At least one San Francisco supervisor continues the attack against the Blue Angels

I’ve blogged before about San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly’s prior attacks on the Blue Angels. He tried in the spring and, when bloggers focused the spotlight on his attempt to ground them, he backed off. He’s trying again now. Tonight’s vote will decide whether the matter passes out of committee and moves on to a real vote, before the full Board. If I were a betting woman, I’d bet that it never makes it out of committee. San Francisco supervisors are bad, but they’re not pathologically stupid, and the money that Fleet Week brings in, in large part due to the Angels, is too good even for the most wacko, anti-War, socialist supervisor to sneer at:

The annual flyover of the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels sinks millions into the local economy and draws a million spectators, but one supervisor wants to stop these fighter planes from ever soaring through the skies over San Francisco again.

The Blue Angels, a team of Navy fighter pilots, fly over San Francisco during Fleet Week, which this year is scheduled for Oct. 4 through Oct. 9. For four of the six days, the flashy blue planes soar through the skies at speeds reaching 700 miles per hour, and perform maneuvers such as vertical rolls.

Today, the Board of Supervisors Government Audit and Oversight Committee will vote on a nonbinding resolution introduced by Supervisor Chris Daly that would call on San Francisco’s congressional representatives, including Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, to “use all resources at their disposal to bring a permanent halt to unnecessary flyovers by military aircraft.”

If sent out of committee, the full board will vote on it Tuesday.

Daly drafted the resolution with three peace advocacy groups — CodePink, Global Exchange and Veterans for Peace, Chapter 69 — because, he says, the flyovers pose a public safety risk. During the last 60 years, Blue Angel air shows held elsewhere in the nation have resulted in 26 fatalities, including the most recent crash during an April air show in Beaufort County, S.C., when a Blue Angel pilot crashed, killing himself and injuring eight people on the ground, according to the resolution. The resolution also says that veterans of war “are at risk of being traumatized,” that the loud roars from the jets “terrorize small children, seniors, pets and local wildlife,” and that the jet fuel used harms the environment.

Daly, however, will have a difficult time securing support from his colleagues to send the resolution to the full board for a vote.

The two supervisors who sit on the three-member committee with Daly said Friday that they will not send the resolution to the full board.

This image from PD Photo.org has been released into the public domain by its author and copyright holder, Jon Sullivan.

UPDATE: I’m not surprised to learn that the proposal died in committee. As I said above, SF Supervisors may be wacky, but even they are not suicidally stupid.