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Richard Cochrane is trained in chemistry and metallurgy but is far more interested and practiced as a political and fund raising consultant, writer and amateur historian. He grew up in a Navy family and with his two younger brothers carried on its 500+ year tradition of naval service to Great Britain and the USA then enjoyed a career with one of the largest advertising and public relations agencies working with numerous Fortune 500 companies and many of America's premier educational institutions. He maintains friendships and acquaintanceships around the world. He lives in Santa Barbara, California.

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FAA Spends $5 Million On Holiday Bash Disguised As “Seminar”

December 23rd, 2009 • Richard Cochrane
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faalogoAccording to whistleblowers the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have spent five million dollars to bring 3, 600 managers to a conference in Atlanta critics say this was no more than an excuse to throw a three-week-long Christmas party.

Undercover footage of a video will be broadcast Wednesday evening on ABC World News, which shows FAA managers drinking heavily after a day of meetings. This comes at a bad time especially as Americans continue to simmer over the economy.

The News report suggests the FAA slipped in a 21-day holiday disguised as a managers meeting earlier this month. One employee mentioned to an undercover reporter “It is nothing but a party,” In response the FAA said that it was not a party but essential training sessions for the managers to learn. Another manager bragged to ABC News about nearly being arrested for drunkenly dancing on a table.

The “seminar” featured lavish food and hosted bars. The hotel was so pleased to have the extravagantly spending federal agency there it threw extravagant weekly parties.

The FAA claims the 3-weeks of debauchery was actually necessary to train managers on a new National Air Controllers’ union contract. It could not explain why it had to convene the party at the 4-star Omni Hotel in downtown Atlanta flying the managers there; housing and feeding them for 3-weeks, plus provide them an $81 per day per diem in addition to their salaries that average in excess of $100,000 annually and send taxpayers the $5,000,000 bill.

faa-drunks1

Adjacent is a frame from a video of the recent $5 million FAA “seminar” hosted at Atlanta’s 4-star OMN I HOTEL.

There Is 1 Response So Far. »

  1. Comment by Peter Nesbitt on 25 December 2009:

    It’s amazing to see the FAA spend so much time, effort, and money on this event — only to see how slow they respond to FAA Whistleblower Safety Disclosures provided to the United States Office of Special Counsel (OSC) and/or the United States Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General (DOT/OIG).

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