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.
Take pictures if you can, OK? And stay safe...I believe you.
Shoot one down and go see what’s in it.
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?
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.
BTTT!
What time of day is this occuring? I live up in Pinon Hills, and can see Telescope peak in Death Valley from here. Do you have any way of guesstimating lat and long regarding the dry lake beds? We can see them from here. In fact we’ve gotten “buzzed” on occasion, then ghetto birds start flying around.
I’ll keep an eye out, but I ain’t calling anyone. I avoid LE like the plague, but will let you know if we see anything. I can try and take pics, but I don’t think my camera’s are good enough.
Touch’n Go at Mojave (MHV) airport.
Your theory concerning the small plane “hugging” the larger one has merit. I recall that one of the pilots who claimed to have flown drugs for Barry Seal (into Mena, AR) testified that they used exactly that technique.
When passing over a radar surveilled area, two A/C would fly close together — to image as a single blip on radar. Then, when they reached the edge of the radar’s coverage, they would descend just below the radar coveage, and the drug-carrying A/C would dive down to tree-hugging height. Then the decoy A/C would fly back up into radar view, and head off in another direction...
I’ve gone through this post and have a theory. What if they are civilian/military flights associated wtih Boeing/Northrop/Raytheon?etc. You stated they were headed out to the desert which is were most of the testing grounds are for the So cal branches. A photo or video would be good also, a tail number. Keep a disposable camera handy in your car, etc. They come in quite handy in times like this. ;o)