Posted on 04/09/2009 10:01:42 AM PDT by stillafreemind
Mike Kucharek, a spokesman for North American Aerospace Defense Command, is being reported in an article on Foxnews.com that very shortly after American F-16s started following the stolen plane, they knew they wouldn't shoot it down. Why?
(Excerpt) Read more at associatedcontent.com ...
Yeah right, with F16's hovering over him. All they have to do is fly in front of him and tell the FAA where the wreckage is. I could do a lot more damage with a 3000 lb car than a 1200 lb plane.
> Just as an aside, the cost of one AIM 9 would buy several of those Cessna’s. Therefore, it shooting it down could have potentially done as much damage as not, and wasted thousands of taxpayer dollars in the process, why bother?
They don’t have machine guns anymore, ay?
I don’t really mind whether they shot the Cessna down or not: I am somewhat suspicious of the pilot’s motives and not quite convinced it was as harmless as we are being told.
> If you think throwing something out of the window would have dispersed some toxin or bio-agent, how much more would have an explosion from the aircraft fuel tank hit by a missile warhead or 20 mm rounds have dispersed it?
In the case of Foot-and-Mouth Disease, it is destroyed by fire. That’s why Britain had to burn the cattle carcasses: it was the best and safest way to dispose of them. So exploding the plane would have been a fairly sensible thing to do if they were sure he was carrying FMD. If it were nuclear waste or something else, perhaps not.
If that's your method ... lots easier and harder to detect if you do it from a car.
Admit it: you don't really care about rational thought, you just wanted the big cloud of flaming debris.
A lot of damage? Like hitting the side of a school and making a mess for the janitor to clean up? Seriously, people have no idea how light and fragile small planes are.
no more MGs on planes, not since Korea.
all guns now are cannon.
Ummm..Does Cordova Illinois mean anything to you?
Do you actually KNOW about livestock airborne diseases?
Think it was “easy” to hi-jack the airliners and fly into the towers? What the heck was “easy” about that? It took a bit of preparation.
I think you just don’t want anything to point towards a weakened security in this country since Obama and Crew came in. LOL..taking it out on me will not make our country safer!
Some nut flew a comparable plane into the White House some years back - I mean full-on impact. Building damage was negligible, plane was a complete loss.
Another similar plane was stolen & flown into an office building not long after 9/11 (inspired thereby). One office was damaged.
Launching missiles or firing 30mm cannons full-auto would do a lot more harm (and cost more) than they would prevent.
FYI ping
Groan.
1. The idea of the "single vial that could destroy the country" is fictional BS. Stop watching so many movies. "12 Monkeys" was a story, not a documentary.
In the extremely unlikely chance that someone COULD get their hands on that "single vial that could destroy the country" (getting past extremely high security to acquire it, or have the pricy resources needed to create it, exercising enough costly safety measures to actually handle & transport the thing far enough without terminating the courier, etc.)...
2. Tossing it out of an aircraft is about the least effective delivery mechanism possible. All that effort just to miss the optimal target by hundreds of yards, if not miles? c'mon. If it's that potent, just drive/walk downtown at lunch hour.
There's reasonable concern, then there's hysterical paranoia. It took several guys competently hijacking a fully-fueled airliner to bring down a building, not some kid with little more than a powered hanglider.
Of course you ignore the fact that airplanes have access to places a car can't go - the tanks in an oil farm, the dome of a capitol building, an office tower, the catalytic towers in a refinery, the stadium of a county fair. Loaded with appropriate explosive material, the damage it could do could make a car bomb pale in comparison. Escorting F-16's are at a serious disadvantage. The Cessna can stay in the air at speeds that the F-16's lose control. A Cessna flying at 1500' can drop and crash a target before the F-16's can circle to make a pass - much less radio for final clearance to engage!
Your pre-Wright-Brothers mentality is curious.
They must have talked to his mom, and she said he is a good boy and does’t have a gun.
I would like to know if the 16’s were actually carrying live weapons. Does the U.S. Air Force keep interceptors on hot alert with live weapons in the upper mid-west?
The fact is that this guy was immediately spotted and tracked. What more do you want?
You missed the point, broadcasting what will or will not be done to a potential enemy is simply not very wise.
LOL! You reminded me of my very first Tac Eval when I was an Army butterbar. While I was briefing the Wing Commander (Hahn AB) on our air defense positions, an input came in that Ramstein had been hit with a nonpersistent nerve agent.
The Base Disaster Preparedness Officer, an AF Captain, recommended that the entire base go to Alarm Red, which meant that everybody would have to don all of their protective gear. To put it mildly, normal operations would have been severely impeded. Before the Wing Cdr could say anything, I piped up "may I make a recommendation, sir?"
"Sir, I recommend Alarm Yellow (no masks) for the following reasons:"
"1. Ramstein is at least 60 miles east of us, the winds are westerly."
"2. It's raining like hell outside, so the stuff is virtually harmless."
The Wing Commander said, "I like your idea, LT...Alarm Yellow it is." As he said that, I could see the Chief Evaluator nodding his head.
Thirty minutes later, I heard the Wing Cdr say "I want that Army LT up here whenever there's an NBC input."
Yeah ... and you could build mortars from materials available at your local hardware store and get the same effect with better mobility and fewer chances of being spotted.
As this example shows, a small airplane is a wretchedly poor means of delivering a telling blow. It was spotted and tracked. Even if you flew one into a spot like that ... in a big-picture sense, so what? It's local damage only. Hardly a country-shaking event.
Alex, what is “They saw a white guy was flying it?”
Drop and crash a target? Have you ever flown a 172? LOL
Your pre-Wright-Brothers mentality is curious.
Would you care to match your CV with mine when it comes to aviation? Two days ago I rode a wave to 34,000'.
Great post.
Sometimes cooler heads just have to prevail : )
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