After 9/11, the FAA developed a plan to allow some pilots to carry a gun. Since then, not a single shot has been fired on a US plane -- until this weekend, when a pilot's gun "discharged" in the cockpit of a US Airways flight. No one's explaining exactly how that happened, but I'm gonna guess the co-pilot said something he shouldn't have.
California is closer to passing an Airline Passengers Bill of Rights similar to the New York law which requires airlines to provide basic amenities if planes are stuck on the tarmac for more than three hours. I've discussed this many times with Kate Hanni, who started the nationwide grassroots effort and continues to lobby Congress and state legislatures on our behalf. Considering the number of air miles politicians rack up, you'd think this would be a no-brainer, but the airline industry has more lobbyists (with more money to spread around) than we do.
Update at 2:53pm: a federal appeals court has just struck down New York's passenger bill of rights law, saying individual states have no right to regulate the airlines. Now the effort will have to concentrate on Congress to get a national BOR passed.
4 comments:
Bad news today; New York's Passenger Bill of Rights is struck down...
http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-bill0326,0,1254010.story
Congress is to busy worrying about baseball, steroids, and Clemens or about the Patriots "spy gate" issue to work on something as trivial as passenger rights.
In a related story, US Airways pilot B. Fife was fired today for discharging his firearm in the aircraft cockpit while in flight.
Previously, Mr Fife had worked as a Sheriffs Deputy in Mayberry NC. "Barney was always misfiring his gun. I only let him have one bullet, which he had to keep in his shirt pocket" said Sheriff Taylor.
Mr Fife was last seen with Juanita.
Thelma Lou, Mr Fife's wife, declined comment for this story.
Oh how easy and appropriate around Easter. Pilate says, "It's clearly Federal so off with you." I hope the judge goes through Dallas in July and has his plane pushed (without aux or internal power) to the middle of one of the endless concourses for 2-1/2 hours because American overbooked gates like I did. No fun. Or come back to mainland from Kauai with full plane and only one working toilet because we were held on ground in the plane for 3 hours. The right may cheer the judge who didn't legislate from the bench, I call this ruling abdication of responsibility.
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