NBC news stupidity

(B2431) wrote in message ...
From: "TaxSrv"
Date: 8/13/2004 8:52 AM Central Daylight Time
Message-id:

"B2431" wrote:
...
How far were they prepared to go? If they had displayed the weapons
in flight
to prove they could do it it would be just as criminal, in my
opinion, as
telling a stewardess in flight you have a bomb even if you didn't.

The are federal criminal laws which apply to air carrier and what is a
weapon, and they apply to media doing undercover stunts. I know of no
criminal law which says you cannot have a utility knife on board a
charter aircraft.

This flight could even have been Part 91. Is it now OK for some
do-gooder to observe a passenger of ours who looks Middle Eastern and
has an apparent large knife and odd stuff to put in the aircraft, and
call the police? Because he appears to the citizen not to be known to
you.

If you say OK, they'll come out and ask a few questions and everything
will be cool. But what if they surround you and your friend with
drawn weapons?

I'm not defending what NBC did, nor a big fan of the ACLU, and the FBO
acted laudably. But unless there's a criminal law violated here, this
incident shouldn't sound all that good to us pilots.

Fred F.

From what I read I gather they were acting squirrely. If I had been there I
would have been a tad nervous. Under those circumstances I would have been
correct in feeling threatened. Bear in mind in most states you can rob a 7-11
with a toy gun and still get charged with armed robery since the victim would
have felt threatened.

Let's take this out of aviation for a moment. If you were at a stoplight and
some guy opened your passenger door and hopped in then produced a box cutter
and said "Hi, I'm from NBC and I just proved how easy it is to car jack" you
would still feel threatened. Now take this scenario and plug it in to the stunt
NBC pulled. Given the post 9/11 enhanced vigilence the FBO acted with properly.

I am no lawyer, but it would seem to me that if the victims felt threatened
then a threat had been conveyed which I believe IS a crime.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

Yep. I have long maintained that we need a law allowing charges for
'felony stupidity'. This incident would certainly comply with that
definition.

Harry K