Posted on 09/09/2007 12:16:40 AM PDT by newzjunkey
The pilot behind a security scare in Sydney airspace this afternoon is being questioned by authorities.
A small Cessna aircraft had to be escorted by two F/A-18 Defence fighter jets into Sydney's Bankstown Airport, after failing to respond in restricted APEC airspace above Sydney.
A witness has told commercial radio the fighter jets fired flares at the plane.
He says shortly before 3:00pm AEST he saw the plane enter restricted airspace over the western suburb of Penrith before flares were fired at it by two F/A-18 jets.
"This light plane came over in restricted airspace because of APEC and these two fighter jets come out in the middle of nowhere and were firing flares at it," the witness said.
"Right over the top of Penrith, it was amazing. I've never seen anything like it."
The Cessna had just left Bankstown and was heading to Bathurst in the state's central west.
Residential care worker Gary Evans, who saw the whole thing above his workplace, says he saw the jet and the Cessna.
"He was flying his F/A-18 as slow as he could go, as I said almost standing on his tail a few times with his nose right up in the air and wagging his wings and rolling his plane from side to side, just to the right of this small aircraft," he said.
A spokeswoman for Bankstown Airport says the Cessna pilot is being questioned by NSW police.
The Defence Department has made no immediate comment on the incident.
A friend of mine was a witness but did not see the flares.
They dropped flares while flying near the Cessna which was in restricted airspace. Flares were not "fired at the plane".
LOL. It's pretty hard to miss an F-18, flying at near stall speed with it's nose way up, ejecting flairs to get your attention. The pilot must have been smoking some good dope....;)
LOL! My first thought was “let’s rewrite this to what it would be if the witness/reporter had a clue” but I see that it’s already been done. :-)
It will take the dry cleaner weeks to get the pilots pants back to what they were...
Surely, it was a mistake. I can’t imagine anyone, intentionally, matching a Cessna against modern fighter jets! But, on the other hand, there are nutters out there that will try anything!
Remember the nutter that flew a small plane into the White House or the kid in Floriduh (Tampa?) who flew into a building. There was also the moron who flew his plane into his ex-wife’s house.
I had the same comment. The media are such morons.
Can't argue with that. But I think it more likely that somebody in the public has mistaken TRACERS for flares.
What could that do? If the F-18 itself isn't enough to get your attention, is a pilot going to fly slow and open and put the target into his own 6 O'clock to drop a flare that can be seen? I don't think so. Tracers across the nose is the universal "Hey! Look over here!" signal.
What’s the U.S. counterpart to “ADEC” airspace? Is this like entering Class B without permission or is it more like an ADIZ?
I think the APEC is the conference that’s being held down there right now? The restricted airspace was probably a temporary no-fly zone due to all the bigwigs in town. The FAA’s got an acronym for it (don’t they always?) but I forget what it is. It is, in effect, the same thing as entering an ADIZ. Remember the poor saps that strayed their C150 into the Washington ADIZ a couple years back and caused no end of media hyperventilation?
}:-)4
Reminds me of the time I was monitoring the Lake Tahoe airport tower frequency. A PSA airliner (Lockheed Electra) had just made a terrible landing in gusty wind conditions. The tower transmitted, "Captain, bet you guys want directions to the nearest laundry after that.
After a few moments the captain replied, "we talked it over and would like directions to the nearest clothing store, instead!" True Story.
In the USA the FAA has a specific procedure that covers this. It involves communication, identification, and post intercept rules. You can do a web search under, "aviation intercept procedures". There probably is an international ruling also.
Check your NOTAM's people, and let's be careful up there. ;)
Call an aviation attorney.
That was in Bedford, Indiana, and he had his 8-year-old daughter in the plane with him. The house he hit was actually that of his mother-in-law, the girl's grandmother.
The pilot had worked for the state for 20 years and managed more than 18,000 acres of forest as a property manager for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, whose Director under the Evan Bayh administration has his own interesting history.
I hope not. Even with TP-T ammo, I hate to think of how many rounds of 20mm would come a-cranking out of that M61A1 cannon in even a short burst. And what goes up, will come down somewheree, and Murphey gets to decide where.
What could that do? If the F-18 itself isn't enough to get your attention, is a pilot going to fly slow and open and put the target into his own 6 O'clock to drop a flare that can be seen? I don't think so. Tracers across the nose is the universal "Hey! Look over here!" signal.
I'd expect the '18 would have *no problem* making a bounce pass over the target plane, given the relative speeds of the a/c involved. And, keeping enough vertical seperation, it'd probably be more attention-getting to let fly with a string of downward-firing flares than a forward burst from the GAU-4....
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