US Fighter Almost Fires on VIP Plane

Here is a story that makes me think that we have gone almost too far in our trying to prevent terrorism.

www.telegraph.co.uk.../news/2004/07/09/wterr09.xml

"US Air Force jets were only minutes away from shooting down an aircraft carrying a senior politician after it entered restricted airspace over Washington last month, officials said yesterday."

then the article continues...

"The crisis, on June 9, stemmed from a broken transponder, the system that emits a signal to the air traffic controllers, on Mr Fletcher's aircraft. His pilot alerted the Federal Aviation Administration but the advice was not passed on to the military and homeland security officials around Washington."

Ok, look, technology fails, I work as an IT Specialist and if there is one thing I know, its that computers will stop working. Eventually something terrible will result because of our being on high alert. But then again, maybe we will prevent something terrible too. I guess it is just the price we have to pay.

You kind of have to wonder why it did not shoot it down. I mean it was inbound for the capital. If the military had and should have had strict instructions given who was in Wash. that day it should taken the plane out.

It would have been tragic, but it may happen eventually

Broken transponder. Tough Cookies. You would think that is something you would have pre-flight checked, and why fly that close inbound to the capitol if you know you had problems? DOH!!! Pull the pilots license.

And why didn't this happen on 9/11, one hour after those planes had been in the air..........

Originally posted by earthtone
And why didn't this happen on 9/11, one hour after those planes had been in the air..........

That really is the question the AF had a great responce for the payne stewart plane issue, but were were they on 911?????

This is it. Even before 9/11 there are examples of fighter jets escorting planes that have gone of course in a matter of minutes after they went the wrong way. One example is when a private jet with a pro golf start depressurised and everyone was killed and the plane went of course. Fighter jets were there withing 15 minutes and the plane was escorted until it went into the ocean. These are serious questions that are never answered.

On 9/11, I believe they did shoot down the plane in PA. They should have also taken out the one headed towards the PEntagon, but would that have casued more death on the ground and maybe that is why it did not occur?Waiting for the right shot that never came....
I don't think we truly could have stopped the 2 planes that hit the WTC 1 and 2. It was unprecedented that an attack like this owuld occur. Think tank theories and movie plots are one thing, but when it really happens it takes time, and that is why we only got one plane that day.

As far as this thread, use common sense and your brain not your arse and you won't get blasted out of the sky by your friendly, neighborhood F-16.

Originally posted by esdad71
On 9/11, I believe they did shoot down the plane in PA. They should have also taken out the one headed towards the PEntagon

AWST did a great article on this and the first planes in the air were all unarmed.