Plane

For months, the men and women of the 135th Airlift Group have been training on their new C27J Spartan turboprops for their deployment this spring to Afghanistan. Their job: carrying soldiers, equipment and supplies around the war zone as the fighting season resumes. It's a mission for which the Maryland Air National Guard unit has deep experience. In the last decade alone, members have deployed several times to Iraq and Afghanistan, while also responding to the Haiti earthquake, California wildfires and Hurricane Katrina.

A 56-year-old Maryland man was killed Sunday when a small plane crashed into a cornfield near York, Pa., York County authorities reported. The man, who has not been identified pending notification of his family, was the lone occupant of a Piper PA-28 180 that crashed about 12:42 p.m. near the York airport in Jackson Township. The National Transportation Safety Board announced on Twitter that it would investigate the crash. The small plane crash is the second to occur in the township in the last two months.

The Ravens' trip to San Diego to face the Chargers on Sunday night did not get off to a smooth start today. In fact, it almost didn't get off the ground at all. After Ravens players started Tweeting about the delay, we reached out to a Ravens spokesman who said, "We are on the plane and scheduled to take off soon. They worked through a mechanical issue that had delayed us. " But that didn't make the players feel any better. Some of the tweets from the plane: @vleach44: we taking off pray for our safety @bryantmckinnie: Ok they said the plane is fixed!

Note to airlines: Can you please stop kicking celebrities off your planes? Alec Baldwin is the latest in a string of high-profile kerfuffles based on what to me - person who was not there - seems some very thin reasoning . And then there's: -Country singer John Rich for allegedly being drunk on a 10:50 a.m. Southwest flight from Las Vegas to Nashville. -Actress Leisha Hailey and her lesbian lover tossed off Southwest for kissing or cussing, depending on who you believe.

A 34-year-old man from South Carolina was charged Monday with assaulting a federal air marshal during what prosecutors describe as a fight on board an airplane making its descent into Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. U.S. Magistrate Judge Beth P. Gesner ordered the suspect, William D. Barna, from James Island, to undergo five to seven days of alcohol rehabilitation then spend 28 days in an inpatient program. Once released, she said he cannot fly on a commercial airline until this case is resolved.

You know those banners towed by airplanes over beaches and stadiums? Old hat. Prepare yourself for airborne advertising 2.0. A Columbia startup is using a helicopter to hover over traffic and events in the Baltimore-Washington area and display a huge digital billboard that scrolls messages. At a time when advertising is ubiquitous, Bootcamp Lights' owners hope that glowing words and images in the sky will get the attention of jaded consumers — not to mention companies looking to promote themselves.

LUSBY — Maryland State Police say two people have been injured in a small plane crash at the end of a runway at a Calvert County airport. Trooper First Class E. West of the Prince Frederick barracks says the plane crashed around 6:30 p.m. Sunday at an airport at the Chesapeake Ranch Estates in Lusby. Police say the injuries were not life threatening. The local residents aboard were flying back from Illinois and overshot the runway. The Federal Aviation Administration is going to investigate.

Last Monday, I flew to the West Palm Beach airport to visit friends in Florida.  On the way down I sat in a window seat, and a blond woman sat in the aisle seat. The seat between us was empty.    We did not talk to each other until the plane was landing. I learned she was from New Hampshire and on her way to see her parents before Thanksgiving.    When I was boarding my flight to return to Baltimore on Thursday, there she was in line to board. Neither of us had known how long the other was staying.

The buzz of propellers drifted down over the airfield at Aberdeen Proving Ground as the stubby gray plane came into view. The loadmaster from the Maryland Air National Guard crew dropped the rear hatch open. One by one, six soldiers filed out of the airplane and into the sky. Special Forces soldiers with the Maryland National Guard spent the day Friday jumping out of the new C-27J Spartan, one of four the Guard will begin deploying to Afghanistan next year. The twin-engine turboprops, which may be used to transport cargo or troops, replace the Guard's eight C-130J Hercules.

So are candidates flying coach on a commercial flight fair game for fellow passengers? Over the weekend, The New York Times reported that a Florida woman sat next to GOP candidate Mitt Romney on a two-hour Delta flight from Jacksonville, Fla. to Boston and found him aloof. She reported that he seemed uninterested in engaging in chitchat with her or any of the other passengers, although he did take a photo with at least one of them. The woman said Romney spent most of the flight reading a newspaper and working on an iPad - with headphones on, of course.