Incheon AirportGuest post by Tom of Late Departure.

Incheon International Airport in Seoul, South Korea (Korean: 인천국제공항, IATA: ICN) has been named best airport in the world, in the passenger survey results released today by Skytrax, a UK-based aviation research organization with more than 8.2 million questionnaires completed by passengers across the world, during the 10 month survey period.

“Incheon is an airport that has been in the global top 5 ranking for the World Airport Awards during the past 5-6 years, and it is a great achievement for them to secure this premier mark of customer satisfaction.”

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Intrepid MuseumThe Intrepid Museum is a floating piece of history and a must see for all aviation enthusiasts. It has been on my “bucket list” for some time now and on my visit to New York last week I made it a priority to spend time browsing the Intrepid’s massive hangar deck which now houses WWII aircraft, flight simulators, a space capsule, and a theatre showing the history of the mega-ship, including its war, space, and September 11th recovery missions. The upper flight deck of the carrier displays the majority of fighter jets and helicopters, as well as the astounding A-12 Blackbird. The Blackbird was initially flown in 1962 for secretive reconnaissance missions at speeds over Mach 3 (2,269 mph)!

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Gulfstream International Airlines (GIA) is feeling more heat from the FAA. On three occasions, pilots of the airline allowed a passenger in the cockpit of a Beechcraft 1900, turboprop aircraft, during flight. The first two incidents happened in the same day, with a female friend of the Captain during the summer of 2007. The third incident just so happened to involve the same female passenger, but on a different day, with a different flight crew. To be present in the cockpit of an aircraft during flight, without being authorized through CASS (Cockpit Access Security System) is a major security breach of FAA regulations. One would think that two Captains, even for GIA, would have knowledge of such a stern regulation and the potential repercussion for failing to adhere to it. The company found out about the violation through a complaint by a flight attendant, that was onboard for two of the three flights.

Read how GIA is being subject to a $1.3M dollar fine for crew-scheduling and maintenance violations.

08GThe Acting Administrator for the TSA, Gale Rossides, has released a new security directive that will override SD-08F. Effective on June 1st, security directive 08G (SD-08G) will allow transient pilots to come and go freely without a costly background check or the need to obtain an airport badge. The only catch is that the flight crew must remain in the vicinity of their aircraft unless under escort by a badged employee. Ken Bertucci, FBO owner, says “I’m thankful that the aviation community has an organization such as AOPA to help fight for general aviation. It would be difficult to hire additional personnel to obtain transient customer information, escort them to our airport’s training center for a two hour long AOA knowledge test (required for a badge), and finally to the airport security department for fingerprinting.” Fortunately, SD-08G will not adversely affect many airports, because they already have a badge system in place and FBO employees escort flight crews accordingly. The next time the TSA creates a security directive, I would suggest a period of time to allow public criticism before passing such absurd regulations.