Society's Child

Weird! Aircraft crashes into Atlantic: U.S. says

MSN NZ
Sun, 31 Aug 2014 09:51 UTC

Waukesha County Regional Airport.

The North American Aerospace Defence Command says it has scrambled two F-16 fighter jets to aid an aircraft that appears to have crashed into the Atlantic.

The fighter jets tried to provide assistance to what NORAD in a statement called an "unresponsive general aviation aircraft".

The aircraft took off from Waukesha Airport, in Wisconsin, and was headed to Manassas Airport, in Virginia, when it crashed into the ocean, NORAD said on Saturday.

NORAD is the joint Canadian and American command in charge of maritime warning, aerospace warning and aerospace control for the neighbouring nations.

© AFP 2014

Comment: Hmm, so why dispatch two fighters to assist a plane in distress? A rescue helicopter or a cargo plane could drop rescue equipment, but what good are two fighter jets? What is going on here? The passenger manifest would be interesting. Or maybe it was a strike by a comet?

Reader Comments

asino · 2014-08-30T17:31:28Z

General Aviation = Private plane...

...so it could have been a single-engine Cessna, the pilot losing consciousness, and the airplane flying straight ahead on autopilot until it ran out of fuel, then crashed.
Happened several times before. In such a case it is normal to dispatch two fighters (while the airplane is still flying) to try and get the pilot's attention.
But let's wait and see
.A

cyre2067 · 2014-08-31T07:43:06Z

Overshot

It would have to have shot way past the Manassas airport in order to hit the ocean.

Mandatory Intellectomy · 2014-08-31T09:23:41Z

Well, first of all, whenever I see "U.S. says", my mind automatically replaces it with "didn't happen".

But come on, sott. Rescue helicopter? Since when does the US rescue anyone. The US only solves problems with bombs and other military equipment, whether it makes sense or not. Your child has flu? Bomb Syria!