Airplane News: Trent Palmer Suspended, Pilot claims RedBull stunt, Spirit rejects JetBlue, Cape Air

This week in airplane news: Trent Palmer's license has been suspended, a pilot claimed responsibility for the RedBull stunt, Spirit rejects Jetblue offer, Cape Air orders 75 Eviation Alice Aircraft. Pilot and YouTuber Trent Palmer announced on Thursday that the FAA suspended his certificate for 60 days The FAA accuses Palmer of violating 14 CFR 91.13: careless and reckless operation of an aircraft 14 CFR 91.119(a) and (c), which cover minimum safe altitudes, including allowing for an emergency landing without undue hazard to persons or property if a power unit fails and not operating an aircraft closer than 500 feet to any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure except when necessary for takeoff or landing. “The problem here is the precedents or the case law that is established by the decision. The problem with that is that by the judge or ALJ stating that because I didn’t land it wasn’t a necessary landing procedure, now that would basically mean that any time we want to land in a new place that would require inspection passes to assess the feasibility of that spot, if there were any chance that you were within 500 feet of a vehicle, vessel, person, or structure—knowingly or unknowingly—you would need to go land there for it to not be a violation, meaning there would be external pressures making us change our aeronautical decision making.” https://www.avweb.com/flight-safety/faa-regs/youtuber-trent-palmers-license-suspended/ Pilot and Skydiver Luke Aikins claimed responsibility for continuing red bull’s plane swap stunt without a waiver “As Project Lead and Chief Pilot, it was entirely my responsibility to operate within the regulatory framework to ensure a successful outcome” The FAA is investigating, and we’ll see if they decide to give these pilots the same thing they did for Trevor Jacobs. https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/pilot-claims-responsibility-for-attempting-plane-swap-without-faa-exemption/ Spirit Airlines rejected a purchase offer from JetBlue, citing a low probability of obtaining antitrust clearance. JetBlue launched this bid to compete with the merger between Spirit and Frontier JetBlue offered MORE than Frontier, but the board of directors found that the risk assigned to stockholders was not worth the additional money in the offer. https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/spirit-rejects-jetblue-bid Cape Air has signed a Letter of Intent with Eviation to purchase 75 Alice aircraft. According to the Eviation, Alice will have a top cruise speed of 250kts, a maximum payload of 2500lbs, and a range of 440NM. The aircraft will seat 9 passengers and two crew. Eviation expects the Alice to fly “In the upcoming weeks” https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/cape-air-signs-deal-for-75-electric-alice-commuter-aircraft