NYT/AP: Officials Weighed Shooting at Errant Plane

[DeepModem Mom]

Officials Weighed Shooting at Errant Plane
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 13, 2005


WASHINGTON (AP) -- As a wayward Cessna flew deep in restricted airspace, national security officials were on the phone discussing whether to implement the last line of defense: shooting it down.

The single-engine Cessna that prompted a frenzied evacuation of the White House, Capitol and Supreme Court on Wednesday veered away from downtown landmarks just before that decision needed to be made....

***

One senior Bush administration counterterrorism official said it was ''a real finger-biting period because they came very close to ordering a shot against a general aircraft.''

''How many more seconds away or minutes -- it was within a very small window where there would have been the decision,'' said the official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter....

***

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was apprised of the situation as it unfolded. He is among a small handful of top Pentagon officials who can order a shootdown. The president also may give such an order....


http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Capital-Alert.html

[Endangered Specie]

1. I hope they considered the ground destruction and casulties...

that would be caused by a shot down plane on a densely populated city. I sincerly doubt they would have shot it down.

[burrowowl]

3. A Cessna?

Give me a break. With the air-to-air missiles we have, only ash would have fallen. Bigger airliner, yes big pieces would fall.

[burrowowl]

2. If it were a real threat

it should have been shot down.
I'm becoming a conspricy theorist: one, why wasn't his licence yanked for being imcopetant and two: was he a plant to show how our jets respond better now.
Had the treat been real he would have released whatever gas or cropdusting poison.
Had he been competent, he would have never flown that near on a crystal clear day on VFR (Visual Flight Rules), you can see the damn WH from beyond the 30 mile radius.
Or do really stupid people get their licence out of a Cracker-Jack box?

[blogbear]

4. Seems like a lot of fuss over 'one flying over the cuckoo's nest'..

[Nostradamus]

5. war psychosis

the pilot was flying by sight and got lost

too sad for words

[DeepModem Mom]

6. Thanks for posting, Nostradamus -- and welcome to DU.

[Frances]

7. They considered shooting down a plane

and yet they didn't even inform the president.

Can you imagine FDR, or Truman, or Ike, or Kennedy, or Johnson, or Nixon, or Carter, or Clinton not firing people for not informing them of the crisis?

(I know I left out Reagan, but since he had Alzheimer's, I think his staff might have gotten away with this.)

[gauguin57]

8. The story of Lancaster County's own "Wrong-Way Corrigans"

From yesterday's Lancaster Intelligencer-Journal (I do think the pilot's license may get pulled or suspended):

http://www.lancasteronline.com/pages/news/local/4/14288

LANCASTER, Pa. -- A Federal Aviation Administration examiner described the Lititz pilot who sparked a panic in Washington, D.C., Wednesday afternoon as a rusty flyer who needed help fueling his airplane before taking off. Mike Kuhn said Wednesday he was at Smoketown Airport when Hayden "Jim" Sheaffer Jr. was preparing to depart. He said Sheaffer, 69, rarely flies and may not keep current on aviation regulations.

"The people who fly into restricted areas are the people who don't come to safety meetings and don't have what they need when it comes to training," Kuhn said.

Kuhn said Sheaffer came to the airport office Wednesday morning because he needed help fueling the plane. "He hadn't been out there in so long, he didn't know how to operate the pumps," the FAA examiner said.

Sheaffer is one of 10 members of the Vintage Aero Club. The members pay monthly dues and share a 1970 Cessna two-seater airplane. "They are a low-activity kind of organization," Kuhn said. "Every time I see them fly, I cringe a little." ......

[gauguin57]

11. Oh, and also ...

... the student pilot (according to Lancaster papers) told his wife and father the night before the flight that they knew about the no-fly zone in D.C., and that they were planning their route to avoid it.

It seems they simply made a spectacular mistake (which could have been completely avoided if they'd had a GPS in the plane) ... a spectacular mistake that could have cost them their lives.

[Zenlitened]

9. "The president also may give such an order...."

Um, technically, perhaps.

But don't look for him to dress up in his "Commander in Chief" costume if he's out riding his bike in the park.

What a laughingstock.

[PATRICK]

10. And that is why

the president was not "notified". Also why he played hookie in Florida as planes crashed on 911. And probably a SOP not to be "involved". And why the person with decision is hard to pin down until long after. So was Rumsfeld "in charge" or FEMA?

[UpInArms]

12. related: Press heckles McClellan (great read from E&P)

McClellan Spars With Press, Says No Need to Notify Bush

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000920092

<snipping to the best part>

Q So if it was assessed that there was no hostile intent on the part of this aircraft, can you tell us why 30,000 people -- 35,000 people were told to run for their lives?

McCLELLAN: Because of the protocols that are in place, John. We want to make sure that the people in the area of the threat are protected. After --

Q: But what was the threat? You just said there was no threat.

McCLELLAN: John, after Sept. 11, we have to take into account the world that we live in. We live in a very different world than we did before Sept. 11. And the president is going to do everything in his power to make sure we are protecting the American people and to make sure that the people in areas that could be high-risk areas are protected, as well.

Q: Right, but there seems to be so many disconnects here. You've got a plane that was assessed as not being a threat, you've got 35,000 people evacuated, you've got a person who you claim is a hands-on commander in chief who is left to go ride his bicycle through the rural wildlands of Maryland while his wife is in some secure location somewhere, it's just not adding up.

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