MSNBC just reported 2 F-16s intercepted a small single engine plane that

[mike1963]

wandered into the restricted airspace around Crawford. (A large chunk
that changes so fast, it's almost impossible to keep up with...often the FAA NOTAMS aren't even completely up to date...I tell my flight students to stay WAY FAR away from Waco and surrounds)

Funny how quickly the AF (which I joined back in 67) can respond to a huge threat from a small private plane but couldn't manage a response to four hijacked airliners on 9/11.

uh huh uh huh

[greatauntoftriplets]

1. OMFG!!!! A small plane in the air over Texas!!!!!!!

Doom!!!!! Gloom!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Shades of The Rapture a'comin'!!!!!!!!

<turning sarcasm off>

[Renew Deal]

4. The pilot hates freedom

[TheDonkey]

12. LOL! I needed that

[mot78]

16. It's just * trying to finsh his TANG duty

[arcane1]

2. Payne Stewart and George Bush are more important than the 3,000 9/11 dead

apparently :grr:

[lectrobyte]

7. Does anyone have definitive details on this?

I remember seeing somewhere that I've not been able to re-google (if that's a verb) a time line of the Payne Stewart intercept compared to the time line of the hijacked planes (I seem to remember one of the flight attendants calling in details shortly after the flight was commandeered). Probably pointless to consider, but one of those unanswered questions that keeps itching.

[arcane1]

8. all I have on me is the news item

from Dallas Morning News originally, now archived:

http://www.wanttoknow.info/991026dmn.orig

-snip-

Shooting down the plane "was never an option," Air Force spokesman Capt. Joe Della Vedova said. "I don't know where that came from."

Instead, according to an Air Force timeline, a series of military planes provided an emergency escort to the stricken Lear, beginning with a pair of F-16 Falcons from the Air National Guard at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., about 20 minutes after ground controllers lost contact.

An F-16 and an A-10 Warthog attack plane from Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., took up the chase a few minutes later and were trailing the Lear when it climbed abruptly from 39,000 to 44,000 feet at 9:52 a.m. CDT.

Fifteen minutes later, the F-16 intercepted the Lear, the pilot reporting no movement in the cockpit.

At 10:44 a.m., the fighters from Eglin diverted to St. Louis for fuel. Fifteen minutes later, four Air National Guard F-16s from Tulsa, Okla., took up the chase, accompanied by a KC-135 refueling tanker.

F-16s from Fargo, N.D., later scrambled to intercept the Lear jet , too. At noon Dallas time, the Fargo F-16s reported that the windows of the jet were fogged with ice and there was no evidence anyone was piloting the plane.

At 12:14, the Lear jet began to spiral. It crashed about six minutes later.

[lectrobyte]

9. Thanks much. Maybe I will make my own page...

a pair of F-16's 20 minutes after contact was lost... hmmm.

[arcane1]

13. 20 minutes after contact lost, when there was no prior "chatter"

no alert status, no series of warnings of hijackings...

that's how it's supposed to work. I wonder why it didn't work on 9/11 :shrug:

[bucknaked]

3. Funny, indeed! Especially when it's two Part 121 flights that have...

..veered so drastically off course. Oh, and this was after Bush supposedly warned the "proper authorities" that hijackings could occur.

[loftycity]

5. "Man, that guy was one lousy pilot!" Should be Kerry t-shirts

[bucknaked]

6. Still can't believe the man said that!

Really....how could one be so insensitive, and dense at the same time!?

[anarchy1999]

10. Guess he missed checking this website.

http://cryptome.org/prez-eyeball.htm

Shame on the pilot, but hey here is the "ranch", "pig farm". Satellite pics of the barns.

Have fun. Spread it wide and far.

Quit saying send Bush home to Crawford.

Crawford has never been home to this man or his family!

[leftofthedial]

11. MIHOP

MIHOP

MIHOP

MIHOP

9-11 was MIHOP

[Must_B_Free]

14. That's because "The world changed on 9/11"

remember? That means you are now under our power and will follow our commands!

[waywest]

15. I have long thought that * was trying to "wait out"....

The terrists attack, while on that much criticized vacation in August 2001. Now I'm wondering how fortified were the skies over Texas as compared to , say ,Washington.