Posts

FAA Contractor Charged for Allegedly Threatening to ‘kill you — Donald John Trump’

/0 Comments/in , /by

Federal Aviation Administration mechanical engineering contractor finds himself at risk of significant jail time over an email he allegedly sent the White House, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Hampshire.

The 35-year-old man, Dean DelleChiaie, of Nashua, was arrested on Monday and appeared in court on Tuesday on a charge of interstate communication of a threat against the president. If convicted, the FAA contractor faces up to five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.

An affidavit in support of the charge filed by a U.S. Secret Service special agent details the alleged actions of DelleChiaie. According to that affidavit, the Nashua man first came to the notice of the Secret Service near the end of January after the FAA IT department contacted the USSS. The contact was made after the suspect allegedly took his government-issued computer to the IT department and asked for his search history to be deleted.

While working on the suspect’s request, the IT department employees noticed disturbing search topics on his computer.

According to the affidavit, these search topics are alleged to have included:

How to get a gun into a federal facility;
Previous assassination attempts against the president;
The percentage of the population that wants the president dead; and
The phrase “I am going to kill Donald John Trump.”

(Read more from “FAA Contractor Charged for Allegedly Threatening to ‘kill you — Donald John Trump’” HERE)

Trump Was Right: FAA Turned Away Qualified Controllers Over Race

/1 Comment/in , , /by

On Thursday, while addressing Thursday’s plane crash near Washington, D.C., President Donald Trump blasted both the Obama and Biden administrations for prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives within the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Transportation.

“I put safety first. Obama, Biden, and the Democrats put policy first, and they put politics at a level that nobody’s ever seen,” Trump told reporters in the White House briefing room. . .

“It’s one thing for internet pundits to spew up conspiracy theories,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said. “It’s another for the president of the United States of America to throw out idle speculation even as victims are still being recovered and families are still being notified. It turns your stomach.”

But Trump was not wrong.

In fact, concerns about the FAA’s DEI policies are not new. Critics have long argued that these policies have distracted from essential safety measures, particularly during a period marked by air traffic controller shortages, outdated equipment, and an increase in near misses. Reports indicate that the air traffic controller on duty during the incident was effectively managing the responsibilities of two people. (Read more from “Trump Was Right: FAA Turned Away Qualified Controllers Over Race” HERE)

Victory for Bored Air Travelers Everywhere: FAA Lifts Ban on Electronics Use (+video)

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Sean MacEnteeIn a victory for bored air travelers everywhere, federal aviation regulators gave airlines the go-ahead Thursday to let passengers keep their iPads, Kindles and other electronic gadgets switched on during takeoffs and landings — a change that had airlines jockeying to be the first to make the switch.

JetBlue said it would carry out the loosened policy “as quickly as we receive approval from the Federal Aviation Administration, which can be as early as this afternoon.” That apparently hadn’t happened by early evening, however.

Delta Air Lines, which boasted of being the first carrier to file the necessary paperwork with regulators, said it hoped its passengers could see the change as soon as Friday. American Airlines said it will file its own plan with the FAA that day as well. Virtually all other major U.S. airlines said they’re working as fast as they can.

The FAA wouldn’t confirm anybody’s optimistic timing, and agency chief Michael Huerta told reporters that the airlines will first have to conduct tests to make sure the gizmos’ radio signals won’t interfere with their planes’ electronics. Still, airlines had been preparing for a decision such as this and will most likely try to roll out changes as soon as possible, with their eye on the Christmas travel season.

The changes don’t mean you’ll have to put up with a seatmate who yammers on his iPhone for the entire trip from Dulles to LAX. Cellphone calls will still be banned in flight.

Read more from this story HERE.

FAA Warns Public Against Shooting Guns at Drones

/5 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: APPeople who fire guns at drones are endangering the public and property and could be prosecuted or fined, the Federal Aviation Administration warned Friday.

The FAA released a statement in response to questions about an ordinance under consideration in the tiny farming community of Deer Trail, Colo., that would encourage hunters to shoot down drones. The administration reminded the public that it regulates the nation’s airspace, including the airspace over cities and towns.

A drone “hit by gunfire could crash, causing damage to persons or property on the ground, or it could collide with other objects in the air,” the statement said. “Shooting at an unmanned aircraft could result in criminal or civil liability, just as would firing at a manned airplane.”

Under the proposed ordinance, Deer Trail would grant hunting permits to shoot drones. The permits would cost $25 each. The town would also encourage drone hunting by awarding $100 to anyone who presents a valid hunting license and identifiable pieces of a drone that has been shot down.

Deer Trail resident Phillip Steel, 48, author of the proposal, said in an interview that he has 28 signatures on a petition — roughly 10 percent of the town’s registered voters. Under Colorado law, that requires local officials to formally consider the proposal at a meeting next month, he said. Town officials would then have the option of adopting the ordinance or putting it on the ballot in an election this fall, he said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Cancer Clinics Still Suffering From Sequester, Ask Why FAA was Fixed, Cancer Ignored

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: José GoulãoCongress should have addressed deep cuts to cancer clinics before tackling airline delays caused by sequestration, people at several of those clinics said Friday.

Both the House and Senate have now voted to restore funding that the Federal Aviation Administration lost through the automatic budget cuts known as “sequestration.” The bill is headed to President Obama’s desk.

Although delays in air travel affect lawmakers personally, cancer clinics say the cuts they are facing under the sequester are far more serious — and should have been a higher priority for Congress.

“I would invite anyone in Washington to come look my patients in the eye and tell them that waiting for a flight is a bigger problem than traveling farther and waiting longer for chemotherapy,” said William Nibley, a doctor at Utah Cancer Specialists in Salt Lake City.

Cancer clinics have seen their Medicare payments slashed under sequestration. They have had to turn away thousands of new patients, and some clinics say they will have to close their doors for good if the sequester cuts are not reversed soon.

Read more from this story HERE.

Coburn Offers FAA Easy Alternatives To Closing Towers, Cutting Air Traffic Controllers

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Daily CallerIn the latest installment of Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn’s letter-writing campaign for administration sanity in implementing the sequester, the Republican is taking on the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) spending cut priorities.

In a letter to Department of Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood, Coburn called on the FAA to cancel upcoming conferences, stop nonessential hiring or reform low-priority programs before cutting elements that could harm flight safety.

“The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced today that it will close 173 air traffic control towers, effective April 7, and could furlough nearly 47,000 employees, ‘including all management and non-management employees working within the Air Traffic Organization,’” Coburn wrote in the letter, dispatched Wednesday. “All of the 173 towers closing April 7 are privately run under contracts. The department’s inspector general, however, reported that these same contract towers are both cheaper and safer than towers operated by the FAA.”

Under sequestration, the FAA is expected to cut $600 million — or just 4 percent of the agency’s nearly $16 billion budget for fiscal year 2012.

According Coburn, if a reduction in conference expenditures can stop “even one day of furlough for one air traffic controller,” then the FAA should be moving forward with it.

Read more from this story HERE.

FAA Official: No Armed Drones In U.S.

/7 Comments/in , /by

An official with the Federal Aviation Administration reassured the public Wednesday that no armed drones will be permitted in U.S. airspace, but he acknowledged the agency can do little about privacy fears associated with the unmanned craft.

In an address to the drone-industry’s leading trade group, which is meeting this week in Northern Virginia, Jim Williams said existing rules already bar aircraft from using weapons and “we don’t have any plans of changing [those rules] for unmanned aircraft.”

“We currently have rules in the books that deal with releasing anything from an aircraft, period. Those rules are in place and that would prohibit weapons from being installed on a civil aircraft,” said Mr. Williams, who heads the FAA’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration Office, formed last year to shepherd drones into already-crowded American skies and integrate drone use with the manned-aircraft system.

The FAA has cited “privacy concerns” as one reason it has fallen behind the congressionally mandated integration schedule, but Mr. Williams said the agency actually can’t do much of anything about those fears.

“The FAA has no authority to make rules or enforce any rules relative to privacy,” he said. “We can ask [the industry] to take into consideration the privacy issue. … There aren’t any rules to date on that.”

Read more from this story HERE.

FAA Releases New Drone Authorization List – See Who Applied To Have Them

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Photo Credit: Google MapsLast year, alarm was raised among some Americans regarding the Federal Aviation Administration’s expanding legislation for drone use over U.S. soil and the list of 63 authorized drone sites in the country. With more recent news that the Obama administration has approved drone strikes on some U.S. citizens, which some have said is “chilling” and the government saying “we can kill you,” the FAA has recently released an updated list of domestic drone authorization applicants.

The list was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request made by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The list shows 20 new applicants, mostly law enforcement and universities but also the first tribal entity, EFF noted.

Here are few of the new authorization applicants EFF called out:

The State Department
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Barona Band of Mission Indians Risk Management Office (near San Diego, California)
Canyon County Sheriff’s Office (Idaho)
Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office (Northwest Oregon)
Grand Forks Sheriff’s Department (North Dakota)
King County Sheriff’s Office (covering Seattle, Washington)
Medina County Sheriff’s Office (Ohio)
Ohio Department of Transportation (Ohio)
Sinclair Community College (Ohio)
Lorain County Community College (Ohio)
EFF’s Jennifer Lynch, a staff attorney for the privacy advocacy organization, wrote the hope of the nonprofit in releasing this information is that people will ask their own local law enforcement about their plans for drone use.

“We also encourage people to ask hard questions of government officials about who is funding drone development in their communities and what policies the government will demand agencies follow if they fly drones,” Lynch wrote on the website. “We need greater transparency and citizen push-back to protect Americans from privacy-invasive domestic drone use.”

Read more from this story HERE.

FAA Tells Employees They’ll Lose Their Jobs if GOP Wins

/11 Comments/in , /by

Two federal agency supervisors allegedly warned employees earlier this year that a Republican takeover in Washington could threaten their jobs — comments that some workers apparently took as guidance on “how to vote” and that one group claims may have violated federal law.

Nonprofit watchdog Cause of Action wrote a letter Wednesday asking the Department of Transportation’s inspector general to launch a probe into the incident, involving senior officials with the Federal Aviation Administration. The incident occurred in May during a meeting at the FAA’s Seattle office, according to the letter.

Emails obtained by FoxNews.com show one FAA employee recalling what John Hickey, deputy associate administrator for aviation safety, said at the meeting.

“I would not be able to quote Mr. Hickey (sic) exact words but what I took out of it was, if the conservative (Republicans) gain control of congress then the FAA could be looking (at) as much as a 15% cut in budget and we (may) be looking at furloughs. If the liberal Democrats take control of congress then we would be looking at a flat budget,” the email said. “In short if the Republicans win office our jobs may be (affected) … if the Democrats win office then our jobs would not be (affected).”

The recipient of that email then relayed the account, and others, to apparent higher-ups at the FAA. He said, “there seems to be some energy within the office as a reaction to Mr. Hickey’s, inappropriate at best, comments and more than a few employees took umbrage that a person in such an elevated position in the agency would make those remarks.

Read more from this story HERE.