Liberal Media Fearmongers lied, "Michelle Obama's Plane Was Not in "Danger"
Harry Hope
obamas-plane-was-not-in-danger/237583/
What is up with the WaPo's scare coverage of aviation? A story
on line just now leads this way, emphasis added:
"A White House plane carrying Michelle Obama came dangerously
close to a 200-ton military cargo jet and had to abort its
landing at Andrews Air Force Base on Monday as the result of an
air traffic controller's mistake, according to federal officials
familiar with the incident."
Then, two paragraphs down,
"Officials with the Federal Aviation Administration confirmed
Tuesday that the first lady was aboard the plane and said that
"the aircraft were never in any danger."
The planes, according to info way down in the story plus other
accounts, were at their closest three miles apart, with one
trailing the other on the approach for landing. If instead they
had been heading straight at each other, with a combined closing
speed of 600 to 1000 miles per hour, a three mile gap would have
been closed in seconds. But in this case, their closing speed
would have been slow. This was indeed an air traffic control
mistake, in that they were supposed to be five miles apart,
mainly to allow the "wake turbulence" created by the large Air
Force C-17 to dissipate before the next plane landed. But it's
not like there was a chance of one plane running into the other.
As FAA spokesmen said, and as the NYT made clear in a much
calmer-toned story (the WSJ calm too), the maneuvers required of
Mrs. Obama's plane -- doing "S-turns" to slow down as it neared
the airport, and then "going around" for another approach when
it became clear that the first plane wouldn't get off the runway
in time -- are routine and the farthest things from emergency
procedures. A mistake, yes. A near-miss, no.
Last month, the Post had a similar alarmist story about National
Airport's sleeping controller forcing planes to "land on their
own." (The online version of the story has been changed from the
one I talked about in that post, to a calmer lead.) It was
obviously bad then to have no one on duty in the tower, and it
was bad this time that the planes got closer than they should
have been. But there was nothing in this new situation to
justify the assertion that the planes got "dangerously close." I
hope that by the time you see the online version this story will
have been changed too.