Seattle, WA – The U.S. military says fighter jets were scrambled to respond to an airspace violation near Air Force One in Seattle.
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North American Aerospace Defense Command spokesman John Cornelio says the jets were sent from Portland, Oregon, as President Obama was visiting Seattle after a report that an aircraft violated the restricted airspace Tuesday. He says the aircraft left the restricted area before the Air National Guard jets arrived, and there was no intercept.
Two loud noises, apparently sonic booms, were felt throughout the Puget Sound area.
Obama was in Seattle to stump for Sen. Patty Murray on a three-day campaign swing for endangered Democrats.
Cornelio said the fighters were from the Guard’s 142nd Fighter Wing.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Allen Kenitzer in Seattle says the fighters were F-15s. He did not immediately know what type of plane violated the no-fly zone.
“The plane was gone by the time the F-15’s arrived”.
So that means Air Force One could’ve been toast by the time help came if that plane had been “trouble”. Come to think of it? Imagine if the President or his family would have been boarding at the time and that plane would have thrown a grenade? Perish the thought.
Chelemar kuhl. Just like you can’t bring a cup of water onto an airplane.
Was there an attack on American soil with sophisticated weapons? 911 was done with box cutters, times square nome was an home made bomb.
This is as it should be. And who knows what sort of countermeasures Air Force 1 has on its own.
#1 ,
The Plane violated restricted airspace. It flew to close to airforce one in flight. The plane was in the air at the time. Nobody was “boarding”. Unless the pilot of the intruding aircraft spent hundreds of hours practicing and had a few informants on the ground at the time, a grenade thrown from a moving aircraft hundreds of feet in the air barring any serious contributing cross winds, would probably land several hundred feet away from it’s intended target. In any case, the people most likely to perform such an attempt would just as soon use the small aircraft as the weapon itself, as in guided missle.
It was prob for a photo opp!