, Richard Perle (AKA the Prince of Darkness) himself, involved.
Private Security Companies To Take Back Screening At Airports!!! As some
some airports and airlines have complained that the federal TSA screeners are
taking "too long" to screen passengers, they want to return to the use
of private screener companies. Wasn't the sloppy private screening the reason
the federal government took over screening in the first place!!! There
hasn't been any hijackings since TSA took over. I guess that means they must
be replaced with the proven failed system.
The Latest On The Tanker Lease Scandal!!! Leaders of the Senate
Armed Services Committee asked the Defense Department on Friday to have its
inspector general's office investigate the Air Force's effort to give the Boeing
Company a $23.5 billion contract for aircraft-refueling tankers. In a letter to
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, the Republican Senators John W. Warner of
Virginia, the committee chairman, and John McCain of Arizona and the committee's
ranking Democrat, Carl Levin of Michigan, asked for an investigation of all who
had a role in awarding the contract, not just someone acting criminally. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/21/politics/21boeing.html
New Jersey Group Sues
FAA For Withholding Information: NEWARK, N.J. -- A group
seeking quieter airline routes claims the Federal Aviation Administration is
improperly withholding from the public data being used to design new routes in
the tri-state region. The New Jersey Coalition Against Aircraft Noise also
charged in a federal lawsuit that the FAA has shared the information with
airlines. NJCAAN suggests that aircraft noise can be reduced by putting
routes over industrial areas and the ocean, and by having airliners fly at
higher altitudes before descent. The group also said that the FAA has missed an
April 1 deadline, imposed by Congress, to issue a report on the redesign
project. FAA spokeswoman Arlene Salac said the agency would not comment on the
lawsuit, but acknowledged it missed that deadline. She said a draft of the
environmental impact of the redesign was due in fall 2004, while the final
environmental statement was due in late 2006. http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-nj--airnoise1118nov18,0,7761073.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire
Air
Force Secretary Resigns As Boeing Tanker Scandal Heats Up Again!!!
Air Force Secretary
James G. Roche asked a lobbyist for Boeing Co. to use the
company's Washington contacts to "quash" a deputy undersecretary of
defense and make him "pay an appropriate price" for objecting to the
Air Force's decision to lease Boeing 767 tanker aircraft, according to
e-mails released yesterday by a Republican senator critical of the tanker deal.
Roche also pressured independent military cost analysts who questioned the high
price of the lease, described other internal Pentagon critics as
"animals," and ridiculed executives at European Aeronautic Defense and
Space Co. (EADS) and its Airbus division, the consortium that offered a
competing plan, the e-mails show. Editor's Note: Sounds like this guy
should probably be in jail instead of Darlene Druyun http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63815-2004Nov19.html
Boeing
To Return "Improper" Funds? WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Boeing Co. may have to repay sums purportedly received
improperly in the Pentagon's biggest contracting scandal in more than a decade,
Senate Armed Services Committee member John McCain said on Friday. McCain, in a
stinging indictment of a stalled Air Force drive to get modified Boeing 767s as
refueling tankers, said he planned to "find out how much money we can
reclaim if necessary on behalf of taxpayers" from contracting abuses
confessed to by ex-Air Force weapons buyer Darlene Druyun (pictured on right). Druyun admitted to a
federal judge last month she improperly steered billions of dollars of Air Force
contracts to Boeing since 2000 before joining the company as a $250,000-a-year
vice president in January 2003. Among other things, she said she agreed to pay
more than she thought justified for a proposed initial batch of 100 tankers as a
"parting gift" to the Chicago-based company, the Pentagon's No. 2
supplier.
Airports
To Return To "Private" Security Screening? WASHINGTON -- Two
years after the federal government took over all airline passenger and baggage
screening following glaring lapses in security, some airports are considering a
return to privately employed screeners. The Transportation Security
Administration will start accepting applications from airports Friday for what
could be another major change in the way aviation security is handled in the
wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Some airport officials are
unhappy with the current federal system, saying it doesn't allow enough work
force flexibility and has caused long waits at security checkpoints. http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/articles/1195911.html
More
O'Hare Airport Backroom Deals Revealed: CHICAGO -- Chicago city officials were
forced to produce 67,000 pages of documents in a lawsuit over the expansion of
O'Hare International Airport. Some suburban leaders believe that the documents
show that when it comes to O'Hare expansion, the city doesn't plan to take
"no" for an answer. Unit 5's Phil
Rogers reported on Sunday that the files reveal that in the two-decade story
of the fight to expand O'Hare, there is evidence of backroom deals, powerful
political influence and a campaign of misinformation -- all to push the agenda
of the major airlines and the city. "The handwriting was on the
wall," said former Park Ridge mayor Ron Wietecha. http://www.nbc5.com/news/3918349/detail.html?z=dp&dpswid=2265994&dppid=65172
Airlines
Agree To Clean Up Their Dirty Water: In response to tests conducted by
the Environmental Protection Agency this summer that raised questions about the
quality of drinking water on passenger aircraft (which is also used to make
coffee or tea), the E.P.A. has reached agreements with 12 airlines to perform
more tests and adopt new disinfection procedures for water systems. On Nov. 9,
the agency began testing water on 169 aircraft at 14 airports in the United
States to gauge the accuracy of its previous tests, which showed that nearly 13
percent of the samples did not meet its standards. Although the airlines
questioned the E.P.A.'s earlier results, at least 12 of them have agreed to new
measures to address the situation, including disinfecting aircraft water systems
every three months, testing the water on every plane in their fleets within the
next year and notifying the agency and the public when tests indicate water on
an aircraft fails to meet E.P.A. standards.
Plane
Crash Into Frozen Lake In China Kills 53 People: A plane has crashed into
a frozen lake in northern China, killing all 53 people on board. The plane was
heading for Shanghai but crashed just after taking off from the Inner Mongolia
city of Baotou. Police and firefighters had to break ice on the frozen lake to
search for victims. Government officials confirmed all 47 passengers and six
crew members perished when the plane came down. The cause of the crash is under
investigation. http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20041121-062754-1115r.htm
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Important Aviation News Stories This Week
New Jersey: Anti-noise group sues FAA to obtain data