US Denies French Fighters Emergency Landing Rights

[donsu]

http://www.counterpunch.com/lindorff06072005.html

Talk about fair-weather friends!

When nine French fighter jets and a weather plane from a French carrier taking part in a joint exercise with Canadian Naval forces in the Atlantic off New Jersey ran perilously low on fuel last Friday because of a freak storm that prevented them from returning to their ship, they figured, no problem. They weren't too far from the U.S. mainland, and so they could just land at McGuire AF Base in southern New Jersey.

No dice, the Francophobe U.S. military told them. According to a State Department source, quoted in the Philadelphia Inquirer, they were denied landing rights at the facility.

Faced with the choice of ditching their planes or finding an alternative landing site, the French pilots, with the help of frantic State Department and Federal Aviation Administration officers, managed to arrange landing permission at the commercial airfield in Atlantic City, though this necessitated delaying and rerouting several commercial flights because of the number of planes that were coming in at once.

No national American media mentioned this stunning--and potentially life-threatening--breach of basic air etiquette by the U.S. military. And not for lack of knowing about it: many news organizations covered the whole thing as a humor item, focusing on the French pilots spending a night in the debauchery of America's East Coast Vegas.
-snip-
---------------------------


the article ends by saying:

One wonders what the American reaction would be if a French military airport turned away American pilots in similar circumstances-or what the French reaction would have been if the planes hadn't made it safely to Atlantic City.


this is outrageous

I apoligize to the French for the life threatening acts of the criminals in charge of america.

and our puke media should be thrown in prison along with the bushgang.

[liberal N proud]

1. Another fine example of the MORAL VALUES shown by

our leaders.
They could care less about a human life other than their own and the unborn embryo they want to save.

[MindPilot]

6. and the persistent vegetative state

with which so many of them closely identify.

[Spectral]

32. ::Shaking head::

Oh my...

:evilgrin:

[Ravenseye]

2. This is insane!

I'm flabergasted.

I'm sure some freep would try and defend this somehow, but I just can't see it.

If american fighter planes low on fuel were denied landing rights at a french airfield...wow. I can't even begin to imagine the backlash here.

Do unto others folks. It's a matter of respect.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. I'm sure it will not go un-noticed in Europe. Guess, go-it-alone Bush

and company really don't want any of our traditional allies except the poodle!

[Coexist]

4. France - I AM SO SORRY - we are trying to get rid of them

I SWEAR! Please don't hate us for our idiot leaders.

[Selatius]

17. Actually, their opinion of us lowered a little after the 2004 elections

They're less likely to trust our collective judgment now than before. At least, this is what I was getting from news reports coming from Europe after Nov. 2nd. I mean, one headline in the British press said how could 59,000,000 people be "so stupid."

[Vincardog]

25. France We are sorry WE ARE Getting rid of him as fast as we can

You have to understand we never elected him and we are fighting the Corporate Controlled Media at the same time. But WE SHALL OVERCOME.

[MindPilot]

5. Ask Rummy about this at his next press conf.

Any reporter got the balls? Didn't think so.

[SteppingRazor]

7. At last! Sweet revenge!

That'll teach those French fighter pilots for not bombing Saddam! Woot! Woot! Yay America! USA! USA!

Now excuse me while I enjoy some all-American freedom fries, having already breakfasted on freedom toast.

Hey, think we can change the name of France itself to, like, Freedomland or something?

:puke:

[ArkDem]

8. French response to american inhospitality

[kiki]

16. Fetchez la vache.

[ArkDem]

18. Mooooooooooooooo......

[Spectral]

20. LOL!!

:)

[kiki]

34. *splat*

[bixente]

9. A disgusting act.

Despicable. So, these French pilots get punished because the U.S. Military disagree with decisions made by the French government?

This is so...juvenile. I thought the U.S. was a good, decent country?

And the fact this story is treated as a piece of humour...They could of lost their lives!

[DuaneBidoux]

10. Was this posted in the news section? If not it seems to qualify to me.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

11. I think it was Mark Twain

that said when asked about his newspaper reporting days, "people ask me if I make up my material, I don't have to. I'm a newspaper reporter" or words to that effect. In other words, this is so outrageous as to make me think it's a prank or April Fools day joke, But it's not!!!!!!!!
This is yet another low point, when I'd of thought we hit bottom long ago. What must the reast of the world be thinking of the Unted States now?

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. ah burnign even more bridges I see

[Spectral]

13. Rumsfeld believes that France is not an ally

He actually said this. But this is really awful.

[MsTryska]

14. good lord.

we're gonna wind up in a World War.

[Spectral]

19. I always wondered if the war in the middle east was really about the EU

and the euro. France kind of sees itself as the head.

[Pooka Fey]

15. I have no more words to express my outrage.

We live under a barbaric government-military-corporate junta. Every single day, when I think the U.S. government has finally reached the low point of inhumanity and hatred; I wake up, read DU and find that I was mistaken.

:cry::cry::cry:

How can France still believe that the U.S. is an ally? With friends like the U.S.A., who needs enemies?

[name not needed]

21. These asshats sure can hold a grudge.

"hey now, if it werent fer us murkans you cheez eatin surrendah monkeys wooda been eatin hitlars dick rite now!!!1"

[DemoTex]

22. International aviation law, like maritime law, provides for safe-harbor.

A few years back, when the US military was in the process of stealing the island of Diego Garcia from its inhabitants, a yacht - a thirty-foot Australian-registered steel schooner with determined journalist Simon Winchester on board - sought anchorage in the lagoon at Diego Garcia. Journalists and native inhabitants were banned on Diego Garcia and the outer archipelagos by the British and American authorities. The US military tried hard to keep Winchester from getting close to Diego Garcia, including buzzing the yacht every day with a Lockheed C-130.

Winchester's skipper, a no-nonsense Australian woman, sailed (well, sneaked) into the lagoon at Diego Garcia and anchored among the warships and atomic submarines. When officials found them out, they were furious and attempted to expel the yacht and crew from Diego Garcia. The skipper, however, stood her ground and claimed the lagoon as a 'port of refuge', as was her mariner's rights. They ended up staying in the lagoon for two weeks; the authorities couldn't do a damn thing because international maritime law prevailed even in the US military controlled island of Diego Garcia. (See Winchester's excellent essay on this experience in Granta 73, Spring 2001).

International aviation law is pretty much the same. A declaration of emergency (which the French flight may or may not have declared) should open up the closest suitable airports for use by the aircraft experiencing the emergency. If a low-fuel state is not an emergency, it soon will be. It is absolutely unconscionable that these French military pilots were jacked around by US military authorities. I am ashamed that this jingoistic regime as stooped to fucking with aviators in distress.

[Spectral]

23. Wow. This was really interesting

Thanks for the post

[burrowowl]

30. Shocks the hell out of me!

My Father was in FAA ATC for 36 years and with ICAO setting up ATC procedures in Mexico and Central America.
Mexico has always observed proper protocol with respect to the U$, it has not been reciprocal.
Also White Sands Proving Grounds sent some V2s to a Juarez cemetary after WWII, the Mexicans just sucked it up.
The U$ would stir up a shit storm if its pilots had been denied landing rights when in distress, they would have dropped their stores on the airport inert or not.
Don't get me started!

[Pooka Fey]

24. Kicking. This post is "Greatest Page" worthy. Nominated. n/t

[bvar22]

26. I'm with DemoTex on this.

Weather closing in...low on fuel.....Denied landing permission.
If there was ANY doubt about ALL elements safely reaching an alternate..

Declare an emergency and land anyway.
What are they gonna do??
Imprison the pilots?
Confiscate the aircraft?
Block the runway during a declared emergency?


Let the asshole politicians fight it out. I'll stay alive and keep my pilots alive and my planes intact.

This just STINKS!!!!

[GetTheRightVote]

27. I aplogize on my country's behalf as well, we are not worthy

:kick:

[glitch]

28. Utter assholes - this violates all the rules of coming to the aid of

fellow travellers. I hope this is not true, even the US military could not be this stupid.

[davepc]

29. Link to the article in the Philadelphia Inquirer about the incident

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/states/new_jersey/11811596.htm

The warplanes - nine carrier-based attack aircraft and a radar plane - had to find dry land in a hurry late Thursday. A sudden storm south of the Delmarva peninsula kept them from returning to the carrier de Gaulle while taking part in joint exercises with the U.S. Navy.

"Initially, we thought one of the jets was having mechanical problems, but their forced landing here was strictly weather-related," said Holly Baker, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration. "There was also some concern about fuel."

The pilots first asked permission to land at the nearest military air base.

U.S. officials denied that, according to Noel Clay, a spokesman for the State Department. But they did give the French permission to land on American soil, and the planes were then diverted to Atlantic City International in Pomona, Clay said.

[Spectral]

31. Thanks for the link

The eaters of "freedom fries" won't care. You know there is a stand in Philly international airport that sells "Freedom fries".

[ngGale]

33. I'm humiliated and apologize to the French for...

our leaders who act like spoiled rotten brats. :blush:
Pease remember, we didn't vote for any of them - I swear we didn't.
That's the DU truth.

[nashbridges]

35. *Sigh* That's not an article

That's a blog at best. The Philly article he references explains everything that happened, and it doesn't sound like we fucked the French.

Here are some choice quotes from the original story:

Initially, we thought one of the jets was having mechanical problems, but their forced landing here was strictly weather-related," said Holly Baker, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration. "There was also some concern about fuel."

The pilots first asked permission to land at the nearest military air base.

U.S. officials denied that, according to Noel Clay, a spokesman for the State Department. But they did give the French permission to land on American soil, and the planes were then diverted to Atlantic City International in Pomona, Clay said.

And:

"We had to scramble to get the necessary diplomatic clearances to allow them to land, but they were obtained," Clay said.

And, of course, a quote to directly contradict your "article" above:

"Winter said their arrival did not interfere with other traffic at the airport, more accustomed to high rollers on private planes and the budget carrier Spirit Airlines."



Considering it is difficult even for an American plane to get permission to land at a military base if there are other alternatives, it sounds like we took care of the pilots the best we could. Two of the pilots stayed with the planes to watch them while they were at the airport, and the other eight got a night at a hotel.

And the most important part of the story? No pilot died.

No apologies are necessary here. They were on a joint exercise with the US Navy. They couldn't get back to the carrier, they landed on dry ground.

If you are going to bother to post, could you at least do some fact checking first?

[donsu]

36. they were doing joint exercises with CANADA

I will continue to bother to post