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Evacuation of Capital now! (Update: FNC: White House Secret Service gives all clear signal)
Fox News

Posted on 05/11/2005 9:06:58 AM PDT by pitinkie

Capital and WH being evacuated.."full running evac"


TOPICS: Breaking News; News/Current Events; US: District of Columbia; US: Maryland; US: Virginia
KEYWORDS: airraid; dc; evacuation; falsealarm; nationalsecurity; terroristattack; violationofairspace; washingtondc
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To: Quix

Your predictions of doom every fortnight are bound to come to some sort of fruition eventually. Congratulations to you and your looney doom friends.


1,001 posted on 05/11/2005 5:52:19 PM PDT by The Real J Fate
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To: Milwaukee_Guy
"What happened today is pure, unadulterated, illogical PARANOIA!" You may be on to something. There have been hundreds of civil aviation incusions into DC airspace without Code Red evacuations of the Capitol since 911.

This is the most reasonable response I have seen. This was a 100 mph Cessna 150 for heaven's sake! It carries maybe 50 pounds in addition to the passengers. An F-16 can smoke it in seconds. For the authorities to go ape over such a trivial matter means only one of two things: 1. They are absolutely PARANOID about airplanes, or 2. something is afoot and any trivial matter must be blown into a major case because of the intelligence conditions. My concern is that the first source is irrational and quite harmful to the economics and progress of the country. The second source is one I had not considered.

1,002 posted on 05/11/2005 6:08:30 PM PDT by LukeSW (Change the Ad)
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To: The Real J Fate

Would love for you to be right in many respects.

Alas, you are not.

Stay tuned. You'll find out plenty soon enough.

Whether you'll have the horse sense to change your tune in time will be a different issue.


1,003 posted on 05/11/2005 6:56:38 PM PDT by Quix (LOVE NEVER FAILS.)
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To: demlosers

Amazing all of it as it comes live on air:)


1,004 posted on 05/11/2005 7:41:01 PM PDT by fatima
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To: Ramius
I don't think there is always the luxury of knowing immediately what sort of aircraft it might be. That's something that you find out some precious minutes later, and people need to start evac immediately.

Exactly, all you have is a blip on the radar, with or without a beacon response. (If the transponder was on at all, it probably was squawking code 1200 (Visual Flight Rules, not under air traffic control)). It could easily have been an old airliner, such as a DC-6 or Convair 240/340/440/580, or even an old DC-3. Any of those could carry a significant payload.

1,005 posted on 05/11/2005 8:29:20 PM PDT by El Gato
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To: ClancyJ
Guess they will outlaw any threat that makes it too hard for fat people or any threat making them have to run more than 200 yds.

More likely they'll make it illegal to run any faster than a 300 lb man can run.

1,006 posted on 05/11/2005 8:33:50 PM PDT by El Gato
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To: vigilo
The concept of 'restricted air space' is rediculous. It can only cause problems and will never stop a genuine attack.

It might not, but it did get the F-16s up there in time to shoot down the aircraft if it appeared to be a genuine threat. It serves as a trigger to set the hounds loose. You can't investigate every airplane in the sky, there are way too many of them.

Would a real terrorist refrain from attacking because the air space is restricted?

Of course not, but it would make him a target, and give time to alert defensive systems. Automated systems can easily be set to alert the operator if they move into restricted air space.

1,007 posted on 05/11/2005 8:50:43 PM PDT by El Gato
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To: paul51
They should ban flights of this nature in the area meaning that he wouldn't have been permitted to take off to start with.

This guy took off from Pennsylvania. How large an area would you ban private aircraft from?

1,008 posted on 05/11/2005 8:55:18 PM PDT by El Gato
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To: Tatze
A U-Haul can do more damage with conventional explosive because it can carry more

The more is better fallacy. Placement counts for even more than the amount of explosives. In the center of a building is better than somewhere outside. A smaller amount of explosives set off inside the building, after the manned cruise missile hits it, would be more likely to bring the building down than a larger amount set off 50 or 100 feet outside of it.

1,009 posted on 05/11/2005 9:18:44 PM PDT by El Gato
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To: El Gato
More likely they'll make it illegal to run any faster than a 300 lb man can run.

Brings to mind Tim Conway skit with the little old man who did everything with tiny, tiny steps and very, very slow movements. Can just see Tim "running" out of the capitol.

1,010 posted on 05/11/2005 9:37:00 PM PDT by ClancyJ (Florida Motto: Send me your weak, frail, elderly - and we will give them 'rest'".)
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To: paul51
Pick a number. 50 mi. 100 mi.whatever. The point is, don't let light aircraft of this type takeoff in the vicinity and that will reduce the possibility of them straying into the airspace around the WH. Is that so hard to understand?

Do you have any idea how many airfield are within 100 miles of DC? Lots. The biggest threat is still an airliner diverted or perhaps a nominally "air cargo" aircraft, that files for someplace nearby, Baltimore maybe, or even Dulles, and then diverts. If there is a CAP (combat air patrol) airborne, they'll be able to get to it fast enough. If they have to scramble, like the NORAD spokesman just said on TV that they did today, it might be too late, but it might not as well. DC ANG F-16s sitting strip alert at Andrews are pretty darn close. If they are cocked and ready, with flight crews only a few feet away, or even in the cockpit (presuably in covered shelters of some sort) they can get airborne in under a minute. This guy got to within 3 miles, but I haven't heard how far out he was when they scrambled.

1,011 posted on 05/11/2005 9:45:45 PM PDT by El Gato
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To: AFPhys
Ah... reminds me of the day I was on ALERT and told to fire up the engines because we had incoming nukes.

At one time they wouldn't tell the crews it was a drill until they were airborne, with live nuclear weapons in the bomb bay! Then they started telling them just before they moved onto the active runway.

Missile launch are, or so I'm told, never told its for real, unless of course it is. (Baring the odd accident when the real message to get ready to launch is accidentally sent instead of the practice one. Happened at least once that I know of).

1,012 posted on 05/11/2005 10:05:31 PM PDT by El Gato
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To: Miss Behave
I just asked the question because a 90 knot plane flanked by a 500 knot plane doesn't seem to work in my mind.

The one will overtake the other in a big way and pass it up.

I have no doubt that they can swap off and keep it in sight and in their control. I suspect they've thought of that. But I also think their stall speed is more than that of a Cessna. I could certainly be wrong.

1,013 posted on 05/11/2005 10:10:47 PM PDT by Who dat?
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To: TomGuy

How'd you like to look up and see that Blackhawk squating over you? Although I suspect they pulled up alongside, with the door gunner waving hello with a minigun. :)


1,014 posted on 05/11/2005 10:11:11 PM PDT by El Gato
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To: Ramius
So... how long should they wait... until they can see the plane from the WH, so they know whether its a big plane or a little plane?

You think maybe the guys in the F-16s might be able to tell? Might even have some binoculars up there with them? And of course the bigger it is, the farther away you can see it.

1,015 posted on 05/11/2005 10:39:30 PM PDT by El Gato
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To: Dr. Eckleburg
Twenty-two miles of no-contact flight.

I sort of doubt they were all "no contact". Those F-16s intercepted well out from 3 miles. The blackhawk probably did as well.

1,016 posted on 05/11/2005 10:41:23 PM PDT by El Gato
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To: El Gato
This guy took off from Pennsylvania

Didn't realize that at the time I commented. Your points are well taken

1,017 posted on 05/11/2005 10:49:26 PM PDT by paul51 (11 September 2001 - Never forget)
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To: Pyro7480
Plus, they have SAM's at the Pentagon.

Since when? I'm thinking post-9/11 right?

1,018 posted on 05/12/2005 3:55:25 AM PDT by BureaucratusMaximus (Socialists are blessed with the desire to serve others. That's why most of them work @ McDonalds)
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To: Ellesu

I just can't believe how some of our elected officials behaved during this emergency. They needed a detailed explanation, they needed a protocol? Give me a break!

I'm one of two "wardens" for the floor in the building where I work. If there is a fire, for example, it's my duty to alert everyone to evacuate. I'm going to tell my co-workers to leave and if necessary, point them to the emergency exits (although they should know where they are since we've had enough fire drills). I'm not going to have time to give anyone a detailed explanation, or find them a way to leave so they won't have to go out with the peons.

To his credit, I understand that Harry Reid had some nice words for the Capitol police and others who evacuated him and the rest of our overpaid, underworked congresspeople. The rest of the pompous a$$ whiners ought to be ashamed of themselves.


1,019 posted on 05/12/2005 5:01:55 AM PDT by fatnotlazy
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To: ARCADIA
There is no requirement, nor even ability, to monitor military radio. I was once taxing at a major airport and had a National Guard trainer headed the wrong way on the taxi way right at me. Neither I, nor the tower were able to raise the National guard pilot although we were all stopped on the ground within a couple of hundred yards of each other. Civilian aviation is managed by civilian air traffic controllers.

Military radio traffic is very monitorable and most pilots always have their radio tuned to T/R guard, that's how a/c that don't know each others operational freqs hear each other, no?
1,020 posted on 05/12/2005 6:07:30 AM PDT by superfries
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