Over where skies are blue as dbanksy(dot)bsky(dot)social

Writing this in my personal capacity, but I have been flying these types of aircraft for more than 20 years, with over 8,000 hours, and have reasonable familiarity with how the charter world operates. I feel compelled to post after seeing commentary about the Lear 60 crash, from missile strikes to DEI to critiquing this poor woman’s final radio calls. That last part is what I find most troubling. She was the second-in-command (SIC), and while she was empowered to point out mistakes as part of good crew resource management, she was doing her job, communicating with ATC right to the end in a terrifying situation. She likely knew before many of those calls that she was going to die. I have heard final calls from friends, from military pilots with thousands of hours in fighter aircraft, and they are just as heartbreaking because they know the end is approaching. I understand the public interest given the footage and audio. But you do not know the aircraft’s maintenance history, whether there was a structural failure, if any failure was induced by turbulence, overspeed, or overcontrol, or everything happening in that cockpit. I am sure weather will be part of the investigation, but beyond that, it is speculation. The charter industry routinely hires commercial pilots very early in their careers to gain experience alongside an ATP-qualified captain before they move up to the airlines. She would still have the appropriate training, qualifications, and checkouts by an FAA examiner or designee. Let people investigate, learn, and share the facts. Be respectful to those who perished and the families who carry their memories. God bless them and their loved ones.

Ten years ago this month I had a breakdown which had a substantial impact. Sometimes the head goes into dark places even when you're generally better scott-wortley.medium.com/sch…

One of the great headlines

You need only recognise that if we start granting injunctions based on that risk, we open the door to bad-faith actors who will reach for mental health concerns as the first line of defence against investigation. What are the bets that the bad-faith pleas will end up forming a significant majority of such injunction applications? Lawyers and tame psychiatrists will, you can imagine, soon get a lucrative mini-industry going. Civil society can’t operate properly if unfalsifiable personal assertions are privileged over commonly agreed standards of knowledge and evidence. ✍️ Sam Leith Article | spectator.com/article/the-ce… | @questingvole

I've been both sides of the injunction lark, I've faced injunctions as an Editor & later advised those with injunctions in their favour: The reality, however, is that the team advising this unnamed individual have got their client into the worst possible situation - a quiet and sober word was needed before we got to this nightmare point - because in the end freedom of the press will win here and the damn will burst. thetimes.com/article/af69658…

If an oligarch had used the Metropolitan Police and Carter Ruck to silence a journalist, would that be similarly brushed over and forgiven?

Trump warned $10bn BBC lawsuit could be dismissed Read more 🔗 trib.al/GnZ7lFz

Hello members of the House of Lords 👋 Welcome to the debate on jury trials. Pull up a seat - everyone disagrees and the entire thing is on fire. But, sadly for you, it lands in your lap today👇🏼

A story in two parts Chapter 1: Jury trials protect the British people Chapter 2: Jurors do their job. We live in dark times

Tommy Robinson guilty of harassing two Daily Mail journalists bbc.in/4yIzE9f

Amazing: journalist does journalism to discover something, and because everyone is so used to people living by press release, they literally can't believe the journalist found it out on their own. holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2026/…

One thing is clear: this is NOT a pre-election budget.

A chattering of starling on Portobello Beach, Edinburgh today, wondering if they can summon up the numbers to make a murmuration…sound on

Very happy to have been shortlisted in the Specialist Journalism category in this year's British Journalism Awards for my investigation into Cambridge University professor Jason Arday and the extensive plagiarism in his PhD thesis #BJA2026

We acknowledge that no one has the bandwidth for this, but if it helps: -It’s ‘sleight of hand’ -It’s ‘bated breath’ -It’s ‘lo and behold’ -It's 'buck naked' -It’s ‘brass tacks’ -It’s ‘free rein’ -It’s ‘toe the line'

Fire up the outrage bus.

This has gone viral in France. The wonderful black woman is a credit to France. The smug, haute-bourgeois blonde an embarrassment.

Myriam was a 7-year-old French Jewish girl. She witnessed a terrorist break into her school and kill two of her classmates. She tried to run but tripped while grabbing her schoolbag, causing her ballet slippers to fall out. She stopped to pick them up. He chased her and grabbed her by the hair, shooting her in the head at point-blank range. The man was Mohamed Merah, and a rap song honoring him and other Muslim terrorists has become the unofficial anthem of the ‘student protests’ in France.

They look about 10ft tall!