Thursday, April 14, 2011

"What the hell is this? I was supposed to have unlimited airspace."

Inhofe, who has more than 50 years of flying experience, came over after he landed, demanding to know ,"What the hell is this? I was supposed to have unlimited airspace."

The FAA probe found that Inhofe knew the runway was marked closed but "still elected to land, avoiding the men and equipment on the runway."

The new documents also show that Inhofe told investigators at first that he wasn't distracted in the cockpit when the incident occurred but then volunteered that he was "showing a new hire employee seated in the right seat how the technology of the cockpit instrumentation worked ..."

The report also stated that Inhofe told investigators that his secretary called the airport the day before the flight and that the person she talked with did not mention anything about the runway being closed.

The incident wasn't the first close call Inhofe has had in the cockpit. In 2006, an experimental plane the senator was flying spun out of control while landing in Tulsa. In 1999, Inhofe made an emergency landing in a Tulsa suburb after the plane he was flying lost a propeller.

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