Posted on 04/27/2007 8:38:26 PM PDT by Stayfree
I live in Southern California. Over the last twelve years, I have reported to the FAA strange flights of huge cargo planes coming from the south headed toward the dry lake beds in the Mojave desert. The first two flights I saw were private biz jets flying on the east side of slow-moving aircraft headed toward the desert. My assumption was that the biz jets carried drugs from south of the border, scimming the ocean until they got to Catalina Island and then hugged local aircraft over the LA basin until they got to the desert. According to every one of the FAA officials answering my phone calls, none of the flights could have been military. Today, I saw a huge 4-jet-engined cargo plane flying the same pattern only a few thousand feet over our house towards the upper desert. This is a plane that could move 50-75 tons of cocaine into our country. This is the third flight like this in the last year and a half.
Watch it, or Sutton will send you off to prison with the BP agents who actually try to do their jobs.
The air space over the Mojave desert is extremely well monitored as several military bases are located in the heart of the region, on of which contains a space shuttle landing strip Edwards AFB.
If you ask me I can’t think of a worse place to smuggle in drugs — especially in huge cargo planes.
What colours or markings did the aircraft have?
Do you have any pics of the aircraft? If so, there are many FReepers, such as myslef, who could help you identify the aircraft.
This is the time of the year when the forest Service conducts their fire training. It could be that is what you saw.
do you know aircraft types? Could it have been a C-130?
I am a former U. S. Customs inspector, and my hubby is still with Customs and Border Protection. You can call 1-800-BE ALERT, to report suspicious activity of this nature. I’ll call hubby to see if he can recommend anything else.
This is not one of my usual satirical or humorous posts. This is a serious observation of what I can only assume is a drug-running operation.
Take pictures if you can, OK? And stay safe...I believe you.
Shoot one down and go see what’s in it.
I know, that is why I followed with a more serious post.
What was the attitude of the FAA personnel who you contacted?
That’s what I was thinking. Also, when I lived in the Valley (coincidentally I left 12 years ago) the National Guard used to fly C-130s in and out of Van Nuys all the time.
I have a clear view of Catalina. I’ll keep an eye out for suspicious aircraft like you described.
Hi,
I’m retired Air Force and work as a civilian at Edwards AFB. Give me more information or pictures and I can help you figure out what it is you are seeing.
I agree with the poster at comment #4. We have a lot of radar and telemetry stations all over this desert so we have a pretty good idea of the air traffic in the area. Especially any large aircraft.
Let me know and I will help.
Stay safe is right.
What about the DEA?
A 4 engined cargo plane is exactly the description of a C-130. If drug runners are using C-130’s, it is one hell of a load to put on a single plane. I would not want to put 40 tons of any commodity in one basket, let alone drugs.
Sorry, I’m not a flyboy! The first few biz jets were white, too high to see any markings. They usually accompanied planes that were large and slow like old DC3’s or DC6’s. Since we moved to Big Bear Lake in 1993, I have seen several large jet-engined cargo planes flying the same route. We are at about 7,000 ft. elevation. The incoming commercial traffic into Ontario Airport, LAX, Orange County, Santa Monica, etc. all come in from the east at 15,000 ft. or more. The huge cargo planes I am talking about come from the south headed north towards the Mojave desert or Nevada at only a few thousand feet over our mountain location. All of the planes are painted like a military gray or green-gray with no markings visible to me. They are not moving super fast, but are very low and moving in a direction that no other aircraft move-either private or commercial. I have no pictures because they pass over us in about a minute. Too late to run in the house and grab a camera. When I have called the FAA in Riverside, it usually takes several minutes to grap the phone, look up the number in our phone book, dial the number and reach a duty officer. By that time , the plane has been gone by about 10-15 minutes. None of the times, has the FAA been able to tell me that they have tracked the plane.
I am aware of all the air force bases in Southern California and Nevada because I have lived here for 64 years.
The posters who have suggested National Guard or firefighting planes are probably very close to the mark. They are very common in our skies here in rural Nevada.
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