Posted on 11/27/2019 6:44:30 AM PST by BenLurkin
On Tuesday, the White House was placed under lockdown after it appeared that an aircraft was flying in restricted air space over Washington DC. But was it really an aircraft... or was it birds?
The North American Aerospace Defense Command first reported an object entering capitol airspace this morning, which prompted a response from National Security officials and a temporary lockdown of some capitol buildings, CNN reports. A Coast Guard rotary-wing aircraft (probably a helicopter, but NORAD did not specify) went to investigate—and did not find a threat. Perhaps, tweeted ABC7 DC-Area transportation reporter Sam Sweeney, it was birds.
“The comments you’re seeing about a flock of birds is speculation,” a NORAD spokesperson told Gizmodo by phone. “I cannot confirm or deny that it was a flock of birds.” (Another NORAD spokesperson told NBC news it might be a “flock of birds or a weather balloon.”)
(Excerpt) Read more at gizmodo.com ...
Not birds. Santa.
“NORAD Will Neither Confirm nor Deny a Flock of Birds Caused White House Lockdown”
Nor should they
Not birds. Santa, doing an early test run on the sleigh.
Kinda reminds me of that “weather balloon” story.
Many partridges in many pear trees.
Damned cowards in DC. A light plane or flock of geese cones within 20 miles of DC and they all run screaming to bomb sheltered and scrabble fighters.
But they couldn’t care less about protecting the rest of us on the southern border
Uhhhhh....so if a plane DOES penetrate restricted airspace they lock people inside the White House???
They put the White House on lockdown for birds, but if it was a flock of seagulls, they should have ran so far away.
Underground facilities beneath WH are probably a lot safer than trying to scramble above ground for such nearby potential threats. If it isn’t safe, then having a chopper land and extract or ground vehicles scramble out are even more vulnerable ploys.
From the FAA AIM(Airman’s Information Manual)
The bending of radar pulses, often called anomalous propagation or ducting, may cause many extraneous blips to appear on the radar operator’s display if the beam has been bent toward the ground or may decrease the detection range if the wave is bent upward. It is difficult to solve the effects of anomalous propagation, but using beacon radar and electronically eliminating stationary and slow moving targets by a method called moving target indicator (MTI) usually negate the problem.
Radar energy that strikes dense objects will be reflected and displayed on the operator’s scope thereby blocking out aircraft at the same range and greatly weakening or completely eliminating the display of targets at a greater range. Again, radar beacon and MTI are very effectively used to combat ground clutter and weather phenomena, and a method of circularly polarizing the radar beam will eliminate some weather returns. A negative characteristic of MTI is that an aircraft flying a speed that coincides with the canceling signal of the MTI (tangential or “blind” speed) may not be displayed to the radar controller.
Seriously, even the fastest birds airspeed barely overlaps with the minimum stall speed of an unloaded Cessna 152. I doubt any radar operator would mistake birds for an aircraft. Maybe one of those powered parachute type personal aircraft...
While flying, I’ve been warned by atc about traffic in front of me being a possible flock of birds. It’s migration season. A flock of geese can be pretty large.
If we had been that alert in 1941 the Japanese never would have made it to Pearl Harbor.
Given the superior flying characteristecs of the Zeros protecting the torpedo and bombers at that time and with our carriers not in position, not sure about that. Probably would have diminished the damage but I don’t think they would have stopped the debacle.
You are missing the real worry...a drone, or many small drones with explosives headed toward the White House.
Didn’t you guys watch the film Angel has fallen?
And not just fiction...civilians drones actually shut dowm airports in the UK awhile back.
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