Officials Weighed Shooting at Errant Plane

AP (via Drudge) ^ | May 12, 2005 9:33 PM (ET) | LARA JAKES JORDAN

[quietolong]

And who does it land on??

[injin]

all members of Congress should be required to wear running shoes to work .....
high heels , give me a break.

[Spktyr]

Three radio warnings, then *maybe* a flyby by a jet to see what's going on (if there's time). If no flyby, just light up his world. "Sorry about your luck, buddy."

[Paul_Denton]

And something else that I thought of today. Could the Cessna have been a diversion to something else that was being planned on the ground?

That or a dry run to probe our response.

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

A serious problem is if you shoot the airplane out of the sky, you will have a flaming wreckage falling into the Wash. D.C. metro area. There is a very good chance of killing people on the ground. It could fall onto a house, cars in traffic, people walking on a sidewalk etc.

Of course, the American royalty ruling over us doesn't care about the little folks who must die to protect royalty but it makes for some very ugly public relations.

The little people might correctly conclude they are all expendable to protect the elites of Washington D.C.

[andie74]

It was the Nancy Pelosi comparison to Cinderella that nauseated me.

[angkor]

IMO part of the decisionmaking on this would be the damage and injury caused by falling Cessna debris. Three miles radius from the WH is densely populated urban and semi-urban territory.

[Spktyr]

As opposed to someone detonating a nuke in an airplane over DC and wiping out things like the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and other items of historic significance to all mankind? Sorry, but I'm willing to take that chance, and I'm not this "royalty" of which you speak.

Not shooting the thing down could mean that A NUCLEAR DETONATION AND RESULTING SHOCKWAVE hits them. Chance killing a few to save the many? Any time.

[1FASTGLOCK45]

quietolong wrote:
And who does it land on??

--> Maybe a trampoline or some electric lines? :)

[andie74]

Or a canopy?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1401804/posts

OK, I am getting loopy. G'nite or good morning, whichever you prefer!

[cynicom]

If and when the terrorists decide on such an adventure, it will not be with a C-150. This affair has shown that anyone with the right equipment can penetrate nearly at will.

[Byron_the_Aussie]

....as opposed to someone detonating a nuke in an airplane over DC..

LOL! Yeah, the ol' nuke in the Cessna 150 trick, we missed it by THAT much. Hey Spktyr, take a break from the Tom Clancy novels. Maybe ten minutes breathing into a paper bag might help?

[skimask]

You fly under or over the plane without the afterburners on. Once you overtake the plane you drop down or rise up in front of the small plane and hit the afterburners. The pilot of the small plane wouldn't know what hit him.

[konaice]

Sigh... See my #6 above...

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

It was two pilots, one was a student and the other was a person who trains pilots.
FAA said nothing was going to happen to either pilot.
They could rent an other plane and do the same thing again.
The student should get his learners permit burned and the instructor should have his pilot license removed.

[ARCADIA]

The pilot of the small plane wouldn't know what hit him.

Neither would the fighter pilot when he discovers that following orders doesn't cut it when you drop a 17 year old student pilot on a day care center.

Perhaps a better way would be to set up a 100 mile IFR only flight zone around DC.

[andie74]

Ummm...forgive me, but weren't the 9/11 hijackers trained in US flight schools? Doncha think we oughta check them out?

[ARCADIA]

The student should get his learners permit burned and the instructor should have his pilot license removed.

The student should be allowed to make mistakes, his instructor is responsible for his performance. But, before we run off on a witch hunt, lets get the facts. For all we know there may have been an equipment failure, or faulty air traffic vector.

[Jim Noble]

Like...where is this pilot?

Being interviewed by our good friends in Uzbekistan?

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

I don't understand your point and yes I knew about the flight schools training the terrorists.
I personally don't think this was just a dumb mistake.