Evacuation of Capital now! (Update: FNC: White House Secret Service gives all clear signal)

Fox News

[pitinkie]

Capital and WH being evacuated.."full running evac"

[hummingbird]

"....when the balloon goes up and SA is turned on."

I've been too embarrassed to ask before but what is the "balloon" and what does "SA" stand for? TIA!

[manapua]

Speaking of WTF, here's something odd I saw from the AP:

The pic's caption reads:

"An F-16 fighter jet, fully armed with air-to-air missiles under its wings, maneuvers above the northwest section of Washington D.C., Wednesday, May 11, 2005, near a cluster of embassies from Middle Eastern nations as it and at least one other F-16 scrambled to intercept a small airplane that flew into the restricted airspace that circles the nation's capital. The White House and the Capital were evacuated until the situation with the small plane was resolved. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)"

---

OK... and its close proximity to Middle Eastern embassies is significant to the picture in what way? Is it just me or is this not a truly bizarre thing to note in the caption? For Christ's sake, DC is a tiny city; you pick any spot in the city and that plane was "near" it. It was flying over the Norwegian and Japanese embassies as well as the Cold Stone ice creamery, too. Is the AP trying to ascribe a motive to the F-16's orbit other than flying circles over the city?

[superfries]

yeah I familiar with winds @ agl and I am also confident that the laws of physics held. No way the Cessna traveled -25 miles in 8 minutes. Previaling winds are N/S most of the time and a/c are landing to the south today. The E6B is your friend:)

[ABG(anybody but Gore)]

More than one general in the Red Air Force was fired, and not long after, four of them went down in a chopper "accident", IIRC.

[Trueblackman]

There are several moblie radar stations around the city, I am not going to tell you how I know or what I have seen, because I took an oath when I joined the military and I still uphold that oath today. Sidewiders are very short range missile and I would not be surprised if several government building around the city have not been outfitted with the NAVY's RAM Missile System.

[hummingbird]

Thank you, varina davis. It is "way above my pay grade" so I'll have to dissect the information very s-l-o-w-l-y!

[Last Visible Dog]

No kidding! How old are the kids on the field trip?

My kids are 7 and 9 - they were in the White House when it was evacuated. The school sent out an email. They also notified use the kids will have a debriefing with the principle when they got back to the school. I am sure the kids are having fun with this (although I personally have not debriefed them yet)

BTW: the airport where the plane was diverted is a little more than a half mile from where I live (as the crow flies)

[ericthecurdog]

'Balloon goes up' = frequently used euphemism for the start of a war.

SA = Selective Availability, which is the inaccuracy designed into signals destined for civilian GPS units which is currently turned off (thanks to 'President' Clinton... questionable move, but I'm glad he did it), but can be turned on in an instant to prevent our Country's enemies from using our own GPS system against us.

[hummingbird]

Is the AP trying to ascribe a motive to the F-16's orbit other than flying circles over the city?

That's my take (unless something nefarious is going on over at the Cold Stone ice creamery!).

[LukeSW]

refused to converse by radio? Now, that's ominous...

Not at all...he was probably just tuned to the wrong frequency.

Small airplanes are not like airliners. They have only very basic instrumentation and the pilots are often inexperienced. The guy probably had a gyro compass, a radio direction finder, a radio and a paper chart. It is not a very sophisticated system. He is flying VFR, is not in direct radio contact with any flight control center, and it is easy to go astray.

Correctamundo!! With some small planes, most people here have no idea how likely it is for the pilot of a small plane to be off frequency, or have a broken radio, or misdial the squelch control and then get off frequency since no one is talking to him!! Happens all the time folks. The PARANOIA about a small plane, a plane, a plane ... is so comical its sad... The media feeds it, the malleable masses believe it and pretty soon everyone is a aeronautical Luddite!!

[AppyPappy]

Sidewinders have about a 9 nautical miles range. Stingers about 2 nm. The Army is asking for a LANDRAAM system which is an AMRAAM (40 nm) system on a vehicle.

I think the RAM is about 5nm while a Sea Sparrow system is about 20nm. The RAM is being replaced by something which escapes me.

[hummingbird]

Dang...7 & 9 and already they need to be debriefed. What a world?! Hope you are a-okay; I'd still be vomiting from anxiety, but then I am a "what if" sap.

[superfries]

so you can file VFR and in restricted airspace without a mode C transponder or a radio that has the ability to at least monitor a guard freq?

[hummingbird]

Ah...okay. Now, I feel like I'm "in the club!"

[Trueblackman]

Something does not pass the smell test here, if the plane was heading torward downtown and the fighters are DC Air National Guard Units, then why would they be over upper Washington DC, when runways 1L/R and 19L/R run north to south and the fighters would have turned hard and headed West to escort the plane.

[Trueblackman]

RAM is replacing the CIWS on some ships.

[silentknight]

Enemy aircraft? Yeah right. I guess that report turned out to be false. It is funny reading some of these threads. Some of the conclusions that people come to. Missiles incoming?

Sigh...

[silentknight]

Enemy aircraft? Yeah right. I guess that report turned out to be false. It is funny reading some of these threads. Some of the conclusions that people come to. Missiles incoming?

Sigh...

[Sacajaweau]

Thanks...Excellent

[Trueblackman]

I bet that is a AP File Photo, I tried to lighten it up to see if that was the DC Air National Guard Logo and I was unable to. When I heard them they were moving from East to West.