James Fallows has a great set of posts on how Senator James Inhofe endangered lives with his flying, got off with barely a slap on his wrist, and how our cultural attitude toward this kind of behavior by the powerful has changed. Here’s what that jackass did:
a) landing on a runway marked as “closed” with a “huge yellow X” at each end of the runway, in the words of one of the airport officials on the audio, and covered with men and machines doing repair work;
b) performing a “sky hop” over the men and machines — touching down briefly, zooming over them, and landing behind them, rather than “going around” when Inhofe saw that the runway was blocked — aborting the landing, applying extra power to climb away from the runway and circle around to try again, which in theory you’re supposed to be ready to do on every approach in case you’re not well set up to land;
c) being belligerent and assertive after the incident — “What the hell is this? I was supposed to have unlimited airspace!” — rather than shocked and contrite (and “unlimited airspace” as it applies to a closed runway -???) ;
d) being the object of this description by the airport manager: “I’ve got over 50 years flying, three tours of Vietnam, and I can assure you I have never seen such a reckless disregard for human life in my life.”
e) having the airport manager and others say “this isn’t the first time” and “this guy is famous for these violations.”
MattF
Yeah well, Senator Fuckyou had an oopsie. Worth noting, but not some sort of surprise.
debit
This isn’t the first time? You would think his fear of the bad press when he kills someone would make him less prone to do these things. It’s already patently obvious the life of said victim is not something he worries about.
cleek
respek mah awthoratah
Phyllis
And he still has an FAA license how?
Oh, sorry. Lost my head there for a moment.
Comrade Javamanphil
Our former Vice President SHOT SOMEONE IN THE FACE and the victim apologized. If Inhofe had landed on someone’s head he would be blaming them for not watching where his plane was. Same as it ever was, I guess. Thanks for nothing, corporate media whores.
MattF
…and it’s worth noting that it’s not just a matter of doing a favor for the Senator– no Federal bureaucrat would want to have Inhofe as an enemy. He’s not a nice person.
"Serious" Superluminar
Oh come on mistermix! You say all these mean things about the guy when all we can say for sure is that he’s under inquiry.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@cleek:
Republican senators can land their planes anywhere they want. Don’t those yokels understand that this is an important man and they should be awed just by his presence?
He probably thought that X marked the landing spot. I’ll bet that he complained about the people and vehicles in his way.
ETA: Think Mr. Magoo and it’s really funny.
SFAW
Thanks for that one.
soonergrunt
Jim Inhofe is a psychopathic, corrupt asshole.
And this is news to whom, exactly?
Southern Beale
Damn. He should be grounded.
Southern Beale
In other news: WalMart could easily pay its employees $12/hr without raising its prices.
Wonder why it won’t?
Downpuppy
If he’d been pulling his hair in front of a theater, they’d fry him.
Because Tasers make it easy.
Omnes Omnibus
@soonergrunt: Sometimes it is good to have a reminder.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@SFAW:
No problem. :)
I’m not a Republican senator but any smart person could easily see something like that would make sense to an idiot.
suzanne
Dick. Head.
numbskull
Stupid stuff happens, but the real issue (to me) is that he does in fact have a history of doing stupid things in airplanes. Hell, he wrecked one a while back – a real-life, honest-to-goodness crash.
Final bit just to rub our noses in it: In the current incident, he was flying down to his vacation villa in Texas. Hell, there was a time when having a vacation home in Texas was AUTOMATIC disqualification from running for even dogcatcher in Oklahoma. Ah well, the times they do change.
OzoneR
@debit:
Bad Press?
Fox’s “union thugs on runway nearly kill Oklahoma Senator” headline should take care of it.
The Political Nihilist Formerly Known As Kryptik
@OzoneR:
The only way Inhofe would actually pay a price in this situation it seems is if he had a gay lover in the plane beside him. That seems like the only way to ever pay a price if you’re in the Modern GOP nowadays.
PurpleGirl
…being belligerent and assertive…
Nice twisting of the language. I’d say his behavior was aggressive.
Jim C
@MattF:
Too right. As a person-in-the-know updates Fallows in the second link:
Certainly worth noting.
HRA
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
“He probably thought that X marked the landing spot.”
Now I have to clean my monitor from the swallow of coffee I was trying to drink.
Seriously, I wish I had thought of it.
NonyNony
Um, wut?
If the Halaby story in the linked article is a true one, then it’s a story of how a particular person with power behaved – not everyone in the 60s with power behaved responsibly with it, nor were they as deferential to bureaucracy as the Halaby in the story.
And I contend that Fallows’s interpretation of the story if it’s just made up is a false one. He says:
People would tell that story for the same goddamn reason they would repeat it today – because it would be AN ANOMALY. People expect elites with power to be assholes – when they DON’T act like assholes that becomes a story. If the story were Halaby being confronted by an FAA worker and he pulled a “DON’T YOU KNOW WHO I AM” act it isn’t a story that anyone would repeat except in the break room where it would have been shared among the rest of the FAA staff on site.
That’s also why there’s so much yawning around the Infhoe story – “elite acts like an asshole” is a non-story as long as murder, drugs, illicit affairs or hookers aren’t involved.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@HRA:
Monitor and keyboard guards should be standard issue for the BJ community. :)
Vixen Strangely
Every now and again a peasant gets ground under the carriage wheels–in Lord Inhofe’s precinct, it’s ungrateful not to acknowledge the privilege of such a brush with greatness!
Bob
Remember Matt Taibbi on John McCain’s multiple plane crashes?
yeah.
Sly
L’Etat, c’est moi.
BC
Liberals just don’t do outrage very well. Do you imagine if this had been, oh, say, Senator Kennedy (when he was alive) that it would not have been frontpaged for days on end, the story being another GOPer being outraged by the senator’s behavior and lack of humility? It’s really not the media, the media responds to outrage and drama. If liberals aren’t outraged by Inhofe’s lack of professionalism as a pilot, then the media aren’t going to pick up that ball. We need to become drama queens for this type of thing. We need our Dem senators to express outrage and demand an apology.
Tokyokie
Inhofe is a mean, vindictive moron who has never aspired to be anything else. He’s a lot like George W. Bush, including an incredibly unsuccessful business career, without the fake good ol’ boy charm (and without Karl Rove to prop him up). My late Aunt Mary, who was a retired bank vice president in Tulsa, not exactly a flaming liberal, despised Inhofe because of his willful ignorance, and I can’t say that I recall her ever having a bad word for anybody else.
PeakVT
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Now if we can only get him to try landing on the X instead of using the whole runway…
Snarki, child of Loki
Clearly that airport in TX is lacking a SAM defense system. Perhaps we can take up a collection.
piratedan
@numbskull: well after all, things in Oklahoma are just soooo freaking liberal, a good conservative has to gather himself someplace where common sense values are everywhere before girding his loins and resuming the good fight on the radicalized streets of Tulsa.
Silver
Taking into account what I know about Inhofe’s intelligence, I’m pleasantly surprised that he didn’t try digging at one of the big Xs for the buried treasure.
John Emerson
Congressman Janklow of SD had had a long string of teaffic violations by the time he ran a stopsign and killed a motorcyclist. He got a 100 days in jail.
http://www.dkosopedia.com/wiki/Bill_Janklow
shortstop
Fun fact: Halaby was Queen Mum Noor’s dad.
Wait, all y’all probably already knew that, didn’t you?
shpx.ohfu
Oz, they would have gone with that except for the fact that OK has a law against “forced unionism.”
David Brooks (not that one)
SPeaking as a pilot, it’s a pleasure to read James Fallows’s reporting on this and the FLOTUS incident (as he points out, every time you approach you have to be prepared for a go-around; its availability is built into the system). It’s so refreshing to have someone who knows what he is talking about, even if he does IMO make too light of the wake turbulence issue.
Fallows and I briefly shared a flight instructor in Seattle, and this instructor’s combination of joy in flying and deep regard for the system seems to have rubbed off on both of us.
Comrade Dread
There’s your mistake, Mate.
You see your employees as ‘human’ rather than ‘middle class government union parasites stealing bread from their betters.’
drkrick
Like that would stop them. Of course, if that didn’t work they could always start describing him as a Dem.
maya
My name is OzzyInhofe,
Look upon my skid marks,ye lowly,and despair.
Around the decay of that colossal wreck,
boundless and bare, the lone and level
sands stretch far away.
Frank
If anyone was ever deserving of a Beethoven like death… You know, when I read about one of our own (Democrats/Progressives) doing something reprehensible, my first reaction is not to try to justify it. I was SO annoyed when within days after Obama’s election, Blago pulled his little stunt. Do we have any conservatives on records expressing disdain for what Inhofe has done?
PWL
Not surprising, really.
Egomaniacal, self-righteous blowhards like Imhofe develop a Pharoah complex after they get into elected office. Laws and regulations don’t apply to them (hey, they make the laws–why should be be expected to be follow them?).
And when they act in a rude, imbecilic and unsafe manner–well, too bad. The Little People will just have to get out of the way…
David Brooks (not that one)
I just thought I’d look up his certificates, which can be done easily on the FAA website or several consolidators.
James Mountain Inhofe has a current flight instructor’s certificate (CFI to you). Not just the free one that many ex-military get; it was renewed last July, which suggests some intent, as well as actually, you know, passing some test.
All the CFIs I know have great concern for safety and respect for the regulations. Sigh.
Also, his remedial training required 7 total hours of ground and air refresher. I pity the CFI who had to administer that, and sign off on it.
Mike G
He’s a southern Republican. Killing one or two “little people” who stood between him and something he wanted, would only prove to his supporters what an awesome badass he is. His followers worship bullies and dream of being able to get away with being obnoxious assholes.
Karen
Seems like typical behavior for a C Street follower. All is explained, terrifyingly, by Jeff Sharlet in his book about “The Family.”