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<ul class="summary-list"><li>An Aeromexico passenger opened a plane's emergency exit and walked onto the wing on Thursday. </li><li>At least 77 plane passengers defended the man's actions with a handwritten signed statement.</li></ul><p>An Aeromexico passenger opened a plane's emergency exit and walked onto the wing, but his fellow travelers are defending — not criticizing — his actions.</p><p>The incident happened while the<strong> </strong>plane was parked and waiting for takeoff from Mexico International Airport in Mexico City on Thursday, <a target="_blank" class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://apnews.com/article/mexico-airline-passenger-emergency-exit-rebellion-91e3411716e22bfd8778905860a7850f">the Associated Press</a> reported.</p><p>"A passenger on a flight to Guatemala opened an emergency door on a plane while it was stationary at a remote position, stood on a wing, and then re-entered the cabin, without affecting the aircraft or anyone else," the airport said in a statement to the AP.</p><div type="image" title="Aeromexico plane at San Francisco International Airport." height="4000" width="6000" msid="107208676" hostid="261" sizebytes="362194"></div><p>"In line with international security regulations, this person turned himself over to the authorities," the statement added.</p><p>Dozens of the man's fellow passengers have rushed to the man's defense. At least 77 passengers have signed a statement, which was handwritten on notebook paper. <a target="_blank" class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://twitter.com/regina_villazon/status/1750643456672764388">Photos apparently showing the handwritten signatures were shared online.</a></p><p>The passengers said the airline made them wait four hours without ventilation or water while the flight was delayed. They added that the man who opened the emergency exit acted "to protect everyone, with the support of everyone."</p><p>"The delay and lack of air created conditions that endangered the health of the passengers. He saved our lives," the statement said, according to AP.</p><p><a target="_blank" class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/am672">Data from flightradar24</a>, a global flight-tracking service, showed flight AM762 was scheduled to take off at 8:45 a.m. but did not leave the airport until 2:18 p.m.</p><div type="image" title="Screenshot of flight am672 on flightradar24." height="1210" width="1836" msid="107208678" hostid="261" sizebytes="115596"></div><p>Officials delayed the flight after a maintenance alert went off, according to an incident report obtained by the AP, requiring the plane's captain to return to the gate.</p><p>"The passengers were unhappy and one of them opened the emergency door and stepped out on the wing," the report said. "This event required the plane to be changed."</p><p>Representatives for Aeromexico did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.</p><p>It's not the first time a passenger has ventured onto a plane's wing or opened an emergency exit in recent months. In July, a passenger tried <a target="_blank" class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/passenger-opened-plane-emergency-door-mid-air-paris-bengaluru-india-2023-7">to open an AirFrance emergency exit midair</a> to ensure it worked properly. He was arrested.</p><p>And in November 2023, <a target="_blank" class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/southwest-passenger-jumped-from-emergency-exit-tried-to-steal-truck-2023-11">a Southwest Airlines passenger jumped out of an emergency exit</a> and attempted to steal a truck in Louisiana, causing panic among their fellow travelers.</p>

A man opened a plane's emergency exit and walked onto its wing after his flight was delayed on the tarmac for 4 hours. His fellow passengers are now defending him: 'He saved our lives'

<ul class="summary-list"><li>US Navy fighter aircraft were recently spotted carrying an air-launched variant of the SM-6 missile.</li><li>The ship-fired SM-6 only recently saw combat for the first time during the counter-Houthi conflict.</li></ul><p>US Navy fighter aircraft have been spotted in the Pacific carrying an air-launched version of a powerful ship-fired interceptor missile that only recently debuted in combat.</p><p>American warships fighting in the Middle East have fired the Standard Missile 6, or SM-6, to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-warships-used-weapon-combat-first-destroy-iranian-missiles-2024-4">intercept munitions</a> launched by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, using it in a surface-to-air role.</p><p>But it appears to be getting a new role as a long-range air-to-air missile, a potentially significant development that could fill a crucial capability gap if the US <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/huge-air-battles-show-us-needs-most-missile-war-china-2024-5">went to war with China</a>. A US Navy spokesperson <a target="_blank" href="https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2024/07/u-s-navy-confirms-sm-6-air-launched-configuration-is-operationally-deployed/">told</a> Naval News that "the SM-6 Air Launched Configuration (ALC) was developed as part of the SM-6 family of missiles and is operationally deployed in the Navy today."</p><p>Multiple F/A-18E Super Hornets have been spotted in recent days carrying the SM-6 variant aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3Q85xUiq24&amp;t=44s">USS Carl Vinson</a> and on the tarmac at Hawaii's <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/John_A_Ridge/status/1808370955602780337">Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam</a> during the Rim of the Pacific Exercise, which boasts the world's largest international maritime warfare drills.</p><p>The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.rtx.com/raytheon/what-we-do/sea/sm-6-missile">ship-launched SM-6</a>, also known as the RIM-174 Standard Extended Range Active Missile and part of the Navy's advanced Aegis Combat system, is a three-in-one extended-range weapon capable of anti-air and anti-surface warfare and is able to engage ballistic missiles during the terminal phase of their flight.</p><div type="image" title="An F/A-18E Super Hornet launches off the flight deck aboard Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson on Sept. 17, 2021." height="3280" width="4928" msid="111522368" hostid="261" sizebytes="488740"></div><p>"It uses a blast-fragmentation warhead to engage these threats in the endo-atmosphere," the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank's Missile Defense Project <a target="_blank" href="https://missilethreat.csis.org/defsys/sm-6/">says of the missile</a>. "The US Navy has also upgraded the SM-6 to perform strike missions."</p><p>CSIS also notes that "its tri-mission capability also presents opportunities for the Navy to arrange more efficient weapon loadouts onboard its guided missile ships."</p><p>The SM-6, which can strike targets as far as 230 miles away, had not seen confirmed combat until the Houthis began attacking commercial shipping lanes in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden last fall. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-warships-used-weapon-combat-first-destroy-iranian-missiles-2024-4">acknowledged in April</a> that the sea service had used the SM-6 to engage enemy threats. He also confirmed the first use of the SM-3 in combat.</p><p>The missiles observed on Navy aircraft at RIMPAC can be seen sporting AIM-174B designations, indicating that they are an air-to-air variant. Observers have noted, though, that it has been <a target="_blank" href="https://theaviationist.com/2024/07/03/first-images-super-hornet-carrying-two-sm-6-missiles/">modified for tests</a>. This configuration has been <a target="_blank" href="https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/missile-defense-weapons/weekly-debrief-air-launched-sm-6-missile-exposed-new-test">spotted in previous years</a>, although the Navy has yet to acknowledge the development.</p> <p>Justin Bronk, an airpower and technology expert at the UK-based Royal United Services Institute think tank, said the recent public appearance of the SM-6 suggests the missile's development is nearing completion or has even reached initial operational capability.</p><p>It is "likely a deliberate signal of emerging capability to both allies and to Chinese military observers," he told Business Insider.</p><p>China has taken serious steps to upgrade and modernize its air force and navy, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-aggressively-recruits-western-pilots-to-train-military-aviators-intel-2024-6">raising alarm bells</a> on the other side of the Pacific as US military leaders and Biden administration officials observe Beijing's growing power with concern.</p><p>Extended air-to-air range missiles in a new role could help the Navy plug gaps in countering long-range missiles that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-military-china-missile-problem-getting-worse-2024-5">China is fielding</a>, especially should Washington and Beijing clash some day. A war between the two would primarily unfold across a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/america-not-ready-china-war-military-economy-2023-5">maritime domain</a>, where long-range strike and defensive capabilities would be crucial.</p><div type="image" title="Sailors prepare to taxi an F/A-18E Super Hornet on the flight deck of USS Carl Vinson." height="4417" width="7855" msid="111522371" hostid="261" sizebytes="893326"></div><p>"The primary benefit offered by an air-launched SM-6 capability for Super Hornet is a dramatic increase in the range at which air targets can be engaged by the carrier air wing," Bronk said.</p><p>Such a capability would be particularly useful to the American Navy against China's "increasingly large and capable" air force and naval aviation elements, he said. China has invested in developing various long-range stand-off weapons for its aircraft.</p><p>The air-launched SM-6 capability could provide Navy carrier air wings with the ability to engage Chinese bombers and intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance aircraft at significantly longer ranges than the standard AIM-120D air-to-air missile, Bronk said.</p><p>Not only could it compete in that space, but an air-launched SM-6 missile would also be a practical asset for the US to deal with Beijing's warships and militarized artificial islands, both of which can threaten US and allied aircraft with missiles.</p><p>This missile, in this new air-launched configuration, can "extend protective coverage further from the carrier group without having to venture into heavily contested airspace," Bronk said.</p>

US Navy Super Hornets armed with SM-6s, a warship missile newly tested in combat, have been spotted in the Pacific

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Diddy was among the honorees lauded at the Apollo Theater's gala Monday night in Harlem.</li><li>The mogul missed the fun — but made up for it with a six-figure donation to the historic Harlem landmark.</li></ul><p>Trouble on the tarmac kept the man of the hour at the Apollo Theater's annual spring benefit from attending the gala.  </p><p><a href="https://www.insider.com/diddy-proud-father-of-six-meet-all-the-entertainers-kids-2022-10">Diddy</a> was set to take home the legendary theater and performing arts center's Icon Award for his accomplishments in music, entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and education. But plane troubles kept the hip hop mogul marooned in Miami, he said.</p><p>"<a href="https://www.insider.com/drake-lil-uzi-vert-video-concert-apollo-new-york-2023-1">Apollo</a>, Harlem! I just want to say thank you for honoring me this year with the Icon Award," Diddy said via video at the gala Monday night, where he appeared to be ensconced in the cabin of a private plane.</p><div type="image" title="Diddy" height="669" width="892" msid="100974903" hostid="261"></div><p>"As you can see, I've been sitting on the ground at the airport for over – I  got here at like 9 a.m. — and they're just not letting any airplanes fly out right now," Diddy explained. "I definitely wish I could be there with y'all. I'm still trying to get there, but it was important for me to make this video and thank y'all from the bottom of my heart. I'm one of your Harlem sons." </p><p>Although <a href="https://www.insider.com/diddy-only-jay-z-and-mom-allowed-call-him-sean-2023-4">the "Can't Stop, Won't Stop" rapper</a> wasn't there physically, his presence was felt when Tarik Brooks, president of Combs Enterprises, announced that his boss would donate $250,000 to the Apollo to support its programs and services. </p><div type="image" title="Tarik Brooks, president of Combs Enterprises" height="3000" width="3999" msid="100974905" hostid="261"></div><p>"I'm no Sean Combs, but I know how much this night meant to him," Brooks said in front of an audience that included <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-is-alvin-bragg-manhattan-da-trump-investigation-indictment-2023-3">Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg,</a> Spike Lee, New York Times reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones, Cuba Gooding Jr., restaurateur Melba Wilson, actor Leon Robinson, Valerie Jarrett, and Bryant Gumbel.  "The Sean Combs Foundation will be donating $250,000 to further the mission of the Apollo!" </p><p>Also honored at the June 12 event were outgoing Apollo Theater president and CEO Jonelle Procope, corporate sponsor Warby Parker, and <a href="https://www.insider.com/lebron-james-breaks-nba-scoring-record-kareem-abdul-jabbar-2023-2">Kareem Abdul-Jabbar,</a> who recalled venturing into jazz singer Sarah Vaughn's Apollo dressing room as a 4-year-old when his father played in her band. </p><div type="image" title="Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Spike Lee" height="3000" width="4001" msid="100974906" hostid="261"></div><p>Attendees were treated to a concert from the likes of Wyclef Jean, DJ D-Nice, MC Lyte, Stout and Gladys Knight — who brought the house down with her stirring rendition of "You're The Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me," in tribute to Procope. </p><div type="image" title="Gladys Knight" height="3000" width="3999" msid="100974907" hostid="261"></div><p>Diddy heaped praise on the theater, which began serving Harlem's Black community in 1934, for its commitment to  Uptown Manhattan.</p><p>"The Apollo means so much to me. It was a beacon of hope for me," Diddy said. "It's probably one of the last things we have in Harlem that really represents Harlem." </p>

Diddy's private jet troubles kept him from collecting his award at the Apollo Gala &mdash; but he still stole the show with a $250,000 donation

<p class="drop-cap">Around 3 o'clock in the morning on Sunday, as I sipped golden milk and watched a chess game beside a geodesic dome where revelers danced shoulder-to-shoulder beneath a propane jet shooting constant waves of flame, not long after an intimidatingly high-energy stranger had power-washed my friends' and my buttocks to the rhythm of thumping techno, I came to a conclusion: Burning Man wasn't completely ruined.</p><p>The previous night, heavy rain had transformed the weeklong event's normally dusty environs into a muddy quagmire. Cell reception was nonexistent, and rumors on the ground came in thick and fast.</p><p>The roads were impossible to drive on, and a sheriff-enforced lockdown would keep us in the sludge for days after our intended departure, some said. FEMA was being called in to run disaster response — or was it the National Guard that was airdropping supplies? There was an Ebola outbreak. No, scratch that, E. coli, and all 70,000-odd attendees were being secretly quarantined. Social media was having a field day turning Burning Man into the epicenter of schadenfreude and misinformation, the few people who managed to connect to the internet reported.</p><p>The reality of Burning Man was not quite so dire. Despite the food rationing, the mandatory pee bottles, and the malfunctioning infrastructure, Burners, as they call themselves, scraped the dirt off their shoes and got down. Late-night raves were thrown. Gifts were given. Joy was shared. Some guests even got married.</p><p>Still, the quasi-apocalyptic revelry came with a price. Not only were there the exorbitant entry fees and additional costs (and labor, and logistics) of building and maintaining a temporary city in the Nevada high desert, but the flooding risked significant environmental damage to the event's pristine ecological setting. Litter and detritus spread across several square miles, submerged in muck — leaving a daunting job for the cleaning crews.</p><p>2023 was my first year at Burning Man. It was an extraordinary time, both euphoric and truly miserable. I came away from it with memories, mud on my face, and a question: At what point does the spectacle stop being worth the cost?</p><p class="drop-cap">I'd wanted to go to Burning Man for years. What were they <em>doing</em> out there?</p><p>Emerging out of the San Francisco art scene in the early '90s, Burning Man is an annual campout-slash-rave-slash-art-exhibition-slash-ephemeral-city that blooms and disappears in the Black Rock Desert, a bleak and inhospitable lake bed in northern Nevada. Originally a haven for performing artists, musicians, and those seeking alternative community, it has in more recent years become associated with, and purportedly corrupted by, Silicon Valley techies, influencers, and the rich. Even before this new guard arrived, it had a reputation for apocalyptic cosplay — with the setting known for its frequent alkaline dust storms, alternately freezing and scalding temperatures, and general hostility to almost all kinds of plant and animal life. I wanted to see that all for myself. The alleged cultural clash. The large-scale art installations. The commitment to a decommodified "gifting" philosophy, in which no money is allowed to change hands. And, yeah, the sheer hedonism of a weeklong bacchanal in the desert.</p><p>In 2023, it felt like the stars finally aligned.</p><p>I arrived August 30, a Wednesday, and over my first two days I had a delightful time. Moments after checking in, an affable stranger tried to pour mescal down my throat as I erected my tent. We hopped on a shimmering two-story "art car" (basically, a modified double-decker bus decked out with lights all over its exterior and a thumping sound system), and rode it out to the central playa, a sea of lights and sounds stretching out before us. There were heaving dance parties along the central street. Attendees strewn in LEDs and glowing wires for visibility against the night, an endless swarm of technicolor fireflies. And in the center of it all, the Man, a huge wooden effigy waiting to be ritually burned on Saturday night.</p><div type="image" title="A crowd of dancers at Burning Man festival, surrounding a metal sculpture of an octopus shooting flames mounted on a car" height="1833" width="2445" msid="103468024" hostid="261"></div><p>I biked deep into the desert to check out some of the vast sculptures dotting the landscape: Train stations, monsters, butterflies, and genitalia. I was fed pie and "Betty Water" — a drink of uncertain origins and undeniable strength — by four drunk and bawdy waitresses all named Betty. I found an art car shaped like a tall sailing ship that could actually sail the desert winds. I was gifted clothes, books, meals, and trinkets by total strangers, and marveled at the novelty of an economic experiment divorced from commerce.</p><p>Then on Friday night, the rain came, and our camp turned into a swamp.</p><p class="drop-cap">Within hours, the camp generator failed, and the fridges turned off. The water systems for washing up and showering broke down. The mud was ankle-deep in spots, alternately suctioning shoes right off your feet or lethally slippery. The roads were immediately impassable, Somme-like bogs.</p><p>Our tents were beneath a shade structure — metal poles and tarpaulin roofing — to protect them from the desert sun. Suddenly we had to push the water off the sides every 15 minutes before it pooled and made the structure collapse on us. As we patrolled the camp, some campmates huddled in the kitchen around a Bluetooth speaker, wrapped in fur coats and trading drinks and stimulants, trying to make the most of it.</p><p>The next morning, as the rain abated, we surveyed the damage. The mud clumped together instantly, turning shoes into increasingly heavy and unwieldy platform boots with each step. Some opted to wear plastic bags instead, or just go barefoot in the muck. It was clear we were stuck here for days, and the event organizers instructed attendees to start urinating in bottles to conserve space in the porta-potties. Our camp began rationing meals. Friends preemptively popped anti-diarrheal Imodium tablets.</p><p>And then there was the potential for environmental damage. Far from civilization, the empty lake bed in the remote reaches of Northern Nevada makes the event's signature creativity and generosity feel magical — but also makes the risk of ecological impacts far higher. Attendees religiously patrol the site for "moop" (Matter Out Of Place — any litter, detritus, or human waste), and crews spend weeks every year combing the site for any signs of Burning Man's impact on our burning planet.</p><p>This year, the restoration crew has its work cut out for it. In the aftermath of the rain, moop was everywhere. The porta-potties were surrounded by a halo of shredded toilet paper that clung to shoes. Flip-flops, bikes, clothes, scraps, and other unidentifiable human-generated products were mashed into the ground, buried by up to a foot of fast-hardening brown ooze. Tarpaulins were shedding brightly colored millimeter-size particulates into the standing water. Entire tents were abandoned by fleeing visitors.</p><p>We picked up the moop we spotted; it didn't even scratch the surface. The detritus that remains behind is at risk of becoming a sedimentary testament to humanity's damage to the environment — even as human-caused climate change makes extreme weather events like Black Rock City's deluge of 2023 all the more likely in the future.</p><p>Even before the floods, there was an uncomfortable tension to Burning Man.</p><p>The event preaches "radical inclusion" as one of its 10 core guiding principles, and its uniqueness comes as a decommodified space where everything is free and participants will trip over themselves in their efforts to give you gifts and make your burn wonderful. But in practice, there are extraordinary hurdles to entry: Between tickets ($595 for general admission), additional costs for vehicle passes, camp dues, food, water, survival equipment, goods to participate in the gifting economy, and so on, a trip to Burning Man can easily stretch to thousands of dollars. There's also the logistical burden of figuring out what you need, how to physically survive in the remote desert for a week, connecting to a camp that can host you, and making your way there. It's a privileged event at the best of times, and now we were paying all this time and money to shelter in our tents.</p><p>After spending a grim Saturday morning huddled in our tents, cranking a hand-powered radio for scraps of news on the festival's informational radio station, we decided to explore. Burning Man was diminished, but not extinguished. Art cars had either retreated to their home camps or become stuck where they'd been caught by the storm. Bikes were unusable. But the mud was passable — sometimes just barely — on foot. Over the next two days, between rain showers, we wandered from bar to camp to dance floor.</p><div type="image" title="Three people at Burning Man festival in Nevada stand in mud and look at a double rainbow in the sky." height="1950" width="2600" msid="103468026" hostid="261"></div><p>We visited the Temple, a somber site of remembrance where people leave mementos to deceased friends, family members, lovers, and pets. We had wine and cheese at a friend's camp. We chilled at a "M*A*S*H"-themed tent bar, where an aging stoner educated us on the finer points of different martini styles as reruns of the '70s sitcom played on a projector in the background. We watched fire dancers practice their craft and learned to juggle (badly) on their dance floor. We found two lovers getting married, and joined them for their first dance.</p><p>X was full of titillating jokes about Burning Man's abrupt collapse into chaos, and the delicious schadenfreude of rich elites having a miserable time in the desert. But this wasn't entirely the case. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/03/opinion/columnists/burning-man-rain-mud.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As the sociologist Zeynep Tufekci wrote in The New York Times</a>, the idea that disasters breed "Lord of The Flies"-like anarchy and violence has been proved false throughout history. Tufekci predicted, correctly: "I would venture that many of the thousands trapped in the Nevada mud are mostly banding together, sharing shelter, food and water."</p><p>Some Black Rock City citizens understandably checked out and decided the party was officially over for them. They stayed in their tents, or attempted to drive out through the swamp (not always successfully), or hitchhiked back to civilization. But for many others, there was a zen, thoroughly Burner attitude: When life gives you a road full of impassable mud, you might as well use it to make DIY sculptures of penises.</p><p class="drop-cap">Some Burners love the "difficult burns," the years defined by adversity — whether that's extreme heat, icy nights, constant dust storms, or 2023's flooding. They say it brings out the best in the community, tests people's commitment to the event, and helps them grow. But it comes at a high cost — both financially, and to a fragile desert ecology.</p><p>Over the past five years, I've had my fair share of survival-mode situations while backpacking and hiking around the American West. In 2020, we had to hike out 20-plus miles to escape from <a href="https://www.insider.com/hundreds-stranded-hikers-campers-rescued-from-california-creek-fire-2020-9">the Creek Fire</a>. In Ansel Adams Wilderness, a friend once had a seizure and had to be evacuated by helicopter from the trail. The bone-cold two-day rainstorm while we tried to hike the Teton Crest Trail. Lightning, bears, rattlesnakes, and so on. All that is to say: I love "<a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=0e40b83d7e8dacce290bc502e8c8a03fe35b76f8a9fa8afc6ce4ebfd868e1a81&amp;postID=64f75167909a7a425c5afec1&amp;postSlug=i-escaped-burning-man-mud-apocalypse-climate-change-2023-9&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.masterclass.com%2Farticles%2Ftype-2-fun" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Type 2 Fun</a>," and pushing myself to my limit. And Burning Man's experience was extraordinary in a way many of its haters simply don't grasp. But it'll take me a while to decide whether I need to do it again anytime soon. <a href="https://twitter.com/Liv_Boeree/status/1698783890524000688" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Despite some Burners' efforts to minimize accurate media reporting on the event</a> as "clickbait," it <em>was</em> a rough time. Toilets were full to the brim with feces, parents were stranded with their children, tents were flooded out, vital systems broke down. </p><p>On Monday morning, the sun came out. The exit wasn't officially "open" yet, but the official radio station advised that vehicles with four-wheel drive were able to leave, days sooner than we'd first feared. The temporary river that previously blocked the way out had abated. I spent a couple of hours helping strike camp, did a last sweep for more moop, and hopped in the car.</p><p>Stalled out, gummed-up vehicles dotted the exit route, but it was passable. Three hours of slow-moving traffic later, I hit tarmac. Trash bags abandoned by fleeing Burners littered the sides of the roads near the event. I got home later that evening and, freshly showered and lying in bed, watched the twice-delayed Man burn on YouTube.</p><p><em><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/rob-price" rel="">Rob Price</a> is a senior correspondent for Insider and writes features and investigations about the technology industry. His Signal number is +1 650-636-6268, and his email is rprice@insider.com.</em></p>

I was at Burning Man. It was even wilder than you've heard.

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Paulo Fridman/Corbis via Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">JetBlue and Azul founder David Neeleman.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><strong>David Neeleman is arguably the most prolific and successful entrepreneur the airline entrepreneur in recent memory.</strong></li><li><strong>Brazilian-born, Utah-raised Neeleman is the founder of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/jetblue" target="_blank" rel="noopener">JetBlue</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/azul" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Azul</a>. He is credited as a co-founder of Morris Air and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/westjet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WestJet</a>. He is also the co-owner of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/tap" target="_blank" rel="noopener">TAP Air Portugal</a>. </strong></li><li><strong>Neeleman is currently working on the launch of his fifth airline, codenamed Moxy. Moxy is geared towards bringing affordable air travel to underserved communities around the US.</strong></li><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/people-transforming-transportation-2019-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Click here to read more about the 10 people transforming how the world gets around</a></strong></li></ul><p>The airline business is notoriously unforgiving. To get one successful airline off the ground is a feat worthy of immense praise. David Neeleman is working on the launch of his fifth airline.</p><p>In short, the Brazilian-born, Utah-raised Neeleman is arguably the most prolific and successful airline entrepreneur in recent memory. </p><p>Neeleman is credited as the founder of JetBlue Airways and Azul Brazilian Airlines. He is a co-founder of WestJet and Morris Air, which was sold to Southwest Airlines.  He's also the co-owner of Portugal's national airline, TAP Air Portugal.</p><p>The reasons for his success are many. According to JetBlue Technology Ventures president Bonny Simi, some of his success can be attributed to his passion and energy for the business.</p><p>"David is the consummate entrepreneur," Simi said of Neeleman. "He absolutely was not there to get rich or to make a paycheck. He was there to change the world of aviation."</p><p>Simi left a cushy job as a United Airlines senior captain in 2003 to join Neeleman at as junior first officer at JetBlue.</p><p><em><strong>Read more</strong>: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jetblue-technology-ventures-bonny-simi-president-may-transform-travel-2019-4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The president of JetBlue's venture capital firm is a renaissance woman who just might transform air travel</a></em>.</p><p>Some of his success can also be attributed to his keen business instincts and an eye for spotting an opening in the market.</p><p>"I would never start an airline or take over an airline that I thought didn't have a reason for being, a 'raison d'être,'" <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jetblue-azul-founder-david-neeleman-explains-secret-to-success-in-airlines-2018-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Neeleman told us</a>.</p><p>At the end of the days, whatever secret sauce Neeleman possesses seems to give him the magic touch. </p><h2>The JetBlue era</h2><p>For all of his successes, Neeleman is probably best known as the founder of JetBlue Airways.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>AP</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>The New York-based boutique airline, now valued at more than $5 billion, began flying in 2000 and helped bring affordable civility to America's travelers by offering high-quality service and amenities at budget prices. </p><p>According to Neeleman, JetBlue came about when he noticed how the shortcomings of America's major carriers in the late 90s made them vulnerable to a newcomer.</p><p>"It was a time when the legacy carriers were offering really bad service, their costs were ultra high, and they were just right for the plucking," Neeleman told us.</p><p>As a result, JetBlue was created to be a<span> </span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jetblue-invest-gladly-technology-customer-service-2017-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">customer service company that flies airplanes</a>.</p><p>Sadly, Neeleman's departure from JetBlue proved to be a painful one. </p><p>In February 2007, a severe winter storm paralyzed JetBlue's New York base, leaving hundreds of passengers stuck on the tarmac for as long as 10 hours. The operational meltdown left a dent in JetBlue's sterling reputation for customer service. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>AP</span></p><p class="caption">Neeleman vacuuming a JetBlue Airbus A320 in 2001.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Neeleman apologized publically for the incident but by May of that year, the airline's board of directors ousted him from his role as CEO. He would remain on as chairman before leaving the airline altogether in 2008. </p><p>For Neeleman, leaving JetBlue proved to be a painful experience and it took years for him to get over it.</p><p>"Every time I'd land at JFK Airport and saw the JetBlue terminal, I could hardly look at it," he said.</p><h2>Neeleman returns to Brazil</h2><p>Following his departure from JetBlue, he returned to Brazil to start his next airline Azul (Portuguese for "blue"); a not so subtle reference to airline he'd just left.</p><p>"I picked up the pieces, went to Brazil, and took 10 people from JetBlue with me," Neeleman said. "Sometimes one door closes and another one opens and you can do a lot of good with that."</p><p>In Brazil, the military built airports in smaller cities around the country but its two major airlines at the time did not find them financially worthwhile to serve. Instead, GOL and TAM (now LATAM) focused on providing service between more heavily traveled city pairs. </p><p>That's where Azul stepped in. The low-cost airline launched service to dozens of cities that had either not had air service at all or had been abandoned by other airlines.</p><p>"It's really transformed Brazil in ways I could have never imagined," Neeleman said. "A lot of the cities we fly to, it's either you go on us or you take a four-day boat ride out of there."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Operationally, flying to smaller cities across Brazil poses some distinct challenges including the need to operate a fleet of planes whose sole job is to fly parts and supplies into the Amazon. Fortunately, the airline has been rewarded for its bold strategy.</p><p>"When we started in Brazil there were less than 50 million people traveling by air. This year there will be more than 100 million people flying," he said. "We created half of that business (growth)."</p><p>Azul, which currently has a market capitalization of more than $2.8 billion, has no competition on 70% of its routes and are dominant of 89% of its routes, Neeleman told us.</p><h2>Transforming air travel in America</h2><p>These days, the charismatic businessman is developing his fifth major airline startup. Once again, Neeleman is looking to fill a market niche left open by others in the industry.</p><p>Codenamed Moxy, his next endeavor wants to transform low-cost air travel for smaller cities in the US in very much the same way Azul did in Brazil. According to Neeleman, as costs increase for airlines, they have a tendency to retrench their network to focus on their hubs and operate larger planes. Thereby leaving behind smaller, less trafficked destinations. </p><p>"We think there's a market where you can go with a smaller plane with a lower trip cost and service these cities that have been forgotten or neglected," he said.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Airbus</span></p><p class="caption">An Airbus A220-300.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Neeleman posits that there are enough neglected routes in the US that his new airline could grow substantially without any direct competition.</p><p>"I would be very surprised if a single Moxy route had non-stop service competition," he told us. "There are literally hundreds and hundreds of city pairs that are crying out for non-stop flights." </p><p>It's unclear what the airline's actual name will be when it goes into operation in 2021. However, when it does, it will operate a fleet of 60 brand new Airbus A220-300 airliners. </p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amtrak-why-so-expensive-america-train-system-2019-3">Amtrak has lost money every year since 1971. Here's why train tickets are so expensive.</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

JetBlue founder David Neeleman wants to transform air travel in the US

Inside the wild, drug-fueled world of celebrity keynote speakers

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A 26-year-old Maryland native faces 15 years in federal prison there on <keyword id="40905" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Marijuana">marijuana</keyword> conspiracy charges.</li><li>As some entrepreneurs stand to make millions in the <keyword id="14728" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="cannabis">cannabis</keyword> industry, inconsistent marijuana laws can land people like <keyword id="11383033" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="jonathan-wall">Jonathan Wall</keyword> in prison for years. </li><li>Drug policy experts say people will languish in this "gray area" if weed isn't legalized nationwide.</li></ul><p>Jonathan Wall, a 26-year-old Maryland native, has been locked up in a Baltimore maximum security prison for nearly a year as he awaits trial on federal marijuana conspiracy charges.</p><p>Prosecutors say Wall, along with 10 others, <a href="https://casetext.com/case/united-states-v-wall-300">transported over 1000 kilograms of cannabis from California to Maryland</a> over two years. If convicted, he faces a sentence of up to 15 years in federal prison.</p><p>Wall told Insider he simply saw an opportunity to make a living. After dropping out of high school and spending some time couch-surfing, he moved to California six years ago to join a growing cannabis industry he'd felt passionate about since he was a teenager.</p><p>"There are so many people who dedicated and essentially donated their life to getting this plant to where it is today, on the verge of legalization," Wall told Insider by phone from the detention facility. "Do I have to be the last person who is prosecuted for a product that's making billions of dollars around the world?"</p><p>Inconsistent marijuana laws between the states and on the federal level can land offenders in prison for years, even as some entrepreneurs <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/legal-cannabis-sales-skyrocketed-during-pandemic-2021-5">stand to make millions working legally in the same industry</a>. Drug policy experts told Insider that if marijuana isn't legalized nationwide, people like Wall will continue to languish in what they describe as a "gray area" of the law.</p><h2><strong>Going on the lam</strong></h2><p>Wall was indicted in October 2019 on charges of conspiracy to possess and distribute marijuana. Wall knew some of the 10 other men named in the indictment, but not everyone, according to his lawyer, Jason Flores-Williams.</p><p>Flores-Williams said Wall was working to launch a marijuana company in California, where he was growing cannabis, when he learned of the charges against him and fled to Guatemala.</p><p>"It was just a moment of like, 'I can't believe this,' and looking at the injustice of the prosecution and unequal way that laws are being applied, he split," Flores-Williams told Insider. "So he went down to Guatemala and just started a food drive for people who were hungry." </p><p>Wall ultimately decided to turn himself in to police and boarded a flight back to Los Angeles International Airport. When he arrived on June 29, 2020, he says he was met by law enforcement officers from a variety of federal agencies who took him into custody. </p><p>"I was on the plane, on the tarmac. It was ridiculous how they brought on a whole military platoon to apprehend me," Wall told Insider. "They knew I was coming in. I understood the process of what would happen, and they still thought it was necessary to bring in the Customs and Border Patrol, the DEA, US Marshals, all these different agencies."</p><p>Wall's family is now living "a nightmare," Flores-Williams says, worrying every night about his safety at the Chesapeake Detention Facility in Baltimore. Wall was one of 150 inmates there who <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/coronavirus-outbreak-inside-maryland-detention-facility-sparks-class-action-lawsuit/2021/02/21/3534ab4a-73c2-11eb-85fa-e0ccb3660358_story.html">tested positive for COVID-19 last year</a>, according to Flores-Williams.</p><p>"They are emblematic of what so many people have faced in this country for generations," he said. "This family is just completely torn apart because of this government's focus on the drug war."</p><div type="image" title="marijuana, california" height="1876" width="2940" msid="83237145" hostid="261"></div><h2>Getting caught in the 'gray area'</h2><p>There's growing acceptance of legal marijuana in the United States. As of November 2020, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/legal-marijuana-states-2018-1">35 states and Washington, DC, had passed or voted to pass medical marijuana access laws,</a> while 15 states and Washington, DC, had passed or voted to pass recreational marijuana access laws.But the drug remains illegal at the federal level. </p><p>Queen Adesuyi, the policy manager at <a href="https://drugpolicy.org/">Drug Policy Alliance,</a> which works to advance policies that limit the harms of drug use and prohibition<strong>, </strong>told Insider that Wall's case shows why marijuana needs to be descheduled on the federal level.</p><p>"People should not be in cages because of cannabis," Adesuyi told Insider. "It's odd to have people sitting in cages because of marijuana while plenty of people are making a great profit in the cannabis industry and the industry itself is gonna be valued in the billions of dollars as reform continues to progress."</p><p>A majority of people impacted by marijuana laws enter the <keyword id="441366" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Criminal-Justice">criminal justice</keyword> system on state charges for possession or sale of the drug, but violations of federal marijuana law often carry harsher penalties, according to Adesuyi.</p><p>She said it's important for drug policy advocates to continue to fight for legalization on the state level, but "until it's removed from the controlled substance list, people are going to be caught up in the in betweens, in the gray area that we're in, because of the discrepancy between state laws and federal law."</p><p>Flores-Williams noted he's representing a client who, if convicted, could receive a longer sentence than some defendants face for rape or murder charges.</p><p>"Right now there is this profound inconsistency in this country," he said. "I go to court in Maryland, and then just 40 miles down the road you've got a 72,000 square foot warehouse that's rented out for the next 20 years because someone was smart enough to buy it and convert it into a pot grow and rent it out." </p><p>Maryland allows medical marijuana, but recreational weed use and sales remain illegal in the state.</p><p>Flores-Williams filed a motion in federal court arguing that prosecuting Wall is unconstitutional because every citizen should have equal rights under the law, but a judge denied it. The US Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland didn't return a message seeking comment on Wall's case.</p><p>Flores-Williams, who says his father was incarcerated on drug charges when he was a child, is intimately familiar with the effects of the <keyword id="667205" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="war-on-drugs">war on drugs</keyword>. The side work the Colorado-based defense lawyer does assisting venture capitalists in obtaining marijuana cultivation and distribution licensing only deepens his conviction that clients like Wall are being unfairly punished.</p><p>"So I am in a situation where I get off the phone with Jonathan - and this has happened - and the next phone call is from somebody in Nevada who is looking to invest $1.5 million into a cannabis corporation based here in Colorado, that is expanding into Mexico," Flores-Williams said. "Now these are the exact same activities."</p><div type="image" title="weed marijuana smoking drugs cannabis" height="1409" width="2128" msid="83237146" hostid="261"></div><h2>'The whole war on pot, it goes on and on'</h2><p>Richard Stratton, a <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Richard-Stratton/154437923">New York City-based writer and filmmaker,</a> was at home sitting as his desk last year when he got a LinkedIn message from Wall, who he had never met.</p><p>Stratton had been sentenced to 25 years in prison in 1982 for importing marijuana into the United States. He was released in 1990 after a successful appeal and went on to write several books about the experience. Stratton consulted on the HBO series "Oz" and the Emmy-winning documentary "Thug Life," and had his own show, "Street Time," for two seasons on Showtime.</p><p>Wall wrote that he had just finished reading Stratton's book, "Smuggler's Blues: A True Story of the Hippie Mafia," and needed advice. Wall wanted to come home but feared returning and being prosecuted, Stratton said.</p><p>"Ultimately I advised him to give himself up because I could see it was not going to end well for him down there," Stratton told Insider. "He was running out of money. It was a bad situation. So I spoke with his lawyer in San Francisco, before Jason came on the case, and convinced Jonathan to surrender and come back and face the music." </p><p>Stratton said he believes America has made significant progress in legalizing marijuana since he was convicted, but there's still a long way to go.</p><p>"You really have to wonder why our government to spending all this money to capture a guy in a foreign country, bring him back here, charge him with these crimes that are crimes only in some states and not another states, to put this kid in prison for however many years on cannabis violations," he said. "It's just nuts. The whole war on pot, it goes on and on and on, and it doesn't make sense." </p><p>But Wall is not the average American locked up on marijuana charges, Stratton said, speaking from his own experience.</p><p>"This case is talking about dealing pot, and smuggling pot, and transporting pot across state lines. But by and large, the people who get arrested for cannabis violations are Black and brown Americans, not white," Stratton said. "Our prisons are full of people of color."</p><p>Wall acknowledges that prohibitions on marijuana disproportionately impact communities of color. More than 600,000 people in the United States were charged for possessing marijuana in 2018, <a href="https://www.insider.com/how-big-weed-became-rich-white-business-2019-12">Insider reported at the time.</a> Blacks and Latinos accounted for nearly half of all weed arrests that year, despite making up just 31% of the population, according to the Drug Policy Alliance.</p><h2>Relief efforts for marijuana offenders</h2><p>Flores-Williams, who also represents legal cannabis distributors, said he understands the need to regulate the industry.</p><p>"If you don't get the license that other people are busting their butt to get, if you don't follow the specific protocols and rules set up by municipalities and states with regards to cannabis, then I understand there should be penalties for that," Flores-Williams said. "But you should not be looking at 15 years in federal prison. That's the bottom line."</p><p>Stratton, who by a twist of fate served time in prison with Flores-Williams' father, agrees. </p><p>"I think that the reality is that ultimately you will have a license, you will have a permit, you will have some kind of a federal license to deal in cannabis. That's where we're headed," Stratton said.</p><p>"In the meantime, it doesn't make any sense to me to be locking people up and having them spend 10 or 20 or 30 years in prison for something that is now rapidly becoming legal all over the country," he added.</p><p>Adesuyi is part of a working group that is focused drafting what federal regulations on cannabis could look like after it's decriminalized on the national level. </p><p>Under the framework Adesuyi imagines, the allegations against Wall, if proven true, would result in the equivalent of a permit violation. </p><p>"I would hope that something like that is not treated on a criminal level, because these policies disproportionately impact Black and brown communities and Black and brown people the most," she said. "I know this case was about someone who was a little more middle-class and had a little bit more access to resources, but the story behind the people who have really bore the brunt of decriminalization is that of low-income black and brown people." </p><div type="image" title="Marijuana legalization protest in New York in 2019" height="1667" width="2500" msid="83237147" hostid="261"></div><p>Adesuyi noted public support for both legalization and expunging the records of people who've already served time for possession or sale of the drug is at an all-time high. A Pew research survey published in April shows that 91% of Americans believe marijuana should be legal in some form; of them, 60% believe it should be legal for recreational and medical use. </p><p>In December, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, which would remove cannabis from the U.S. Controlled Substances Act. The act has language that, if passed by the Senate, would also create a pathway for expungement of marijuana convictions. The legislation hasn't come up for a vote in that chamber yet, but it was reintroduced in late May.</p><p>Adesuyi pointed out the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/marijuana-legalization-ballot-tracker-new-jersey-arizona-montana-vote-results-2020">MORE Act</a> has exceptions: People who were convicted at the "kingpin" level, including individuals who were found to have trafficked large amounts of marijuana, would not be eligible for expungement. (Stratton was convicted on charges of this level, while the charges against Wall don't meet that threshold).</p><p>"It's unfair to continually allow for lifelong cost consequences to follow a person after they've already served their time, and it's an unfair kind of dichotomy that policy makers continue to put in place between low level and high level offenders." Adesuyi said. "In order to really get to criminal justice reform, we have to grapple with the dichotomy of non-violent versus violent, and low-level versus high-level, to really get to the crux of the fact that people shouldn't be in jail or prison because of cannabis." </p><p>Beyond expunging marijuana convictions, there are efforts underway to reverse policies that lock out past offenders from the booming cannabis industry. </p><p>In the early days of legalization, if he were convicted on the charges against him, Wall would not have been eligible to work in the industry again. Now some jurisdictions give <a href="https://buffalonews.com/news/local/the-war-on-drugs-hit-them-hard-so-oakland-is-saving-them-a-spot-in/article_d0e501f1-b2bb-550c-a5dd-fb4fb25ed92a.html">licensing priority to past offenders</a> - a move aimed at assisting the communities most impacted by drug laws, according to Justin Strekal, the political director for the <a href="https://norml.org/">National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML)</a>.</p><p>"There has been a rapid and welcome shift in policymaking when it comes to ensuring that those who have been previously arrested for cannabis-related infractions not only be permitted to operate in the legal market, but to ensure that they have guaranteed access to licensure and capital to benefit from the economic opportunities with the regulated market," Strekal said. "Put simply, people who have been harmed by criminalization deserve to benefit from legalization."</p>

A 26-year-old who wanted to join the legal cannabis industry now sits in prison. Drug policy experts say he's caught in a 'gray area' only federal legalization can clear up.

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