BEGGAR GM IS TRYING TO HIDE IN 'PLANE' SIGHT

BEGGAR GM IS TRYING TO HIDE IN 'PLANE' SIGHT
November 28, 2008
New York Post

General Motors, criticized by lawmakers for its use of corporate jets, has asked aviation regulators to block the public's ability to track a plane it uses.

"We availed ourselves of the option as others do to have the aircraft removed" from a Federal Aviation Administration tracking service, a GM spokesman, Greg Martin, said yesterday in an interview. He declined to discuss why GM made the request.

Flight data show that the leased Gulfstream Aerospace G-IV jet flew Nov. 18 from Detroit to Washington, where Chief Executive Officer Richard Wagoner Jr. spoke to a Senate committee that day and a House panel the next day on behalf of a $25 billion auto-industry rescue plan.

Representatives at the Nov. 19 House hearing, including Gary Ackerman (D-Queens/LI), faulted Wagoner, Ford CEO Alan Mulally and Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli for taking private jets to Washington to plead their case.

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

GM has seven planes in its own fleet. All were grounded yesterday, said a spokesman, Tom Wilkinson.