Posted on 02/19/2002 11:42:33 PM PST by kattracks
| February 20, 2002 -- The Air Force admitted yesterday it goofed big-time when two low-flying F-16 jets jolted sleeping New Yorkers out of their beds earlier this week. A spokesman from the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) told The Post it is investigating why the pair of jets buzzed Manhattan as they were making their way back to Atlantic City after a regular patrol. "The timing and location in this instance was poorly coordinated," said Maj. Donald Arias, a spokesman for the First Air Force/Continental U.S. NORAD Region based in Florida. "While returning from a CAP mission [Combat Air Patrol], two F-16 jets fighters dropped down to a low altitude before returning to their base in Atlantic City," he added. "They should not have been at that precise location at that particular time." Although stating the incident was still under investigation, Arias said the pilots did not break any regulations. The thunderous flyover left buildings shaking and windows rattling at about 4:30 on Monday morning. "I'm starting to wonder if it was two pilots joy riding," said one Manhattan resident who was awoken by the jets. "I appreciate their protecting the city, but I just hope they remember that ‘the city that never sleeps' isn't meant to be taken literally." They are temporarily based at the Air National Guard 177th Fighter Wing in Atlantic City, N.J. Arias said the planes were not flying at Mach speed - about 750 mph - which is breaking the sound barrier. The F-16's maximum speed is about 1,300 mph. Air patrol have been securing the skies over New York and Washington, D.C., since the terror attacks of Sept. 11.
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If you even THINK about going supersonic over Garden Grove, I will have you drawn, quartered, boiled in oil, and anything else unpleasant I can think of.
Garden Grove is the home of Reverend Robert Schuller's Crystal Cathedral, a spectacular all-glass-faced church. One sonic boom, and it becomes the Open-Air Cathedral :o)
How far do they let the buzzing go before they start slapping wrists?
Low-level passes in the wee hours of the morning are generally a very BAD idea, as it will probably wake some folks up, and most people get downright CRANKY when roused from a sound sleep for no good reason.
To quote Robert Heinlein's The Notebooks of Lazarus Long:
Waking a sleeping man unnecessarily shouldn't be a capital crime. For a first offense, that is.
While you guys debate the terminology, I'll share a story.
In the mid-seventies, while doing business in Kansas, I often found myself driving through the Flint Hills and Chatuaqua regions of southern Kansas on remote highways. A number of times I was jolted to the point of "fouling my pampers" by the instantaneous appearance of B-52s at a hundred feet elevation above my car followed by the boom of the engines. Working on their terrain hugging systems in remote areas, we that traveled the lonesome got some startling suprises.
The size, sound and suddenness of the appearance was truely a stunner. The heart rate went way up for sometime thereafter, I can assure you.
Once upon a time, I was at MCAS Beaufort during an Anti-Air Warfare Exercise, or AAWEX. This AAWEX featured B-52s, and one made a bomb run on my squadron's hangar.
I happened to be on the roof as part of a working party, and decided to do the Last Great Act Of Defiance as the BUFF easily evades a (very late) Smoky SAM shot.
Didja know that the BUFF can record video from its forward-looking TV camera?
Didja know that we all got yanked into the Sergeant Major's office to be asked, "Which one of you peckerheads gave the one-finger salute to the BUFF yesterday? The Group CO wants a chat with the culprit."
I'm surprised that could get someone in trouble...
I was already infamous enough (thanks to my work running a "Red Cell" at Beaufort) that the Group Sergeant Major said, "Shoulda figured it was you."
The Air Force doesn't have Sergeant Majors. It does have Chief Master Sergeants. I've known a few and most of'em are damned fine Americans.
You will be equally pleased to know that your little metal car made one damn fine radar target for a little gunnery practice. (Didn't you notice the tail cannon were tracking you?)
Reminds me of the hot dog B-52 pilot at Fairchild AFB a few years ago. During a ceremonial fly-by, he banked a little too hard and plowed into the ground. He killed all the crew on board and could have killed many more on the ground. After the fact, some of his fellow pilots noted that he was known for pushing the envelope a little too far.
Reminds me of the hot dog B-52 pilot at Fairchild AFB a few years ago. During a ceremonial fly-by, he banked a little too hard and plowed into the ground. He killed all the crew on board and could have killed many more on the ground. After the fact, some of his fellow pilots noted that he was known for pushing the envelope a little too far.
Or we can journey over to NM and watch the B-1bs buzz drilling rigs at derrick height.
Once in the bootheel of Missouri, I was out checking cotton in the middle of a field, this god-awful roaring came over shaking the earth and blowing the cotton down. I was all elbows and knees trying to dig a hole to hide in, just about the time I recovered it happened again. It was B-58s making a mock bomb run on St. Louis, while being chased by THUDs. It was even more fun the next day, up in a Cessana at 3,000 ft and two miles away watching the action.
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