The reason they did the "dry run" was they have never deployed those chutes since repacking. Secondly the two doors that those chutes belonged to had been re-calibrated after the very first test months ago. They haven't been tested either. The were perfect yesterday. With our exemplary crew and their expertise and all new chutes we should blow through the evac exercise. It is not a test, it is a demonstration.

The Delta crash and the failure of those slides s well as the rash of faulty chutes we had in our tests have caused the FAA to bare down and get some accountability.

Since we are the first passenger airline going through 121 certification we, for the good or bad are the test case and clearly getting intense scrutiny.

The good things are; we are close, we set precedents and we will be the first direct international carrier with designated and owned routes to a number of European cities with cargo capacity second to none. We CAN deliver an overnight letter to Russia. We can carry cargo DIRECT without having to pallet and then unload to some form of ground transport.

I will stay at the Sokos Olympic Gardens Hotel and have my Omaha steaks delivered still frozen to amaze my Russian friends!!