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Fighter jet scrambles when Gov. Bush's plane loses radio contact
http://www.floridatoday.com/topstories/051503bushplane.htm
http://www.terroristwarning.com
(Fair Use)
An F-16 fighter jet was scrambled when a plane carrying Florida Gov. Jeb Bush lost radio contact on approach to Reagan National Airport in Washington.
It was unclear what caused the plane to lose radio contact at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said. Once communications were re-established, the plane was put into a holding pattern so controllers could "authenticate that they were who they said they were," she said.
The plane, which was en route from Tallahassee, was allowed to land at 8:40 a.m., Brown said. Bush went on to conduct his planned business in Washington.
Since the plane was approaching restricted airspace around the nation's capital, North American Aerospace Defense Command scrambled an F-16 from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, said a NORAD spokesman, Canadian Army Maj. Douglas Martin.
"But we realized very quickly there was no threat to the capital, we never did an intercept, and we brought our fighter home," Martin said.
NORAD listens in on FAA radio transmissions and decides to scramble fighters during situations they call "tracks of interest."
"We don't play games," said Martin. "As soon as we have the feeling - boom - we go. But there was no threat, so we came back."
Any suspicious plane that comes close to a restricted airspace becomes a track of interest to NORAD. There have been over 1,000 tracks of interest since 9-11, Martin said.
Bush's spokeswoman Alia Faraj said that she understood the situation to have been "pretty routine."
"They did figure it out, but it took a little time to get through it," she said.
A plane carrying the governor was struck by lightning in February, putting a hole in one of the its wings. The twin-engine plane landed safely in Orlando.
- Associated Press
http://www.floridatoday.com/topstories/051503bushplane.htm
http://www.terroristwarning.com
(Fair Use)
An F-16 fighter jet was scrambled when a plane carrying Florida Gov. Jeb Bush lost radio contact on approach to Reagan National Airport in Washington.
It was unclear what caused the plane to lose radio contact at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said. Once communications were re-established, the plane was put into a holding pattern so controllers could "authenticate that they were who they said they were," she said.
The plane, which was en route from Tallahassee, was allowed to land at 8:40 a.m., Brown said. Bush went on to conduct his planned business in Washington.
Since the plane was approaching restricted airspace around the nation's capital, North American Aerospace Defense Command scrambled an F-16 from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, said a NORAD spokesman, Canadian Army Maj. Douglas Martin.
"But we realized very quickly there was no threat to the capital, we never did an intercept, and we brought our fighter home," Martin said.
NORAD listens in on FAA radio transmissions and decides to scramble fighters during situations they call "tracks of interest."
"We don't play games," said Martin. "As soon as we have the feeling - boom - we go. But there was no threat, so we came back."
Any suspicious plane that comes close to a restricted airspace becomes a track of interest to NORAD. There have been over 1,000 tracks of interest since 9-11, Martin said.
Bush's spokeswoman Alia Faraj said that she understood the situation to have been "pretty routine."
"They did figure it out, but it took a little time to get through it," she said.
A plane carrying the governor was struck by lightning in February, putting a hole in one of the its wings. The twin-engine plane landed safely in Orlando.
- Associated Press
