The Senate on Saturday passed the Fiscal 2010 defense appropriations bill, sending the measure to President Obama for signature. The House had passed the bill on Dec. 16. Despite Administration resistance, the measure continues the alternate engine for the F-35 strike fighter and includes funding for 10 additional C-17 airlifters. Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), chairman of the Appropriations Committee, predicts that the President will sign the spending bill. In October, President Obama did sign the companion policy measure, which also provided for the F136 engine. The Administration also did not invoke a potential veto over additional C-17s, instead repeating in September, as Congress continued work on the spending bill, only that it “strongly objects.” (Spending bill summary)
A helicopter instructor pilot failed to take sufficient corrective action in time to fix the mistakes of a student pilot taking off from a slope, resulting in a rollover that caused nearly $11 million in damages to a TH-1H chopper last spring.