"No. That's just what they'd expect us to do."
Posted on 04/06/2009 6:32:06 PM PDT by pissant
U.S. F-16 fighter jets are tracking a single-engine plane over Missouri that was stolen from a Thunder Bay, Ont., aviation school Monday afternoon.
Lt.-Cmdr. Gary Ross of NORAD in Colorado told CTV Newsnet that as of about 9 p.m. the plane was about 50 kilometres east of Salem.
"We remain in pursuit and are trying to encourage the pilot to land safely," he said.
Ross said the pilot has not responded to radio calls from the F-16s or the FAA and that the stolen Cessna 172 only has about one hour of fuel left.
He also said the pilot has refused to acknowledge the nonverbal communications from the F-16 jets to follow them.
(Excerpt) Read more at ctv.ca ...
Crash and burn time.
They should shoot it down.
Lawn dart
And of course they already know it isn’t a terrorist...right?
A friend of mine sent this to me. I guess it was a Canadore College aviation student. That’s what some of our friends up there say anyway. He deserves what he gets.
LOL
(No, I mean it. I really laughed out loud)
Welcome to Obama’s America where it takes time for police to respond to gunmen who shoot hostages and us talking to idiots who break into our airspace for ....2 hours and counting.
Yup, that's what they said on ABC News less than an hour ago.
Bring it down.
"No. That's just what they'd expect us to do."
UNITED STATES / CANADA (BNO NEWS) — A Cessna 172 airplane was reported stolen from a flight school in Thunder Bay, Canada on Monday afternoon, illegally entered U.S. airspace and is now flying over Illinois, FAA and other officials tell BNO News.
The airplane theft was first reported at 2.55 p.m. local time after it took off from Confederation College at Thunder Bay International Airport in Canada, according to Laura Craig who is a spokeswoman for the airport. “Confederation College officials reported the theft immediately and requested the assistance of Thunder Bay Police,” a statement read. “The aircraft was tracked by radar and crossed into U.S. airspace,” she added. Craig also said that the college is cooperating with Thunder Bay Police to recover the airplane and identify the individual flying the airplane.
In the United States, multiple agencies such as the Federal Aviation Authority, NORAD and the U.S. Air Force are closely following the situation. “They believe its one of the students and we’ve been tracking the aircraft since it entered U.S. airspace and we are still tracking it, he is currently over central Wisconsin,” FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown told BNO News earlier. She later told BNO News that the aircraft had since entered Illinois airspace and is currently flying north of St. Louis, just over the state border. Only one person is believed to be on board. Brown also said that attempts to make contact with the pilot have failed and it is unclear what his intentions are.
Two F-16 fighter jets quickly intercepted the aircraft after it entered U.S. airspace, a spokesman for NORAD confirmed to BNO News. “We believe it is still in the air at this time,” he added.
According to an official at Central Wisconsin Airport in Mosinee, authorities were preparing to force the plane to land at the airport. “They were apparently going to force an airplane to land here but [it was] called off about a quarter to five. Nothing happened here,” he said. Dozens of emergency vehicles were dispatched to the airport but have since left. He did not know the current status of the plane.
Due to the ongoing incident, the Wisconsin Capitol was briefly evacuated. According to the Associated Press, the building was evacuated out of precaution due to the stolen aircraft in the area. People were being ordered to stay at least one block away from the building and police cars with sirens were driving around the Capitol.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security refused to say if the incident could be terrorism related, and referred all inquiries to the FAA. A report from the Associated Press, however, said that there were no indications it might be terrorism related.
Refresh this page for updates on this breaking story.
Stay with bnonews.com and “BreakingNews” on Twitter for the latest up-to-the-minute news updates.
/johnny
maybe its overland then it won’t splash
How do F16’s fly slow enough to chase a Cessna 172?
they do circles around it
It appears to be flying over 14,000 feet. The “pilot” is probably incoherent to what is happening right now due to a lack of oxygen.
Of course, since President Obama is out of the country, I am sure VP Biden is equally incoherent right now and unable to make any decisions other than if he should have it on the rocks or neat.
I wonder if they could tell if the pilot is conscious or not, probably not. I doubt the F16 could flyby that slowly, they needed to put a UH60 helicopter up there for that.
But it might splat!
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