Posted on 05/13/2005 2:03:47 AM PDT by LukeSW
Aero-Views: Shame On All Of You
Fri, 13 May '05
No Heroes In ADIZ Incursion
By ANN Senior Correspondent Kevin R.C. "Hognose" O'Brien
I wasn't flying Wednesday when the city of Washington went into a massive, hyperventilating panic over a light plane in the ADIZ; I was driving the highways, and I got to hear the blow-by-blow on the radio and in periodic phone calls with ANN's Pete Combs. Good grief, what a shameful episode. There's enough shame to go around. Indeed, there are no heroes in this tawdry tale of ADIZ incursion, but there's a whole gaggle of goats:
Shame On The Security Establishment
..in the first place, for being unable to distinguish between a real threat and a bogus one. The physics of the Cessna 150 make it an improbable terror weapon. Indeed, we have an incident to show us that a Cessna 150 is not much threat to the White House. In 1994, a suicidal nutball tried to kamikaze the steel-and-concrete-reinforced landmark, and left an unsightly black smear on the wall and a divot out of the lawn -- who are we looking out for with all this panic, the groundskeepers?
A Cessna 150 does not a warplane make. But steeped in the shibboleths of relativism and egalitarian ignorance, security managers prescribe the same frantic reaction, as if it were some kind of anti-Newtonian universe: "For every action, an identical and hyperbolic overreaction."
The mighty 150 has a gross weight of 1,500 to 1,600 lbs, or about half the weight of a compact car. Even a 172 is lighter gross than the empty weight of my 1965 mustang (~2,500), which is pretty light by new-car standards. I think a typical Camry or similar vehicle is about 3,800 lb. You just can't do a lot of damage with 2,000 lbs unless it's all explosives... I know a little about blowing things up, and served for 25 years alongside the guys with the equivalent of a PhD in blowing things up, the 12BS and 18C demo men of the Army Special Forces. If we can't figure out how to destroy a big, strong building with a Cessna 150, and we can't, it's a pretty safe bet that Osama or whoever can't do it either: he puts on his baggy pants one leg at a time.
Then, there's the whole question of, "what about the building?" The White House is no stranger to hard times, having been burnt to a shell by a British raiding party on August 25, 1814 (the only surviving fixture from before 1814 is a Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington which was secured by a fleeing Dolly Madison). The West Wing burned again in 1929. Yet the building endures. The walls are made of the original stone, reinforced during a 1948-52 renovation with concrete and structural steel, and light GA aircraft are not going to move them. QED. Most other public buildings in Washington are equally robust -- compare the damage and death toll at the Pentagon to that in New York. Or take a good look at the J. Edger Hoover building sometime.
Shame On Our National Leaders
...for not facing the risk (if any?) like grown men. A lot of the current security nonsense has come about because of the physical and even moral cowardice of our current crop of national leaders. If we are "a nation of laws, not of men," why are some men so demanding of special protection?
Our Government is predicated on the idea that no man is divine or irreplaceable. Our Constitution has been frequently amended to ensure that suitable procedures are in place to ensure an orderly succcession and continuity of government.
Apart from the troubling moral issues raised by special privileges for the Washington elite, there are practical issues involved in hasty and ill-advised evacuations like the one we've just seen. I've looked at several airline incidents that rose to the level of accident only when the crew made a judgment call to order an evacuation, and passengers were injured in the evacuation.
Why injure people unnecessarily, when few people are likely to be injured in the extremely unlikely event the worst-case scenario comes to pass, but some people are likely to be injured in a needless evacuation?
Shame On The News Media
I was able to hear the audio from the White House Press Room, and boy howdy, it was a pitiful display. Screaming, and yelling, and blubbering and carrying on. A most unseemly display, but then the most fitting 19th Century word for concept that's defined by the 21st Century word "metrosexual" is probably "poltroon."
The every-man-for-himself-and-devil-take-the-hindmost stampede for the exits was unseemly, unsurprising, and, as noted above, unsafe. You are much safer staying in the building during the attack than bolting for the exit, where you might be trodden under by Helen Thomas or somebody.
I always figured most news people would be no earthly use in a crisis (real, or as in this case, imagined) and now I have my proof.
Shame On The Men In The Plane
You didn't think I was going to let these two clowns off, did you? I mean, I fly in Boston and I know about the ADIZ. My friends in Florida and California know about the ADIZ. According to a family member, the unlucky pilots knew about the ADIZ, but they blundered into it anyway.
Research in the human behavioral subset of "being lost" has shown that humans, when confused about location, will seldom if ever backtrack to the last known location and try again -- even though that method, logically, offers a good chance of success. Instead they will press on forward -- pretty much in whatever direction they happen to be pointing -- for good or for ill. The only antidote to this deeply ingrained behavior, since one can't grab his hippocampus and shake some sense into it, is to have a plan and conscious procedures for safe recovery to a known point when mislocated.
Many people will focus on the instructor, and as the more experienced pilot and authority figure, he's definitely where the buck stops. The FAA will probably recognize this with a certificate suspension or even revocation (since the violation wasn't willful, revocation would be out of line. But the security organs will want their pound of flesh). I hope the instructor subscribed to AOPAs Legal Services Plan.
But the student also deserves a share of the blame. By the time you're doing ambitious cross-countries, you need to have a baseline level of situational awareness. A student can't just ride on the instructor's ticket (even if that is how the FAA sees it, in legal terms). He holds a ticket inscribed not pilot student but student pilot -- the first is the adjective, the second the noun. Students shouldn't be constantly in their instructors' faces, but they should be willing to speak up. Many an airliner has come to grief because a doubting FO held his tongue. If there was ever a place to indulge in bumper sticker behavior, the cockpit is where you "Speak truth to power" and "Question Authority."
These two men had a very unpleasant day, and they have more hard times ahead. But they were lucky; they very nearly died. If the fighter pilots had been what the Air Force calls "fangs out", this whole story would be ten times worse. The 150 pilots will live to fly again -- and one hopes, to enjoy flight again.
One Organization Reacted Credibly
After all this ranting, I ought to close on a positive note -- and there is one to be found. Despite all the things that COULD have gone wrong, the air defense organization reacted with as much restraint as alacrity. If the military and DHS intercept crews hadn't been at the top of their game, if the controllers hadn't been alert, God alone knows what might have happened. These disciplined men and women are trapped in a bad system that's not of their making, but they still performed like a symphony orchestra with Beethoven Himself conducting.
BUT, AFAIK, if a semi-truck or SUV (or any other vehicle for that matter) where to enter a "No Drive Zone", he reaction would have been just as severe - especially, if the driver were to ignore repeated attempts to "wave him off" (analog to radio contact).
remember, the Pilot KNOWINGLY flew into denied air space, exhibited suspicious behavior (no transponder - no acknowledgement per radio), and, if the initial accounts can be believed, even flew "erratically" once intercepted.
'm all for common sense in these matters, but even hindsight requires the use of it, otherwise we learn nothing except to ignore such incidents in the future. Once THAT happens, be prepared for the next attack.
We will most likely never hear the recorded conversations that went on from the fighter pilots down through to the controllers, however, I suspect that people that were on the spot cautioned against any rash action.
They should have shot the plane out of the sky.
Maybe that would teach other pilots to learn to turn on their radios, and to keep away from Washington.
(b) The pilots were not charged with a crime, they just got real embarrassed (as they should be)
(c) The plane could have contained lots of dangerous chemicals. Why wouldn't anybody think terrorists couldn't use a very small plane to do a nasty job?
(d) I agree that this event with the small plane could be a diversion from a larger attack, but you have to react to what you see in front of you at that moment. If somebody is running towards me with a knife, I'm not to going to spend time looking over my shoulder to see if another guy is also attacking me with a knife from behind. I have to first take care of the threat that is known, and in front of me.
....even flew "erratically" once intercepted.....
I think that was caused by something sticky and smelly in his shorts.
Much to my regret.
because i am in close proximity to the buildings that are likely targeted, i would PREFER overreaction regardless of plane size, because i would definitely be in a zone affected by any resulting toxicity. doesn't matter that a panel truck could do the same damage, they need to guard against both.
I agree -- something like a dirty nuke, or some kind of biological/chemical material.
Carolyn
Had that little plane been packed full of high explosive or a biological warfare agent, would the nitwits who are criticizing the governments reaction to a threat be happier? Had it succeeded in crashing into the Capitol or the White House and killing hundreds of people, the same nitwits would now be complaining about the lax security that allowed it to happen.
Paranoia. Yeah, right. Even after after 3000 people died horrible deaths on Sept. 11, 2001, some FOOLS refuse to take terrorism and our efforts to prevent it seriously.
If this article represents the "views of many of us in the aerospace industry", then SHAME ON ALL OF YOU!!
Good morning...You ever fly commercial airlines????
You might be shocked at the errors committed by these highly trained people. Errors that very often put their passengers lives at stake. Of course the passengers most often are unaware of this.
I recall one major airline that landed a four engine jet at a small airport in state of Washington. The airport had only a four thousand foot runway and there were NO aircraft on the field. Now tell me is there a difference between this crew and the crew of the C-150????
Errors are made, people in DC evaluated the conditions while under the gun and did not lose sight of what was at stake. No one seems to understand that the shootdown order never came. Why? Because as a team they decided there was no threat.
A Cessna 150 is not an anthrax delivery system. Unwad your panties and get a grip.
Of course mistakes are made but he would never never fly into a known restricted area without the communication system ON.
Go to Maps.Google.com, and select "Satellite." Plug in a zip code like 20910 (for example). I then challenge you to tell me where you are - especially if you zoom in one more factor (which is still higher than you would be in a Cessna).
And for the record, that zip code is in downtown Silver Spring, MD on the DC border -- well inside the no-fly zone, and only a couple of miles from Walter Reed Medical Center; about 7 or 8 miles north of the White House.
It's possible to not know where you are, especially if you're just learning to fly.
I for one am not for killing anyone that makes a mistake. A sense of proportion and probability has to be used.
You sure he never makes mistakes or maybe he just not telling you??? Pilots do fib you know. Read any accident report where they try to lay the blame elsewhere.
Then you would have killed two people in the air and who knows how many on the ground. And for what?
Particularly that the instructor considered himself lost it would seem to me that it would be prudent to turn on the radio, yes?
This instructor should never ever ever fly again.
This is an excellent article.
NO FLY
NO FLY
Doesn't mean maybe, or you might, or you can fly just a little way into the zone.
Sigh.....
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