Posted on 10/23/2004 2:43:45 PM PDT by sheikdetailfeather
Fighters Escort Two Small Planes Away From Bush Rally
POSTED: 3:48 pm EDT October 23, 2004 UPDATED: 5:31 pm EDT October 23, 2004
MELBOURNE, Fla. -- Federal authorities said Saturday two small private planes violated restricted air space over a campaign rally by President George W. Bush at a Melbourne baseball stadium.
Fighter jets escorted the plane to Merritt Island Airport near Cocoa Beach, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The Secret Service has interviewed the pilot. FAA spokesman Greg Martin said further action is possible.
Reporters covering Bush's campaign event said the military jets drowned out Bush's words at Space Coast Stadium.
Earlier at a Lakeland event, a plane was escorted to an airport in nearby Winter Haven after it violated the president's airspace.
The activity in the sky repeatedly distracted the crowd from Bush's speechs.
Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
I think CSPAN is going to re-air the rally at 6:00pm EST (NOW!) for anyone who missed it earlier.
No Josh, I'm sure a NOTAM was issued for pilots. However, people who don't obey the laws wouldn't care would they? That's the trouble with government, sometimes people just don't pay any attention to them.
"The President's travels and the TFR's, Temporary Flight Restrictions, which result are published and disseminated constantly by the FAA.
To be ignorant of them means the pilot never checked nor did he receive an official weather briefing via a Flight Service Station which would have contained them."
From this post:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1254568/posts?page=16#16
And check out the actual restriction in post 51 of the same thread.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1254568/posts?page=51#51
It was probably George Stepanopolus & Craig Livingstone in thier Chicken George outfits with banners reading "Iran-Contra Dogs You"
PDQ!
Mirage, this is Eagle, I have tone, permission to fire, Sir?
CSPAN 1 NOW SHOWING MELBOURNE RALLY.
Sure - that would have been a good move - reigning down pieces of burning metal on the President or members of the crowd - great idea! [I don't need a tag do I?]
ping
C-Span repeating it just now.
Two planes. One pilot. Now that is NEWS.
Splash one Piper Cub. I repeat Splash the Cub.
More detail about one of the planes here:
http://www.floridatoday.com/!NEWSROOM/102304bushplane.htm
"Hargrove said he had set out from Brunswick, Ga., this morning, landed for fuel and lunch in Flagler County and headed south again. He said he knew of flight restrictions around Jacksonville, and made a wide circle around the city, but didn't know of anything unusual over Brevard.
Upon overflying Space Coast Stadium, he circled to see what the crowd was about.
He realized something was wrong when the fighter closed in. Hargrove switched to an emergency radio frequency, on which he was ordered to land at Merritt Island."
C-span repeating just now.
THE RATS HAVE TURNED INTO A RATHER DIRTY BUNCH OF ANIMALS!!!
> Why are small planes even allowed to go anywhere
> near where the President is?
They aren't, but with all the impromptu unscheduled
campaigning being done, unless the pilots check the
NOTAMs for new TFRs just before take-off, they won't
have any idea, until an F16 appears along side.
This is highly unlikely to be a DNC attempt to
heckle from the air. The reports I've seen indicate
that at least one of these planes was close enough
to the rally that ground fire would not have been
surprising.
I doubt if this had been a serious attempt at anything - the pilots would have followed the other planes away. Probably safe to think these are guys/gals who don't know what they should know in order to fly around this nation - since 9/11. Some people just don't get it yet -
in my opinion -
Beautiful Day in Florida! Look at all the enthused people! FOUR MORE YEARS! FOUR MORE YEARS!
A pie carpet-bombing?
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