damn...
Posted on 04/10/2012 7:13:07 PM PDT by Doogle
COMOX VALLEY, British Columbia -- A Korean Airlines flight out of Vancouver, Canada, requested U.S. assistance in reaction to a "credible bomb threat" on board, a U.S. official told Fox News.
The U.S. military scrambled two F-15 fighter jets, and the aircraft landed safely with the US military escort at a Canadian military base on Vancouver Island.
Officials are checking now for explosives.
The Canadian Forces says in a news release the flight was traveling from Vancouver International Airport and was diverted at about 5:30 p.m. The military says emergency personnel are securing the aircraft in accordance with normal procedures.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
ping
damn...
If I was a passenger on a plane and saw fighters escorting us, it would not give me a good feeling.
I know he is not there to protect our plane from enemy fighters. His only purpose as far as I know would be to shoot our plane down rather than have it crashed into a target.
Just to orient you a little (no pun intended), plane was probably somewhere near southern end of Alaska panhandle when diverted back towards Vancouver, it was in the air almost three hours so if you assume 1.7 hours out, 1.2 hours back, it was likely closer to Ketchikan or Prince Rupert than where it landed at Comox. That choice may have been for safety given the combination of weather and airport layouts, proximity to military base (near Comox) and possibly thinking of potential need to bring in a second airplane later. Have not heard any details on local news about what actually happened beyond what is generally known from these reports. In any case, this must have come to the attention of the crew at least an hour and possibly closer to two hours into the flight otherwise they would have landed a lot earlier at Comox or gone back to YVR.
Expect more of this (real or fake) as the economy, politics, and racial relations heat up.
My daughter and I flew Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong en route to Vietnam in APR 2000. We were told by the Captain’s passenger breifing that we’d be overflying parts of North Korea, which triggered exitement, but a little trepidation. As long as they know we’re coming, I thought. I wondered what we’d see as we were then flying by night.
As we approached however, we took a more easterly track by the inflight seatback navigation system, taking us eventually over Hiroshima which was very well lit from the cloudless post-midnight sky.
I’ve always wondered what changed in our flightpath, as the Captain never gave an expalnation for the altered route.
But Vietnam turned out to be fantastic. Someday I hope to go back again. Maybe then, even over North Korea.
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