Fri, Apr 01, 2005
NTSB Finds Evidence Of Slippery Banana Peel On Runway
04.01.05 Special Edition: After NTSB
investigators made a startling discovery at Teterboro Airport in
New Jersey on Tuesday, the Port Authority of New York And New
Jersey this week instituted a complete and immediate ban on the
importation of tropical fruits at the field.
Investigators said they found a banana peel on the runway,
leading them to speculate that the tropical fruit was at least
partially responsible for the February 2nd incident where a
Bombardier Challenger 601 slid off the end of the runway at high
speed without ever becoming airborne.
"Yup, it's as bad as we
thought," said the NTSB's new principle investigator, John Brannen.
"Banana peels. Lots of 'em."
In fact, there were at least a dozen spent banana casings
scattered along the runway, leading Brannen to contact officers
with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. "We think the
Bombardier may have been smuggling as much as 2,000 pounds of
bananas," said Frederico Cordovan, a spokesman for ICE. "Now
they're 2,000 pounds of mashed bananas."
"Fiendish," said corporate pilot Dave Elliott. "We thought there
was a chance terrorists would hit a small, corporate airport. But
we never expected the ol' slip-on-a-banana-peel gag. It's
diabolical."
But ICE agents and investigator Brannen weren't so sure that
terrorism was at the root of the February 2nd accident. "This could
have been simple carelessness on the part of some maintenance
monkey," Brannen said. New Jersey State Police were in the process
Thursday of detaining suspects. They released an artist's
conception of one suspect thought to be hiding in Trenton.
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