(Mysterious) Jammed Radio Signal Cited in Capital Plane Incident (WTF?)

[UpInArms]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/24/politics/24plane.html

(free registration or try www.bugmenot.com)

WASHINGTON, May 23 - A Black Hawk helicopter dispatched to intercept a private plane that entered forbidden airspace here on May 11 directed the plane's pilots to tune to a frequency that was not usable at the time, the Department of Homeland Security acknowledged on Monday.

A crewman on the helicopter, kneeling in the open doorway, held up a sign instructing the men on an errant Cessna to tune to an emergency frequency. But at the time the frequency was jammed by a device on an airplane on the ground, an emergency locator transmitter, which broadcasts on that frequency to alert rescuers in case of a crash. There was no crash, and officials are not certain why or from where the transmitter was broadcasting.

...more that says nothing...

[Straight Shooter]

1. I bet Rove knows from where the transmitter was broadcasting. n/t

[iconoclastic cat]

5. He was holding the remote.

[DulceDecorum]

7. Red-green-red lasers

Published: May 24, 2005
On Saturday, government officials commissioned a new system that uses low-energy laser beam lights to warn pilots when they stray into forbidden airspace.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/24/politics/24plane.html?

Norad lasers will warn pilots
of D.C.-area ADIZ intrusions
http://www.ainonline.com/issues/05_05/05_05_norad_106.htmhttp://www.ainonline.com/issues/05_05/05_05_norad_106.htm

[DaDeacon]

2. Can you say "test run", I knew you could (n/t)

[laheina]

3. They are sooo dirty

that I wouldn't put *anything* past them :puke:

[jljamison]

4. nothing sinister here

this actually happens. Nothing sinister here. People land hard & jostle their ELTs. Or they test them & leave them on by accident.

[MADem]

6. Yeah, but when you add that information to the fact that

...they want to revive the discussion of shooting down aircraft over DC (which is already authorized, BTW), if I were a democratic Senator or Rep, I'd fly into BWI and take the train into town....

Just in case....

[Cooley Hurd]

8. This is true...

Not a unique occurrence at all...

[barbaraann]

9. On the day of the filibuster deal....

n/t

[leveymg]

10. Look at Flt 93's flight path: it's obvious that their nav was being jam-

med or else the pilot was incapacitated, or both. After a point, the plane's course became a series of wild zig-zags that ended up in western Pennsylvania, where the flight ended. This wasn't just at the very end, which might indicate a struggle in the cockpit, but the erratic course changes went on for quite a long way.

Pure speculation: first ECM knocked out the compasses and GPS, but it was a clear day, so a competent pilot could still fly using visual landmarks and a map. Did the Air Force blind the flight crew with lasers before finally shooting it down?

Anyone know of such a capability?

[Ian David]

11. Yes, it's called a stupid inexperienced pilot

If his instruments had been jammed, he'd be making statements to the press saying, "I am not an idiot. My compass stopped working."

He was probably zig-zagging around looking for visual navigation clues, like highways and bridges.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=washington,+DC&spn=0.019784,0.031672&t=k&hl=en

[UpInArms]

15. see my post #14 regarding lasers

[leesa]

12. Again an interception of a plane. Why were their no jets

on 9-11? And people STILL think Bush wasn't involved in 9-11....AMAZING denial.

[Wcross]

13. 121.5 is the frequency.

It is common for a plane to have an activated elt (emergency locator transmitter) sitting on the ground at the airport. You would have hoped the idiots in the chopper would have heard the transmisson from the grounded plane and held up a sign with an alternate.

[DemoTex]

16. Two aircraft in close proximity should be able to communicate on "guard"

.. over an active ELT signal at a nearby airport. But if 121.5 mHz was totally blocked by the ELT warble, then - yes - an alternate frequency should have been designated.

[UpInArms]

14. Here's more (it gets curiouser and curiouser)

Laser Warning Wasn't Used With Cessna

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/05/24/national/w092332D34.DTL

A new system of lasers designed to warn pilots that they've entered restricted airspace wasn't turned on Monday for the same reason the radio and the transponder of the wandering plane didn't work: the weather.

Lightning struck the small Canadian aircraft flying to Gaithersburg, Md., from Knoxville, Tenn. The plane lost both radio contact with air traffic control and its transponder signal.

Once the plane's communications went out, fighters took off from Andrews Air Force Base in suburban Maryland and escorted it to the Gaithersburg airport.

To avoid the expense of scrambling fighter jets to escort errant planes away from the restricted area in and around the capital city, the Pentagon on Saturday had inaugurated a system of red-and-green warning lasers deployed around Washington.

First Lt. Lisa Citino, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said lasers weren't turned on Monday because the pilot couldn't have seen them through the clouds.

...more...

Does anyone have a way of checking for "clouds" around DC on May 11?

[BiggJawn]

17. ELT's go off all the time.

You slam the door, bounce the plane a little too hard on landing...and they don't have a local noisemaker in them, so unless you're listening on 121.5, you don't know.
When I was in the CAP, ELT's went off often enough that we considered them good training in Direction Finding.