The Aspiring Pilot

Hurricane article generating amazing response

My article last night on Hurricane Earl and how it'll affect general aviation has generate amazing buzz.  It is now the #1 article on Google and Google News when searching on hurricane and aviation and it was just picked up as the number one, lead story for the daily AOPA newsletter, Aviation eBriefs.  Thanks for all the support guys and I look forward to improving the quality of my articles and generating more topics that get this kind of response.  Any help sharing these articles is highly appreciated and I'm glad you guys are enjoying it enough to do so.

Possible terror plot unveiled or overreaction?

With the 9th anniversary of the tragic events of 9/11 approaching, it appears that nerves are on edge and security measure heightened.   Prior to the 9/11 hijackings, the terrorists held dry runs, testing the security system and flight loads of airplanes to help in analyzing their probability of success.  Now, just 2 weeks prior to the 9th anniversary, it appears they may be planning another attack based on reports in the media on a recent incident.

Two US Citizens of Yemeni descent were detained at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam.  The airports involved in this troubling story were Birmingham, O'Hare, Dulles, Schiphol, as well as in Dubai and Yemen.

One of the terror suspects, Ahmed Mohamed Nasser al Soofi, of Detroit, Mi, was stopped by screeners in Birmingham's airport for additional screening because of his bulky clothing and nothing was found on him to warrant denying boarding or further investigation.

Their checked baggage on the other hand contained items that were considered suspicious, but were not dangerous, including a pepro-bismal bottle with a cell phone taped to it, watches taped together and 3 other cellphones taped together.

The other passenger, Hezem al Murisi, was to make a stop in Dulles enroute to Amsterdam, but changed the itinerary at the last minute to go direct, Chicago to Amsterdam, on the same flight as al Soofi.  His bagged left Chicago and made the flight to Dulles, where it was transfered to his connecting flight as originally planned.  When the Dulles flight departed the gate, and officials noted he was not aboard and still in Chicago, they ordered the flight back to the gate to remove his luggage.  The baggage was subsequently searched and nothing of interest or threat was found.

Both passengers were then detained in Amsterdam at the request of the FBI; however, according to an NPR report dutch authorities say that both men may be released.  Neither is on any watch list or terrorist report.  Also, reports are that neither man has any relationship to the other.

The explanation for the suspicious items was that they were being taken to family members as gifts.  I could understand the cell phones and watches together, but a cell phone taped to a bottle?  That one I don't understand and still am skeptical of the explanation. It is an odd situation, and there is a possibility that it was simply a coincidence and misunderstanding.

What are your opinions?   Real threat/dry run, or simply a misunderstanding and some stupidity on the parts of the passengers in actions?

Category 4 Hurricane Earl and Tropical Storm Fiona bearing down on the US

General Aviation Examiner

Earlier today, the NOAA's National Hurricane Center classified an area of low pressure following behind Hurricane Earl as Tropical Storm Fiona, bypassing the Tropical Depression classification.  Hurricane Earl also has been upgraded to a Category 4 storm, making it the second major hurricane of the season.  Currently, Earl has sustained winds of 145MPH and is expected to retain this strength as it approaches the US east coast.  The models still have not agreed on a consensus for landfall; however, the NHC and other hurricane experts are giving Earl a 25% chance of landfall in the continental US, possibly in North Carolina by the end of the week.

The affect of Earl on general aviation could be significant, especially with what appears to be the next system, Fiona, following almost directly in his footsteps. (rest of the story at National General Aviation Examiner.)

 

Well known aviation personalities detained at gunpoint based on erroneous information - National General Aviation

Well known aviation personalities detained at gunpoint based on erroneous information - National General Aviation.

Curious as to how law enforcement agencies would handle a situation such as this at Dupage, Chicago Executive, Aurora and other local airports?

Spanair Flight 5502 did not crash due to computer malware or virus - National General Aviation

Spanair Flight 5502 did not crash due to computer malware or virus - National General Aviation.

Correction to my prior post on this blog regarding the SpanAir flight.  Looks like the virus actually wasn't directly responsible for the crash.

General Aviation in Illinois - Chicago General Aviation

General Aviation in Illinois - Chicago General Aviation.

Introduction to the multiple general aviation series that I will be writing on my Chicago General Aviation examiner.com site.

1000 pageviews and counting! Thanks!

Thanks to all my readers and followers, this is the fastest anything I've tried online has ever taken.  I know 1,000 pageviews isn't that amazing, but it's also well over 500 individual visits as well.  So people from all over the world (particularly 22 countries as well as 37 states in the US) are reading my material.  Like I said last night, I'm beginning my examiner.com series on airports with a general post today and hopefully my report on rockford within the next week or two.  Please, help spread the word, share my page on facebook and twitter and let's keep this growth up, even speed it up!

Working on a series of news articles

I've begun working on a series of articles for publication at my Chicago General Aviation Examiner page that will focus on the airports in the greater Chicago area, specifically the general aviation aspect of each airport.  I've got a good lead with making Rockford International airport the first in the series and hope to have the article up within 7-10 days with pictures and video.  My goal will be to highly one airport a month and begin a second series on general aviation businesses, from training centers, to flying clubs to FBO's (fixes base operators).   My first article will be simply a very brief introduction to general aviation and Illinois aviation.  I'm really looking forward to beginning this project!

One fatality in airport incident at Beverly Municipal Airport - National General Aviation

One fatality in airport incident at Beverly Municipal Airport - National General Aviation.

One person was killed after being struck by a propeller of a single engine aircraft at Beverly Municipal Airport this morning.  Initial reports are that a flight instructor left one aircraft, a Piper Arrow, to assist another pilot who's canopy was stuck open.

Mercy Flight Oregon fined $30,000 by US Department of Transportation

• by Andrew Smolenski - National General Aviation Examiner
• August 27th, 2010 3:25 pm ET

Mercy Flight of Oregon was fined $30,000 by the US Department of Transportation (DOT) today for using the pronoun 'our' in describing a helicopter it operates.  The DOT stated that the not-for profit organization was in violation of laws that prohibit deceptive practices in the sales of air transportation by using personal pronouns.

Mercy Flight is one of the oldest aviation medical services organizations founded in 1949. (read more at examiner.com)