Comments on: When is a plane more like a boat?

By: J.T. Wenting

J.T. Wenting — Mon, 22 May 2006 15:53:38 +0000

” As I understand it, speed limits only apply on roads. (Do correct me if I am mistaken.) As I don’t believe most air routes follow the course of major highways, I think airplanes are still ok on the speed thing.”

Yes, they’re fine on speeding fines.
But they’d be liable to be subject to all kinds of tresspassing laws were it not for the fact that property law (at least in the US) explicitly states that property rights don’t extend to over a specific altitude over ground (this after some people in the early days of aviation tried to collect toll from airlines for flying aircraft over their property).

By: MF

MF — Thu, 18 May 2006 18:08:51 +0000

Serious (sort of) hypothetical question for a moment: How would a case of a flight from New York to San Francisco be handled? It’s going to travel over water just prior to landing at SFO, because the airport is practically right on the bay. Does that make it subject to maritime laws?

By: Penumbra

Penumbra — Thu, 18 May 2006 15:35:48 +0000

Clearly, this case fits under the jurisdiction of the native american court. Before there were cars and horses and airplanes and ships, there were native americans. In fact, they are probably sueing for the land at the location of the crash site because they “sold the land unlawfully.” What does native american law say about this?

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Thu, 18 May 2006 15:11:15 +0000

And thus, Jeff, failing to maintain your car constitutes cruelty to animals!

And Moriarty, I’m going to have to say no with respect to speed limits. As I understand it, speed limits only apply on roads. (Do correct me if I am mistaken.) As I don’t believe most air routes follow the course of major highways, I think airplanes are still ok on the speed thing.

By: jeff

jeff — Thu, 18 May 2006 14:05:07 +0000

Before the invention of the car, some portion of the trip would have involved a horse…

By: Roy Bickley

Roy Bickley — Thu, 18 May 2006 09:09:50 +0000

I guess that based on Judge Sweet’s thinking the lawsuits should be thrown out completely. You see, before there was sea travel people could not go anywhere by water or air, so no one was really traveling…

By: Moriarty

Moriarty — Thu, 18 May 2006 02:27:18 +0000

What’s next? Planes that have to travel overland being fined for breaking road speed limits I guess.