We've all chuckled, presumably, about self-described hockey pitbull Sarah Palin's extravagant inflation of her résumé. One such exaggeration concerns her claimed visit to Ireland.
Ben Smith:
I wrote the other day that a Palin spokeswoman said trips to Germany, Kuwait and Ireland made up her foreign travel.
Two details worth clarifying:
The Ireland trip was a refueling stop on her trip to military installations in Germany and Kuwait, spokeswoman Maria Comella said.
Problem is, under U.S law, unless the aircraft you're in takes certain steps, you're still on the territory of the United States. Aircraft in flight are extra-territorial.
From the United States Department of Justice, on U.S. jurisdiction over its aircraft.
Included in the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States, while "in flight," are the following:
(a) any civil aircraft of the United States;
(b) any aircraft of the United States armed forces;
(c) any other aircraft in the United States;
Ah, but if she touched down on Irish soil - presumably at Shannon Airport, the main hub for transatlantic refueling stops - she was technically in Ireland, right?
No, not quite.
An aircraft is "in flight" from the moment when all external doors are closed following embarkation until the moment when one such door is opened for disembarkation, or in the case of a forced landing, until competent authorities take responsibility for the aircraft. 49 U.S.C. § 46501(1).
Unless Sarah Palin's plane began standard de-planing measures, she was never in Ireland. She never left the jurisdiction of the United States. Her plane may have been in Ireland; but she herself was not.