Plane diverted to Milwaukee

I did a search to see if there were any other threads about this - my apologies if someone caught this before I did. This is my first time posting a new thread - bare with me if I did this wrong.

Milwaukee news article

This is a strange event. Not enough crew members, plane going off course, only 6 passengers (3 being Russian nationals)? Something smells fishy....

Only 6 people on a plane that big?

That is interesting.

It sounds and looks like it was a privately owned plane that was being flown to Russia for some reason. Maybe someone there bought it and they were delivering it.

Yes, but these days it's a big no-no to go off course like that. Any pilot knows that.

How do we know they didn't have a navigation failure? Maybe they only had an older navigation system, and they drift as time goes on. If they didn't calibrate it properly, or it had some kind of problem then it could have shown them on course, while they were going off course.

You would think that if it were something like that, they would have reported it in the news story though, don't you think? I don't know, maybe it's just fear mongering, but if there weren't more to it I would think there would be more said about all this and they would let them be on their way.

[edit on 3/26/2007 by closettrekkie]

It can take awhile to verify a maintenance problem with planes. Especially if the FBI is involved. They're probably not letting a mechanic anywhere near the plane until they get done with all their business with it.

From the story...

The plane was reported stolen by Peter Delisa of New Jersey, reportedly in the process of selling the plane to a company out of Russia called Siviera. Delisa claims the plane was taken before the sale was finalized, so he called the FAA.

Early reports and an FBI confirmation that the plane was off course were incorrect.

It was heading to Russia with a stopover in Newfoundland, Canada when military aircraft had to escort it to the ground Saturday around 1 p.m.

Looks like a legal issue or flat out theft...

Intercepts seem to work real good when business and money is involved.


[edit on 3/26/2007 by roadgravel]

They also work really well when you have a plane flying a known course, talking to the ATC, with a transponder on that they can track.

Thanks for the update, roadgravel, that part wasn't in there when I posted the article. I wonder who the passengers were if the plane was stolen? They weren't taken into custody....