Movie star Morgan Freeman's flying dreams have been dealt a severe blow - he has been grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for breaking altitude rules.
The 'Driving Miss Daisy' star was reprimanded when he failed to observe landing regulations at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, and now he has no idea when he'll be able to take off again.
The actor explains, "I'm being censored by the FAA and they're going to ground me. The hardest thing about flying is holding altitude. It's a three-dimensional effort."
"I was grounded because I was flying into Teterboro and it was a very busy day. In every airport they have what you call an approach which is how you're going to get in with step downs - flying technique for lowering altitude."
"But you don't go to these altitudes until you're told. So I'm going into Teterboro and I was at 3,000 feet coming down from an altitude of 21,000 feet. I'm looking at the approach plate, which reads what altitude your plane should be at, and it says I should be at 2,000 feet in the air. So I better get down there and I got down to 2,000 feet."
"And the control tower said, 'What are you doing?' And I said, 'I'm following the approach.' They said, 'You weren't cleared for 2,000 feet, go back up.' If you change your altitude by five hundred feet the computer automatically catches it."
Copyright World Entertainment News Network 2004
