Haven't seen this asked re: Stack -- were any military planes scrambled?

[gmoney]

The guy takes off without filing a flight plan... wouldn't the air traffic controllers remember "oh yeah, 9-11" and call in some military support to see what's going on with the plane?

As Randi Rhodes has repeated endlessly, on 9/11 there were four planes diverging from their flight patterns, essentially doing U-turns, and it took forever to get any military aircraft on the scene.

I'm not suggesting LIHOP, but come on -- we've paid TRILLIONS of dollars for this fucking military to protect us, and something like this can still happen as easily as some guy climbing in his private plane and flying across town and crashing into his target? Was the flight really THAT short? Does his crash preclude the need to step-up security? I'm guessing he could have just as easily flown his plane into the state capital building, or maybe some sort of refinery (?) or power plant, or any number of prime targets.

[Bluerthanblue]

1. yes, I read that 2 were- I'll see if I can find the link- n/t

[Pirate Smile]

2. They were reporting that yesterday relatively soon after it happened.

[Bluerthanblue]

8. 2 F-16 Fighter Jets-

were sent out according to this link:

http://www.kfdm.com/news/austin-36692-stack-building.html

[ScreamingMeemie]

3. 2 jets were scrambled out of Houston

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/DN-planecrash_19tex.ART0.State.Edition2.4bcd93b.html

It was on the television news down here.

snip-

The Pentagon scrambled two F-16 fighter jets from Houston to patrol the skies over the burning building before it became clear that it was the act of a lone pilot, and President Barack Obama was briefed. The FBI was leading the investigation.

-snip

[gmoney]

4. Thanks for the info.

Still seems like something out of "It's a Mad Mad Mad World" to me...

[arthritisR_US]

5. 2 were. n/t

[MineralMan]

6. They did, but after the fact.

The thing is that private planes take off and land all the time, every day, and from every general aviation airport. No flight plan is required in most cases. You just get in your plane, clear your takeoff with the tower (if there is one), and off you go. Just flying around for the heck of it is a very popular activity with many private pilots.

There would be nothing unusual in this man getting into the plane he owned and flying around. By the time he flew into the city of Austin, it would have been too late to scramble anything.

[napi21]

7. Yes they were, but you have tounderstand, something like thathappens so fast, mooe wpuled be able to

stop it!

Sma;; provate plames do not have to file a flight plan.

[SidDithers]

10. Fingers off the home row, napi?...

:hi:

Sid

[gmoney]

11. well, THAT is certainly air-tight security.

I can't bring an 8 ounce bottle of water purchased at the airport onto a plane, but any crackpot with a private plane can just come and go without security inspection or a flight plan? Couldn't he have easily pulled a McVeigh and loaded up the plane with liquid fertilizer or other esplosives?

It's a mad world indeed.

[ChicagoSuz219]

19. Did you type this w/your toes? ;-) n/t

[csziggy]

9. I don't kow if is true, but reports yesterday were that no flight plan was needed

If he stayed within certain altitudes and out of certain areas. I've heard that before - and that is one of the problems with small plane traffic.

But frankly, there would not have been time for military planes to have gotten there. The airport was close to the office complex and he basically flew straight there. Maybe they scrambled afterward just in case it was not an isolated incident

[gkhouston]

12. Yes, the flight was really that short. Georgetown is not that far from north Austin

and it takes a while to get something up to Austin from Ellington AFB. There used to be an Air Force base in Austin but it was decommissioned and that's where the city's major airport is now.

[louis-t]

13. I heard eyewitnesses stating that he flew in circles for awhile.

Probably trying to psyche himself up.

[FarCenter]

14. The solution is to put two of these on opposite corners on top of office buildings

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalanx_CIWS

[Don Caballero]

15. I am still shocked that the building did not collapse.

That fire was pretty intense and the plane was packed with jet fuel that melts steel.

[kestrel91316]

18. FAIL

[krispos42]

16. Planes can mostly fly wherever they want to.

There are limitations around some things, like airports, nuclear power plants, military bases, etc., but by and large you can treat the air like a speedboat skipper treats the ocean. Wherever, whenever, whatever.

Nobody probably would have noticed anything unusual until the plane decended too low... I think there's a 1,000-foot minimum altitute plane are suppose to maintain when over populated areas.

There could have been as few as maybe 10 seconds between Stack going from flying tourist to late kamikazi pilot. Not a lot of time at all.


On 9/11, the course changes happened many minutes before impact in DC and NYC. Now, the hijackers then could have taken the airliners and immediately crashed them into the first strip mall they came across, and the military wouldn't have had time to react either. For example, United Flight 175 could have been crashing into downtown Hartford, CT maybe 5 minutes after it was taken over. They waited a bit longer, about 15 minutes, to crash into the WTC instead.

But that is still a short amount of time to get fighters in the air and to an intercept.

[BlueGirlRedState]

17. Do private pilots have security clearance?

I work in a small company at a regional airport. Since my company has a hangar and access to the ramp, I had to have a security clearance and must wear a badge at all times. No one is allowed in the hangar unless they are escorted. My question is -- do private pilots have some sort of clearance so they can access the ramp?