SHAME ON ALL OF YOU!!

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:

..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.

...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?

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.

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.

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.

The small plane incident was handled pretty well, very well. What is not so well is all the panicky caterwalling after -- the attacks on civil aviation, specifically.

Excuse me, but this isn't the first time unadulterated PARANOIA has occurred at The White House. (And this time the reaction has a very reasonable precedent...can you say 9/11/01?)

White House Intruder's Gun Was Empty

"It was the latest in a string of security problems during the Clinton presidency, including a small plane crashing on the White House grounds and a man firing at the front of the mansion with a semiautomatic rifle."

Repeat: A Cessna 150 does not a warplane make. Stop the hysterics, already. Please. Grow up!

Repeat: Any plane loaded with bioweapons is a warplane. Size doesn't matter. In fact, a smaller, slower plane might even be more effective at delivering bios into a crowd with maximum effectiveness.

But thank you for avoiding my points and simply calling me names instead. That makes you so much more grown up than me. Really, I thank you for the name-calling. Please continue.

the instructor considered himself lost it would seem to me that it would be prudent to turn on the radio, yes?

Good point. This plane was operated unsafely, and is the cause of whatever problems ensued.

Be a man, Sam! Use the common sense G-d gave you. It is the stupidest way to deliver such weapons over DC. It is way too obvious, easily shot down and has no fall back, no back up.

Any motor vehicle, some pvc tubing, black paint, duct-tape and a $40 K-mart fan will do better and survive doing so far longer. With some biologicals -- anthrax included -- folks won't even notice until the vehicle is long gone.

Please don't call for banning duct tape and K-mart fans!

If the terrorists wanted a test on whetheror not a small airplane could deliver a nuclear device to the heart of DC, I think they know the answer to that now.

There had been a previous discussion about flying between two no fly zones.

One think for a quick fly over the countryside, quite another to fly into such 'dangerous waters' so to speak and then not have the communication line open.

NO EXCUSE

The powers that be must punish this stupidity.

If the runaway bride is going to be fined for the cost of her search, then surely this instructor needs to be fined, big time, for the costs to our government for his disregard for safety.

Thanks for the suggestion. I plugged in my zip code and easily located where I live (okay, living on a rural river/lake makes it a lot easier). BTW, does flying without instruments include not using a compass?

It is the stupidest way to deliver such weapons over DC.

Stand down, men. Everybody knows --- especially all those experts on Free Republic --- that this is the stupidest way to deliver a weapon. So at ease, men. Go on liberty. Forget you ever saw an unauthorized aircraft in restricted airspace.

(Oh yeah. That's the way it should happen. Right.)

Please don't call for banning duct tape and K-mart fans!

Greetings from Earth. On this planet, we already have a ban on flights over Washington DC airspace. No one here on earth is calling for such a ban, since it already exits.

Are you saying we should lift the ban? If not, based on all your arguments so far, why not?

The small plane incident was handled pretty well, very well. What is not so well is all the panicky caterwalling after

I couldn't agree more. This incident went exactly as it should have. It was a success. It's too easy for people to forget that in their zeal to find fault.

bvw:

Try to calm down and think about this:

One think for a quick fly over the countryside, quite another to fly into such 'dangerous waters' so to speak and then not have the communication line open. NO EXCUSE The powers that be must punish this stupidity. If the runaway bride is going to be fined for the cost of her search, then surely this instructor needs to be fined, big time, for the costs to our government for his disregard for safety.---OldFriend

Please explain to me (without getting so excited) how OldFriend is wrong here.

Yes. Lift the ban. Not that a high priority -- secure the borders first, get all the "undocumented" vistors into some accounting and checking out next. Further win the war on terror. Lift the airspace ban over the Beltway.

Lifting THAT airspace ban might well be the kicker that motivates all the rest. Let the Beltway know they are no more protected than the rest of us while the borders are wide-open, illegal vistors allowed free-roam and the war on terror is un-won.

Well, that doesn't make any sense.... I agree with the airspace restrictions, just like restrictions over any other military base or command area.

I just don't think anything needs to be necessarily re-written by knee-jerks after this successful practice run. It was good practice for US, not them. Any tweaking that needs to be done with procedures will be done by cooler heads than are found here.

"Oh, really? Not even with anthrax, or sarin, or ricin, or whatever?"

Exactly. What might have happened if the plane had started dumping the stuff all over the area?

If that would have happened, the Bush critics would have been all over security for not having shot down the plane.

P.S. I find it disturbing the Brit Hume also seems to have the same ho-hum attitude towards a Cessna flying into the Capital or White House.

Back to watching the moron Biden bloviate.

Why should the Runaway Bride be fined at all? People wander off, grooms and brides-to-be scoot away in the days right before -- it was the choice of the authorities to mount a search, Willibanks did not request it, nor could she or anyone else in her shoes prior to that circus have reasonably forseen all the official interest in that kind of a case. The normal course of events in such cases -- and they happen every day -- is much quieter and private.

The fine, as best I understand, is ridiculous. Mob hysteria.

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