Was THIS plane shot down? (calling DU tinfoilers...)

[hexola]

Ok mods - this is not a 9-11 article...

Recently the local media has been busy with a missing plane.

http://www.publicopiniononline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060426/NEWS01/60426001

Search crews were looking today for a small plane that may have come down west of Chambersburg.

The four-seat Cessna 172, piloted by David Weiss, 72, of Bethesda, Md., failed to return to the Gaitersburg Airport in Maryland at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

“Not having a whole lot of clues, we have to rule out the area square mile by square mile, square foot by square foot,” said Maj. Wes LePre, information officer for the Civil Air Patrol mission. “They’re tightening down the search area. It’s almost all visual today.”

http://www.therecordherald.com/articles/2006/04/27/local_news/news01.txt

At the break of dawn today, the Civil Air Patrol from three states and several area municipalities continued the search for a missing Maryland man and the Cessna airplane he was flying.

Authorities have concentrated their efforts about eight miles west of Chambersburg, where a Verizon cell phone tower traced unanswered calls made Tuesday to the missing pilot, said Lt. Col. James Steinemeier of Maryland Civil Air Patrol.

David K. Weiss, 72, of Bethesda took off from a small Gaithersburg airport in the Cessna 172 around noon Tuesday and never returned, Steinemeier said.

Ok - so five days later - they find the plane.

http://www.therecordherald.com/articles/2006/05/02/local_news/news05.txt

MERCERSBURG - Two brothers found their father's crash site Sunday afternoon just north of Whitetail Ski Resort, five days after the Maryland pilot failed to return from a short flight.

After a five-day search, the body of David Keefer Weiss, 72, of Bethesda, Md., was discovered in an area known as the “punch bowl” in the mountains north of the Pennsylvania/Maryland state line.

Ok - here's the local buzz...

Some folks on a country drive encounter some people involved in the search. They ask if the missing plane has been found. They said no - but they found two other wrecked planes.

WOW - that's pretty odd...3 small plane crashes in the same area?

Ok - so my mind starts ticking back to this old web link...

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/facility/mercersburg.htm

Continuity of Government plans provide the capability to maintain essential government services and emergency functions in the most serious of events affecting national security. FEMA VIP Evacuation and Support Facilities in the Washington area include an installation in Mercersburg, PA.

This facility is very, very close to the crash site. Now - locals have long said..."Dont Go up there..." Some claim to have been met by armed guards once past a certain point. Another claims it is restricted airspace.

And there are some odd concrete structures at the top of the mountain. The access road is on the Maryland side - and it is gated at the bottom.

One wonders what is going on up there...an "undisclosed location?"

Maybe they shoot planes down all the time...?

[babylonsister]

1. Wow. I'm flagging this. The words "Civil Air Patrol" caught my

attention, as that is what the FAA was called a long time ago. Hmmmm....

[QuettaKid]

5. You might want to check your facts.

Civila Air Patrol was never the FAA....2 totally seperate organizations. CAP is an auxillary of the USAF, founded in the 1940's.

[Vickers]

7. Probably means CAB (Civil Aeronautics Board) n/t

[tridim]

2. Here's the area in question

No idea what's what.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Mercersburg,+PA&t=h&om=1&ll=39.746398,-77.931175&spn=0.060054,0.134583

You have to love Google maps!

[gimama]

3. Excellent post! DUers need to put the LIGHT on this!

Out o'tinfoil,things are comin' in REAL CLEAR,lately. thank YOU for info. ~g

[WoodrowFan]

4. how old are the planes

if they're all from the past few years you may have something. but if one is a World War II trainer and the other is a 1950s private plane that went down in a winter storm then you don't. Is the area near a small ariport and if so, how long has that airport been there? We need a LOT more facts before I pull out the tin foil...


Besides, if they wanted to warn pilots off from the site, publically announcing that a small plane was shot down there would sure do the job better than hiding it!

[salvorhardin]

6. That's a heavily populated area of the U.S. with tons of air traffic

Mercersburg is about 240 miles from NY, less than 200 miles from Philadelphia, 150 miles from Pittsburgh, and less than 100 miles from Baltimore.

There are no less than 305 airports near Mercersburg.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Mercersburg,+PA&t=h&om=1&ll=39.746398,-77.931175&spn=0.060054,0.134583

It's not unreasonable to expect that one might find wrecked light aircraft in this area. Also, as WoodrowFan noted, we don't know the age of the other aircraft found. Small, private (i.e. not municipally run) airports used to dot the countryside in the U.S. in much the same way as roadside diners did our roadways before the interstates were built. It was a relatively inexpensive hobby that many people participated in and not all crashes were reported.

Finally, your report is third-hand hearsay. I'm sure all the people involved are honest and honorable but stories have a way of mutating.

[trotsky]

8. Then there's the obvious question.

If somebody or something is taking out these planes intentionally, why are they then leaving them to be discovered? Are they trying to keep things a secret, or not?

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar...

[Ferry Fey]

9. Clusters of plane crashes

I know someone who hikes a lot, and has become pretty knowledgeable about small plane crashes in the mountains on our area, some dating back 50 or sixty years. If there were already a couple around where this one went down, location and dates unknown, I would not have trouble thinking a third one could be fairly routine, no matter how much we have concerns about the neighbors.