Easley stops in D.C., Florida too

ryanteaguebeckwith — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:29:43 -0500

Gov. Mike Easley is on the road this week, but he won't say exactly why.

Easley took a state jet to Philadelphia yesterday for an economic summit with President-elect Barack Obama and other governors.

According to publicly available flight records, the Cessna Citation twin-jet plane left Philadelphia International at 1:33 p.m. for Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C.

After a three-hour layover, the plane was scheduled to go to Hollywood International Airport in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., arriving later tonight. A flight plan filed with the N.C. Department of Commerce, also a public record, shows the plane won't leave Florida until 1 p.m. on Thursday.

Although the flight records are widely available on the Internet and through public records, spokeswoman Renee Hoffman would not discuss Easley's travel plans "for security reasons" and gave only a vague answer about his reasons for stopping in Washington and Florida.

"I can tell you that the governor is on a business trip to make a speech and attend a meeting," she said in an e-mail to Dome.

The flight plan shows Easley is traveling with executive counsel Ruffin Poole and a sergeant from the N.C. Highway Patrol.