First in Flight

Nick Ochsner, who's an investigative reporter for WBTV's special unit, "On Your Side," has delved into the use of government aircraft for the jet-set lifestyle Governor McCrory has grown accustomed to.  (He worked in the corporate world at a high level, fur chrissakes. He knows the style and convenience to which he is manifestly entitled.) 

What Ochsner and his team found hit the news last Wednesday and would seem to reveal McCrory perfectly. For him, the perks are way important (devil take the hind side of wrestling with anybody else's controversy):

"On Your Side Investigates" reviewed the two years of flight records and flagged any flight that could have been avoided had McCrory stayed in Raleigh: flights with no passengers, flights that carried McCrory’s staff but not the Governor either coming to pick him up or going back to Raleigh after leaving him in Charlotte, or flights that included the Governor but that would have been unnecessary had he stayed in Raleigh.

Our review found 125 flights that fit the criteria: 48 flights with no passengers, 49 flights on which at least one member of the Governor’s staff was aboard without him and 28 flights that included McCrory.

Records show McCrory flies on one of two state airplanes owned by the North Carolina Department of Transportation. Typically, records show, McCrory flies on a King Air-200 twin-engine turbo prop airplane that costs $560 per hour to operate. Records show McCrory also uses the state-owned Cessna Citation II jet that costs $770 per hour to operate.

Invoices provided by the Governor’s Office shows the 125 avoidable flights flown by state-owned jets at McCrory’s request cost taxpayers $59,605 in just flight hours, not including additional fees associated with individual airports.

Side Note: Did the promised HB2 protest of McCrory's planned participation in a Blowing Rock parade cause him to cancel his appearance on Saturday, or was it the Ochsner report?