Free Republic

A frequent donor to the NRA and Republican politicians and causes told reporters that he lost several family members when a private jet crashed after flying through restricted airspace Sunday. John Rumpel told The Washington Post that his “entire family” was on board the Cessna Citation that crashed near Montebello, Virginia, around 3:30 p.m. Sunday. Multiple outlets, including The New York Times, reported that Rumpel’s daughter, 2-year-old granddaughter, and a nanny went down with the plane, as well as a pilot.

A very bizarre aviation mishap involving a Cessna Citation on a downwind approach to a wet runway, a recipe for a disaster. It's a miracle this thing did not flip or come apart when it ran out of pavement. To make matters worse the #2 engine seems to run awqy on them, water taxiing through the bay. Not for dialup freepers, it is pretty large. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V06LBgfuxgA&mode=related&search=

Excerpt - Imagine taking a joyride with five friends — a fine trip, covering 400 or so miles, the sort of nighttime jaunt where the lights of towns and cities below twinkle like diamonds tossed across black velvet. Then imagine that trip coming to a rude conclusion when your five fellow travelers finger you as the guy who stole that ride, a $7 million Cessna Citation VII. That's the situation facing Daniel Andrew Wolcott of Buford. Police arrested him Wednesday and charged him with taking the airplane, boosted from St. Augustine, Fla., last weekend and flown to Gwinnett County Airport/Briscoe...