Quote of the Week

Quote of the Week: "The FAA is proposing to wreck the tranquility of Rockland and rain down pollution on it, all without telling us," Rep. Eliot Engel, D-Bronx, commenting in a statement on FAA Airspace Redesign Plan. 1000 people attended a New Jersey meeting last week on it.

Aviation Conspiracy Newsletter #435................................................................................July 1, 2007 Past newsletters can be accessed at: http://pages.prodigy.net/rockaway/ACNewsmenu.htm The PASSUR airport flight tracking system at many major U.S. airports http://www.passur.com/sites.htm (you must have Java installed to view it). If you want to get the newsletter sent to you every week, sign up to AviationWatch. Bill Mulcahy rockaway@prodigy.net

As Bill Sees It: (Editorial): Another Wild Week Of Airport Disasters? Car bombs detonated at a Scotland airport and plane crashing into a house sitting at the end of a Arkansas airport runway; and the predicted record Forth of July heavy airport operations haven't even started yet!!! British police aren't even sure that the attacks are over and are bracing for more. How come American airports are not on "high alert?" In Arkansas a small plane making a landing demolished a house,

killing the pilot and a woman in the house. This once again shows that noise is not the only danger that people living near airports must endure. You can see by the aerial photo on the right that the house was located right at the end of an airport runway!!! Perhaps this crash will help wake up the public to pressure "our" politicians to either move communities in airport runway paths or close the airport. Some airports, like LaGuardia Airport in New York City, are almost surrounded by heavy residential areas. Will it take a Boeing 747 crashing into a few apartment houses, if even then, for something to be done? Video Shows Plane Practically Landing On Beachgoer's Heads!!! Speaking of planes practically landing on the heads of people on the ground. I had to look at this video two or three times because I couldn't believe it. The video was apparently taken on the beach which is at the end of a runway of Princess Juliana Airport. It looks as if the plane is landing on the beach itself!!! If this was just a single picture and not a video I would have said it was doctored by someone using a computer graphics program. Take a look yourself and make your own judgment.

Airspace Redesign Plan Meeting Gets Community Gets New Jersey Community Activated!!! Reading a story (see below) this week it was good to see 1000 New Jersey people were not buying FAA lies and excuses. The FAA is planning to destroy the quality of life of millions of people with their Airspace Redesign Plan for New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. Politicians got scared by the outrage of millions of Americans who protested their giving legal status to millions of foreigners who have illegally entered the U.S. and stopped the plan to give them amnesty. It's going to take that kind of outrage to stop the FAA's Airspace Redesign Plan. Politicians, from state assemblymen to U.S. senator have got to realize they are going to lose their jobs if they continue to help destroy our quality-of-life with aviation noise and air pollution. They have to believe that people are not going to forget their inaction. According to Robert Belzer, president of New Jersey Coalition Against Aircraft Noise, "The elected officials in Rockland County and on the federal level have done virtually nothing,"

San Francisco Airport Has Closest Near-Colllision In A Decade!!!! Federal Aviation Administration officials are calling a near-collision on a runway at San Francisco International Airport in May the most serious incident of its kind in at least a decade. The FAA announced Friday it has categorized the May 26 incident in which a Republic Airlines pilot had to take off to avoid colliding with a SkyWest Airlines plane on the runway as a level A incursion. On a scale of incursions from A to D, the most serious is A. "Every category A is a serious event, and it is a serious concern for us," said FAA spokesman Ian Gregor. "This wasn't a procedural issue, this was caused by a good controller with a lot of experience making a mistake." The controller has about 20 years of experience, and since the incursion he has had to get recertified for his job, Gregor said. Other than the pilots and air traffic controllers, it's doubtful anyone knew about the incursion when it happened, Gregor said, adding that it did not affect operations at SFO. So far this fiscal year, there have been 11 category A incursions nationwide, out of more than 34 million takeoffs and landings. The severity of the incursion has sparked the National Transportation Safety Board to investigate as well. "We investigate probably just a handful (of incursions) a year," said safety board spokesman Ted Lopatkiewicz. According to the safety board's press release, the incursion happened about 1:30 p.m. when an SFO tower controller cleared SkyWest. http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_6270659

Plane Crashes Into House At The End Of The Runway!!! CONWAY, Ark. - A small plane crashed into a house on Saturday, killing the male pilot and a woman on the ground, authorities said. Faulkner County Coroner Patrick Moore said at a news conference the woman killed was an occupant of the house, which is near Conway Municipal Airport. Moore said a passenger in the plane and another person in the house survived. He did not release their names or the conditions of the survivors. Authorities said they believe the plane was trying to land at the Conway airport, but did not say what might have caused the crash or where the plane had come from. It took about two hours to put out the fire that started after the crash, authorities said. The Federal Aviation Administration closed the Conway airport Saturday afternoon. It was expected to reopen Sunday. Conway is about 26 miles north of Little Rock. http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2007/06/30/ap/us/d8q3dlv00.txt

Rockland officials surprised to learn that Newark-bound planes could be flying over the county every three minutes by 2011 demanded yesterday that the Federal Aviation Administration reconsider its planned new route.

From the federal to town levels, elected officials accused the agency of keeping county residents uninformed about the flight-path changes and called on the FAA to hold a meeting in Rockland to discuss the plan's effects.

"The FAA is proposing to wreck the tranquility of Rockland and rain down pollution on it, all without telling us," Rep. Eliot Engel, D-Bronx, said in a statement.

The FAA aims to create a new flight path for arrivals to Newark Liberty International Airport that would bring 200 to 400 planes over Rockland daily. The flights would enter Rockland at an altitude of about 5,000 feet - less than a mile - from the north, pass through the heart of the county and reach their lowest - and noisiest - levels over Chestnut Ridge.

Newark, N.J., arrivals currently do not fly over Rockland. They travel farther west, over Orange County.

The FAA, which regulates air traffic nationwide, said the changes were needed to reduce air congestion and accommodate expected growth in and around New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia.

On Thursday night, more than 1,000 packed a hotel ballroom in Woodcliff Lake, N.J., to condemn the FAA's preferred plan. Of the dozens of people who spoke, only a handful were from Rockland.

Along with more noise overhead, the plan's critics said, the route would increase airplane emissions and put residents in densely populated areas at greater risk.

The air traffic is planned from 6 a.m. to midnight, with more flights in the summer than the winter.

"I feel like we got blindsided," said Eileen Burge, a Palisades resident who attended the contentious meeting.

Representatives of Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez - U.S. senators from New Jersey who both have publicly opposed the plan - spoke at the meeting, along with numerous New Jersey officials from the state and local levels.

County Legislator Patrick Withers, D-Suffern, was the only Rockland representative to speak.

Burge wondered why Rockland's officials weren't as active as their New Jersey counterparts.

"What happened here?" Burge said yesterday. "How come nobody knew? Now this whole thing looks like it's going to happen."

C.J. Miller, spokeswoman for County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef, said the county had been petitioning the FAA behind the scenes since August.

"Do we publicize the pressure on the FAA?" Miller said. "No."

Robert Belzer was more critical. He is president of the New Jersey Coalition Against Aircraft Noise, which favors rerouting the air traffic over the Atlantic Ocean.

"The elected officials in Rockland County and on the federal level have done virtually nothing," said Belzer, who said he contacted several county and town officials in Rockland last summer but got no response.

Neighboring Montvale, N.J., has a petition on its official government Web site imploring elected officials to "stop the FAA from rerouting hundreds of planes over the Pascack Valley." As of yesterday, nearly 6,800 residents had "signed" the online petition.

Belzer reserved his most severe criticism for the FAA, which he said purposely did not adequately disclose the project's impact.

"This is deliberately done," he said. "They don't want people to know what this is going to mean to their communities, otherwise they would never get anything done."

A report in The Journal News yesterday detailed the proposal, which could increase decibel levels in parts of Ramapo and Orangetown from the mid-30s to 43 decibels under the redesign.

"Now that we have a pretty good feel for the issue, we're going to begin being proactive in opposing the policy," Ramapo Deputy Supervisor Phil Tisi said.

It may be too late. The FAA plans to issue its final environmental impact statement next month and its record of decision in August.

"It is outrageous that you are proposing a change that will affect hundreds of thousands of people in this county without so much as soliciting comments from them," Engel wrote yesterday to FAA administrator Marion Blakey.

Withers and fellow Rockland Legislator Patrick Moroney, R-Pearl River, called on the county's congressional delegation to help set up a meeting between the FAA and residents.

"While residents who live near large cities like New York may expect this sort of aviation activity, Rockland is and remains a suburban and rural community," their letter stated. "It is extremely unfair to foist this urban atmosphere upon Rockland residents."

New York's U.S. senators, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer, yesterday called on the FAA to schedule additional hearings in Rockland.

"While we want to make sure we are reducing delays and congestion, we also want to make sure that the FAA gets it right and listens to the concerns of residents," Clinton said in a statement.

Steve Kelley, program manager for airspace redesign, said at the Thursday meeting that the FAA had no plans to hold more meetings.