Posted on 04/23/2006 1:10:11 AM PDT by FreedomCalls
4/21 UA735 ORD-SMF diverted to DEN due to unruly pax/bomb threat
Just reciting the last DU posts he read before boarding.
Airline food.
Silly moonbat lefty...Everybody knows that Bush can see you only through your computer monitor.
Not my story. I'm just the vehicle by which it got posted here. It was whoever "Starwood Nut" is that wrote it.
I just wanted to clarify that.
Maybe he watched to many Telly Tubby episodes.
Any USAF pilot can fly a fighter break, it's not just the squids. (;-)
You have a second job we don't know about?
"I have a camera in my stomach"
A lot of places don't allow cell phones or stomachs with built-in cameras.
"I apologize if I sound like a ninny but it was very exciting and scary. The landing was awesome."
Some people actually enjoy this stuff! Me, it's not for me!
Good post, although based on another thread the guy could NEVER have gotten that door open, nor moved it even one inch.
But I'm darn glad people are paying attention. Let the Muzzies and any other would be miscreants pay attention to that.
Yes, but ... The USAF (trash haulers in particular) is (in-)famous for 10 mile straight in approaches. And you did say **ANY** USAF pilot can do fighter breaks.
I will say that watching F-15s do fighter breaks is cool. Just wouldn't want the pilots to spill their ice-tea on the way to the OC. ;-p
OK, OK, no AF bashing. My dad was a NAval Aviator. HE used to joke that the Navy could land his entire wing before the AF landed on final approach.
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True.
Naval Air transport pilots routinely practice short-runway and evasive take off and landing procedures as part of their routine flights, and I'm sure it's the same for USAF MAC pilots as well. They need to keep up their quals (i.e. for high threat locations like Iraq and Afghanistan), and I've been on many a routine NAVAIR flight in the states which felt pretty tactical, i.e. plane flys evasive pattern inbound, even using flairs if over a military base, airport lights come up 3 seconds before the plane touches down (i.e. small civ. airports), plane comes up the the terminal, wheels around, back cargo door opens, passenger door opens and ladder drops down, 25 Reservists toss their seabags in the back on their way up the ladder, the plane is taxiing before the door is closed, rotating as we are getting safety instructions, jinking left and right and dropping and adding altitude on the way out...etc.. Pretty interesting, the first time around. After a while, ya just bury your head in a Readers Digest during the flight, remember to take something Dramamine before the flight, and just get used to the Air-a-dales playing their games.
Back to the civilian jet; the pilot could well be a military reservists or ex-military, but any pilot in his right mind would want to put his plane down ASAP if there were any hint of a hijack or hostage situation. His defensive options are pretty minimal in the air.
Most civilians are used to the "commercial jet as bus", and forget that these things can really perform when they need to.
SFS
Around 1986, I was assigned to temporary duty in London (USNR, attached to CINCUSNAVEUR). I think the US had just bombed Kadafi. We were directed to grow our hair out a bit, to refrain from shaving, to hide our military ID, to carry a civilian passport, and vary our routes to and from hotels and offices. It was tense in the UK. Just getting to and into the Embassy and other USN buildings was dicey, due to Arab and anarchist protesters. (It was funny as heck, though, when I headed to work. Walking all around me were guys 21 to 30 years of age with shortish hair but not yet long, a day or three old beard, wearing almost identical military issue rain coats over civilian suits, and carring the same IDENTICAL Samsonite brief case. (Seems like every Ensign bought the same kind of brief case at the Academy or OCS during those days....lol). I thought to myself "dang...only a blind terrorist could miss identifying all of us as U.S. military service men. I dumped my briefcase and got a new raincoat the next day.)
On the flight inbound from the east coast USA to Heathrow, I noticed a short, wierd Middle Eastern guy. The two things that bothered me was not his ethnicity (the racial profiling did not; it was MY life I was protecting), but that he was pacing around in bare feet. His eyes were piercing. He was seething. He was probably in his early 20's.
Heathrow was socked in, so after (as I recall) about nine hours in the air, and several more circling, we were finally diverted to a Scandinavian Airport (can't recall which). We were told that "because of security concerns", we would not be allowed to de-plane. After 9 or 12 hours of being in an aluminum tube, folks were going nuts. We were out of food, drinks, even water, and the toilets were getting nasty.
I headed to one of the mid-section lavatories, and again, this guy was pacing around the wide body jet. About 10 seconds after I closed the door (I heard slamming and shouting. When I opened the lavatory door, the airline doors left and right were open, commando's with submachine guns were flooding the plane coming in via fast rope (maybe from helo's above?), and there was a desperate struggle immediately in front of me between the Middle Eastern guy, two short haired Americans, and a half dozen Commando's.
Within about 2 seconds, I made military-style snap decision, slammed the lavatory door shut and made myself comfortable (to stay the heck out of the line of fire), contemplating whether to eat my military ID or simply flush it.
It turns out, the two American guys were armed INS agents escorting an Iranian out of the country, unbeknownst to the airline staff. The commandos just took everyone down while the American's reached for their badges (very stupid) and yelled "INS...INS", as if that meant anything at all to the Europeans.
In the end it was both comical and tragic. The guy was heading back against his will to the land of the Ayatollahs, and he was either trying to avoid military service in the Iran/Iraq war, or perhaps was on one of the Revolutionary Guards many death lists.
It made for an interesting trip over though. We finally made it to Heathrow, about 12 hours late. It was a fine welcome to London, and nice start for my military duty.
SFS
Watch a "trash hauler" C-130 do a combat approach, you might just develop a little respect. They yank and bank those beasts
as if they WERE a fighter, I know because I got a few rides on them at Red Flag. I had a lot more respect for those guys after that.
I can see it now. " All passengers please have your boarding passes and your psych meds ready before boarding. Please place all microchips, cameras, receivers, listening devices and transmitters in the overhead compartment- not in a body part. If you should require more tin foil please buzz the flight attendant once the seat belt on sign has been turned off. Thank you."
"I have a camera in my stomach", "Kill Me "
He was trying to say "camel" - not camera. Airline food will do you like that.
I watched as a C-17 buzz our courthouse once. It was so close I could see (but couldn't read) the engine nacel markings from my truck.
You were actually fed by United Airlines?
That's the most amazing part of this story.
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