Reply #9: Yes, that has puzzled me as well. And also puzzling is the pilot's refusal to abide by

[Dover]

the instructions of the air traffic control (or whoever it was) that advised them NOT to land
there due to poor conditions, but rather to change their landing destination to another airport. I'd assume they would opt to err on the side of extreme caution, particularly considering the importance of their passenger list.

I have also wondered about the safety of our Congress, and admittedly became suspicious when,
during the Bush administration, they emptied the government buildings due to what were purportedly terror threats. I wondered what they were doing in those buildings while they stood empty. I was in a very dark head space at that time and was particularly suspicious of Bushco's interests in forming a secret parallel government (which first came to light during the whole Iran/Contra episode). That, and all their rhetoric(?) about drowning the government in a bathtub (Norquist) - which also struck me as odd since the government grew under Bushco.