SPEEA Is Ready To Fight

A planning report uncovered by the Seattle Times claims Boeing is considering selling its 75-year-old manufacturing plant in Wichita (KS), as part of a long-term shift to building aircraft while eliminating its components work. Citing an internal strategic-planning document obtained from a company insider, The Seattle Times reported in Sunday's edition that Boeing's main portion of the aircraft-manufacturing process -- the beginning and the end -- are expected to be centered in Everett, Wash., where final assembly of the 7E7 Dreamliner is planned. The document also confirms that Boeing one day anticipates closing its Renton (WA) plant, although the timing of this move was not clear. Alan Mulally, CEO of Boeing Commercial Airp

FAA Proposes $44,000 Fine

FAA investigators claim to have compiled an inch-thick file on a 1999 complaint about a burned-out bulb in a "no smoking, fasten seat belt" sign onboard a Comair jet. The accumulating paper shuffle ended only after the airline paid a $3,000 fine to settle the complaint, the Gannett News Service reported on Monday. The hearing in Federal Aviation Administration v. Comair was to start Thursday; four years after the case began. The agency's beef against Comair: A burnt-out light bulb, worth 77 cents, in a no smoking-fasten seat belt sign. The FAA's proposed fine: $44,000. According to documents obtained in a Freedom of Information Act request by Gannett, the problem started Sept. 17, 1999, on a flight from Long Island to Cincinnati. An of