The China Travel Restrictions…
When It Comes To Accurate Information… Caveat Reader
It is amazing the amount of misinformation that can be found in some corners of the media.
One recent example is a media story, trumpeting the “discovery” that the restrictions on Chinese visitors to the U.S. implemented by the Trump Administration was really more like a “giant sieve.”
According to these sleuth journalists, they found that as many as 8,000 people from China may have been able to ferret their way into the country in the first three months after the restrictions became effective.
This is another reason that many, if not most, Americans simply don’t trust a lot of the news that gets printed and broadcast.
In this case, the bogus implication is that the travel ban was a failure. That is concocted. Not only that, but the numbers actually prove how effective the program has been.
Here’s a couple of facts, from our Airports:China™ database.
Based on 2019 O&D, there were approximately 2.65 million inbound Chinese air passengers to the USA, by both nonstop and connect itineraries.
Cull that down to a monthly average, and the giant sieve that the media refers to cut off 98.8% of the previous volume, assuming that the 8,000 figure is accurate, which it probably is not. Given the scope of the traffic channels, such as travel over secondary intermediate points, that’s hardly a “sieve.”
Funny, though. Back in January, many of these media sources eagerly carried one-sided stories, denouncing the travel ban, in lockstep with the unelected officials in the Chinese government and the proven charlatans at the WHO. The point, many of these articles contended, was it not necessary and – even “racist.”
At the time and for weeks afterwards – well into March – there were lots of stories covering high-level folks in Congress who were actively encouraging people to intermingle, take cruises, and go see movies… and maintaining that a travel ban from the very country that engendered and spread this disease was completely unnecessary.
Again, caveat reader.
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Pakistan International:
Are There More of Them Out There?
Pakistan International has been banned in the European Union after the discovery that something like 30% of its pilots were on phony or doctored licenses.
Upon this discovery, which came after two incompetent pilots bounced a gear-up A320 on its engines down the runway at Karachi, killing almost 100 people, the airline announced that it was grounding bogus-certificate pilots “immediately.”
The other question is, what other documentation has been jimmied at PIA… maintenance, perhaps.
The current fleet of 10 PIA A320s are on average 14 years old… its six 777s are closer to 15 years old. That in itself is no red flag, normally.
But an airline with a management team that allowed 30% of its pilots to operate with bogus qualifications, it raises questions regarding compliance with routine maintenance, let alone all of the ADs that have been issued over that time.
The real question is is how long has PIA operated this way, and how many other airlines around the globe may be doing just what they’ve been doing.
Probably more than a couple.