[whataretheysaying] Mary Madigan: Panicking Politicians

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Posted by Mary Madigan:
Panicking Politicians
http://whataretheysaying.powerblogs.com/posts/1160837186.shtml


   Sometimes I [1]like Schumer, and sometimes I don't.

   [2]This time I don't:

     New York Gov. George Pataki and Democrat Senator Charles Schumer
     pushed for immediate changes in the wake of the crash, which
     revealed that flight patterns along the river hadn't been
     re-assessed since the Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaeda attacks.

     "A smart terrorist could load up a small, little plane with
     biological, chemical or even nuclear material and fly up the Hudson
     or East rivers, no questions asked," said Schumer.

   Let's just ignore the 'small little plane' (as opposed to a big little
   plane?) dopiness and lets focus on the 'smart terrorist' remark.

   A really smart terrorist would probably know that it's a lot easier to
   load up a car, truck or boat with nasty stuff. First, every general
   aviation airport that I've visited since 9/11 has been locked and
   supervised by fairly intense security.

   Secondly, it would be hard to find a terrorist who was trained as a
   pilot and who was the right size for the job. Two large men can't even
   fit in a Cessna 150 - they'll pitch the center of gravity dangerously
   forward with a fully loaded fuel tank. Even if only one skinny
   terrorist was flying the plane they couldn't get much of a payload in
   there. Yes, biological weapons are probably light, but they're more
   likely to be effective on the ground than in the air. Schumer's whole
   scenario makes no sense.

   The voice of reason comes from an experienced pilot ... [3]Mayor
   Bloomberg.

     Some 20 years later, he took his nephew up in a plane for a
     sightseeing tour around Manhattan _ similar to Lidle's fatal
     journey on Wednesday. At about 1,500 feet above the ground, a
     propeller failed. Bloomberg notified air traffic control and turned
     back toward the airport, where they cleared the runways and
     deployed the fire engines.

     He had just enough altitude to essentially glide back to the
     airport, land on the runway and roll to a stop. Without that
     height, he might have had to aim for the water.

     "The lesson I suppose is: Don't panic. Do what you were trained to
     do. No more. No less," he wrote later.

     This also puts him on the opposite side of lawmakers this week who
     are calling for tighter restrictions in New York City's airspace.
     The mayor says the Federal Aviation Administration's policy of
     allowing small planes to buzz along the waterways is perfectly
     safe.

   "Don't panic. Do what you were trained to do. No more. No less."
   That's an idea that the media and the government can use.

   I guess Bloomberg's not a total nanny-stater.

References

   1. http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=9981
   2. http://www.cbc.ca/sports/baseball/story/2006/10/13/east-river-flying.html
   3. http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--airbornemayor1013oct13,0,6344555.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork