TERRORISM: Plane Forced Down Inside NASA No Fly Zone

A civilian Piper Cub that entered the no-fly zone around NASA's Shuttle launch site was forced to land at a nearby airfield by airforce patrol aircraft.
When the authorities went to question the pilot, the plane was there, but the pilot had disapeared.



Why would someone with nothing to hide run from the authorities so quickly? Has it occured to anyone else that a great way to harm the US would be to do away with it's heros, not to mention a few billion dollars worth of spacecraft?

I realize that it might just have been a scared pilot who paniked and ran but that seems a little far fetched to me.

Has anyone heard any further details or found any other links to the story?

In the end I hope that it's just me being paranoid.

[edit on 29-7-2005 by palg1]

The pilot should be fairly easy to trace. If the plane was rented then the FBO who rented it will have records that are probably accurate. If the plane was pilot owned records will be available, but they may not be accurate. Assuming the pilot filed a VFR flight plan, which he is very likely to have done, additional records will be available. At any rate, it was rather stupid to run away because they will find him, especially if he had explosives or something in the plane--not that he would have needed any if his intent was to crash the plane into the shuttle.

My guess is the pilot was a drug smuggler who ventured into the restricted air space so when forced to land he ran. I would assume perhaps he may have dumped/delivered his drugs earlier and might have been a foriegn national.

Wow, strange story...

But I've never viewed the Shuttle as a prime terror target. Since most of us don't ride shuttles at all, it's unlikely to breed fear and terror, probably just anger and desire for retribution.

I'm sure terrorists are not ever going to consider blowing up a space shuttle.....NASA does enough of that on their own.

Nasa has blown up 2 out of how many hundreds of flights?

How many Ford trucks have caught fire for no reason driving down the road?

A attack on the shuttle wouldn't cause fear so much, but it would work to further decapitate the agency. Space is the future of mankind, forget that and we are already doomed. (As a species)

If the piper plane speed is about 85 MPH and if the wind direction was in their favour lets say maximum speed 92 MPH
The plane was 20 miles away with 3 minutes to launch lets say 3 minutes 40 seconds till the shuttle was far away enough into space.
Then would this plane have made it anyway?

95 MPH x 1600 meters = 152000 meters per hour
Divided by 60 minutes = 2533 Meters a minute (Plane speed per mile)

20 miles = 20 x 1600 meters = 32000 meters away from shuttle base

Plane max speed 2533 meters per minute

Plane was 3 minutes away so that = 2533 x 3 = 7599 meters

20 miles = 32000 meters – 7599 meters leaves 24401 meters to do

Unless this plane had a rocket booster like the Night Rider Car or a missile underneath’ it had no hope of getting there.
Then was it test run for a later date or was it one of the missing WW2 pilots from the Bermuda triangle trying to find home?

Lets see if I get this streight?

2 F-16's intercept a Piper Cub, force it to land or at least convince the pilot to land at a nearby field. Presumably this would be Patrick AFB or one of the small fields near or on the Cape. The plane lands with no welcome committee (Air Force Security, Police, etc...) waiting for this "Possible Terrorist". The innocent pilot who rented from a FBO (possibly using provided documents), or stole the aircraft got tired of waiting for police and left. He was probably lost on the way to Disney World.

Originally posted by Billwsochi
Lets see if I get this streight?

2 F-16's intercept a Piper Cub, force it to land or at least convince the pilot to land at a nearby field. Presumably this would be Patrick AFB or one of the small fields near or on the Cape. The plane lands with no welcome committee (Air Force Security, Police, etc...) waiting for this "Possible Terrorist". The innocent pilot who rented from a FBO (possibly using provided documents), or stole the aircraft got tired of waiting for police and left. He was probably lost on the way to Disney World.

Like Billwsochi, I am more concerned that 2 F-16's intercept the plane and force it to land but no one was on the ground waiting for the aircraft??? Talk about lack of coordination!

40 miles of protected airspace is a whole bunch of airspace. Everything should shut down and wait on this launch that may or may not happen???

Florida has allot of tourist even during the summer. This pilot could have been from Miami, Tampa, or Jacksonville and not aware of a shuttle launch. He could have been a businessman from any of these cities with his own plane and just not aware.

It's bad to assume this was terrorists.

[edit on 7/31/05 by Qwas]

Originally posted by Masterspy

Unless this plane had a rocket booster like the Night Rider Car or a missile underneath’ it had no hope of getting there.
Then was it test run for a later date or was it one of the missing WW2 pilots from the Bermuda triangle trying to find home?

Your analysis is correct as far as it goes, but had the plane come any closer I'll bet NASA would have put a hold on the launch until the aircraft was safely out of the area. I do not think their initial reaction would have been "terrorist", they, in all likelihood would have assumed it was just some idiot and been concerned for his safety--and it may have been just that.

[edit on 31-7-2005 by Astronomer68]

I live in titusville which is directly across from the assembly building all that is between is the indian river. When 9/11 happend police found terrorist living in the aparments which were on the river which had a clear view of the building. Its far away but theres alittle airport here that they could take off at and crash into something if they wanted to. But i dont think they would have a chance because nasa always has blackhawks patroling the indian ocean before a launch.

How did they force the plane down... Ok, two F-16, but from were did they come...?

[edit on 31-7-2005 by Figher Master FIN]

Here's a really stupid fact. That plane had to be on the ground for at least a half hour for the pilot to successfully run and hide FROM AN AIRFIELD.

The is a military air force base called patrick air force base which is like 30 minutes from my town and im pretty sure nasa has their own planes too.

There are Air Force planes that patrol the skies during Shuttle launches. This has happened before, and really isn't all that uncommon.

Also, not all airports have people at them all the time. In fact, most of the really small ones don't have someone there unless they're called upon. The pilot should have waited for someone to come, instead of running off. My guess he was a drug smuggler, as shots suggested.

And half an hour is more than enough time to get away. He could have run off through swamps and hid in them. Pretty hard to find.

All FAA approved airfields have aviation regulations that require a clearance between the runways and natural obstacles (trees, grass, swamp, etc). The distance depends on the type of planes that are authorized to land on them, and the cargo that they are carrying.





[edit on 2-8-2005 by dotgov101]

hummmmmmm well considering how unlikely it is for a guy to up and dissapear out of a plane, maybe there was no guy in the plane to begin with. Someone was probably controlling it via remote. Seems like the most logical explanation to me.

Originally posted by dotgov101
All FAA approved airfields have aviation regulations that require a clearance between the runways and natural obstacles (trees, grass, swamp, etc). The distance depends on the type of planes that are authorized to land on them, and the cargo that they are carrying.

It's called a displaced threshold... For small airports used only for light planes the trees or obstables can be nearly to all edges of the runways. It wouldn't be hard to land and disappear into them.

mrsdudara that really isn't that logical of an explanation. The equipment would be way expensive and add more weight (radios to control the plane, servos to make the control surfaces move).

But they would have found all that in the airplane

Well, last year when Pres. Bush came to town (we are close enough to that airport that we saw the plane land) a small plane came too close and was "escorted" ot of the air space and forced to land. After seeing that, there is no way that someone could have just dissapeared. It is more logical to say he was zapped up by a UFO than to say he escaped. So I dont think that a plane flying via remote is any more far fetched than the individual making a succesful run for it. However if that is the case, then who ever was incharge should no longer have a job, because that is totaly unacceptable.

[edit on 2-8-2005 by mrsdudara]