He’s originaLLY from Turkey of all places. A crazed Muslim in a cockpit, and they decided to not shoot him down. Insanity.
What harm can a Cessna 172, being trailed by F16’s, do?
At the very least I don’t think it’s very wise for a NORAD spokesman to state that the interceptors had no intention of shooting down the stolen airplane. It sounds weak and unserious about defense.
> How did Mr. Kucharek know that Yavuz Berke wouldn’t toss something out of the window of that stolen plane? He was right over the bread basket of this country. A little something in powder form would have wiped out a goodly chunk of livestock and people. How did they KNOW he didn’t have that capability?
How can they be so sure that he didn’t? Foot-and-Mouth Disease is notoriously easy to transmit to any hoofed cattle, it is highly contagious and could do deep, long-lasting harm to America’s livestock industries. Just ask Britain.
“....they knew they wouldn’t shoot it down. Why?....”
Answer: The Pilots were:
1. Afraid of law suits.
2. Afraid of being called a racist or bigot.
3. Trained not to do any independent thinking by PC superiors.
4. Afraid of being arrested for shooting a potential “innocent” terrorist.
5. Afraid of ruining their military career if injury or death occured on the ground from falling debris or bullets.
6. Simply following their training in today’s “touchy-feely” warm and fuzzy, diversity and multicultural training and PC training.
Gee! They should have made the pilot go to the ground and then give him group hugs from all of the chase plane pilots.
The fact is, no one will take any action due to the fear of what might happen to them. From the pilots to the highest level possible. The intruder should have been blasted out of the air as soon as he crossed the US border.
FYI ping
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?
Alex, what is “They saw a white guy was flying it?”
The pilots of the interceptors could see that the airplane was not headed toward anything critical. Given the damage that could be done by a light plane, the expense of an air-to-air missle, the dangers of a flaming airplane plunging to earth, and so on, I'd say they did the right thing.