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NORAD Will Neither Confirm nor Deny a Flock of Birds Caused White House Lockdown
gizmodo ^ | 11/26/2019

Posted on 11/27/2019 6:44:30 AM PST by BenLurkin

On Tuesday, the White House was placed under lockdown after it appeared that an aircraft was flying in restricted air space over Washington DC. But was it really an aircraft... or was it birds?

The North American Aerospace Defense Command first reported an object entering capitol airspace this morning, which prompted a response from National Security officials and a temporary lockdown of some capitol buildings, CNN reports. A Coast Guard rotary-wing aircraft (probably a helicopter, but NORAD did not specify) went to investigate—and did not find a threat. Perhaps, tweeted ABC7 DC-Area transportation reporter Sam Sweeney, it was birds.

“The comments you’re seeing about a flock of birds is speculation,” a NORAD spokesperson told Gizmodo by phone. “I cannot confirm or deny that it was a flock of birds.” (Another NORAD spokesperson told NBC news it might be a “flock of birds or a weather balloon.”)

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


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: norad; swampgas; weatherballoon
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To: ThunderSleeps

European of African?


21 posted on 11/27/2019 7:34:26 AM PST by EEGator
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To: ThunderSleeps
Seriously, even the fastest birds airspeed barely overlaps with the minimum stall speed of an unloaded Cessna 152. I doubt any radar operator would mistake birds for an aircraft. Maybe one of those powered parachute type personal aircraft...

Unfortunately the radar operators must now also be watching out for drones or 'flocks of drones'. Hard to tell the difference between that or a flock of Canadian geese.

22 posted on 11/27/2019 7:35:08 AM PST by usurper ( version)
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To: Jayster

re: “The bending of radar pulses, often called anomalous propagation or ducting, ...”

This effect can EASILY be seen on weather RADAR in the evening, usually; as disk proceeds, ‘ground clutter’ appears out to a distance of 40 or so miles.

Sometimes, given a warm or cold front passage the ‘returns’ from ground/building clutter becomes much more pronounced, so, those factors should be considered for this event too.


23 posted on 11/27/2019 7:38:36 AM PST by _Jim (Save babies)
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To: Don Corleone

re: “If we had been that alert in 1941 the Japanese never would have made it to Pearl Harbor.”

This would have required an ‘alertness’ on several levels including the observing RADAR station (which at the time was just being commissioned), a fighter detail on alert at the airbase, etc.


24 posted on 11/27/2019 7:41:14 AM PST by _Jim (Save babies)
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To: BenLurkin

Migrating moonbats.

25 posted on 11/27/2019 8:02:05 AM PST by Jonah Hex
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To: usurper
Unfortunately the radar operators must now also be watching out for drones or 'flocks of drones'. Hard to tell the difference between that or a flock of Canadian geese.

I posted on an earlier thread:

A few drones with reflectors on them flying in formation could pass as a B-52. Fly toward the capitol for few minutes and disperse.

Drones flying in formation. Turn sound down

26 posted on 11/27/2019 9:32:05 AM PST by TangoLimaSierra (To the Left, The Truth is Right Wing Extremism.)
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To: BenLurkin

99 Red Balloons?


27 posted on 11/29/2019 5:05:41 AM PST by golux
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