Fri, Nov 28, 2008
Asks FAA To Bar Public Flight Tracking Of G-IV
General Motors is flying under the radar, so-to-speak, asking
the FAA to remove a leased Gulfstream IV from the FAA's public
flight tracking service.
Bloomberg reports GM spokesman Greg Martin disclosed in an
interview the company "availed ourselves of the option as others do
to have the aircraft removed" from the public flight tracking
database, which allows services such as FlightAware.com
to display flight information for anyone to see.
Such practices are fairly common among business operators... who
usually don't want curious onlookers (or shareholders, or the
media) to know where their executives are traveling. Given the level of scrutiny now
surrounding GM -- which joined its Big Three
counterparts Ford and Chrysler to beg Congress for corporate
bailouts -- it's hardly surprising GM is reluctant to have such
information publicly available.
Conversely, it's for that very same reason why GM's move is
raising eyebrows from those wary of the automaker's intentions.
The aircraft in question is leased by General Motors from GE
Capital Solutions in Danbury, CT, and is used often for executive
transport. Its last publicly-displayed flight was a trip to Dallas
from Washington, DC on November 25.
FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown notes companies "don't have to have
a reason" to ask for the block. "We do this routinely," she
added.
General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner told lawmakers during a November
18 Congressional hearing that it will run out of funds before the
end of 2008 without a corporate bailout.
In September, GM entered into talks with Chrysler owner Cerebus
Capital Management over a proposed merger between the two
companies, and for weeks it appeared a merger was imminent... but
those talks have since broken down, taking a back seat to the
automakers' pleas for government bailouts.
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