#Public Safety aircraft

[nocternalrandomness]

Huntington Beach PD departing KSNA

[tornadoquest]

Tornado Quest Top Science Links For November 2 - 9, 2024 #science #weather #climate #climatechange #hurricane

Greetings to all. I’m glad you stopped by. As of this post, Rafael is stirring the waters in the Gulf of Mexico and is proof positive that even a hurricane can quickly reach major status in November. There’s always a chance for another one, so I’ve plenty of hurricane preparedness information for you. Along with this week’s US Drought Monitor update there are several good reads, so let’s get…

[ceasarslegion]

I work in aviation safety. Let's talk statistics, before the fear mongering train leaves the station.

Around 45,000 flights take off and land in the US every day.

3 aircrafts have crashed in the last week.

That means 99.996% of flights took off and landed without incident. None of those 3 aircrafts were commercial passenger planes, ie none of them were the types of planes you will likely fly on throughout your life. Unless you're in the military, wealthy, or part of a special travel group like a sports team, a diplomat, high-risk prisoner transport, or an air ambulance, you will likely never fly on a private charter flight or military aircraft.

That means all public commercial flights in the US on the days of the recent crashes took off and landed safely, as far as I have been able to find.

Is 2 crashes within a week an absolutely unacceptable number? Yes.

Is this likely connected to the recent firings of the American aviation safety and ATC personnel? Yes.

Is this indicative of a wider trend that I should be worried about as an average citizen of the US, or someone traveling to or within the US? As of now, February 1st, 2025, no. Flying is still, statistically, the safest mode of transportation. Even with the recent crashes included in the numbers, even if you're travelling within the US.

Does this have anything to do with DEI? No. The aviation safety industry has some of the most stringent job training regimens in the world. No one who can't cut it in ATC will get anywhere near an ATC tower, regardless of their minority status. I don't work in ATC, but I'm under the wider aviation safety umbrella, and it took 3 months to finish my training. 18 people started out in my training class and 7 of us passed. No one in an airport terminal can get the badges we wear without passing that along with an INTERPOL background check that we have to do all over again every few years.

Why are you telling me that? Does it really matter if he gutted the ATC? It does, actually. My point is that the people they let work in airports are some of the most competent and capable individuals you can find. You don't cut it if you can't think on your feet or juggle unexpected and unprecedented situations and handle emergencies and contingencies. On average, an air traffic controller handles 5-15 planes at the same time, but they're trained on handling many more in the event of emergencies and unprecedented situations. It's not ideal right now, it's really not, but considering all the things I just told you about aviation safety employees, and the fact that ATC is THE hardest career to cut it in within that umbrella, even the worlds worst air traffic controller is as capable and trustworthy to handle your life as a good neurosurgeon.

And please, please support the american ATCs right now. Just because they CAN handle emergency-level workloads doesn't make it easy or sustainable for long periods of time. Do not blame the ATCs who were handling the crashed flights, it wasn't their fault that they were overworked and overstressed and numbers and directions started scrambling in their heads. They already have to live with what happened for the rest of their lives, they don't need other people making value judgements of them too.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Ilana Berger at MMFA:

As President Donald Trump’s administration orders mass layoffs and cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, local meteorologists and influencer storm chasers — including some weather experts who previously claimed to avoid politics or expressed right-leaning views — are speaking out in support of federal employees and the essential information provided by the agency. 

Trump’s funding cuts and layoffs will hobble NOAA and the National Weather Service, potentially restricting access to a vital public good that costs taxpayers very little

NOAA and its subsidiaries, including the National Weather Service, employ thousands of scientists, engineers, and other experts to conduct vital research that is shared with the public. NOAA’s products and services range “from daily weather forecasts, severe storm warnings, and climate monitoring to fisheries management, coastal restoration and supporting marine commerce.” The NWS estimates that the critical information it provides costs just $4 per U.S. resident per year. [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, accessed 3/14/25; The New York Times, 2/8/25]  

Project 2025 — the right-wing plan for a second Trump administration organized by The Heritage Foundation with over 100 conservative partner organizations — called for NOAA to be “broken up and downsized” and urged the National Weather Service to “fully commercialize its forecasting operations.” Weather experts across the country have expressed alarm at Project 2025’s plans to dismantle NOAA under the new administration. Project 2025 architect Russell Vought, who now heads Trump’s Office of Management and Budget, has promised, “We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected.” [Media Matters, 5/31/24, 9/27/24, 2/28/25; ProPublica, 10/28/24]  

Starting on February 27, the Trump administration has laid off more than 800 NOAA employees, plus another 500 who resigned if the agency promised to pay them through September. According to The New York Times, “The two rounds of departures together represent about 10 percent of NOAA’s roughly 13,000 employees.” On March 12, NOAA announced in an email to its staffers that the agency would be laying off another 1,029 employees, or roughly 10% of the agency’s remaining workforce. [The New York Times, 2/27/25, 2/28/25]  

The Associated Press: “After this upcoming round of cuts, NOAA will have eliminated about one out of four jobs since President Donald Trump took office in January.” “This is not government efficiency,” said former NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad. “It is the first steps toward eradication. There is no way to make these kinds of cuts without removing or strongly compromising mission capabilities.” [The Associated Press, 3/12/25]  

The NWS’ National Hurricane Center has made great strides in tracking dangerous storms, but Trump’s layoffs are threatening that progress. A February preview of a report from the National Hurricane Center concluded that for the first time, the center managed to “explicitly forecast a system that was not yet a tropical cyclone (pre-Helene potential tropical cyclone) to become a 100-kt (115 mph) major hurricane within 72 hours.” However, experts fear that funding cuts and layoffs at NOAA’s Office of Aircraft Operations will impact the ability of the agency’s specialized “Hurricane Hunters” to collect data used for tracking and predicting destructive storms. [National Hurricane Center, 2/24/25; Yale Climate Connections, 3/6/25]

Meteorologists and storm chasers of all political persuasions issue dire warnings that the Project 2025/DOGE-inspired cuts to the NOAA and the NWS threaten public safety and forecast accuracy.

[birdsong-goeson]

Jealous Alejandro kidnaps Valeria's girlfriend (1.6k words part 4)

Summary: Valeria breaks into the headquarters of the Mexican Army in search of her wife.

TW: implied sexual violence, violence more generally (and Google Translated Mexican Spanish)

Note: I'm back from my home country y'all and free to write gay fanfiction once again. I'm working on the next part ASAP but I wanted to post this because you guys have been waiting forever. Thank you for all the lovely comments and the interactions!! means a lot to me that you guys enjoy reading this :>

Link to A03 Link to part 1, part 2, part 3. Next part: part 5

'Army soldier' was more than a type of occupation, more than any other job title; it was a lifestyle. It is truly a different way of life, a way of life that most people are simply not built for. A soldier's form - their straight back, their way of taking in the world around them within a second, their way of assessing everything as either hostile or neutral, their battlefield instinct - it all became an inseparable part of who they are. There is a certain instinct that gets drilled into soldiers, the instinct to act immediately and fast. The instinct to not think twice about running into danger. It is triggered immediately and triggered intensely. So when the emergency siren at the Mexican Army Headquarters wailed, the whole place came alive. No time was wasted before troops placed themselves in position. Snipers grabbed their rifles and headed for the rooftops, Captains and sergeants tuned into their mics, barking orders to their subordinates, assembling their troops as quickly as possible. Guards ran to their posts and pilots rushed to where their aircraft were getting readied by flying personnel, prepared to take off to gain an advantage in the airfield and a much-needed vantage point of what was happening. The armoury opened as many hands reached within for ammo and other equipment.

From the outside, it was a perfect scene of military efficiency and readiness. But from the inside, anxiety bubbled, threatening to cut loose.

"Why did this have to happen today of all days?" A soldier grumbled as he tightened his weapon belt.

"Someone planned this. It's the most popular day for annual leave," another responded as he grabbed his shoes.

"Dia de los Muertos," the first one said, his voice low and grim.

The Day of the Dead. Celebrated annually around November 1st but spanning over the course of multiple days. A day of celebration for life and death, a day to pay respects to those who have passed on. A time of parades on squares and community gatherings, with crowds of people in traditional costumes and painted faces taking to the streets to rejoice with others. A time when many troops were stationed outside the headquarters for public safety. A time, therefore, of relatively little staff being left behind to man the fort.

It was so perfect, Valeria almost giggled as she withdrew her knife from someone's body and let them drop to the floor.

She had infiltrated the headquarters from the underground tunnels that connected to some fields further out, which were created to be used in emergencies but had been long forgotten over the years. These were the same tunnels she took many years back when she wanted to see you on a day that she hadn't booked off. She would wait until most of the barracks were asleep before slipping away in the shadows, passing the guards and quietly unscrewing the lid that separated the tunnels from the world above ground. It was even more exciting once she taught you when and where to wait for her, at the end of the tunnel, among greenery and orange trees. Among the fields that you would lay on for the rest of the night underneath your blanket, touching each other's bodies and talking to the stars. Whispering how badly you'd missed each other, hearing the hum of insects in between short gasps and warm moans. Now, she had unscrewed these same lids and stabbed the person in front of her, dragging them out and passing the body along to the staff that followed her. They dumped the body back in the fields. Part of her found it annoying that these tunnels were always standing between her and her wife. And yet there was some charm, too. Travelling the bowels of the Earth for her love.

Having officially stepped on ground owned by the Mexican Army, El Sin Nombre and her people spread like a virus, taking down certain key spots and hiding bodies. Not enough damage to create immediate alarm, but good enough progress to feel confident about the next step. Her heart sped up in excitement as she thought of her wife, who was only one building and a lock away from her. And right in front of that building, was him.

Valeria looked out from one of the windows and saw Alejandro standing with his back straight, his face possessing a deep scowl as he conversed with Rudolpho. It had been many years since she last saw him, which was nothing memorable. There was no goodbye, no farewell. She had simply gotten up in the middle of the night and gazed at his face one final time; he glistened beneath the moonlight. He was younger then, his face smoother, his voice gentler; not yet hardened. A mass of muscle on a standard issue Army bed, he was unaware that the woman he loved was slipping right through his fingers. Unaware that by the time he woke up, she'd be gone.

There'd be nothing left behind to prove that she even existed. All of her things just went missing alone with her. She didn't even leave a picture behind to immortalise their love, to have something to look at during those nights when his heart almost gave out, when he realised that he was starting to forget what she looked like. That he could no longer remember her voice. Now, as she looked at him, she wondered why they even started a relationship in the first place. He was attractive, sure, but nothing special. Not like the woman in the box.

He was older now, his face more wrinkled. Valeria was raised with the idea that in women, this quality had the same visual effect as decaying fruit. When Valeria looked in the mirror and saw her signs of age - the smile lines that wouldn't smooth out when her smile fell, the lines around her mouth that could not be covered by cosmetics, the wrinkles around her eyes - it reminded her of something that was starting to fade. But in men, the quality was different, more merciful. More like maturing. It enraged her to see him getting older. To see him in the exact same place that she left him. The memories attached to this place were too much to handle. Memories of her younger years kept materialising at the edge of her vision, like a trick of the light; a shadow figure that kept pursuing. It used to be her, out there in the yard. Talking with Alejandro and Rudy, passing along jokes during a long day. But right now it was just the two of them, talking with ease like she had never been there at all. And right at that moment, as she gazed down at them, the alarm went off. What a glorious opportunity to have a front-row seat to witness Alejandro's reaction once she pulled the rug from underneath his feet. There was no more time to waste. She forced herself to stop gloating at these shadows of the past and to move forward. With each step, she got closer to her wife, her sweetheart. Valeria felt weightless, she felt herself glide through the space between herself and Y/N. She would pause here and there to ensure she did not reveal herself to her enemies. At times, she stealthily murdered someone who could have easily been her roommate back when she was a cadet. But that was another lifetime, a lifetime of making the wrong friendships and choosing the wrong lovers. She wasted no time on these obstacles. At last, her hand encircled the handle of the container. She pushed her weight into it and entered, ready for anything. Be it to murder a guard, or to embrace her love; her instincts were on the front seat. She could kill a hundred men if it came to it.

“Valeria. Bienvenida.”

The metal door crashed into the threshold behind her, the echoes reverberating, she felt, for eternity. There was nothing beyond these metal walls anymore, the whole world went silent. The wrath that burned in her eyes met the hatred that dripped out of his. Darkness met darkness; loathing encircled within their dark glares like an ouroboros, its dark scales flashing where the light hit it. Valeria and Alejandro were a perfect mirror, they were tuned into the same frequency, a frequency of violence. They were built of the same clay; two destroyers meeting at last.

He was right in front of her, waiting. Standing tall and armed to the teeth, Colonel Alejandro Vargas. Her jealous ex-lover, the kidnapper of her wife, the annihilator of peace, the snake that infiltrated the garden. The evil eye incarnate. And here was she, the abandoner, the backstabber; the woman lover.

“Y/N.” Valeria spoke with steel in her voice.

“Is no longer with us, I’m afraid.” The lines of his mouth fell into a pout, feigning sadness. Mocking her. “She’s not a fighter, like you or me. You know what happens to the weak here,” he scoffed. “What was it that you used to say? That the weak exist to serve the strong and die? Yeah,” he said diabolically, a grin etching itself on his face. “That’s what happened.”

She knew he was lying; Y/N walked this earth still. She and her wife’s souls were so intertwined, Valeria would have felt it if her wife was gone. Y/N could never leave without her heart knowing. Valeria would put her hand through fire to prove her conviction.

“If I thought she was dead, I would have shot you on sight,” she said. Her hand gripped a blade tightly, willing herself to stop shaking.

Alejandro laughed. “Oh, I didn’t mean she was dead.” His gloved hands held onto his vest as he looked down at her. “I meant that your wife served me.”

Unable to contain her wrath any longer, Valeria lunged at him with a scream.

tag list: @justmare @silas-222 @m0rganit3 @blarba-girl @sleepiemain @caffeineliker @ashy-kit @00ops1e @lesvii @therapyneeds @lez-zuha @starre-eyes @7smexy7diva @hello-kitty-festival @konigmeu @cassiecasluciluce @gay-ass-country-boy @starwars-theclonewhore @bi-witch-bxtch @somnoslvt @ashthepillow @b3ns0ne  @idiotwrites @danart501 @deakyspuff @mistresssiri @angethehimbosimp

thanks for supporting me!!

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved in our archive

By Sam Olley

There are "major gaps" in surveillance of new pathogens from animals and countries should prepare for a pandemic worse than Covid-19 in our lifetimes, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.

Covid-19 technical lead Dr Maria Van Kerkhove also said that New Zealand, being an island nation, was not protected from this risk.

It has been five years this month since scientists believe Covid-19 began to spread from animals to humans, triggering a global pandemic that the WHO estimates to have caused at least 20 million deaths and $16 trillion in lost revenue.

Van Kerkhove told 1News she did not think this pandemic needed to be as bad as it was.

"And in fact, this was not really the big one, we have to prepare for an even worse one."

WHO was not trying to scare people, she said, but instead called on them to be prepared.

"Hopefully we won't have one in our lifetime, but I am sure that we will have another outbreak and another pandemic during our lifetime."

Surveillance of new human infections has improved but the WHO is highly concerned about "patchy" surveillance of pathogens spreading between animals that could be transmitted to humans.

"Right now, we have some major gaps," Van Kerkhove said.

When asked if the loss of some specimens was a problem for pandemic preparedness, Van Kerkhove said: "I don't have direct evidence, because this is not something that's shared quite widely, that some samples that have been collected over time that are stored in freezers, some of those samples are starting to be destroyed."

"If we look at coronaviruses, we want to go back in time."

She said she was also grappling with the impact of geopolitical conflicts taking money from health.

"I do find it striking that there always seems to be money for an aircraft carrier. There always seems to be money for war, but we are yet to provide consistent funding for global health threats."

There was no place for complacency, she said, and island nations were not exempt from the risk.

"These pathogens do not respect borders."

Van Kerkhove addressed New Zealand public health experts this week at the Te Niwha conference to relay the latest updates and research from the work of the WHO.

Those attending included Sir Ashley Bloomfield who is currently the interim chief executive for the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR). Earlier this year, he co-chaired a working group for 196 countries to agree to amendments to the International Health Regulations to better protect health and safety in response to future outbreaks and pandemics.

These included the introduction of a universal definition for a pandemic emergency, a commitment to solidarity and equity on access to medical products and financing, as well of the establishment of a States Parties Committee and the creation of National IHR Authorities.

Sir Ashley said a theme of these negotiations was that developing countries felt there was "an overreaction" from other countries around travel and trade if there was a new variant reported.

"The other issue that developing countries had is that they would often provide samples that were then used to develop vaccines that they could not access. So these are issues that collectively countries need to address."

The WHO is working alongside New Zealand health leaders to upskill new frontline workers and leaders to reduce burnout.

Sir Ashley said some people in key roles are "quite burnt out".

"They probably don't feel they would be able to make the same effort if they were called upon in the near future."

Te Niwha director Te Pora Thompson (Ngati Hauā) said: "We cannot go through subsequent pandemics — which we will, we absolutely will — with very tired, very broken people, at all."

She also reinforced the importance of a diverse workforce to reduce inequities in pandemics.

"There are a few more seats that we need to be pulling up to this table."

Asked about her own experience with burnout, Van Kerkhove said she was not necessarily the best example of this.

"I'm working through it with my family. I was not present for my kids — I have two little boys — for years."

Around the world in health systems, "we need a deep bench to be able to work with," she said.

Noting the praise New Zealand's Covid response received, she was optimistic Aotearoa could continue at a high standard in future pandemics.

"I think New Zealand can absolutely be a leader."

[feathered-mushrooms]

Scott Summers ahead Cannons

he is my favorite loser boy

Due to growing up on it, Scott tends to throw himself into the danger room whenever he feels an emotion more than fine. He does not know a limit, which his led to “Scott patrol”. Oh Scott hasn’t left the danger room for five hours? Rouge it’s your turn, I pulled him out last time. 

Scott can’t handle to much down time, or being bored. He constantly feels like there is something he should be doing, and therefore will constantly find something to do. 

Charles has done a number on him. He is the reason Scott is so high strung, why failure isn’t just a lesson to learn from but an entire judgement of his character, why he can’t just breathe. He needs to be the leader and the man everyone can count on, he needs to be everything Charles wants him to be. 

This is not a healthy way of thinking. 

Scott has a special interest in planes. It started when he was young and then had a pause after the plane crash that killed his parents. However he picked it up again and now can tell you the difference between a commercial flight and a jet. He also knows how to pilot seven different types of aircraft and even got official license for each.

He is Bi.

It took him frighteningly long to figure this out. 

Scott has issues with social skills(projecting). He can speak sarcasm just fine and makes many jokes in that medium. However he has a hard time figuring out people are being sarcastic, especially if the joke is around him. 

He would wear a dress. Not in public, but if Jean offered he would try one of her dresses on in the safety of a bed room. He would like it. 

Game nights were originally hidden from Scott who(due to the professors absurdly high expectations) does not handle losing well. He loves to point out the rules and technicality’s, and will not play Uno with any variations. He’s not a sore loser par say, it just gets depressing for everyone watching. 

When he was young he kept only one pair of ruby glasses and one visor. As he has aged(and been influenced by Emma) he know has a collection of ruby glasses in all types and styles. 

Star Wars is his comfort show/movie/universe

Pretty equal on cats and dogs but leans towards dogs. 

His chances of being a toddler dad had been pretty ruined but he thinks it would be nice to raise a kid alongside a dog. Maybe a golden retriever. 

He does not mind cats though. 

He often feels weird in his place as a parent. Nathan is his kid but some much time has been lost that Scott can’t help but yearn for the mile stones that were missed and lost to time. He misses everything he was promised as a father. The same is true for Rachel although it is a little weirder. Yes she is his, but from a future that will never happen. He often feels guilty because in the end he has two great kids, but he wishes he could raise a kid in a normal sense. 

He just wants to be a father. 

When he was their step father, Scott showed the Cuckoos Star Wars. He keeps checking in on them, even after he and Emma are no longer together. 

Scott’s type is a person who will be mean to him, and could probably kill him, but have a soft spot.

Even if that soft spot is very hidden. 

He can make a really good grilled cheese. There was a week in his teens were there was low x-men activities and not a lot to do in the mansion so he dedicated his days to perfecting the grilled cheese. He makes it anytime he thinks someone needs some comfort. 

He’s eyes are brown under the visor. 

Never played DnD but very interested in it. Researched it a whole lot and has watched a lot of play throughs. Has even mentioned it to the rest of the squad and most were down to try. However it was forgotten due to the next world ending event. Scott still thinks about it and the character he made. 

He is doing his best but often over exerts himself which leads to sick days. On these days he is forced to cuddle up in a blanket and watches either the Star Wars orignal movies or one of the shows. Most times someone will be designated to sit with him so he doesn’t try and get up and do work. 

On these days Logan often takes the job. 

That all for now!

[follow-up-news]

Americans’ confidence in air travel and the federal agencies tasked with maintaining air safety has slipped a little from last year, following a recent crash in Washington, according to a new poll, but most still believe air transportation is generally safe. The survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that 64% of U.S. adults say plane travel is ���very safe” or “somewhat safe.” That’s down slightly from last year, when 71% said that. About 2 in 10 U.S. adults now say air transportation is very or somewhat unsafe, up from 12% in 2024. Faith in government agencies’ ability to ensure safe air travel dipped as well. Just over half of U.S. adults have “a great deal” or “a moderate amount” of confidence in federal government agencies to maintain air safety, down slightly from about 6 in 10 last year. The poll was conducted Feb. 6-10, shortly after the Jan. 30 collision between an American Airlines passenger jet and an Army helicopter in Washington but before a Delta jet flipped on its roof while landing in Toronto. The Washington collision, which killed all 67 people aboard the two aircraft, was the country’s deadliest aviation disaster since 2001.

[mpdg-usa-inc]

i'm going to say it ONCE and i'm NOT going to say it again

you do not know better than the CDC and WHO about disease prevention measures, you do not know how to defend yourself in court better than a lawyer, and you do NOT know how to evacuate an aircraft with 80 souls on board better than a flight attendant.

flight attendants train for literal weeks to gain skills that they hope and pray they never have to use specifically for a situation that we all hope and pray we never find ourselves in. even with my bipolar-related memory issues, i still remember every single one of the evacuation commands i learned in training with my second airline in may 2021 and could evacuate an E170/E175 in my sleep. the FAs involved in this accident got a completely full plane (76 passengers, the maximum seating configuration in delta's CRJ-900 fleet + 4 crewmembers = 80 souls on board) evacuated with no fatalities and people still find a way to clown on them.

if you're asking "why on earth would the FAs' commands that the airline trains them to use in an evacuation tell passengers to stay in their seats?", the following will enlighten you:

this is the back half of a CRJ-900, the aircraft type involved in the DL4819 crash. this plane has two flight attendants, one in the front and one in the back. the aft (back) flight attendant jumpseat is behind row 19, by the restroom. emergency exits are marked with arrows.

armed with this information, let's reconsider why the FAs would need passengers to remain seated in a crash. where are the exits compared to the aft FA? do you think it would take longer for people to start evacuating the aircraft if everyone remains seated and the aft FA can get to the overwing exits to open them, or if the aft FA is stuck at the back while those in the exit rows are charged with opening them? (keep in mind that this question is rhetorical and i'm not interested in hearing an answer to this until after you've earned your wings and have spent a month on reserve having passengers ask you how to open the lav door every time you get assigned a flight. yes, that happens. i've also had passengers point at my L2 exit and ask if that was the lav door.)

what would you do if you got to an exit door and there was fire outside? what if you tried to open an exit door and the emergency assist failed? what if you got the door open and the slide didn't deploy? would you know what to do? i would, and i know i would because my instructor threw all three of those at once at me during my final evac drill.

if an FA is asking/telling you to do something, there is a reason for it. they want to get home alive just as much as you do. they are safety professionals and i am tired of people treating the individuals responsible for saving the ungrateful flying public's asses as "less-than".

[mariacallous]

Jo Ellis, a helicopter pilot in the Virginia Army National Guard, filed a lawsuit Wednesday against right-wing influencer Matt Wallace, saying he “concocted a destructive and irresponsible defamation campaign” when he falsely identified her as the pilot in a deadly crash in January.

The lawsuit from Ellis, who is transgender, seeks monetary damages from Wallace for spreading a lie to his millions of followers that Ellis was flying the Black Hawk helicopter that collided with a passenger jet above the Potomac River in January, killing all 67 people aboard both aircrafts.

“In the wake of this horrible tragedy, [Wallace] decided to exploit this devastation for clicks and money,” the lawsuit said, accusing him of capitalizing on the right-wing outrage fueled by President Donald Trump’s blaming of diversity, equity and inclusion hiring practices for the crash.

“[A] transgender Black Hawk pilot seemed like the perfect target,” the lawsuit asserts, saying he went on to make several transphobic attacks on her.

Wallace “used his prominent X platform to monetize a false narrative that [Ellis] was not only one of the Army pilots involved in the mid-air collision, but also that she engaged in ‘another trans terror attack’ and intentionally caused the mid-air collision due to her ’depression’ and ‘Gender Dysphoria,’” the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Colorado, states.

Ellis’ lawsuit was filed on her behalf by the Equality Legal Action Fund, which is made up largely of volunteer lawyers representing LGBTQ+ people in defamation and harassment lawsuits.

By thrusting her into the public sphere, the lawsuit claims, Wallace disrupted Ellis’ privacy and put her life at risk.

“Given her immediate notoriety and the fact that she is a transgender woman, she fears for the immediate safety of herself and her family on account of the hate inspired against her by [Wallace’s] lies,” the complaint says. Ellis “has been harassed, received credible death threats, been forced to hire a personal security detail, and began carrying a firearm for her own personal protection,” it continued.

When Ellis posted a “proof of life” video in response to the false rumors about her, Wallace defended himself by saying he wasn’t the first account to spread the lie, which to him “[s]eemed credible because Jo Ellis wrote an article calling out Trump’s trans military ban only a few days ago” and because “[t]here have been a lot of recent school shootings & attacks carried out by trans individuals,” which is not backed by any evidence.

Wallace has not yet issued a public statement in response to the lawsuit.

[nocternalrandomness]

Arizona Department of Public Safety Bell 429 seen departing Tucson International Airport

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Nick Anderson

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

January 30, 2025

Heather Cox Richardson

Jan 30, 2025

Last night, just before 9:00 Eastern time, an American Airlines jet originating in Wichita, Kansas, carrying 64 people and a U.S. Army helicopter carrying three military personnel collided in the airspace over Washington, D.C. Both aircraft crashed into the Potomac River. Authorities say there were no survivors.

I’m going to leave that right there, with my best wishes for the victims and their friends and family, and hope that we can give them some breathing room.

It is perfectly legitimate to stop reading right here and pick the world up again tomorrow.

But for people who want to hear more about the larger picture of today’s United States, I’ll turn to what the administration’s reaction to this tragedy says about the ideology of the new Trump administration.

As Claire Moses of the New York Times noted, last night’s event is the most serious air disaster involving a commercial jet since 2009. Last night, more than an hour after news of the crash broke, President Donald Trump posted on his social media network: “The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time. It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn. Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane. This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!”

Trump’s impulse to blame other people for the tragedy even before anything was known about its causes reflects his rejection of the concept of the American government in favor of the idea that the world is simply a collection of individuals. Since the early twentieth century, the U.S. government has performed an extensive and remarkably successful role in public safety. But Trump talks about the U.S. government—what he calls the “Deep State”—as if it is the enemy and must be destroyed, while elevating those operating outside of it as society’s true leaders.

This rejection of the U.S. government began as soon as he took office as he purged officials and civil servants with the accusation that they had been poisoned by “Marxism,” or diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

Transportation safety officials were among those purged, and the loss of the person at the head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) during former president Joe Biden’s term, Mike Whitaker, after he clashed with Elon Musk captures Trump’s antigovernment worldview. After Whitaker called for Musk’s SpaceX company to be fined $633,009 over safety and environmental violations, Musk endorsed an employee’s complaint that Whitaker required SpaceX “to consult on minor paperwork updates relating to previously approved non-safety issues that have already been determined to have zero environmental impact.” Musk wrote: “He needs to resign.”

Musk appears to believe that humans must colonize Mars in order to become a multiplanetary species as insurance against the end of life on Earth. As Jeffrey Kluger reported for Time magazine today, Musk has complained that the FAA’s environmental and safety requirements were “unreasonable and exasperating” and that they “undercut American industry’s ability to innovate.” Musk publicly complained: “The fundamental problem is that humanity will forever be confined to Earth unless there is radical reform at the FAA!”

Whitaker resigned the day Trump took office. That same day, the administration froze the hiring of all federal employees, including air traffic controllers, although the U.S. Department of Transportation warned in June 2023 that 77% of air traffic control facilities critical to daily operations of the airline industry were short staffed. The next day, January 21, Trump fired Transportation Security Administration (TSA) chief David Pekoske, and administration officials removed all the members of the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, which Congress created after the 1988 PanAm 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. The Trump administration vacated the positions with an eye to “eliminating the misuse of resources.”

Other vacant positions at the FAA, according to CNN’s Alexandra Skores, are “the deputy administrator, an associate administrator of airports, an associate administrator for security and hazardous materials safety, chief counsel, assistant administrator of communications, assistant administrator of government and industry affairs, and assistant administrator for policy, international affairs, and environment.”

Late this morning, Trump spoke to reporters about the crash, saying “We do not know what led to this crash but we have some very strong opinions and ideas, and I think we'll probably state those opinions now.” That opinion was that the people responsible for the accident were not of “superior intelligence.” He claimed that his Democratic predecessors had lowered standards for air traffic controllers (although the language he quoted from the FAA website was from his own time in office). “[W]hen I left office and Biden took over, he changed them back to lower than ever before. I put safety first. Obama, Biden, and the Democrats put policy first. And they put politics at a level that nobody has ever seen, because this was the lowest level. Their policy was horrible and their politics was even worse."

He continued: “The FAA, which is overseen by Secretary Pete Buttigieg—a real winner,” apparently forgetting that the former transportation secretary was part of the Biden administration and left office on January 20. “Do you know how badly everything’s run since he's run the Department of Transportation? He's a disaster...he's just got a good line of bullsh*t."

Trump blamed diversity hiring for the collision. When a reporter asked Trump, “I'm trying to figure out how you can come to the conclusion right now that diversity had something to do with this crash,” Trump answered: “Because I have common sense, ok? And unfortunately, a lot of people don't.” Trump’s new secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, whom Trump elevated to that position from his role as a weekend host at the Fox News Channel, also spoke, confirming that "We will have the best and brightest in every position possible…. The era of DEI is gone at the Defense Department."

Shortly after the press conference, Sydney Ember and Emily Steel of the New York Times reported that staffing at Ronald Reagan National Airport outside Washington, D.C., was “not normal” at the time of the crash, with one air traffic controller doing the work usually assigned to two.

In response to Trump’s comments, Buttigieg posted: “Despicable. As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying. We put safety first, drove down close calls, grew Air Traffic Control, and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch. President Trump now oversees the military and the FAA. One of his first acts was to fire and suspend some of the key personnel who helped keep our skies safe. Time for the President to show actual leadership and explain what he will do to prevent this from happening again.”

Tonight, Trump held a televised signing of a new executive order blaming former presidents Barack Obama, who left office in 2017, and Joe Biden for the crash. It says that “problematic and likely illegal decisions” during their administrations “minimized merit and competence in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).” They implemented “dangerous ‘diversity equity and inclusion’ tactics,” it said, and recruited “individuals with ‘severe intellectual’ disabilities in the FAA.” The executive order says that his return to “merit-based recruitment, hiring, and promotion” will “ensure that all Americans fly with peace of mind.”

MeidasTouch posted: “Trump's handling of this situation should be treated as one of the biggest scandals in presidential history.”

But there is a larger story than that of Trump’s attempt to blame Democrats for a disaster that happened on his watch. His administration seems to be trying to replace the government Americans have created through their representatives over centuries to promote the interests of all Americans with a group of white men who can operate as they see best, without restraint.

Ashley Parker of The Atlantic reported last night that the Office of Management and Budget sent out the memo that froze all federal grants and loans—and thus prompted a constitutional crisis—without getting approval from the White House. Trump has nominated right-wing religious extremist Russell Vought, who was a key author of Project 2025, to be the director of the Office of Management and Budget, although he has not yet been confirmed.

Emily Davies, Jeff Stein, and Faiz Siddiqui of the Washington Post reported yesterday that the proposal emailed to many of the 2.3 million people who work for the federal government offering them an inducement to resign was also a surprise to the White House. The memo came from the Office of Personnel Management, now run by Elon Musk’s team, and the email had the same title as one Musk sent to Twitter employees when he took over the company.

Rather than cowing employees, though, the unauthorized and unclear offer prompted federal employees to flood Reddit with vows to “make these goons as frustrated as possible.” One wrote, “It took me 10 years of applying and 20 years experience in my field to get here. I will not be pushed out by two billionaire trust funds babies. I'M NOT LEAVING!"

Annie Linskey and Rebecca Ballhaus of the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Meta has settled a lawsuit Trump brought against the company after it suspended him because of his participation in the January 6, 2021, attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Meta will pay $25 million. The reporters explained that Trump demanded the settlement from Meta chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg after the 2024 election, saying the case had to be dealt with before Zuckerberg could be “brought into the tent.” As Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said: “It looks like a bribe and a signal to every company that corruption is the name of the game.”

It seems that Musk and the technology billionaires want to smash the government to enable their futuristic visions, and Christian Nationalists like Russell Vought want to smash it to replace it with religious rule. Trump wants to smash it for money and power. But in the first two weeks of the new administration, their enthusiasm for breaking things has produced what Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo—even before today’s frantic attempt to blame Democrats for the air tragedy—called “a fairly epic face plant.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[misfitwashere]

January 30, 2025

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JAN 31

Last night, just before 9:00 Eastern time, an American Airlines jet originating in Wichita, Kansas, carrying 64 people and a U.S. Army helicopter carrying three military personnel collided in the airspace over Washington, D.C. Both aircraft crashed into the Potomac River. Authorities say there were no survivors.

I’m going to leave that right there, with my best wishes for the victims and their friends and family, and hope that we can give them some breathing room.

It is perfectly legitimate to stop reading right here and pick the world up again tomorrow.

But for people who want to hear more about the larger picture of today’s United States, I’ll turn to what the administration’s reaction to this tragedy says about the ideology of the new Trump administration.

As Claire Moses of the New York Times noted, last night’s event is the most serious air disaster involving a commercial jet since 2009. Last night, more than an hour after news of the crash broke, President Donald Trump posted on his social media network: “The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time. It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn. Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane. This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!”

Trump’s impulse to blame other people for the tragedy even before anything was known about its causes reflects his rejection of the concept of the American government in favor of the idea that the world is simply a collection of individuals. Since the early twentieth century, the U.S. government has performed an extensive and remarkably successful role in public safety. But Trump talks about the U.S. government—what he calls the “Deep State”—as if it is the enemy and must be destroyed, while elevating those operating outside of it as society’s true leaders.

This rejection of the U.S. government began as soon as he took office as he purged officials and civil servants with the accusation that they had been poisoned by “Marxism,” or diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

Transportation safety officials were among those purged, and the loss of the person at the head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) during former president Joe Biden’s term, Mike Whitaker, after he clashed with Elon Musk captures Trump’s antigovernment worldview. After Whitaker called for Musk’s SpaceX company to be fined $633,009 over safety and environmental violations, Musk endorsed an employee’s complaint that Whitaker required SpaceX “to consult on minor paperwork updates relating to previously approved non-safety issues that have already been determined to have zero environmental impact.” Musk wrote: “He needs to resign.”

Musk appears to believe that humans must colonize Mars in order to become a multiplanetary species as insurance against the end of life on Earth. As Jeffrey Kluger reported for Time magazine today, Musk has complained that the FAA’s environmental and safety requirements were “unreasonable and exasperating” and that they “undercut American industry’s ability to innovate.” Musk publicly complained: “The fundamental problem is that humanity will forever be confined to Earth unless there is radical reform at the FAA!”

Whitaker resigned the day Trump took office. That same day, the administration froze the hiring of all federal employees, including air traffic controllers, although the U.S. Department of Transportation warned in June 2023 that 77% of air traffic control facilities critical to daily operations of the airline industry were short staffed. The next day, January 21, Trump fired Transportation Security Administration (TSA) chief David Pekoske, and administration officials removed all the members of the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, which Congress created after the 1988 PanAm 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. The Trump administration vacated the positions with an eye to “eliminating the misuse of resources.”

Other vacant positions at the FAA, according to CNN’s Alexandra Skores, are “the deputy administrator, an associate administrator of airports, an associate administrator for security and hazardous materials safety, chief counsel, assistant administrator of communications, assistant administrator of government and industry affairs, and assistant administrator for policy, international affairs, and environment.”

Late this morning, Trump spoke to reporters about the crash, saying “We do not know what led to this crash but we have some very strong opinions and ideas, and I think we'll probably state those opinions now.” That opinion was that the people responsible for the accident were not of “superior intelligence.” He claimed that his Democratic predecessors had lowered standards for air traffic controllers (although the language he quoted from the FAA website was from his own time in office). “[W]hen I left office and Biden took over, he changed them back to lower than ever before. I put safety first. Obama, Biden, and the Democrats put policy first. And they put politics at a level that nobody has ever seen, because this was the lowest level. Their policy was horrible and their politics was even worse."

He continued: “The FAA, which is overseen by Secretary Pete Buttigieg—a real winner,” apparently forgetting that the former transportation secretary was part of the Biden administration and left office on January 20. “Do you know how badly everything’s run since he's run the Department of Transportation? He's a disaster...he's just got a good line of bullsh*t."

Trump blamed diversity hiring for the collision. When a reporter asked Trump, “I'm trying to figure out how you can come to the conclusion right now that diversity had something to do with this crash,” Trump answered: “Because I have common sense, ok? And unfortunately, a lot of people don't.” Trump’s new secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, whom Trump elevated to that position from his role as a weekend host at the Fox News Channel, also spoke, confirming that "We will have the best and brightest in every position possible…. The era of DEI is gone at the Defense Department."

Shortly after the press conference, Sydney Ember and Emily Steel of the New York Times reported that staffing at Ronald Reagan National Airport outside Washington, D.C., was “not normal” at the time of the crash, with one air traffic controller doing the work usually assigned to two.

In response to Trump’s comments, Buttigieg posted: “Despicable. As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying. We put safety first, drove down close calls, grew Air Traffic Control, and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch. President Trump now oversees the military and the FAA. One of his first acts was to fire and suspend some of the key personnel who helped keep our skies safe. Time for the President to show actual leadership and explain what he will do to prevent this from happening again.”

Tonight, Trump held a televised signing of a new executive order blaming former presidents Barack Obama, who left office in 2017, and Joe Biden for the crash. It says that “problematic and likely illegal decisions” during their administrations “minimized merit and competence in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).” They implemented “dangerous ‘diversity equity and inclusion’ tactics,” it said, and recruited “individuals with ‘severe intellectual’ disabilities in the FAA.” The executive order says that his return to “merit-based recruitment, hiring, and promotion” will “ensure that all Americans fly with peace of mind.”

MeidasTouch posted: “Trump's handling of this situation should be treated as one of the biggest scandals in presidential history.”

But there is a larger story than that of Trump’s attempt to blame Democrats for a disaster that happened on his watch. His administration seems to be trying to replace the government Americans have created through their representatives over centuries to promote the interests of all Americans with a group of white men who can operate as they see best, without restraint.

Ashley Parker of The Atlantic reported last night that the Office of Management and Budget sent out the memo that froze all federal grants and loans—and thus prompted a constitutional crisis—without getting approval from the White House. Trump has nominated right-wing religious extremist Russell Vought, who was a key author of Project 2025, to be the director of the Office of Management and Budget, although he has not yet been confirmed.

Emily Davies, Jeff Stein, and Faiz Siddiqui of the Washington Post reported yesterday that the proposal emailed to many of the 2.3 million people who work for the federal government offering them an inducement to resign was also a surprise to the White House. The memo came from the Office of Personnel Management, now run by Elon Musk’s team, and the email had the same title as one Musk sent to Twitter employees when he took over the company.

Rather than cowing employees, though, the unauthorized and unclear offer prompted federal employees to flood Reddit with vows to “make these goons as frustrated as possible.” One wrote, “It took me 10 years of applying and 20 years experience in my field to get here. I will not be pushed out by two billionaire trust funds babies. I'M NOT LEAVING!"

Annie Linskey and Rebecca Ballhaus of the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Meta has settled a lawsuit Trump brought against the company after it suspended him because of his participation in the January 6, 2021, attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Meta will pay $25 million. The reporters explained that Trump demanded the settlement from Meta chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg after the 2024 election, saying the case had to be dealt with before Zuckerberg could be “brought into the tent.” As Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said: “It looks like a bribe and a signal to every company that corruption is the name of the game.”

It seems that Musk and the technology billionaires want to smash the government to enable their futuristic visions, and Christian Nationalists like Russell Vought want to smash it to replace it with religious rule. Trump wants to smash it for money and power. But in the first two weeks of the new administration, their enthusiasm for breaking things has produced what Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo—even before today’s frantic attempt to blame Democrats for the air tragedy—called “a fairly epic face plant.”

—

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Edward Helmore at The Guardian:

The Trump administration has begun firing hundreds of employees at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), including some who maintain critical air traffic control infrastructure, despite four deadly crashes since inauguration day. According to the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (Pass) union, “several hundred” workers received termination notices on Friday. Many of the workers were probationary employees, those employed for less than a year and lacking job protections, which makes them low-hanging fruit for the Trump administration’s streamlining efforts. According to the US office of personnel management, there are about 200,000 probationary employees within the federal government. The firings at the FAA do not include air traffic controllers, but did appear to include engineers and technicians. A spokesman for the union said non-probationary technicians had been fired, citing of a figure of less than 300 roles so far. The positions terminated include maintenance mechanics, aeronautical information specialists, environmental protection specialists, aviation safety assistants and management administration personnel.

Former FAA air traffic controller Dylan Sullivan claimed on social media that agency personnel who were terminated “maintain every piece of equipment that keeps flying safe, from the radars to the ILS, to ATC automation”. Job cuts at the FAA are likely to raise concerns. The agency has struggled to recruit air traffic controllers in recent years. An increase in recruitment during the previous two administrations was hobbled by budget cuts that limited training and certification. The move also comes less than three weeks since a midair collision between an army helicopter and a civilian jet over Washington DC that killed 67 people. Initial reports suggested there was just one air traffic controller working both civilian and military flights in the notoriously busy airspace at the time of the collision. Since then, seven people died when a plane crashed near Philadelphia; 10 died when another crashed in Alaska; and one person died when the landing gear on a private plane belonging to Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil failed as it landed and crashed into another parked aircraft. On Monday, a Delta aircraft flipped over when arriving at Pearson international airport in Toronto, Canada, with 80 people onboard. Early reports suggested all survived.

Sean Duffy and Donald Trump: making airline travel across the USA more dangerous.

See Also:

AP, via HuffPost: Trump Begins Firing FAA Air Traffic Control Staff Weeks After Fatal DC Plane Crash

The Parnas Perspective (Aaron Parnas): The Aviation Industry Is In Chaos As There Is Another Plane Crash, Now Involving A Delta Flight | Evening News Rundown

[whencyclopedia]

Life in an Air Raid Shelter in the London Blitz

Crowded and uncomfortable air raid shelters became a feature of the urban landscape across Britain during the Second World War (1939-45) as the bombers of Nazi Germany systematically hit cities from 1940. The London Blitz was a particularly sustained period of bombing which civilians escaped from by diving into private or public shelters when the sirens whined their warning signal.

People sought refuge in the London Underground stations, in purpose-built community shelters, in their cellars, under the stairs, or in refuges in their gardens such as the Anderson shelter. The danger was real, prior to the autumn of 1942, more British civilians were killed in the war than British military personnel.

The Bombing of Britain

Civilians had a lot to put up with even before the bombing started. The blackout was imposed where no non-essential lights were to show at night and so help enemy bombers. There was a real fear that gas bombs would be used, and so everyone was encouraged to carry gas masks. The Phoney War, the period of relative military inactivity in Britain between September 1939 and the spring of 1940, brought a sense of false security, but the German Luftwaffe (air force) would arrive soon enough.

Hundreds of thousands of children were evacuated from cities, including the capital where one million children were shipped out. Youngsters were sent to the safety of the countryside, but the separation from parents and a familiar environment proved traumatic for many. As the historian J. Hale points out: "By January 1940 about half of all children and nine out of ten mothers had returned to their old homes" (27). Despite this, when the bombing started, the official policy of evacuation was continued.

Bombers of the Luftwaffe and the Italian Air Force dropped both explosive and incendiary bombs, the first type to smash through buildings and the second to set the ruins alight. Britain had an integrated air defensive system, the Dowding System, which monitored incoming aircraft and sent out fighters to intercept like the Supermarine Spitfire, but many bombers got through to deliver their deadly loads. In the Battle of Britain, the Luftwaffe aimed to destroy the Royal Air Force (RAF), both in the air and on the ground, while a secondary aim was to terrorize the civilian population. As the Luftwaffe began to lose the battle, so it concentrated more on civilian targets. Most raids were carried out at night since darkness was the best protection for the German bombers against fighters and anti-aircraft guns. The bombers were guided by radar to their targets, but bombing remained highly inaccurate so that even when strategic sites like factories were the target, there was usually great damage to civilian areas.

London was first bombed on 24 August 1940. The bombers were to attack an oil terminal but mistakenly hit the city, thus beginning a tit-for-tat bombing of civilian areas that escalated to unimaginable horrors like the total bombing of Coventry and Hamburg (Operation Gomorrah). The systematic bombing of London began on 7 September 1940 and continued until the middle of May 1941. The British press called this campaign "the Blitz". The East End of the city, where the docks were located, was a particular target. Other cities across Britain were also repeatedly hit. For civilians, not knowing where the bombers would hit next, air raid shelters became essential everywhere.

Continue reading...

[bekolxeram]

I heard that there've been alleged drone sightings near airports and military sites in the US. While authorities have proclaimed that there's currently no apparent threat to public safety, none of that stopped misinformation from spread online like wildfire. Some say it's China/Russia, some say it's alien, some even take matters into their own hand.

Those trails of smoke, my friend, are called chem contrails. They're basically lines of clouds created by particles emitted by the exhaust of aircraft engines. The particles act as cloud seeds (nuclei) for water droplets to condense around. You see 2 trails here in the video, but if you're looking at 4 engine aircraft, like the A380 on my blog header, you'll see 4 trails. Thus, the mysterious "drone" our friends here are looking at (and pointing a high power laser at), is most likely a commercial jet airliner at cruising altitude.

And then, you have mainstream media outlet reporting this:

We know it's not aliens, because since when do aliens fly with the exact navigation lights configuration as per FAA regulations?

And since when do drones have not only a tail rotor, but an Airbus trademark Fenestron style tail rotor?

The "drone" in question, is actually a Guimbal Cabri G2 light helicopter. You can compare the positions of the red light on top of the tail and the green light on the right side of the fuselage in these 2 photos.

Apparently it's gotten so bad that the FBI had to release a statement urging citizens not to point lasers at or even attempt to shoot down "suspected drones".

I'm just saying, it'd be interesting terrible if some dumb people decide to mess with Tommy's helicopter while he's working...

You know, in case you're still trying to crash that helicopter.