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Monday, December 29, 2025

In what looks to be the first successful use of Garmin's Autoland product outside of testing, the FAA has confirmed a small plane made a safe emergency landing completely guided by automation at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in Colorado.


Europe's quest for digital sovereignty is hampered by a 90 per cent dependency on US cloud infrastructure, claims Cristina Caffarra, a competition expert and a driving force behind the Eurostack initiative.


The federal government is investigating a potential social-services aid fraud scheme in which hundreds of millions of dollars intended for a federally funded nutrition program was allegedly used instead for lavish purchases. read more


The compromised robot used short-range wireless signals to infect another robot that was offline and not connected to any network. read more


Sunday, December 28, 2025

It's the biggest mystery in Georgia politics right now: Who's paying for the attacks on Republican Lt. Gov. Burt Jones? read more


Comments

Yet the Republican majority in the House has elected him.

Interesting tidbit, the Speaker of the House does not have to be a member of the House, according to the Constitution.

Can a non-member of Congress be speaker of the House? (2023)
www.cbsnews.com

... As Republicans in the House of Representatives debate who should lead the lower chamber, it's notable that the House speaker -- who is second in line for the presidency -- doesn't have to be a member of Congress.

The House has never been led by a non-member in its 234 years of existence, according to the Congressional Research Service, and experts say a non-member speaker is still unlikely. But it is possible. ...

The Constitution has very few requirements to be House speaker. The person must be nominated by a member of the House, then chosen by a majority of the full membership of the House. For a House with 435 members, that's 218 votes, although there are two vacancies right now.

"The House of Representatives shall chuse their speaker and other officers," the Constitution reads.[1] ...


Wow, yeah, it says "chuse."

===

1 - constitution.congress.gov


There's video, if that's yer thing ...

A look at Garmin's Autoland system (2.5 minutes)
www.youtube.com

Local CT news showed that video.

Wow. Garmin's product did quite well.



More from the article ...

... Garmin's Emergency Autoland system is built to automatically take "complete control of the flight to land the airplane in an emergency where the pilot is unable to fly." It can also be activated at the press of a button.

After initial reports speculated that the pilot or pilots may have been incapacitated after the plane, a Beechcraft Super King Air, had pressurization problems, the plane operator assured the public that triggering autoland was a deliberate act by the pilots. No passengers were on board on the flight, which according to the tail number given to the ATC, landed at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport on Saturday afternoon, after flying in from Aspen/Pitkin County Airport, also known as Sardy Field, a small mountain airport measuring just 573 acres.

The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed in a statement that the "Beechcraft Super King Air landed safely at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in Colorado around 14:20 local time on Saturday, December 20, after the pilot lost communication with air traffic control." The FAA added: "An onboard emergency autoland system was activated. Two people were on board. The FAA is investigating."

While the aircraft did experience "a rapid, uncommanded loss of pressurization," the pilots put on their oxygen masks, the CEO of the charter company, Chris Townsley, said in a statement to CNN. Townsley reiterated that the pilots had "made the decision to leave the system engaged," and "automatically engaged exactly as designed when the cabin altitude exceeded the prescribed safe levels." ...


Local coverage ...

Both pilots killed after midair helicopter collision in New Jersey
abc7ny.com

... Witnesses across the area described seeing the helicopters flying unusually close before the collision.

Two pilots were killed after their helicopters collided in midair over Hammonton, New Jersey on Sunday.

Michael Greenberg, 71, of Sewell, N.J. was pronounced dead at the scene.

Kenneth L. Kirsch, 65, of Carneys Point, N.J. was pronounced dead at the hospital.

The crash happened around 11:25 a.m. near the intersection of Route 30 and Basin Road, about a mile from the Hammonton Municipal Airport.

Both helicopters went down in a nearby field, with one bursting into flames, police said.

Chief Kevin Friel of the Hammonton Police Department said early reports indicate the aircraft were flying close together shortly after departure.

"Reports were that they were flying in tandem, that they were flying close together, which is probably what caused the collision to occur," Friel said. ...

According to FAA records, one helicopter is registered to a charter company in Lancaster, Pa., while the other is privately owned out of Carneys Point, N.J.

A preliminary report is expected within 30 days. ...




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