Aviation Conspiracy Newsletter #467........................................................................February 10,  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

Quote of the Week:  "It's unfortunate that the senators would hold up his nomination and play politics with the nation's aviation system simply because his agency is working to modernize how aircraft operate in the New York region, which might slightly increase aircraft noise for a small minority of their constituents," DOT spokesman Brian Turmail

New Jersey Senators Block FAA Administrator's Appointment!!!

As Bill Sees It (Editorial): Sturgell's Appointment Blocked Because Of Airspace Redesign Impacts On New Jersey!!!  As anyone who has been even remotely involved with the FAA and plane routing knows, it is politics, not science or fairness that determines who gets plane noise dumped on them. So it's only natural that the people of  New Jersey got their politicians to fight to change the FAA's scheme. However, I wonder if stopping the appointment of a new FAA boss will do anything to change the FAA's plan. Are Senators Menendez and Lautenburg Really Serious About Stopping New Jersey's Airspace Redesign?  It seems like the usual political hocus pocus where the deals are made behind closed doors. Stugell probably won't get the FAA director's job; I'm betting he will get a raise for his years of service to the airline industry and selling out the quality of life and health of his fellow Americans.  Then Senator's Menendez and Lautenburg will announce that the FAA has revised (not cancelled) their plan and some ( politically connected and protected) communities will be spared overflights. Call me cynical, but having dealt with the FAA and politicians before I'd bet that this was the whole plan all along. 

Senators Hold Up FAA Administrator's Job:  Saying the Federal Aviation Administration is unresponsive to delay and safety issues, New Jersey's two U.S. senators said yesterday they are blocking a vote on Robert Sturgell's nomination as the agency's new administrator. The action by Democratic Sens. Robert Menendez and Frank Lautenberg would prevent the Republican Bush administration from gaining a full Senate vote on Sturgell's nomination. But Sturgell, who is serving as acting administration, may remain in the job until the end of Bush's presidency next January. "I have raised a number of serious safety and traffic issues with the FAA, and their responses, time and again, have shown minimal concern and a lack of urgency," Menendez said in a statement. Menendez and Lautenberg have taken issue with the FAA because of a continuing dispute with air-traffic controllers they say leaves control towers short-handed. The senators also voiced concerns about some recent close calls at Newark Liberty International Airport and a regional airspace redesign plan they say increases noise for many residents without significantly reducing delays. The FAA has defended its efforts to improve on-time performance in the New York/New Jersey region and says the reduced staffing levels of fully certified controllers due to recent retirements has not compromised safety. U.S. Department of Transportation officials stood by Sturgell. "It's unfortunate that the senators would hold up his nomination and play politics with the nation's aviation system simply because his agency is working to modernize how aircraft operate in the New York region, which might slightly increase aircraft noise for a small minority of their constituents," DOT spokesman Brian Turmail said. http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-9/120244898597690.xml&coll=1 

England: Heathrow Third Runway Decision Moving Closer!!! Heathrow airport, unlovely and unloved, will soon become even more unwieldy if the government has its way. An airport that regularly shows itself to be congested, badly run, claustrophobic and simply in the wrong place, is to be expanded. Its fifth terminal will soon be opened, to be followed by a sixth. At the end of this month the consultation period on plans for a third runway will end. This is a project that ministers appear determined to speed through the planning process. The consequence will be that the number of flights using Heathrow will expand from 480,000 to more than 700,000 a year, inflicting further misery on the 2m people in 12 local authorities who campaigners say suffer a serious loss of quality of life as a result of being under the flightpath. Even at this stage it is not too late to call a halt. The argument is straightforward. Most countries have built new airports well away from the cities they serve. Heathrow, the world’s busiest international airport, grew out of an old RAF fighter station, not careful planning. Flights in and out pass over the city, inflicting significant noise, pollution and potential danger. If BA flight 38, which crash-landed at Heathrow last month, had come down seconds earlier, the likely loss of life would have been huge. There is a simple and affordable solution. A new airport could be built on artificial islands in the Thames estuary, away from the overcrowded city but close enough to be served by fast transport links. Boris Johnson, Tory candidate for London mayor, has given his backing to it, describing the expansion of Heathrow as entrenching “a planning error of the 1960s”. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article3341737.ece Editor's Note: 

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                                                    Important Aviation News Stories This Week

New Jersey Senators Put A Hold On FAA Boss's Appointment!!!

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-9/120244898597690.xml&coll=1 

WASHINGTON - New Jersey’s two senators said today they’re placing a “hold” on President Bush’s nominee to lead the Federal Aviation Administration.

A hold is a parliamentary procedure that allows any senator to block a nominee from receiving a vote on the Senate floor. Only senators have that option. House members do not.

Bush wants the Senate to allow acting FAA Administrator Robert Sturgell to take the job full-time.

But Democratic Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez argue that Sturgell has created rather than solved problems.

They’ve clashed with Sturgell over the FAA’s plan to redesign the airspace over New York, New Jersey and nearby states to ease congestion in the nation's busiest air space. In a joint statement today, they listed insufficient numbers of air traffic controllers and reports of near-collisions between planes in the runway and in the air as other concerns besides the airspace redesign.

Menendez warned Sturgell in December that he’d place a hold.

Rep. Rob Andrews, D-Haddon Heights, has also criticized the FAA’s redesign, saying the plan is increasing aircraft noise and won’t ease flight delays.

Sturgell testified at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing earlier today. But that panel didn’t vote on his nomination. A vote will be called later.

In his written testimony, Sturgell said he’s had to make unpopular decisions but argued that the FAA is better managed and is aggressively moving to solve controller shortages, flight delays and other problems.

Comments By Readers On This Story

Citizens in Rockland County, New York – as well as citizens in New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, and Pennsylvania, and elsewhere – were mouth-agape aghast while watching “Bobby” Sturgell’s evasive and false under-oath testimony and answers today on February 7, 2008, to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. We have thanked Congress for making Mr. Sturgell’s webcast testimony and the proceedings available to all of us, real-time, and now archived, through RealPlayer software, on the Senate website.

“Bobby” Sturgell arrogantly insulted Senators Boxer, McCaskill, and Lautenberg – among all of the rest of us - with his persistent utter refusal to answer the most simple of direct “Yes or No” questions. Sturgell made Watergate conspirators sound like they testified on sodium pentothal, by comparison. Senator McCaskill asked the core essential question: “Do you think air traffic controller fatigue was a contributing factor[?]” to runway incursion mishaps – and the slipperiest of eels, the eel of Sturgell, the Sturg-eel – sought to squirm away with the scripted slime of non-answers.

“Bobby” Sturgell, acting FAA head for three months, testified that he had no prior knowledge of the San Diego aircraft near-miss a few weeks ago?

LIE.

Sturgell testified that he had no prior knowledge of recent Newark, NJ departures flying out in the wrong direction in the past few weeks?

LIE.

“Bobby” Sturgell’s nomination as proposed FAA Administrator should not be confirmed. Instead, after he first personally apologizes to Senators Boxer, McCaskill, and Lautenberg, “Bobby” Sturgell should then be INDICTED - for contempt of Congress, for rendering perjured testimony under oath, and for already putting millions of otherwise-innocent and unsuspecting Americans in harm’s way. I have now faxed every Senator on the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, asking them to please refer this matter to the AG, IG, GAO, and a Special Prosecutor – and to please now cook this eel.

Posted by: JJT3 on Thu Feb 07, 2008 8:21 pm

 

Thank you Senators Lautenberg and Sturgell!

On behalf of myself, “Quiet Rockland”, and the 30,000,000 million residents in the Northeast spanning 5 states all adversely affected by “Bobby” Sturgell’s FAA NY/NJ/PHL “Airspace Redesign” and his other harmful acts and omissions as a public official, all of which threaten our safety and security, we respectfully request that your colleagues please REJECT Mr. Sturgell’s sought confirmation as FAA head and join you in support.

“Bobby” Sturgell is unfit for the office, and he is unfit to lead the FAA. Here are 19 of the reasons why:

1. “Bobby” Sturgell Is Inept. Since Sturgell took over as Acting FAA Administrator from his failed publicist-predecessor Marion Blakey, the number of fuel-laden, passenger-filled aircraft near-misses at and near our airports has been excessive, numbing, and unconscionable. This is the direct product of “Bobby” Sturgell’s incompetence.

2. “Bobby” Sturgell Is Harmful. Sturgell’s NY/NJ/PHL Airspace Redesign threatens to do violence to our homes, our families, our health, our safety, and our environment. Yet “Bobby” Sturgell simply seeks to squeeze every single drop of money out of an already-overscheduled and already-overcrowded airspace. The harm he perpetrates is an intentional one borne of greed.

3. “Bobby” Sturgell Is Scheming. Sturgell and his FAA cronies seek to cram-down and rush his confirmation through, prior to the GAO’s issuance of what will undoubtedly be a harshly-critical set of audit and investigative findings of the misconduct of Sturgell and others in the development and implementation of the Airspace Redesign. At minimum, your honorable Committee should please impose a stay on “Bobby” Sturgell’s confirmation hearing - until issuance, receipt and review of the GAO audit report. To do otherwise would disrespect the GAO and harm American citizens.

4. “Bobby” Sturgell Is Bumbling. Only a truly ineffectual “leader” could spark no less than 13 separate federal court litigations with but one botched agency initiative – yet such is exactly what Sturgell did with his rank mishandling of the Airspace Redesign. Only Sturgell’s special brand of ineptitude could pit government against government, to the tune of millions of wasted dollars in litigation fees. That taxi meter continues to run every single day through the present day.

5. “Bobby” Sturgell Is A Tool. Sturgell simply shills for the mercenary airline companies and for his failed publicist-predecessor Marion Blakey. The one thing that holds these people together is their utter arrogance, contempt, and disregard for deleteriously-affected citizens on the ground.

6. “Bobby” Sturgell Is Part Of A Corrupt Pattern. Sturgell simply carries out the directives of the aeromercantile complex – in the case of the NY/NJ/PHL Airspace Redesign, at the expense of the health and safety of 30,000,000 American citizens on the ground, and our environment.

7. “Bobby” Sturgell Is Deceitful. Sturgell is directly responsible for the manifold lies including falsified documents which have issued from FAA FOIA personnel and other FAA personnel. Virtually every communication made to Rockland County, NY citizens by Sturgell’s FAA, relating to the NY/NJ/PHL Airspace Redesign, has been mendacious. Every so-called “statistic” has been concocted and falsified.

8. “Bobby” Sturgell Is Abusive. Sturgell and his FAA continue to perpetrate a pattern of abuse towards the air traffic controllers, and they continue to seek to break and chasten the air traffic controller’s union at every turn. This is not only anti-competitive and oppressive, it also greatly exacerbates the safety problems in our skies already caused by other Sturgell and FAA acts of malfeasance.

9. “Bobby” Sturgell Is Regressive. Sturgell and his failed predecessor Blakey are both directly responsible for the FAA failure to timely implement modern flight control technology and equipment – undoubtedly for reasons of pecuniary agendas relating to their aeromercantile cohorts in the private sector, but meanwhile at the expense of the safety of passengers and other Americans on the ground. It is a disgrace that antiquated equipment is still being used at control towers, and it is “Bobby” Sturgell’s fault.

10. “Bobby” Sturgell Is Unsafe. Sturgell and his FAA failed to adequately consider Homeland Security concerns specific to the Northeast region when developing and implementing the NY/NJ/PHL Airspace Redesign. Redesign FAA “Project Manager” Steve Kelley’s July, 2007 stammering inconsistent statements relating to Homeland Security precautions would have been laughable, if they did not concern such a deadly serious subject matter.

11. “Bobby” Sturgell Is Wanton. Sturgell and his FAA have violated at least 4 major bodies of federal law while seeking to implement the NY/NJ/PHL Airspace Redesign: NEPA; the Administrative Procedure Act; 49 U.S.C. Section 40103(b)(2) (requiring the FAA Administrator to protect us on the ground); and, repeatedly, the Freedom of Information Act. The only laws that Sturgell and his aeromercantile operatives seem to heed, on the other hand, are the economic laws of the jungle.

12. “Bobby” Sturgell Is In The Minority. Sturgell is one man who seeks to run the FAA like an arrogant lawless yahoo. There are 30,000,000 of us. Sturgell is but one vote, come Super Tuesday, and come November. But we’re 30,000,000 votes.

13. “Bobby” Sturgell Is A Faker. Even Sturgell’s own COO, FAA’s Hank Krakowski, publicly stated that the Airspace Redesign would be but a “Band-Aid solution” to airspace congestion in the Northeast. Yet Sturgell and his failed already-failed regime continue to tout the Redesign as a panacea. They’re wrong.

14. “Bobby” Sturgell Is Clueless. When pressed, twice, by a reporter several months ago, on the question of how many new people would experience new airplane noise as a result of the NY/NJ/PHL Airspace Redesign, Sturgell first endeavored to side-step the question, and then admitted that he had no idea.

15. “Bobby” Sturgell Is Plastic. Sturgell and his failed predecessor Blakey dwell upon the fragile spit-bubble of aero-P.R. This is the same publicist balloon that would have you believe that publicist Blakey is now somehow an expert in international security, and how our skies have “never been safer”. Those passengers in the recent near-miss planes at Newark, JFK, Chicago, LAX and elsewhere can tell you in response – RUBBISH! (Perhaps Sturgell can get NASA to interview those passengers and obfuscate the data).

16. “Bobby” Sturgell Is Profligate. Sturgell and his FAA wasted no less than US$53,500,000 on a fatally-flawed NY/NJ/PHL Airspace Redesign.

17. “Bobby” Sturgell Is Unoriginal. Sturgell himself has yet to propagate even one original thought not formerly conceived by others, during his time as acting FAA head. Ideas are only planted in his head by monied airline company interests. He is their robot.

18. “Bobby” Sturgell Is Unconstitutional. AMENDMENT V of The Constitution of the United States of America reads, in relevant part: “No person shall… be deprived of… property, without due process of law”. Yet the utter failure of the Blakey/Sturgell FAA to provide adequate notice and opportunity to be heard to citizens regarding the NY/NJ/PHL Airspace Redesign and how it would affect their lives and property rights, clearly demonstrates the arrant disregard and indeed contempt of Sturgell, Blakey, and the FAA for due process, and for the laws and Constitution of the United States of America.

19. “Bobby” Sturgell Is A Liability – YOUR Liability – And Our Liability. If Sturgell is confirmed and if the next aircraft “near-miss” incident is instead an actual crash – a matter of but a few hundred feet - then the casualties will unfortunately be as much the responsibility of those that approved and confirmed “Bobby” Sturgell, as they will be the responsibility of Sturgell himself. Our United States Senators are better and smarter than to put us at that risk.

Posted by: QuietRockland on Thu Feb 07, 2008 3:07 pm