Does anyone find it odd that post 9/11 this plane wasn't shot down?
By ZephyrSun
@ZephyrSun (7381)
United States
April 7, 2009 7:23am CST
The plane was stolen from a flight school in Canada and landed in Missouri. During that flight the Wiscousin National Guard F-16's followed the plane trying to make contact, and Wiscousin capitol building was even evacuated. It was reported that the pilot was flying "erratically".
Anyone else wondering why the plane was able to make it that far into the US without being stopped? Any thoughts on this?
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/07/stolen.plane.pilot/index.html
Here's the full story
1 person likes this
7 responses
@ZephyrSun (7381)
• United States
7 Apr 09
I don't know why they wouldn't consider him a threat. The whole story is just very strange. I heard it this morning on the national news show and had to find out more. I remember after 9/11 the military was following planes/jets on several different times.
@pyrozilla (41)
• United States
7 Apr 09
Hmm, I guess this would start a new fear of any student pilot being shot out of the air. The whole thing still scares me, I know the world has always been a messed up place to live in.
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@gitfiddleplayer (10362)
• United States
7 Apr 09
Not sure. I guess that a national panic is not something that B.O. wants on his watch.
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@ZephyrSun (7381)
• United States
7 Apr 09
Think he even knew about it? lol Who knows according to another post this has happened before and they didn't shoot the plane down.
@irisheyes (4370)
• United States
7 Apr 09
I don't find it all that odd because we had an incident here a few years back. It was a local pilot and he was (believe it or not) flying drunk. He flew all over the area one night and wasn't shot down although he is now in jail. It was really frightening. He flew over our house and everybody who was home ran into the basement. So did all of the neighborhood. He was so low that all of the windows rattled like crazy..
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@ZephyrSun (7381)
• United States
7 Apr 09
That's really crazy, and it seems your pilot made as much news as this one. It is really amazing that after terrorists used planes to attack us the US would become so lax about rogue planes/pilots.
@Taskr36 (13963)
• United States
7 Apr 09
It's probably because a Cessna 172 isn't considered a serious threat. I remember after 9-11 there was a moron in Tampa, FL who flew the exact same plane into a Bank of America building. It broke a window and killed the guy flying it. That was the extent of the damage. Clearly they thought this was worth monitoring, I just think they evaluated the situation and decided the threat wasn't enough to warrant firing on the plane.
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@ZephyrSun (7381)
• United States
7 Apr 09
I sorta remember the Tampa plane. I didn't know that it did so little damage. But, anyway, it all seems weird. I hate to say but, our local FOX news channel, not the "FOX NEWS" breaks in and covers every event like all day long and I'm surprised since we are in the area that it didn't cover this lol
@xfahctor (14118)
• Lancaster, New Hampshire
7 Apr 09
Cripe, I not only find it odd, the guy should consider himself lucky. There may have been some communication with the school when he entered U.S. airspace. they can tell where a plane is comming from though the IFF system if it isn't turned off. I am guessing it was on, because standard protocal I believe is to shoot down any plane authomaticly now that doesn't have it activated and also fails to communicate. Wierd story, lucky guy.
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@ZephyrSun (7381)
• United States
7 Apr 09
I didn't know that about the IFF thing. I heard the story on Good Morning America but, they didn't give a lot of details and then I found it on CNN and neither said anything about the IFF system. You're very correct, he is lucky!
@deejean06 (1952)
• United States
7 Apr 09
Hi Zephyr...Interesting story however we should be a bit more interested in errant planes nowadays, I think. If it was such a security issue that the capitol building was evacuated then I think steps should have been taken in the air. This does not bode well for us that we are becoming so lax in our air security. Thanks for the discussion.
@thrasher115 (36)
• Malaysia
8 Apr 09
mm this things might be happened again.maybe it happened by somebody instruction lo...
@ZephyrSun (7381)
• United States
7 Apr 09
I fear that we will just not worry about national security as much as we once did and we will allow ourselves to have history repeat itself with 9/11. Hopefully we will not.
@barehugs (8973)
• Canada
8 Apr 09
Not odd at all! First off, don't think the American pilots of the F16s didn't know that the young pilot was a born Canadian with no previous record. He was also a good student pilot. Also a single engine Cessna almost out of gas won't do much harm to an ordinary Building. Its not heavy, not travelling fast, and would be unlikely to catch fire. The Americans had no intention of shooting him down unless he tried to pull something strange and unusual, (which he did not.)
@ZephyrSun (7381)
• United States
8 Apr 09
Actually with his flying being all crazy would have gotten him shot down right after 9/11, because Americans were still afraid of everything. We have short memories. And, if the American officals were not concerned they would have not cleared out the capitol building in Wiscousin.
