GM asks FAA to block public from viewing movements of corporate jet John Byrne

Published: Friday November 28, 2008





Print This Email This General Motors, under fire for flying its chief executive to Washington for hearings on an auto bailout on its corporate jet, has asked the FAA to block the public from being able to track its plane.



We availed ourselves of the option as others do to have the aircraft removed, a GM spokesman told Bloomberg News .



Flightaware.com, a website that tracks plane movements, has previously revealed information about the movement of GM's leased Gulfstream Aerospace G-IV jet. Its last flight shown was for its trip Nov. 18 from Detroit to Washington, where GM CEO Rick Wagoner spoke to a Senate and House panel on a $25 billion emergency loan plan for the US auto industry.



At the House hearing, New York Democrat Gary Ackerman berated Wagoner for taking the jet.



"Couldn't you all have downgraded to first class?" Ackerman asked.



GM's Gulfstream jet is leased from General Electric Capital, a report said.



FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown told Bloomberg she couldn't say whether the agency had complied with GM's request, but said "We do this routinely" for jet owners and that the company didn't "have to have a reason" for requesting a tracking blackout.



GM also said it had seven planes of its own, and that two are for sale, and an additional two are being listed for sale. The leased jet which carried Wagoner to Washington has made ten trips to D.C. this year, three of them since October.



