UAL 777 @ spruce creek

[LowlyPropCapt]

I was there the day this happened... It was pretty dang schweet! There were lots of rumors about what happened to the pilot and some gnashing of teeth in the local paper. Most people thought it was great, however.

 

[SkyBoy1981]

I find it hard to believe that he did this fly-by without AA's permission. I think AA just denied it after the fact. What would you expect them to do?

 

[Hovernut]

Hey man you gotta impress those hot GILFS

GILFS...THANKS for making my brain figure that one out, then conjure up the associated image!!uke:

 

[cforst513]

hey hovernut, is that a duchess or a seminole in your avatar? i'd vote BE-76

 

[Occam's Razor]

Similar story- wasn't there a Northwest 747 captain who was retiring, and arranged to have some friends of his in a B-17 or B-24 form up on his wingtip coming into MSP? If I recall, he had verbal authorization from the POI or someone in the FSDO, but when the rest of the FAA found out about it, they went absolutely nuts. I wonder if any pictures exist?

It was a B-24. The Capt's last flight at NWA before retiring. The right-seat guy in the B-24 was a SCAB (and a notoriously poor stick). He called Dispatch and asked if it was cool to do a gear-down fly-by of the tower at MSP. The Dispatcher (a Level 3 tool himself) called the tower to tell them. Somehow the message got to the tower that "the FAA is cool with this".

They weren't.

The F/O and S/O on the Whale expressed their opposition to the fly-by,but the captain did it anyway.

A local TV station got a head's-up and taped it.

Head's rolled.

Irony Alert! The Scab/jerk in the B-24 was later fired by NWA...but hired by the FAA as an Air Carrier Inspector in SEA!

The Captain had his tickets suspended, but I don't know how long.