The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "aircraft" ...
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Spy Drones Aiding Police
Government surveillance drones have been used, with no public notice, to assist local police departments inside the U.S. find suspects and conduct. A Los Angeles Times/ Tribune Co. Washington Bureau investigation uncovered for the first time over two dozen uses of the Department of Homeland Security drones to help local law enforcement in North Dakota, where two of the department's nine Predator B aircraft are based.
Tags: Government Surveillance; Department of Homeland Security; North Dakota; Drones; Security
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Outsourcing Safety: Boeing Jets Repairs in El Salvador
KIRO Team 7 investigators travel to El Salvador, uncovering a series of safety lapses at a Boeing jet maintenance facility. We found unqualified $2 an hour mechanics, the use of broken parts, failures to properly connect electrical wiring inside aircraft and the hiring of a work force that had trouble reading English-only Boeing jet repair manuals. This team of reporters also uncovered the locations of where major U.S. carriers take their jets out of the country for repair (Guadalajara, Taipei, Hong Kong, El Salvador, Beijing, Mexico City and Guatemala).
Tags: Boeing; jets; broken parts; U.S. carriers
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Rat Trap
In the story, an FBI informant has been known to hound the targets of the investigation with money and gifts, but also “led them by the nose”. He has also “prodded, persuaded and cajoled the targets to advance plans to launder money supposedly used to purchase an anti-aircraft missile”. So this article brought up the FBI’s use of informants and the ethical lines crossed by some of them.
Tags: Federal Bureau of Investigation; anti-American; violent; terrorists; corruption; Middle Eastern descent
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"Safety for Sale"
The Federal Aviation Administration is under fire after WFAA-TV reveals that thousands of aircraft mechanics licensed by the FAA, had "questionable" training. The poor training and slow reaction by the FAA could be connected to two deadly airplane crashes. The series also revealed that repair facilities hired foreign mechanics through "immigration loopholes" who were unqualified and often could not speak English.
Tags: FAA; Federal Aviation Administration; diploma mills; U.S. aircraft mechanics; mechanic training; foreign mechanics;
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Fatal Flying on Airlines No Accident in Aviator Complaint to FAA
Florida aviation company, Gulfstream, is found to have lax pilot training standards as well as relaxed policies on aircraft fitness for flight. Death and accidents have occurred due to the neglect and Gulfstream's pilots are prevalent in the airline industry.
Tags: Gulfstream; Florida; airline; regional; pilots; training; mechanical; aircraft; aviation;
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CSAR-X: Rescue Chopper Requirements Sacrificed for Schedule and Rivalries
The U.S. Air Force violated its own procedures and guidelines to pick a new helicopter for its combat, search and rescue (CSAR-X) fleet. The Air Force chose an aircraft that did not meet the rescuer's requirements because it was settling old rivalries and arbitrary deadlines.
Tags: special operations command; army; armed forces; government accountability office; Pentagon Inspector General;
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SLICC Deal for Pentagon Brass, Pimp My Ride -- Air Force Edition,
In June 2008, sources came to the Project on Government Oversight about the Air Force wasting taxpayer funds. They presented documents and e-mails that raised questions about two little-known programs to build "world-class" luxury aircraft accommodations for the military and senior civilian leadership. The accommodations -- called SLICC (Snior Leader In-transit Conference Capsule) and SLIP (Senior Leader In-transit Pallet) -- were justified as filling a "deficiency gap," but e-mails obtained by POGO showed that there was significant internal dissent within the Air Force over this extravagant waste of taxpayers' funds. Requirements documents obtained by POGO emphasize the need for "aesthetically pleasing" accommodations. E-mails obtained by POGO state that Air Force generals upgraded the leather, carpet, and wood choices, adding hundreds of thousands of dollars to the program cost. After the first FLIP was procured, General Robert McMahon expressed dissatisfaction with the color of the seat leather and type of wood used. He directed that the leather be reupholstered from brown to Air Force blue leather, and requested to replace the wood originally used with cherry. Internal Air Force e-mails make it clear that the Air Force leadership's overriding concern us SLICC's level of luxury. Contract documents obtained by POGO revealed that these accommodations do not provide any additional operational capabilities (e.g. communications advantages) beyond those currently existing.
Tags: government spending; Air Force; SLICC; SLIP; misconduct; overspending
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Deficient Deicing
An investigation of Servisair International, the largest deicing contractor at Denver International Airport, showed that the company was cheating and taking short cuts in training of aircraft deicers. They were also falsifying documents allowing untrained workers to drive around the airfield. All of which are safety violations.
Tags: aviation; planes; Servisair International; deicing; security; safety; employee training;
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Money, Truth and Spin
Former Canada Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and middleman Karlheinz Schreiber had a secret that lasted more than a decade. The pair had met in North American hotels three times, with Schreiber handing Mulroney envelopes totaling $300,000 in cash, money from a secret Swiss bank account. The scandal centered around "the steering of an Air Canada aircraft order to a firm for which Schreiber acted as promoter." Mulroney denied accepting a bribe.
Tags: Brian Mulroney; Karlheinz Schreiber; bribery; Air Canada
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After the Crash
Series explored recurrent problems with faulty aircraft maintenance that endangered the lives of pilots and passengers, and examined a mechanic's pattern of falsifying records to try to hide his mistakes.
Tags: airports; airplanes; aircraft maintenance; public safety; FOIA