By the way, one of the clearest lessons potential terrorists could take from the events in D.C. would be how easy it is to create a mass diversion to set the stage for a real attack: In other words, get everyone hyperventilating and running around like idiots over a small airplane, dashing into the subways and tunnels of D.C. and then ....
Bull! Even a C-150 could carry something really bad.
The instructor pilot should never be in command of an airplane again..
***"For every action, an identical and hyperbolic overreaction."***
Now that's funny.
Freak out over a plane that can do minimal damage, including explosives, and ignore huge trucks that can carry literal tons of high explosives almost to the doorstep of any government building.
A Boeing 767 does not a warplane make either Fool!!!
How much anthrax can a Cessna 150 carry?
These mistakes include landing at the wrong airport. All one has to do is check past FAA records for such. Pilot heros that have never made mistakes are kidding themselves, it happens.
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.
And I wonder what his reaction would have been if security personnel didn't "overreact" and we found out too late that the improbable terror weapon was filled with something like anthrax (which is a very real possibility). Some people are just never satisfied; you take precautions against a catastrophe and you are being silly, don't take precautions and a catastrophe happens and you are at incompetent.
The security personnel in this situation acted very reasonably and should be commended, not ridiculed.
Isn't the fact that it was a Cessna 150 a bit of hindsight here? My understanding is that nobody knew what it was until the F-16's got up there to take a look. IIRC, the plane had no transponder and the pilots were not responding to hails. |
A Cessna 150 does not a warplane make.Oh, really? Not even with anthrax, or sarin, or ricin, or whatever?
And what about probes, testing our defenses?
I saw an interview with one of the F16 pilots yesterday and he was absolutely calm and rational and in the intervew he calmly and rationally related the calm and rational actions he took, under calm and rational orders. It was all by-the-book.
I would trust that pilot with my life. I wouldn't trust the writer of this anti-defence hysteria with my car. He'd probably leave the keys in the ignition in the parking lot.
The rule is for planes to stay away from the White House, etc. a certain distance.
Except that the plane would likely have crashed and burned in my neighborhood, serious consideration should have been made to taking it out when it violated the airspace and refused to communicate.
There is a war on. Unfortunately we are not able to restrict the impacts of that war to the folks who deny it exists. If we could, we would.
I notice this is published with about 36 hours of hindsight to assess the situation. I'm sure if we had a day and a half to react to every security breach things would go differently.
It should have been shot down.
If you aren't going to bother to learn how to read the instruments, then shame on you.
...and if the Cessna is carrying a fresh nuclear weapon from North Korea (or soon Iran)...
Could a Cessna 150 contain several hundred pounds of C-4? Yes.
Could a Cessna 150 contain a dirty bomb? Yes.
Could a Cessna 150 contain biological agents? Yes.
Could a Cessna 150 contain chemical agents? Yes.
Luke, my friend, you are as wrong as can be that a small aircraft is no threat.
Interesting post!
This is a Cessna 150
A suitcase nuke or suitcase bomb is a very compact and portable nuclear weapon and could have the dimensions of 60 x 40 x 20 centimeters or 24 x 16 x 8 inches. The smallest possible bomb-like object would be a single critical mass of plutonium (or U-233) at maximum density under normal conditions.
The Pu-239 weighs 10.5 kg and is 10.1 cm across. It doesn't take much more than a single critical mass to cause significant explosions ranging from 10-20 tons. These types of weapons can also be as big as two footlockers.
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.
A Cessna 150 does not a warplane make.
A Cessna 150 waould make a dangerous warplane indeed .
Government Alert: Hospital Security Breach
This really has federal authorities puzzled - intruders masquerading as doctors and inspectors probing hospital security. But there is no evidence the cases are connected, including two in New Jersey. Hospital officials and security experts say the similarities are disturbing.
It happened on Easter Sunday. Three men of middle-eastern descent entered a Sussex County hospital posing as physicians.
Watch For Impostors, Homeland Security Warns City Hospitals
New York City hospitals are on the lookout for impostors trying to scope out health-care facilities and locate radioactive materials following warnings late last month from the Department of Homeland Security and the city Police Department about an emerging pattern of suspicious incidents in some American cities.
Stowaway on American nuke-powered aircraft carrier
A Newport man who boarded an American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier anchored in The Solent has been made subject to an anti-social behaviour order and banned from named sensitive areas.
Abdoul Masmoud Yessoufou, 37, whose address was given at Portsmouth Magistrates Court on Wednesday as East Street, Newport, admitted entering a prohibited area at Portsmouth Docks.
The court was told that Yessoufou was found on the USS Harry S. Truman at the weekend after he strolled past guards and hitched a ride out to the carrier on a boat used by sailors on runs ashore.
Yessoufou had previously appeared before Uxbridge Magistrates three times this year for entering restricted zones at Heathrow. He also reached the side of an aircraft at Southampton Airport in January.
I'm sick of this. Washington DC DID NOT go in a panic mode. I was in DC and outside of the capitol building nobody went anywhere. In fact, I was outside for lunch at the time and the streets were no busier than usual and I'm only 4 blocks from the White House. Don't believe everything you hear on TV.
God knows, a guy that flys is taking his (and other) life into his own hands. He sure as hell better believe in himself. The risk comes when the hubris makes the pilot bold, thus increasing his chances of not becoming old.