Posted on 04/11/2007 4:21:27 PM PDT by Cornpone
Tel Aviv - Israeli warplanes nearly shot down an American airliner carrying passengers from New York to Tel Aviv on Wednesday when the pilot failed to respond as the plane approached the Israeli coast, an airport authority official said.
Two Israeli F-15s and two F-16s fighter planes were scrambled to intercept a Boeing 777 operated by the US Continental Airlines as it prepared to enter Israeli airspace without responding to control tower demands to identify itself, the official added.
According to Israel's private Channel-10, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, defence minister Amir Peretz and General Gaby Ashkenazy, chief of staff, were warned that the air force was on the point of shooting down a civilian plane suspected of being in the hands of hijackers.
The Boeing pilot at the last minute realised the situation and the danger threatening his craft and established contact while still over the Mediterranean.
Escorted by the warplanes, the Boeing landed without further problems at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport where an inquiry was opened.
Naw, just send him to radio school. "Ex-Captain, this is a microphone....."
Problem... is that a plane taken over by terrorists will still squawk "Friend".
Time for the pilots and everybody else to break out the cell phones and air phones (assuming phones would work like they did on 9/11 when so many people called from the hijacked planes).
Earth to pilot, Earth to pilot!
Whatever happened to Guard channel, AKA Navy Common?
Ain't it the truth. NATO common, too.
To squak or not to squawk. I think it depends on the terrorists intentions. It would probably make more sense to turn the transponder off so the plane can’t be that easily tracked. Of course this would result in a much quicker decision time to shoot the aircraft down if it was not squawking. Just depends on which crazy islamic nut is driving.
The poor guy probably dialed in the wrong freq. for approach. Result: no response to queries by plane or ground.
“I wonder why the radio is so quiet?”
remember it? if not, look it up....1967
I doubt the cell phones would work over the Mediterranean. There’s no cell towers there.
Yeah, I know about the USS Liberty incident. I just wanted you to explain how a tragic mistake that happened 40 years ago during a shooting war is related to this Continential pilot not (initially) responding to control tower demands to identify itself. ....and no one getting hurt.
‘Read about this earlier. Phew!
thank you
What I was wondering was if the transponder could be set to respond to a "request for information" from the tower, so that the pilot did not have to squawk it manually. I realize that the squawk won't identify friend from foe, but it would give the tower information about the aircraft without requiring pilot cooperation. Done correctly, it could tell the tower much, much more -- including the status of onboard personnel. A certain code entered into the sender could indicate to the tower that the plane is in a silent "alarm" mode, for example.
I'm no aeronautical electronics wiz, but it seems to me that a microprocessor could be programmed to respond with some minimal datastream if prompted by a poll from the ground on a certain frequency.
tragic mistake?????
Oh, I see you’re a conspiracy nutball. Carry on with your delusion.
Agreed.
But obviously, it it much more dramatic to say "almost shot down" by those nasty joos!
What's with airline pilots these days? Their quality seems to have gone south a few notches, judging from recent news stories.
actually I have a good memory.....if that is all you require to dismiss me as a “conspiracy nutball” I am very flattered.
The only “tragic mistake” in the USS Liberty matter was political.....not tactical or operational.
Looks like a thread hijacking in progress.
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