Legion of Angels News Archive

WASHINGTON - The last House vote before a vacation usually sparks a stampede toward the doors and waiting planes. Not so on Friday, when Republicans occupied the House floor for a rare, and at times bizarre, protest against Democratic energy policies.

The microphones were off, the House had stopped TV feeds to C-Span and the lights dimmed after the pre-noon vote to adjourn for the August recess. That didn’t deter Republicans, who one after another rose to demand that Congress stay in session until it does something about high gas prices.

Unlike a normal session where the rules of decorum are strictly enforced, GOP lawmakers and their aides who filled the chamber clapped, chanted, gave standing ovations and booed the Democrats.

“Madame Speaker, where art thou?” shouted out Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, in a glancing rhetorical shot at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. “Where oh where has Congress gone?”

It was a rare treat for tourists. Republicans invited many, in their shorts and sandals, into the chamber, usually strictly off-limits, to better hear the revivalist-like speeches.

The talkathon finally ended around 5:00 p.m. EDT, more than five hours after it began and 30 minutes after police escorted tourists out of the chamber. The Capitol closes to tourists at 4:30 p.m. In a grand finale, lawmakers led a roomful of aides in a rendition of “God Bless America” and walked off to chants of “USA, USA.”

The event, said Rep. John Shadegg of Arizona, one of the organizers with Reps. Mike Pence of Indiana and Tom Price of Georgia, was “the equivalent of the Boston Tea Party over the energy issue.”

Republicans are angry that Democrats blocked them from a vote on allowing more offshore oil drilling and increasing domestic oil supplies.

Democrats have faulted Republicans for obstructing their efforts to stop market speculation, press oil companies to develop the leases they have and force the president to release oil from the strategic petroleum reserve. The result is that Congress is leaving town without a comprehensive energy bill.

Source — MSNBC

WASHINGTON - Two airborne planes — one landing and the other taking off — came within a half-mile of colliding at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Friday in the second such incident at the airport in a week, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The FAA moved quickly to change takeoff and landing procedures at JFK on perpendicular runways — the kind of runways involved in both incidents.

FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said a Delta Flight 123 was arriving at the airport Friday when the pilot decided to abort his landing and execute a “go-around” — a routine procedure often used during heavy congestion. That caused the Delta flight to intersect with the flight path of Comair Flight 1520, a regional jet that was taking off on another runway.

The FAA ordered new procedures Friday afternoon to change the way takeoffs and landings on perpendicular runways are sequenced, Brown said in an interview with The Associated Press.

The new procedures are designed to ensure “that aircraft of one runway clear out of the path of the other runway before the second flight comes down on the other runway,” Brown said. “We’ve had two events recently and I think we want to make sure the appropriate safety margins are in place.”

Second incident in a week
Last Saturday, a Cayman Airways flight was landing at JFK when the pilot decided to abort the landing a fly around the airport again as a LAN Chile jet was taking off. Their flight paths crossed, bringing the planes within about 200 feet of each other vertically and a half-mile horizontally. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating that incident.

On Friday, the Delta jet, a Boeing 757, and the Comair plane, a Bombardier CRJ9, came within 600 feet of each other vertically and a half-mile horizontally, the FAA said.

The agency said it was not classifying either incident as a “near collision” because there was no violation of standards for how apart planes can fly, Brown said.

Delta spokeswoman Gina Laughlin initially said the incident took place a week ago on July 4. However, Laughlin later told The Associated Press that the FAA was correct, and the incident took place on Friday at 1:20 p.m. Comair is a subsidiary of Delta.

“This did happen today,” Laughlin said. “This is what we call, and what the FAA classifies, as a ‘proximity event.”‘

Laughlin said she didn’t know how many people were aboard the Delta flight, which came from Shannon, Ireland, but the plane seats 170 passengers.

Dean Iacopelli, a representative for the New York National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said the FAA has “terminated that perpendicular simultaneous approach procedure.”

‘Accident waiting to happen’
Barrett Byrnes, president of the controllers union at the JFK tower, said controllers have long sought the procedure changes.

“The FAA put out an order to JFK to no longer use that approach. That’s exactly what we wanted to happen,” Byrnes said. “We’ve been trying to change that for the last 12, 13 years. It’s been an accident waiting to happen.”

Friday’s incident began when the Delta flight was handed off from the FAA’s traffic control center in Westbury, N.Y., to the JFK tower as the plane prepared to land. In the handoff, the Delta pilot apparently wasn’t using the communication frequency the flight was assigned to communicate with the JFK tower, Brown said.

The JFK tower and the Delta jet did not establish contact until the flight was 1.5 miles from touching down on the runway, Brown said. The flight was cleared to land by the tower, but the pilot decided to abort the landing, Brown said.

Source — MSNBC