"Then, on a trip to Washington D.C., his plane lost radio communication and military jets were sent to intercept it. Bush staff on the plane received an e-mail asking it to respond in code to determine whether the plane was hijacked. They did, and it was escorted to a safe landing in Washington.

While Bush jokes about the incidents, his staff is more serious when talking about the planes' safety.

'If you had a car that was over 25 years old and you kept having to replace parts, you'd eventually realize you had to replace the car,' said Bush spokeswoman Alia Faraj. 'If your old car breaks down, you can pull over to the side of the road. With these planes you can't really do that.'"

The cliche is slighly bent ALL planes have this problem, why does he say: - "with these planes"?

As a former private pilot and gliding instructor I am fully aware of that.
The main difference between gilding and power flying is that
gliders fly because of the weather but power planes fly inspite of the weather.

Only a fool would take off in the middle of a thunderstorm, there are also very treacherous up and down currents in the air around thunder cloud cells and wind can suddenly shift direction , even during take off, even making take off impossible so you crash the boundary fence first.

The problem for a pilot of not really being captain of his ship, because of generals or politicians as passengers being senior to him can fire him, because they are not prepared to wait for safer conditions. is life threatening for all concerned.


In bad weather even crows walk