Free Republic

F-16 Jets Intercept Small Plane as Obama Leaves LA The plane was forced to land at El Monte Airport on Friday morning as Air Force One was leaving LAX The North American Aerospace Defense Command scrambled the two jets that intercepted the Piper 28 aircraft over northeast Los Angeles at approximately 9:45 a.m. PDT, and followed it until it landed about five minutes later and was met by local law enforcement, NORAD said in a statement. The Piper landed at the small airport in El Monte about 15 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, local police Lt. Dan Burlingham said....

A twin-engine aircraft crashed into the Gulf of Mexico after the pilot was unresponsive for nearly three hours as radar tracked the plane flying aimlessly in loops. The FAA lost radio contact with the Cessna 421 before 9 a.m. ET. It was circling at approximately 28,000 feet. Fully loaded, the plane was carrying about 3.5 hours worth of fuel. Only the pilot was thought to be on board. The plane took off from Slidell, La., and was en route to Sarasota, Fla., according to a flight plan. Somewhere between the two points, it began flying in circles. Officials at NORAD...

An Air Canada pilot mistook the planet Venus for another aircraft and plunged his plane towards the Atlantic Ocean to avoid a collision. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/04/17/16-injured-after-pilot-mistakes-venus-for-aircraft-plunges-plane-toward/?test=latestnews#ixzz1sKAemkMr

On Friday’s Stephanie Miller show, the host was typically adoring Obama’s snarky remarks about how the conservatives are flat-earthers when it comes to the awesome potential for green energy solutions. The forward-thinkers and the scientific minds hand over a half-billion dollars to Solyndra, apparently. Unfortunately for Miller, her sidekick Jim Ward (who does impressions), completely lost his cool and said Obama’s critics “should test the alleged laws of gravity by jumping out of a plane without a parachute.” It’s another Playtex bottle of the milk of human kindness from liberal talk radio. MILLER: Yeah I think the President got off...

Raw Video (2): An American Airlines flight attendant disrupted a flight Friday morning as it was about to take off from Dallas Fort/Worth en route to Chicago, saying over the aircraft intercom system that the plane was going to crash, alluding to 9/11 terrorist attacks and ranting about the airline's bankruptcy reorganization, passengers said. Passengers ended up restraining the flight attendant in the plane cabin until airport police arrived. Two flight attendants were injured in the incident and were taken to a local hospital. No passengers were injured, and they were never in danger, an airline spokeswoman said. The flight...

A man tried to board a plane in Argentina with almost 250 poisonous snakes and endangered reptiles in his baggage, each meticulously labeled with its Latin name. Czech citizen Karel Abelovsky, 51, was en route to Spain when airport officials made him open his baggage at Buenos Aires' international airport after police spotted the reptiles in the X-ray scanner. They found 247 exotic and endangered species in all, packed inside plastic containers, bags and even socks. Authorities believe the Czech was a courier for a criminal organization that smuggles exotic species whose exports are banned, a judicial source told The...

The tycoons of cyberspace are looking to bankroll America's resurgence in outer space, reviving "Star Trek" dreams that first interested them in science. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen made the latest step Tuesday, unveiling plans for a new commercial spaceship that, instead of blasting off a launch pad, would be carried high into the atmosphere by the widest plane ever built before it fires its rockets. He joins Silicon Valley powerhouses Elon Musk of PayPal and Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com Inc. in a new private space race that attempts to fill the gap left when the U.S. government ended the space...

Investigators Say Incident Happened During Delta Flight BOSTON -- Massachusetts State Police arrested an airline passenger at Boston Logan International Airport after officers said he watched child pornography while onboard a plane. Officials said the incident happened about 2:53 p.m. Saturday during a Delta Airlines flight from Utah to Boston. Troopers said other passengers took a cellphone photo of 47-year-old Grant Smith, of Cottonwood Heights, Utah, watched the video. Investigators said Smith was seat in the first class section at the time and another passenger alerted the flight crew to the incident. Officials said Smith was interviewed by troopers when...

A plane crashed in Arizona's Superstition Mountains, according to ABC News Phoenix affiliate KNXV, citing witnesses and local authorities -- but officials told ABC News that passenger flights at major local airports all were accounted for. It was not immediately clear how big a plane may have crashed or how many people were involved. Dark video transmitted from the scene appeared to show glowing areas in the mountains, possibly fires. Witnesses said they saw the plane crash and flames erupt around 6:40 p.m. local time, KNXV reported. "What we saw was a small plane," said Mark Klein, who lives at...

Posted: 7:04 PM By: Katie Fisher APACHE JUNCTION, AZ - Crews are working to access the wreckage of a plane that crashed into the Superstition Mountains east of the Valley. Pinal County Sheriff's Office spokesman Elias Johnson confirmed a plane went down in the mountain range and caused a fire visible from miles away. ABC15 viewers reported seeing the crash and flames around 6:40 p.m. Air15 video over the mountain range showed many separate areas of flames spread around the crash site. Johnson said the size of the plane and number of people involved is unknown at this time.

STILLWATER, Okla. — Oklahoma State University women's basketball coach Kurt Budke and assistant coach Miranda Serna were killed when the single-engine plane they were riding in during a recruiting trip crashed near a wildlife management area in central Arkansas. The university said the pair died in the crash Thursday night near Perryville, about 45 miles west of Little Rock. The Winona Wildlife Management Area is in steep terrain in the eastern Ouachita Mountains. A cause of the crash was not announced. In January 2001, 10 men affiliated with the university's men's basketball team died in a Colorado plane crash. OSU...

Watch a police officer stop this plane with his car John McLane's got nothing on this real Brazilian Federal Police Officer, who use his cop car to take down a plane loaded with smugglers and $150,000 of stolen electronics. Here is THE LINK.

Betty Skelton Erde, an aviator and auto racing pioneer who became the fastest woman on Earth in 1965, has died. She was 85. Erde set female speed records at Daytona Beach and Utah's Bonneville salt flats more than half a century ago. In 2008, she was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in suburban Detroit. Dozens of firsts are attached to her name: the auto industry's first female test driver in 1954; the first to set a female world land speed record in 1956 (145 mph at Daytona Beach); and the world land speed record for women...

DCCC removes footage of plane flying low over Manhattan skyline from ad attacking TurnerThe Daily Caller – Fri, Sep 9, 2011 Two days before the 10th anniversary of 9/11, the Democratic Congressional Campaign committee was forced to pull footage from a television ad in the New York 9th Congressional District special election that showed a Bob Turner plane flying low over the Manhattan skyline. However, a press release from the Turner campaign Friday morning says the ad is in fact still on the air in its unedited version, and “has been running all morning on New York City television stations.”...

[Updated, 9:50 a.m. Sept. 7: The Kings issued this statement Wednesday: "The Los Angeles Kings organization is deeply saddened with the tragic news of this morning’s plane crash in Russia that was carrying the members of the KHL’s Lokomotiv organization, including former Kings forward Pavol Demitra, former Kings prospect Jan Marek and many other members of the NHL family. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all the family and friends of those affected by this terrible occurrence."] The plane, which was carrying members of the Kontinental Hockey League team Lokomotiv, crashed on the banks of the Volga River shortly...

The promise of 3D printing has finally taken off with the development of a drone that takes just a week to createUnder darkening skies on a grass airstrip in the UK's Wiltshire Downs, north of Stonehenge, I am watching half a dozen aeronautical engineers rushing to assemble an uncrewed aircraft before the weather takes a turn for the worse. They are hoping to show how 3D printing will revolutionise the economics of aircraft design – by flying the world's first fully "printed" plane. Led by Andy Keane and Jim Scanlan of the University of Southampton, the team believes that 3D...

CLEVELAND— The unruly passenger that caused United Airlines flight 944 headed from Chicago to Frankfurt, Germany to make an unscheduled stop in Cleveland was arrested Monday. According to Stephen D. Anthony, the special agent in charge of the Cleveland Division of the FBI, and Chief Michael McGrath with the Cleveland Police Department, Saleh Ali S. Alramakh, 21, repeatedly disobeyed orders from flight attendants Friday and his behavior eventually escalated to shoving, kicking and spitting. Related Flight Diverted to Cleveland Due to Unruly Passenger Flight Diverted to Cleveland Due to Unruly Passenger Cleveland Police Department Cleveland Hopkins Airport Status Updates Cleveland...

Massachusetts State Police officials say an Illinois man has been arrested, accused of making threats to security personnel at Logan International Airport in Boston before boarding a Chicago-bound flight. The state police say in a statement officers were called to a Southwest Airlines security checkpoint at approximately 5:35 p.m. Saturday following a report that a man was making threats to Transportation Security Administration workers. Officials say the man said he had “guns and bombs” in his checked luggage, specifically an AK-47 machine gun and hand grenades.

A passenger jet crash-landed Monday on a desolate stretch of road in northwest Russia, killing at least 38 people, the country’s state news agency reported. The plane reportedly took off from Moscow and contained 48 passengers and five crewmembers. It is unclear what brought the plane down about 2 miles from Petrozavodsk airport, its destination, reported Itar-Tass. But the Tupolev-134 plane caught fire and the fuselage was reportedly completely destroyed. Those injured were considered in serious condition. Authorities began an investigation into the crash; early signs point to a mechanical error, Itar-Tass reported, citing a source.

Troops shoot at jet flying from China with 119 people on board after mistaking it for a N Korean aircraft. South Korean troops have fired at a passenger airliner flying from China with 119 people on board after mistaking it for a North Korean aircraft, South Korean military and aviation officials say. Soldiers manning a guard post on Gyodong island, off the western coast of South Korea, fired their K-2 rifles towards the jet, which was descending as it approached Seoul's Incheon International Airport, the officials said on Saturday. "The firing continued about 10 minutes but the plane was too...