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Mysterious low-flying plane over Twin Cities raises questions of surveillance
Star Tribune ^ | 5-29-15 | Matt McKinney and John Reinan

Posted on 05/29/2015 9:07:10 AM PDT by TurboZamboni

Aviation buff John Zimmerman was at a weekly gathering of neighbors Friday night when he noticed something peculiar: a small plane circling a route overhead that didn’t make sense to him.

It was dark, so a sightseeing flight didn’t make sense, and when Zimmerman pulled up more information on an aviation phone app he routinely checks, he had immediate concerns.

The plane’s flight path, recorded by the website flightradar24.com, would eventually show that it circled downtown Minneapolis, the Mall of America and Southdale Center at low altitude for hours starting at 10:30 p.m., slipping off radar just after 3 a.m.

“I thought, ‘Holy crap,’ ” said Zimmerman.

Bearing the call sign N361DB, the plane is one of three Cessna 182T Skylanes registered to LCB Leasing of Bristow, Va., according to FAA records. The Virginia secretary of state has no record of an LCB Leasing. Virtually no other information could be learned about the company.

Zimmerman’s curiosity might have ended there if it weren’t for something he heard from his aviation network recently: A plane registered to NG Research — also located in Bristow — that circled Baltimore for hours after recent violent protests there was in fact an FBI plane that’s part of a widespread but little known surveillance program, according to a report by the Washington Post.

(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; US: Minnesota
KEYWORDS: data; fbi; mallofamerica; minneapolis; mn; spying; stpaul; surveillance; surveillanceplanes
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1 posted on 05/29/2015 9:07:10 AM PDT by TurboZamboni
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To: TurboZamboni

We have a military transport plane flying low around here about every week. It came over so low one day it was reported as a crash.


2 posted on 05/29/2015 9:12:00 AM PDT by mountainlion (Live well for those that did not make it back.)
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To: TurboZamboni

“Bristow is an unincorporated community in Prince William County, Virginia, United States. In 2014, Bristow’s population was 29,346, a 287% increase since 2000.[1]

The former town proper was located on SR 619, Bristow Road, about 1 mile southwest of the intersection with SR 28, Nokesville Road, at the Norfolk Southern Railway crossing. There are no active businesses left at this location, though a crew change point for the railroad is just up the tracks from the railroad crossing. The new town center has, in general, relocated farther west around the Braemar Parkway area. Bristow is rapidly being absorbed into the expanding suburbs of the city of Manassas, including such developments as Bristow Station.

The area is mostly upper-middle-class residential managed communities including Braemar Community, Bridlewood, Bridlewood Manor, Brookside, Crossman Creek, Foxborough, Kingsbrooke, New Bristow Village, Lanier Farms, Saybrooke, Sheffield Manor, Amberleigh Station, and Victory Lakes. The community is home to the Jiffy Lube Live outdoor concert stage which was formerly known as the Nissan Pavilion.”
-WikiPedia

Bristow is also right nextdoor to Manassas Regional Airpark. Sounds like a Fed operation to me.


3 posted on 05/29/2015 9:16:23 AM PDT by tgusa (gun control: hitting your target.)
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To: tgusa
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4 posted on 05/29/2015 9:17:00 AM PDT by TurboZamboni (Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.-JFK)
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To: mountainlion

Have one here too in Panama City Florida. Where are you located?


5 posted on 05/29/2015 9:17:16 AM PDT by Cats Pajamas (Wonder what Slick and Cankles did with the rent a dogs now they have grandbaby for optics?)
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To: TurboZamboni
(This comment isn't involved with legitimate, confidential Police surveillance missions.)

If newspapers can publish addresses of gun owners, they can publish databases or otherwise give access to numbers to report government employees' misbehavior in traffic.

Every government agency has a Risk Managementment department, which has to keep after their internal Knuckleheads.

When governement employees are acting-out on official time in govt. vehicles, the most productive approach is to report them to their risk management. In some cases, it's the only thing they fear.

All government vehicles should have agency identification, so their drivers' misbehavior can be reported to Risk.

Our Upstanding 5th Estate, which is so anxious to suppress legitimate gun ownership (but watch what happens to leftists' attitudes about guns as soon as they become violent crime victims), if newspapers can go on crusades about that, they can easily supply database lookups of govt. vehicle driver licenses, so the public--you remember them? the real Bosses in a democracy--can report acting-out.

6 posted on 05/29/2015 9:18:40 AM PDT by CharlesOConnell (CharlesOConnell)
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To: TurboZamboni

I’ve seen this just north of Quantico- a couple of years ago. Small single-engine aircraft would fly racetracks over town for hours and hours on end, day after day.


7 posted on 05/29/2015 9:20:13 AM PDT by Riley (The Fourth Estate is the Fifth Column.)
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To: Cats Pajamas

Saw a single engine prop-job flying very low in circles over Boca yesterday. He may have been waiting for landing clearance at the executive airport, but he was very low over Military Trail...too low, IMNSHO.


8 posted on 05/29/2015 9:20:39 AM PDT by left that other site (You shall know the Truth, and The Truth Shall Set You Free.)
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To: CharlesOConnell

“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.”
-Voltaire?


9 posted on 05/29/2015 9:24:01 AM PDT by TurboZamboni (Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.-JFK)
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To: left that other site

We have one, sounds like a big one, flies low, lazy circles starting around 8:00 or so at night and sometimes goes on for a few hours. It has been going on for a few years now, off and on. What the freaking hell are they doing? Panama City is a little po-dunk town. What could we be doing here to need surveillance like that?


10 posted on 05/29/2015 9:24:36 AM PDT by Cats Pajamas (Wonder what Slick and Cankles did with the rent a dogs now they have grandbaby for optics?)
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To: TurboZamboni

They were looking for grow houses in the are. . ?


11 posted on 05/29/2015 9:30:28 AM PDT by ßuddaßudd (>> F U B O << "What the hell kind of country is this if I can only hate a man if he's white?")
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To: ßuddaßudd

Probably the EPA looking for rain barrels to regulate.


12 posted on 05/29/2015 9:31:06 AM PDT by TurboZamboni (Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.-JFK)
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To: Cats Pajamas

You guys ....Ahhh....we just watched one at work last night...6pm...very slow...too low...wow


13 posted on 05/29/2015 9:31:55 AM PDT by Therapsid
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To: TurboZamboni

While it’s unknown what the real purpose was, the flight path over a section of Minneapolis, the airport, and the Mall of America, all along the light rail line, might indicate DHS had a tip about a (Somali) terrorist plan and was trying to track one or several people.

Or, it could be just someone trying to up his flight hours.


14 posted on 05/29/2015 9:33:27 AM PDT by VanShuyten ("a shadow...draped nobly in the folds of a gorgeous eloquence.")
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To: Therapsid

so what are ya’ll doing there to garner so much attention?


15 posted on 05/29/2015 9:36:59 AM PDT by Cats Pajamas (Wonder what Slick and Cankles did with the rent a dogs now they have grandbaby for optics?)
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To: Cats Pajamas
EPA Using Satellites, Drones to Fine, Bankrupt Citizens http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2014/03/22/nucleoptions-charles-hurt-says-epa-using-satellites-and-drones/

Hurt claims that the EPA uses satellites and drones to fly over America and “compare maps” to find if any “new standing water” has been created.

We have got some plentiful rain lately...

16 posted on 05/29/2015 9:41:52 AM PDT by TurboZamboni (Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.-JFK)
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To: TurboZamboni

awwww crap, better stop digging my fish pond.


17 posted on 05/29/2015 9:47:12 AM PDT by Cats Pajamas (Wonder what Slick and Cankles did with the rent a dogs now they have grandbaby for optics?)
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To: Cats Pajamas

Is the plane you see/hear a C130? If so, it might be a test flight after repairs have been made at a Dothan, Alabama, repair facility. They overfly Dothan quite often. In fact, when I first saw these birds, I thought of ELINT or surveillance activities but later learned of the repair facility. It might also be some Air Force reservists getting in their flight time as well.


18 posted on 05/29/2015 9:50:15 AM PDT by miele man
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To: TurboZamboni

It’s probably just your local county tax assessor.


19 posted on 05/29/2015 9:57:39 AM PDT by right way right (Disclaimer: Not a prophet but I have a pretty good record.)
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To: TurboZamboni

Someone at the CIA still involved in drug running, I see.


20 posted on 05/29/2015 10:48:34 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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