Jane Garvey promised to fly a plane at midnight 12.31.99. Brave, right? But read the text of her statement, from their web site:

To celebrate New Years Eve, we will board a plane shortly before midnight  Greenwich Mean Time  and fly west through all four continental time zones to demonstrate our confidence to the flying public that the nations airspace system is safe, Garvey said. Ray says he expects this to be an utterly normal  but deeply satisfying  trip.

Now, if she boards at midnight GMT, won't it still be several hours before midnight in North America? Conceivably, she could depart the Eastern Time Zone and land out west while it's still 12.31.99. Have I missed something here???

Scott the Nitpicker

-- Scott Johnson (scojo@yahoo.com), January 11, 1999

Answers

Uh, what about a headwind?

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), January 11, 1999.

Her claim is patently absurd. All commercial air traffic will be shut down during the hours before and after the rollover and they have know it all along. Or if they didn't, they are more stupid than I thought.

-- a (a@a.a), January 11, 1999.

Scott is right on. When it's midnight GMT it will be 7 pm EST, or 4 pm, PST. If you figure on a 5 hour (nominal) flight, the plane would land on the west coast at about midnight eastern time, or 9 pm west coast time.

She learned all that Slick had to teach her. Well done, Jane Garvey.

-- Willie (watcher@clock.com), January 11, 1999.

Yes, but aviation runs on GMT

-- Dave Whitacre (dwhit2@aol.com), January 11, 1999.

wow Jane Garvey... way to manipulate the public... disinformation played with the hand of a true con artist.

Mike ====================================================================

-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), January 11, 1999.

She will be flying at 11:59 and crashing and burning at 12:01

-- Paul Milne (fedinfo@halifax.com), January 11, 1999.

I will beleive it when I see it.

-- Linda A. (adahi@muhlon.com), January 11, 1999.

"Flight 800 to tower control, could you turn those runway lights back on? over"

-- Nikoli Krushev (doomsday@y2000.com), January 11, 1999.

She doesn't have to actually fly that plane to help avert a panic, only say that she will.

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), January 11, 1999.

Pilot to co-pilot-- "Whatthehell! Joe, hand me the flashlight.... now go back there and tell them it's only a minor problem, nothing to worry about."

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), January 12, 1999.

Any time you read about possible timing of Y2k problems on Dec. 31, 1999 or Jan 1, 2000, remember to consider: which time zone is the relevant computer clock set to?

Aviation runs on GMT.

Will you folks who are so ready to attribute every wrinkle to a Clinton scheme please first consider whether there is a non-political straightforward factual explanation? When you don't, it reduces your credibility for that rare occasion on which you might have a legitimate connection to Clinton.

-- No Spam Please (anon@ymous.com), January 12, 1999.

There isn't anyone in the Klinton administration that is smart enough to know that aviation runs on GMT.

-- Mike (Boxman9186@aol.com), January 12, 1999.

hey, no conspiracy theorist here... I just thought it was a bit odd, is all!

scott

-- Scott Johnson (scojo@yahoo.com), January 14, 1999.