Airplane News: Piper Club Says AD is Flawed, GPS Spoofing Traced, and a Passenger Jumps From a 737

First up this week is the proposed Piper AD. If you’re unfamiliar with the proposed AD, there were two incidents in Alaska where the rudder on Piper aircraft failed and bent into a 90 degree angle. Both aircraft landed safely and there were in injuries. The FAA responded with a proposed AD the covers nearly all cubs and cub variants made before 1974, which is about 31,000 aircraft. The Short Wing Piper Club says that this is a huge over-reach and the process itself is flawed. According to the club’s statement, both incident aircraft were modified with larger engines, larger props and aftermarket beacons. The Piper Club had much more to say with specifics on aircraft, types, regions, and aircraft storage, so we’ll leave a link below if you’d like to check it out! Next up this week is a follow up to GPS signal spoofing, which we covered a few months ago. If you haven’t heard about this, aircraft in the Middle East were experiencing false position reports with variations of up to 120NM. Reports started in September, with some commercial crews requesting vectors to remain on course. A University of Texas student has traced the source of the spoofing signals to the eastern side of Tehran. The spoofing appears to be aimed at jamming and denial of service according to UT. We’ll keep you up to date if we see anything more about the GPS spoofing. Last up this week is a fun one, a passenger experiencing a “mental health emergency” opened an overwing exit on a SWA 737 in New Orleans and exited the airplane onto the ramp. The incident occurred after the boarding process had completed for a flight from New Orleans to Atlanta and on to Baltimore but before taxiing. The police were called and the passenger was detained with no injuries to anyone in the aircraft or on the ramp. Police said the man was incoherent and was not fully aware of his surroundings. Alright, that’s it! No live next week, I’ll be on vacation, so we’ll pick back up with the Live events in January! Have a great weekend, and we’ll see you next week! https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/passenger-jumps-from-737-at-new-orleans/ https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/piper-club-says-rudder-ad-needs-work https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/gps-spoofing-signals-traced-to-tehran/