(AP) WASHINGTON — Two Air Force F-16 fighters have intercepted a privately owned Cessna airplane that entered the same Los Angeles airspace as Marine One, the helicopter that was ferrying President Barack Obama. A law enforcement official says police discovered about 40 pounds of marijuana inside after it landed at Long Beach Airport. (www.cbsnews.com) More...
I live just northwest of LGB. About 11am I spotted Marine One and the whole helo contingent, and I thought that was pretty cool to see. About a half hour later I hear a jet, step out on my patio and there is an F-16 at about 1500 feet in full afterburner making a hard right turn back towards the airport. You don't see that (full afterburner) very often around here, and I was pretty shocked. Every car alarm in this part of town went off. I didn't realize they were after an airspace violator. The F-16's ripped around for about 15 minutes before everything settled down.
"Hello Cessna ... This is the USAF ... Were looking for a target today for training practice . Would you like to land"? It was more like 40 lbs of trouble, besides violating the Presidential airspace ...
Yes, when the president travels his helicopters & motorocade are flown in in advance on military cargo planes. Then he comes later, comfortably, on Air Force One.
Not the sharpest crayon in the box. Unfortunately, I am certain that this sort of smuggling goes on every day but...this will give Obummer and crew one more stick to beat the aviation world with. He'll use it as another justification for the $100 flight fee.
