Plane forced to land after suspicious statement

[proud2BlibKansan]

Source: Kansas City Star



A pilot flying a small plane from Oklahoma was forced to land this evening in Clay County after making suspicious comments to an air traffic controller, the FBI said.

The FBI received information that the pilot, who was traveling to Kansas City, had made a statement that could possibly indicate the plane had been taken over, and then had suspended communication, FBI spokesman Jeff Lanza said.

The military scrambled at least one F-16, which intercepted the plane and escorted it to the Clay County Regional Airport in Mosby, where it landed shortly after 8 p.m. FBI agents at the airport interviewed the pilot at length, Lanza said, and determined it was a misunderstanding.

The pilot was released and will not be charged, Lanza said.

http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/146241.html

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/146241.html

[Skink]

1. Scrambled is cool.

No pet goat.

[LisaL]

2. Lucky for him they did not decide to shoot it down.

Oops.

[evlbstrd]

3. You know what I want to post.

But I won't.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. No I don't know what you want to post

You think I'm psychic or something?

[evlbstrd]

5. It involves foil.

They can scramble for a Cessna, but not for four hijacked airliners.

[originalpckelly]

6. Maybe the benefit of hindsight is a possibility?

Or maybe that just makes too much sense, so that can't be it, can it?

[TheDebbieDee]

8. Several months before 9-11, they scrambled

fighters to have a look-see at the small plane on which Payne Stewart and his entourage was flying. The fighters reported that the cabin windows of the small plane had frosted over, and stayed with the plane until it ran out of gas and crashed in Minnesota or South Dakota or some other place up north.

I guess on 9-11, they only scrambled fighter jets to escort suspicious planes if there were professional golfers on board.

[Kingshakabobo]

14. It took 1 hour and 22 minutes to intercept Stewart's plane squawking a transponder code....

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/1227842.html?page=3

(I know, I know, Popular Mechanics is "in on it.")

CLAIM: "It has been standard operating procedures for decades to immediately intercept off-course planes that do not respond to communications from air traffic controllers," says the Web site oilempire.us. "When the Air Force 'scrambles' a fighter plane to intercept, they usually reach the plane in question in minutes."

FACT: In the decade before 9/11, NORAD intercepted only one civilian plane over North America: golfer Payne Stewart's Learjet, in October 1999. With passengers and crew unconscious from cabin decompression, the plane lost radio contact but remained in transponder contact until it crashed. Even so, it took an F-16 1 hour and 22 minutes to reach the stricken jet. Rules in effect back then, and on 9/11, prohibited supersonic flight on intercepts. Prior to 9/11, all other NORAD interceptions were limited to offshore Air Defense Identification Zones (ADIZ). "Until 9/11 there was no domestic ADIZ," FAA spokesman Bill Schumann tells PM. After 9/11, NORAD and the FAA increased cooperation, setting up hotlines between ATCs and NORAD command centers, according to officials from both agencies. NORAD has also increased its fighter coverage and has installed radar to monitor airspace over the continent.

Why couldn't ATC find the hijacked flights? When the hijackers turned off the planes' transponders, which broadcast identifying signals, ATC had to search 4500 identical radar blips crisscrossing some of the country's busiest air corridors. And NORAD's sophisticated radar? It ringed the continent, looking outward for threats, not inward. "It was like a doughnut," Martin says. "There was no coverage in the middle." Pre-9/11, flights originating in the States were not seen as threats and NORAD wasn't prepared to track them.

[Zenlitened]

15. "When the hijackers turned off the planes' transponders..."

This is somewhat off-topic, but it's always puzzled me: Why can the transponders be turned off at all?

Is there a reason to have an on/off switch accessible during flight?

I'm not a pilot, or aviation professional in any way... just puzzled.

:hi:

[soothsayer]

17. I've wondered that same thing. Seems stupid.

[Kingshakabobo]

19. I don't know. I've been a private pilot for over 20 years and the question never occurred to me.

The thing is meant to be a tool, like radios and altimeters, for pilots and ATC.....not some sort of secure tracking device. I suppose they COULD bury a tracking device in the airplane that is not accessible to the pilot/passengers but the idea of having a transponder in the cockpit is so pilots have access to the thing to change 'squawk' codes.

[Zenlitened]

22. Thanks, I didn't realize there might be a need to change codes mid-flight.

Maybe, moving forward, the systems should be set up so that codes can be changed... but the device itself is buried and will revert to a default signal if the switches/wires in the cockpit are damaged or tampered with.

[LeftHander]

16. The Stewart plane deviated from it's flight path

Minutes after take off and was intercepted in under 15 minutes.

911 planes deviated as well and no one scrambled anything.

[Kingshakabobo]

21. That's not true. 1 hour and 22 minutes n/t

[evlbstrd]

11. Or the pilot wasn't one of their guys.

[Cheap_Trick]

7. Look here....

This time there were no "drills" at the exact same time with the exact same scenario to confuse things. :sarcasm: Anyone who believes that was just an extraordinary coincidence on 9/11 just needs to stick their head back in the ground with all the right wing ostriches.

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. But but Payne Stewart was an important golfer!

Sheesh, get with the program, evl!!

[evlbstrd]

12. How could I be such a tool?

[Parche]

23. Scramble

Exactly, suspicious behavior and they can scramble for this small plane and find it,
while 4 jets, 2 widebodies during Sept 11th and they cant find them?

[thunder rising]

9. They are coming for us in little airplanes.

Terror, terror, terror!!!

A small plane and a "statement that could possibly indicate". Just in case everyone forgot to be afraid of General Aviation aircraft. No mention of what make or model of aircraft.

I'm still angry that the Coast Guard was never called into court for forcing that kid into a building in Tampa. Fucking Baby Killers. Then of course they scream terror!!!

[soothsayer]

18. Is that what happened? I've never heard that they forced him into the

building. Huh. I'll have to go back and read more about that. I missed that.

[dkofos]

13. I guess we will never know what the pilot said.

[Javaman]

20. "suspicious comments to an air traffic controller"...

Pilot: tower...my underwear is burning. repeat. my underwear is burning. do you receive?

tower: uhhhh, what?

Pilot: two hens have my wallet. repeat. two hens have my wallet. do you receive?

tower: pilot, what the heck are you talking about.

Pilot: Mars is awash in glitter. repeat. mars is awash in glitter. do you receive?

tower: you are screwing with my head here, that's it, roy, no more martini's for you, I'm calling homeland security!

Pilot: the dog talks french. repeat. the dog talks french. do you receive?