Tag Archives | flying

Swaziland Bans Witches From Flying Above 150 Meters

By on May 30, 2013 in News 0

ban witches

Can the law effectively contain the supernatural? From truTV:

Authorities in Swaziland, who are very serious about their witches, have enacted revolutionary new legislation intended to regulate all witch air traffic over their country.

Specifically, Swaziland may be the only country to have ever attempted to regulate witch air traffic. The new legislation stipulates that witches on broomsticks flying over Swaziland may not fly higher than 150 meters.

The Civil Aviation Authority’s Marketing and Corporate Affairs Director, Sabelo Dlamini, confirmed the new flight limitations for South Africa’s Times Live: “A witch on a broomstick should not fly above the [150-metre] limit.” Any witches caught violating the altitude limit will be subjected to a fine of R500,000, about $53,000.

Swaziland’s local folklore concerning witches holds that they use their brooms to spread their evil potions.

… Read the rest

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Hacker Demonstrates Android Smartphone App To Hijack A Plane Midair

By on April 15, 2013 in News 0

hijack a planeOn your next flight, you may want to look over your shoulder at what the person next to you is doing. Help Net Security reports:

An extremely well attended talk by Hugo Teso, a security consultant at n.runs AG in Germany, galvanized the crowd attending the Hack In The Box Conference in Amsterdam. Teso showcased an Andorid app, PlaneSploit, that remotely controls airplanes on the move.

Teso has been working in IT for the last eleven years and has been a trained commercial pilot for a year longer than that. By creating an exploit framework (SIMON) and an Android app (PlaneSploit) that delivers attack messages to the airplanes’ Flight Management Systems (computer unit + control display unit), he demonstrated the terrifying ability to take complete control of aircraft.

His testing laboratory consists of a series of software and hardware products. But the connection and communication methods, as well as ways of exploitation, are absolutely the same as they would be in an actual real-world scenario.

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Man Flies From JFK To LA Without Valid ID Or Boarding Pass

By on July 1, 2011 in News 4
Photo: Magnus Manske (CC)

Photo: Magnus Manske (CC)

While the TSA is busy being as thorough as they possibly can, it seems other aspects of the airport personnel are not up to par. Via The Gothamist:

While the Transportation Security Administration may or may not be making old ladies take off their Depends during screening, there’s this: A Nigerian man managed to board a Los Angeles-bound flight at JFK Airport without a valid boarding pass or valid identification. Olajide Olwaseun Noibi used a fake ID and an expired boarding pass to get onto Virgin America Flight 415.

WCBS 2 reports, “The FBI says Noibi sat in the main cabin and when a flight attendant asked him to show his boarding pass, he produced the expired pass. Noibi was still allowed to get off the plane when it landed in Los Angeles.” Great! And how did Noibi get the pass?ABC News explains:

“On that pass was the name of a man with the initials M.D.

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Texas Proposes ‘Anti-Groping’ Law Against TSA, Feds Threaten To Ground All Flights

By on May 26, 2011 in News 34

Texas has been the first state to propose a bill that will disallow TSA agents from groping passengers. The federal government stated that if the state were to approve such a bill, the TSA would be forced to ground all flights. Makes me think of something Thomas Jefferson stated, “Those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.” Via The Raw Story:

A bill that would criminalize TSA agents who conduct airport patdown searches was scuttled Tuesday night after the federal government threatened to ground all flights out of Texas.

The proposed law would have levied misdemeanor charges against security agents who “intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly [touch] the anus, sexual organ, buttocks, or breast of the other person, including touching through clothing, or touching the other person in a manner that would be offensive to a reasonable person.”

An earlier version of House Bill 1937 would have made such action a felony. [Story continues]

Fox 7 reports:

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Flying Car Nears Consumer Availability After Gaining FAA Approval

By on July 6, 2010 in News 11

terrafugia1_1668799cUnfortunately, the price tag for a flying car, set to be sold by Terrafugia in 2011, is in the millions. The other bad news is that Bono will definitely have one, I just know it. The Australian Broadcasting Corp. reports:

The Transition, which is being described as the world’s first flying car, transforms from a vehicle to a winged aircraft in 30 seconds.

US authorities have bent their rules for the aircraft, which could make it much more accessible for people without a pilot’s license.

Anna Dietrich, who works for the company building the Transition, explains how it works: “Once you’ve landed at the airport you can fold up the wings without having to get out of the cockpit,” she said.

“It takes about the same amount of time as putting down your convertible top. Once you’ve done that the power from the engine is directed to the wheels and you now have a street legal vehicle that you can drive to where you actually wanted to go.”

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First Commercially Available Jetpacks For Sale For $86,000

By on March 17, 2010 in News 7

It’s time to live the dream: jetpacks from Martin Jetpacks are now on sale. If you’re able to plunk down $86,000, one could be yours in twelve months. The Martin Jetpack gives you 30 minutes of flight time, tops out at 60 miles per hour, and has mechanisms designed to correct for operator flight error, supposedly reducing the chance of fatal mistakes in the air. No license is needed to fly this in the United States, as of now.

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