Tag: air travel

Police Data: N.J. Drone Sightings Concentrated Along Airport Flight Paths

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a UFO! It’s an Iranian mothership! It’s a radiation probe! Or maybe it’s really just a plane. The wave of alleged noctural drone sightings in New Jersey has led to some wild theories about what the mysterious lights in the sky could be.

Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R–N.J.) claimed that the drones were coming from an Iranian “mothership” in the Atlantic Ocean, then retracted his claim after the Pentagon denied it. (The Iranian navy does have a sort of aircraft carrier for drones—and publicly-available satellite imagery shows that it’s still sitting in the Persian Gulf.) The mayor of Belleville, New Jersey, claimed the drones were part of a secret search operation for missing radioactive material, although the materials have already been recovered. Rep. Nancy Mace (R–S.C.) even asked whether it could be aliens from outer space.

But there might be a simpler explanation. Gov. Phil Murphy has suggested that at least some of the sightings were just normal air traffic misidentified by over-eager drone spotters. Police documents obtained by Reason under the New Jersey Open Public Records Act back up that theory. A map of drone reports produced by the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office shows a dense concentration of sightings along the flight path of airliners leaving New York City.

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Drone Fears Cause New Problem: People Shining Lasers At Manned Aircraft

Federal law enforcement officials warned the public on Monday to not shine high-powered lasers at flying objects at night as the public increasingly looks for drone activity following recent media reporting.

FBI Newark and New Jersey State Police said that there has been “an increase in pilots of manned aircraft being hit in the eyes with lasers because people on the ground think they see an Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS).”

Authorities also said that there has been increased concerns about people firing weapons at what they believe are UAS but, in reality, are manned aircraft.

“There could be dangerous and possibly deadly consequences if manned aircraft are targeted mistakenly as UAS,” the statement said.

“To improve accuracy and prevent false sightings, a variety of tools and techniques can be used to assist with the visual identification of suspected UAS,” the statement said. “Accurate identification is critical for maintaining safety and ensuring appropriate responses to UAS activity.”

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Justice Department Orders DEA to Halt Airport Searches Because of ‘Significant Issues’ With Cash Seizures

The Justice Department has ordered the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to suspend most searches of passengers at airports and other mass transit hubs after an independent investigation found DEA task forces weren’t documenting searches and weren’t properly trained, creating a significant risk of constitutional violations and lawsuits. 

The deputy attorney general directed the DEA on November 12 to halt what are known as “consensual encounter” searches at airports—unless they’re part of an existing investigation into a criminal network—after seeing the draft of a Justice Department Office of Inspector General (OIG) memorandum that outlined a decade’s worth of “significant concerns” about how the DEA uses paid airline informants and loose criteria to flag passengers to search for drugs and cash.

OIG Investigators found that the DEA paid one airline employee tens of thousands of dollars over the past several years in proceeds from cash seized as a result of their tips. However, the vast majority of those airport seizures aren’t accompanied by criminal prosecutions. This has led to years of complaints from civil liberties groups that the DEA is abusing civil asset forfeiture—a practice that allows police to seize cash and other property suspected of being connected to criminal activity such as drug trafficking, even if the owner is never arrested or charged with a crime. 

The memo, released publicly today by the OIG, found that failures to properly train agents and document searches “​​creates substantial risks that DEA Special Agents (SA) and Task Force Officers (TFO) will conduct these activities improperly; impose unwarranted burdens on, and violate the legal rights of, innocent travelers; imperil the Department’s asset forfeiture and seizure activities; and waste law enforcement resources on ineffective interdiction actions.”

The OIG memo and directive is a victory for advocacy groups that oppose civil asset forfeiture, such as the Institute for Justice, a public-interest law firm that is currently litigating a class action lawsuit challenging the DEA’s airport forfeiture practices.

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Frequent Flyer Tax

The core reason that the establishment is suddenly interested in climate change comes down to one main factor – money. More specifically, the establishment is hunting down YOUR money through taxation. A second motivator is limiting our freedom of movement by demonizing fossil fuels and limiting our ability to travel. The European Union is now seeking to punish those who fly more than once per year with a frequent flyer tax.

The EU has already implemented an aviation tax, but the new proposal is designed to punish the pesky “rich,” but per usual, everyone will suffer. “A frequent flying levy would be a fair aviation measure, reducing excessive flights for wealthy passengers, while raising revenues – including to expand and provide affordable railways and public transport,” the Stay Grounded network told Euro News.

The new levy would target everyone flying from the European Economic Area (EEA) and the UK. The standard aviation tax would apply for the first two flights taken per year, but an additional 50 euro surcharge would be applied to medium-haul flights while long-haul, first-class, and business flights would cost an additional 100 euros. Then they are adding an additional 100 euro fee after the fifth flight on top of the initial surcharge. People will be expected to pay an additional 200 euros for their seventh flight and 400 euros for the ninth.

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Federal Court Upholds Order Requiring Alaska Airlines To Rehire Worker Who Was Fired Over Positive Marijuana Test

A federal judge in Seattle has rejected an effort by Alaska Airlines to overturn an arbitration order reinstating the employment of an aircraft maintenance technician whom the company fired over a positive test for THC.

The worker insisted that he did not knowingly use cannabis and was unaware of how the drug entered his system, speculating he may have accidentally eaten an infused edible at a neighborhood block party.

The employee, Gregory Chappell, was given a random drug test in July 2022. The level of THC metabolites came back above a minimum threshold, and he was immediately fired given the safety-sensitive nature of his lead aircraft maintenance technician (AMT) role.

Chappell denied using marijuana and said it was possible he’d unwittingly consumed an edible at the neighborhood party, where none of the potluck foods were labeled. The airline did not investigate that claim, instead relying on the company’s policy against drug use by safety sensitive employees.

Chappell’s union challenged the firing, and in October of last year, an arbitration panel reversed his termination.

Alaska Airlines promptly filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to undo the arbitration board’s decision, arguing that it was undisputed Chappell failed the marijuana test. The company said the employee’s claim “that he may have unknowingly and accidentally ingested a marijuana edible at a block party simply” amounted to “a fantastical story” and “bizarre speculation,” according to the arbitration panel’s account of the case.

But in a federal court order on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge John H. Chun rejected the company’s challenge, ruling that the arbitration board “did not exceed its jurisdiction” in ordering Chappell be rehired.

“To vacate an adjustment board’s award, a court must conclude that the board’s reasoning was ‘wholly without foundation in…fact,’” the court wrote.

“And insofar as Alaska Airlines contests the Board’s reinstatement of Chappell,” the decision continues, “Alaska Airlines cites no authority suggesting that the board’s remedy was unfair, much less warranting judicial intrusion in an area over which the Board has special expertise.”

The judge further awarded the union attorneys fees and costs for the case, though it remanded the matter to the arbitration board to determine how to handle backpay and benefits for the past year.

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Biden Officials Do Not Track Illegal Aliens Who Enter the US without IDs – Not Sure Who They Are – But Allow Them to Travel on Planes

The US Department of Homeland Security, under the direction of Director Alejandro Mayorkas did not assess the risks associated with releasing millions of noncitizens without identification into the United States and allowing them to travel on domestic flights.

Since Joe Biden opened the US southern border on his first day in office, more than 10 million illegal aliens have entered into the United States. Another 1.2 million inadmissable aliens were flown into the country at ports of entry through the Biden-Harris CBP One policy.

Last week ICE released a shocking report on the illegal alien killers and sex abusers released into the US. According to the report from the Deputy Director of ICE Patrick Lechleitner sent to Congressman Tony Gonzalez, over 662,000 illegal immigrants with criminal histories are currently on ICE’s national docket. Of that staggering number, over 13,000 illegal immigrants have been convicted of homicide, and more than 15,000 have been convicted of sexual assault.

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TSA Tyranny Goes Cutesy

In the glorious age of the Kamala Ascendency, the TSA is no longer restraining its contempt for American travelers. After squeezing millions of butts and boobs and never catching a terrorist, TSA decided to have fun by taunting its victims. 

After a traveler asked online, “Why does TSA need social media anyways?” TSA’s Instagram account taunted: “Idk Kyle, why do your friends keep bringing stuff they shouldn’t in their carry-on?” Almost 40,000 people liked that post (slightly fewer than the total number of TSA employees).

The TSA Instagram team added another smack at travelers who failed to devote their lives to pleasing federal agents: “You see how we don’t have 20 different things shoved in our pockets before airport security? Very cutesy, very demure.” Obviously, any American who does not approach a TSA checkpoint stripped down like a convict entering a prison shower bears all the blame for whatever problems he causes.

TSA officials pirouetted as if they had the moral high ground. But TSA has perennially relied on idiotic seizure statistics in lieu of competently protecting the American public.

A 2003 TSA press release proudly announced that it had “intercepted more than 4.8 million prohibited items at passenger security checkpoints in its first year, contributing to the security of the traveling public and the nation’s 429 commercial airports.” TSA chief James Loy bragged to a congressional committee: “We have identified, intercepted, and therefore kept off aircraft more than 4.8 million dangerous items.”

Except that TSA is Idiocy Incarnate. Every fingernail clipper that the TSA seized from a hapless grandmother became proof that the federal government is protecting people better than ever. TSA checkpoint seizures included frying pans, dumbbell sets, horseshoes, and toy robots—all of which presumably would have been used to carry out suicidal hijackings. Covert government tests showed TSA screeners were utterly inept at detecting firearms and mock bombs.

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Man Kicked Off Flight For Wearing Pro Trump T-Shirt

Delta Airlines removed a passenger from one of its flights this past weekend for wearing a pro Donald Trump t-shirt.

The shirt featured a design of Trump wearing sunglasses adorned with the US flag, while flipping a double ‘up yours’.

The airline had flagged the shirt before boarding at Sarasota Bradenton International Airport following a complaint from one other passenger.

The man was allowed to board after he agreed to turn the shirt inside out, but then reversed it back once inside the plane.

A staff member then asked the man to leave and escorted him from the plane.

In video of the incident, the man can be heard saying, “I’m getting kicked off because of my shirt,” and calls the flight attendant “stupid-ass Wendy” after reading her name tag.

The passenger who captured footage of the incident noted “Crazy day in Sarasota airport, I was sitting next to a young man before boarding that had on a Trump shirt with middle fingers and a red coat came over and told him some lady complained and he had to change his shirt or he could not get on the plane.”

The other passenger continued, “He turned his shirt inside out, and we all boarded. Next thing I know, right before takeoff, a Delta employee comes on the plane and escorts him off the flight, he had flipped his shirt back to the decal side. IDK but I’ve seen way worse….girl half naked boarded and left alone.”

Delta guidelines note that the company reserves the right to remove anyone if their “conduct, attire, hygiene or odor creates an unreasonable risk of offense or annoyance to other passengers.”

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Rand Paul Asks Why TSA Is Using Terror Watch List To Spy On Americans “Based On Their Political Views”

GOP Senator Rand Paul has written to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) asking for answers as to why the agency appears to be using terrorist watch lists as a way of surveilling Americans according to their political opinions.

Paul addressed the letter to TSA Administrator David Pekoske, and cited recent revelations that former Democratic Representative Tulsi Gabbard as well as a woman married to a federal air marshal whistleblower have both been placed on the ‘Quiet Skies’ program watch list and subjected to enhanced surveillance.

Gabbard was seemingly added to the watch list after a Fox News interview during which she criticised the ‘deep state’, while the air marshal’s wife was added after attending Donald Trump’s speech on January 6th, despite not moving to the Capitol building after it.

“Taken together, these incidents seem to be part of a broader pattern in which TSA has repurposed Quiet Skies to surveil individuals based on their political activities, even when there is no evidence of wrongdoing,” Paul wrote.

The Senator further noted that the incidents “echo concerns highlighted in a previous report by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General (OIG), which identified critical deficiencies in TSA’s management of the Quiet Skies program.” 

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Gabbard Episode Shows the Surveillance State Strong and Stupid as Ever

The former Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) is apparently the latest Biden critic to be targeted for federal surveillance and harassment. Gabbard, an outspoken opponent of America’s forever wars, is reportedly being stalked by Transportation Security Administration’s air marshals, part of the agency’s Quiet Skies covert operation targeting suspected threats to aviation.

After TSA whistleblowers were quoted confirming the surveillance, Gabbard declared that placing her on the TSA Quiet Skies target list was “clearly an act of political retaliation. It’s no accident that I was placed on the Quiet Skies list the day after I did a prime-time interview warning the American people about… why Kamala Harris would be bad for our country if elected as President.” Gabbard lamented that, despite serving in the U.S. Army for 21 years, “now my government is surveilling me as a potential domestic terrorist.” She groused about “the stress of forever looking over my shoulder, wondering if and how I am being watched, what secret terror watch list I’m on, and having no transparency or due process.” As one Twitter wag quipped, “The only thing Tulsi Gabbard blew up was Kamala’s earlier presidential run. That’s why she’s on a list.” 

On Wednesday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) sent a letter to TSA chief David Pekoske complaining that the Gabbard surveillance appeared to be “part of a broader pattern in which TSA has repurposed Quiet Skies to surveil individuals based on their political activities, even when there is no evidence of wrongdoing.” Paul requested that TSA speedily turn over “unredacted copies of all current guidelines, criteria, standard operating procedures, and related documents governing the selection of individuals for TSA-managed lists and programs, including the Quiet Skies program.” Paul himself had epic airport clashes with TSA officials in 2012, and the agency has been paying the price ever since. 

In response to an inquiry by journalist Matt Taibbi on the Gabbard controversy, TSA issued a formal statement refusing to confirm or deny the targeting of Gabbard: “TSA’s Quiet Skies program uses a risk-based approach to identify passengers and apply enhanced security measures on some domestic and outbound international flights. To safeguard sensitive national security measures, TSA does not confirm or deny whether any individual has matched to a risk-based rule… Simply matching to a risk-based rule does not constitute derogatory information about an individual.”

In fact, a primary purpose of Quiet Skies is to entitle federal agents to stockpile derogatory information on their targets. 

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