Report: Secret Service off hook in 2008 Obama plane mishaps

Back early 20th century it was 'bear hunting accident.' By later that century it was 'skiing accidents.' At the start of the new millenium it became 'plane crashes.' Call it what you want, they happen more frequently to politicians, and especially when an untimely death would be very convenient for their opponents. Of course, one can just be direct, like they were for JFK and RFK.

I'm sure the GOP will use this to 'show' that Obama is making the country less safe... even though the Secret Service in 2008 was still under Bush Jr.'s control, and Obama hasn't changed a single homeland security policy since then, (other than increasing funding for it) not even domestic spying.

Thanks, CNN - now I can sleep tonight

Who cares.

That's what I love about CNN.com...........they are on top of the news

Obama should have been in the senate doing his job the American people were paying him for. If he wanted to fly all over the country campaigning for president he should resigned from the senate.

Why did a candidate for the presidency have a ss detail? This is exactly what is wrong with the economy and this country. As long as we treat these people like they are irreplacable and invaluable, they will keep screwing us to the wall. Just think about this, the bush twins have, at this very moment, several well paid government employees "protecting" them. Protecting them from what? There are ex-judges, ex-preses and their famalies who "require" secret service protection because they have all contributed so much to the world that the loss of any of them would spell disaster for us all. Put these public servants in their place, behind the rest of us! Sorry for the rant, but the article missed this very illuminating facet of american politics and I felt compelled to illeterate it for anyone who is interested in an alternative view.

Yeah, nothing to see here... except maybe the evil hand of Dick Cheney at work. I have never underestimated the depths to which Cheney will stoop. For eight years he and Bush lied to us, and thousands of Americans died in Iraq as a result of those lies.

How do you do something like this inadvertently? Looks like a cover-up or a whitewash to me.

I assume this problem would not exist on Air Force One.

As a maintenance supervisor and former mechanic for the last 29 years in the manufacturing field, I've come to realize that things rattle, shake, move, break, wear-out, fray, and break, sometimes just because "God (or whoever your deity is) deemed-it-so". Even, oh my gosh, human error. Physics is still not a perfect science, much as we would like to believe, that is why we call it science. We are learning every day. This is why we have investigations. To learn. Even 'Brand New' products fail that are made to exacting standards. Let us allow the investigators do their jobs without hinderance, redefamation, or snide. it is a difficult process. Been there, done that, got people off the hook that were presupposed guilty when they were not. Also taught good men and women how to do their jobs better through proper training. I seriously doubt there is any conspiracy. Maybe, could be.....but I doubt it. Let us learn from this incident for the safety of all of us that fly our nations airlines. I would hope for that patience and respect. How about you? Thank You.

CNN....When are you going to replace John King shame with something serving and deserving? We are tired of his pure Republican coverage! CNN,earn your neutral respect back or bring in Sean Hannity and Rush to support King.

Bush is to blame!!

what does this have to do with allowing CEOs of failed companies to rediculously receive large bonuses?

Did they check and see if the maintenence was done overseas or did an illegal immigrant (one that overstayed his VISA) do the work here in the USA. Both have been happening alot to national airlines.

For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really embarrassed of my country

this is news to me. Was it around the time Clinton talked about the possibility of an accident happening? Please check the timing.

For those of you who fly on commercial airlines, this is a very important story. Forget the political aspect. The entire fleet of Douglas narrow body aircraft have the same slide/tail cone system. If it's possible for a slide raft to inflate inside a tailcone, the results could be catastrophic if the inflated slide comes in contact with the flight control cables. I will be interested to see what comes of the final report.

didn't they blame this on bush?

Meanwhile, back in Iran...North Korea...2+ million unemployed since Obama took over...increased taxes for all Americans......

Wow, an uncontrolled pitch-up attitude is really dangerous. I hadn't heard of the issue before.

Two possibilities here. The first one is that Cheney, Limbaugh, Rove or some right wing hate group saboteur tried to sabotage the plane. The second possibility is that there is a poorly designed piece of equipment that must be replaced immediately. The Department of Defense and probably the FAA has a safety mishap reporting process in place whereby whenever there is a mishap or potential mishap resulting from faulty equipment that can cause the loss of life or limb, the plane is grounded until the problem is fixed to 100% operational capacity. There should be zero guessing about this. This is an engineering problem it seems that can be identified and correctly repaired. But, if Obama was not flying on a DoD aircraft, then my hunch is that it was due to random circumstances that nobody noticed during pre-flight checks or routine maintenance. But at least now President Obama is flying on Air Force One, which is probably the best maintained aircraft in the world. The DoD has the best safety and maintenance process hands down. Everything is done with meticulous detail and no flight is released unless it is for certain the aircraft is completely safe to fly.

I would be inclined to wonder about the dubious role of bush's "secret" service in having the unexplained events happening around obama that rendered his life in somewhat jeopardy. Remember folks, that these individuals did work for gwb, at the time. How convenient, if something were to happen to obama in mid-flight. Good thing he survived it, I don't think anyone could tolerate another eight years of adolf w. bush, or joseph "dick" stalin in power. Just the fact that they used illegal wiretaps (WITHOUT going first thru the FISA court!), or the illegal circumvention and blatant disregard for the geneva conventions, or the illegal war that was a war of choice (cheney bullying cia employees into saying that saddam had wmd's when cheney knew full well that they didn't but went there daily until they relented. I don't like that bush-cheney illegally gave up our cia operatives' identity for political gain, that was not cool. All told, the overwhelming majority of americans want the bush regime put to trial for High Treason and breaking the law. But, the lawmakers will never give in to the american public, because they are just as guilty as the bush administration officials.

It's a little disconcerting that anyone would even question the Secret Service. But if you read article, the Secret Service cleared themselves of any wrong doing. Let's see, hmmmm.....sounds a lot like the Bush administration. Should we be worried? I'm guessing this plane was actually meant for Palin, so she'd have the option to bail out on her job early.

and would they admit it or talk about it?

I thank god that no real accident happened though. We need god's son alive and well making policy that he thinks will actually work.

Why are they off the hook???? Are they trying to kill the president or something????? Worse stuff than this has happened in our history before, hopefully this is not a repeat of some of the messed up crap that's happened. something is really fishy about this, I don't know, they need to straight up do a thorough investigation before just simply Dismissing something like this!

Probably just one of the Hillarites (clinton) attempt to take him out during the campaign!

This story is lame. CNN is becoming more and more tabloid fodder!

The report doesn't say whether the Secret Service were Republicans or not. If so further investigation is deffinately waranted!

Bush caused this!

wonder if the CIA had anything to do with it?........ Ask Pelosi, she'll get to the bottom of it.

Great now they can start working on the big photo op NYC joyride that the nobama ss took to the tune of about a million bucks.

SARAH did it!

It's Bush's fault!!!

Old, irrelevant news. C'mon! Is this really worth the on-line electrons?

Were any republicans around the plane???

Good post,I believe every word.hahaha

Im surprised that Levi Johnston has no comment on this....SHeesh

And of course the Secret Service would no more lie than the CIA would........whoopsie

Wow now this news. I have been waiting for the truth to come out. Please don't hold back any longer. I am so exciting here I can not hardly stand it.