OK, I admit I heard this in the middle of the night but I'm sure I heard Joe Sharkey was on the small business jet that clipped the airliner which went down in Brazil on Friday.

Joe, if that was you on that plane, it must have been awful for you and I am certainly glad that you landed safely.

Not as awful as for the people in the Gol plane!

Already mentioned in a thread on the Newsstand forum
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=607596

I'm glad he is unhurt. This may actually give him some material to write his first interesting column in years!

(Sharkey's counterparts at the USA Today and Wall Street Journal write much better columns.)

That last comment is simply ridiculous. Joe Sharkey's comments are not only interesting, but he is just about the only mainstream journalist who will challenge the security lunacy that is currently taking control of our formerly free country.

Bruce

Yup!

I hate to pile on, but have found his columns to be interesting as well...remember that he's working for the NY Times!!!!!

Which column(s) is/were this?

I assume you're not talking about the interview with the AA flight attendant, where he implied that domestic FAs were subject to the liquids ban, when in fact they were not?

Ditto on that Bruce.

SDF_Traveler

Very cute! No, that's not the one I had in mind. I suppose Joe is human like the rest of us and can make a mistake occasionally. The only people who never make mistakes are people who don't do anything.

In the fall of 2004, Joe Sharkey used his position at The New York Times to publicize protests against the "breast exams" that were instituted after two Russian planes were brought down, supposedly by bombs smuggled aboard by Chechen women. Women in the U.S. suddenly had their breasts fondled and manipulated by TSA screeners looking for similar bombs. Of course, the original premise was unprovable, and the cost in civil liberty far outweighed any "security" provided. Eventually, the howls of protest caused the policy to be rescinded, and Joe's efforts made him my friend for life.

Bruce

I too like Sharkey's writing. Judge his work for yourself. Here's his write up of the accident: NY Times column

I never saw that column. Thanks for pointing it out! Kudos to him for that. Earlier today I followed a link in one of the threads here to his blog, where I see he has also written post-8/10 about the ridiculous carry-on restrictions. So I definitely give him a big ^ for his position on those issues.

I stand by my opinion that his columns are boring, though.

Now that's a great article.

I really hope the Brasilian authorities release the pilots ASAP.

Does anyone know if either plane was under Air Traffic Control following at the time of the accident?

Thanks for posting the link.

The picture that goes with the article was pretty amazing. They were VERY lucky.

I understand you are happy for his life, which by the way was saved. But, what about the other 155 ones??? Don't they matter to you????Isn't this country (US) well known by its fairness? Come on... be fare...you shouldn't even say such a thing, just in respect to the families!