Three armed F-22 fighters launched Sunday from Honolulu at request of FAA

Star Advertiser ^ | 06/14/2021 | William Cole

[ScubaDiver]

Officials today would not disclose why three missile-armed Hawaii Air National Guard F-22 fighters were scrambled Sunday afternoon for an “irregular air patrol” requested by the Federal Aviation Administration.

“The 154th Fighter Wing launched two F-22 Raptors from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam at approximately 4 p.m.,” Pacific Air Forces said in an email. “A third was launched at approximately 5 p.m.”

The Hickam-based Air Force command added that the FAA requested that U.S. Indo-Pacific Command “conduct an irregular air patrol and the situation resolved, prompting the fighters and a KC-135 Stratotanker (a refueling plane) to return to base. We cannot discuss further specifics of the situation.”

[ScubaDiver]

FAA and Air Force are being weirdly cryptic. This kind of thing happens with some frequency and those events are generally explained; Russia bomber/recon aircraft flew too close, unruly passenger, pilot violated NOTAM area, etc. On this, nothing.

Not only did they launch three fighters, which is really unusually, but they launched a KC-135 as well for refueling support.

[LIConFem]

Probably going after all those White Supremacists SloJoe has been carping about.

[LIConFem]

White Supremacist aliens, perhaps?

[Flick Lives]

50 foot Tic-Tac invasion?

[Cboldt]

Sasquatch UFO.

[Jonah Hex]

Better to play it safe than repeat 7 December again...

(I'd love to see F-22s vs Zeros though.)

[Vaquero]

Perhaps the coded message sent the FDR whitehouse finally got decoded.

[billyboy15]

“Not only did they launch three fighters, which is really unusually, but they launched a KC-135 as well for refueling support.”

Very possibly this was nothing but a planned surprise alert such as is conducted by the USAF on regularly irregular basis. They are conducted to test reaction time and mission efficiency.

[Sparky1776]

“U.S. Indo-Pacific Command” the new United States Pacific Command.

[Sparky1776]

“Splash the Zeroes”

[Laslo Fripp]

LOL 😂

[Flag_This]

Do Air National Guard United units actually have F-22s?

[Red Badger]

China getting uppity...........................

[jdsteel]

Cue the “I’m not sayin’ it was aliens” pic….

[Yo-Yo]

Most likely the FAA lost contact with an airliner transiting from the mainland to Hawaii, and wanted the escort to ensure that another 9/11 wasn’t going down.

[RWGinger]

Then why announce it was requested by the FAA
If it was routine?

[PhiloBedo]

Were Barry and big mike flying to Hawaii?

[mountainlion]

I saw two A10s escort an airplane to an airport for flying over a restricted site after 911. The pilot was an air traffic controler.

[ScubaDiver]

Yes. I’m not sure how many squadrons in total. But, I know that in addition to HI, the VA AirGuard also has a squadron at Langley. These were F-15 squadrons before making the transition to Raptors.

[logi_cal869]

Trump issued a short-notice flight plan for Hawaii to troll gov. Ige, then pulled the flight plan.

/s