Air Force One – Take Two
Wow! What a reaction you gave us to our first few posts! The comments and feedback we’ve received are wonderful, challenging, and sincere. Keep it coming.
Based on that feedback, we wanted to clarify one point of our “Air Force One and the Statue of Liberty” post. The Air Force pilots who properly executed their orders to fly over the Statue of Liberty don’t deserve to be called “Aviation Klutzes”. Although the pilot in command was the final authority as to the operation of the aircraft, and had the last clear chance to stop the operation, the decision was, we are sure, made further up the chain of command.
The title of “Aviation Klutz” only applies to someone who is responsible for making good aviation decisions, but fails to be adequately thoughtful and takes action at the needless expense of others.
We general aviation pilots aren’t subject to a chain of command. We must develop our own situational awareness and think through the impact on others for each action we take.
I wonder if the stupid stunt the Obama Administration pulled over New York with the extra Air Force had gone wrong and had crashed into a New York high rise and killed hundreds, if not thousands of people, would the Obama Admin had blamed the mishap on the Prior Bush Administration or the FAA and General Aviation???