GM Wants to Hide the Heavy Metal

[Above: A G-IV cabin]

General Motors evidently got the F.A.A. to keep the public in the dark about the use of at least one of its corporate jets, Bloomberg reports today.

That would be the leased $50 million G-IV jet, tail number N5116, that the GM chief executive, Richard Wagoner, flew into Washington on Nov. 19 to beg Congress for a $25 million industry bailout. The top dogs at Ford and Chrysler, Alan Mulally and Robert Nardelli, also swanned into the capital from Detroit that day in their own companies' private jets.

Information on the movements of all aircraft, including private jets, is usually readily available at Web sites like Flightaware.com

But movements of the GM aircraft, which last visited Washington on Tuesday, could no longer be tracked publicly after that.

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