FAA grounds taunting banner plane

Ricky writes:

No, it's not and you are wrong once again.
The issue was not the seat belt, it was someone's
offense at free speech. The seat belt was an issue
discovered after the fact, so once again, you're simply wrong.

R-r-really? I never thought of that!

Jim Logajan wrote:
The FAA sent inspectors to check on a plane that towed a taunting banner
and claimed it had a seatbelt issue, grounding it:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100409/...s_banner_plane

I'm glad to see that the FAA doesn't abuse their police powers when asked
by the rich and politically connected to go find something, anything, to
silence unwelcome but free speech, however one may disagree with it. I'm
glad that didn't happen here.

And kudos to the person on the ground who managed to see a problem with a
seatbelt on the airplane (good eye!) and alerted the FAA to the unsafe
condition. I'm sure the FAA inspectors had a specific reason to inspect the
plane other than it carried a taunting banner.

I'm sure the FAA would have been equally diligent to complaints of unsafe
airplanes towing banners saying something like "Eat at Joe's".

I was glad to see that this story made it on TMZ, complete with some
speculation as to the government having money on the outcome of the Masters.


--
Jim Pennino

Remove .spam.sux to reply.

Mxsmanic wrote:
Jim Logajan writes:

I'm sure the FAA would have been equally diligent to complaints of
unsafe airplanes towing banners saying something like "Eat at Joe's".

A bad seat belt can lead a banner-towing aircraft to tragedy, just as
surely as a politically-incorrect message. It's not like a failure to
maintain a fleet of 737s, or ignoring ADs for a couple of 747s, or
trivial stuff like that. This is a question of seat-belt conformance,
which has the absolute highest priority with the FAA because of the
fearsome danger it represents to aviation safety.

Looks like a couple readers may have missed the sardonic (or should I say
sarcastic or cynical) tone of your post. Much in the same tone my post was
written.

In article ,
says...

Stealth Pilot writes:

I havent. could you demonstrate for me?

I wasn't given a copy of the scans or x-ray images, as I was uninjured myself.

What sort of aircraft was it?

--
Duncan.

On Apr 11, 1:15*am, Stealth Pilot
wrote:
On Sat, 10 Apr 2010 14:31:22 +0200, Mxsmanic
wrote:

Dave Doe writes:

Just wondering how you'd know that. *When's the last time you left the
seat, due clear air turbulence, or when you where trying to join the
mile high club and she leaned back onto the control yoke?

I've seen first-hand what happens when people don't fasten their seat belts.

I havent.
could you demonstrate for me?

Preferably in an open cockpit biplane during aerobatics

Dave Doe writes:

What sort of aircraft was it?

DC-10

On Apr 13, 8:40*am, "Stephen!" wrote:
Jim Logajan wrote :

And kudos to the person on the ground who managed to see a problem
with a seatbelt on the airplane (good eye!) and alerted the FAA to the
unsafe condition. I'm sure the FAA inspectors had a specific reason to
inspect the plane other than it carried a taunting banner.

* A ramp check needs no reason.

:-)
Some-one didn't read their Regs

Stephen! writes:

A ramp check needs no reason.

I'm sure this one had a reason, just not the one claimed for it.

On Apr 12, 4:27*pm, Mxsmanic wrote:
Stephen! writes:
A ramp check needs no reason.

I'm sure this one had a reason, just not the one claimed for it.

I wonder if the only problem with the seat belt was a missing TSO
compliance tag...

On Apr 12, 7:25*pm, 150flivver wrote:

I wonder if the only problem with the seat belt was a missing TSO
compliance tag...

It could have been worse--the tow plane might have not had a compass
deviation card in which case countless lives would have been
endangered.