F-15's light up the sky over PDX 1/16
Jan 16, 2002 | 1:32 pm
#1
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F-15's light up the sky over PDX 1/16
A private pilot last night made a casual threat that he was going to crash his small plane into a Portland high rise at 6:45pm last night.
Starting at 7pm, we had 4 F-15 Strike Eagles patrolling the skies over portland with an offensive stance of the like the I have never seen.
They were doing circles around downtown, buzzing my NW neighborhood several times, setting off EVERY car alarm on the ground, and shaking everything.
It was a scary moment, since those of us on the ground did not know what was going on, yet we had fighter jets with full afterburners on flying very low. PDX was on the verge of closing and diverting all flights at 7:15pm, but an FAA controller from SeaTac helped downplay the situation, saying the private plane was not a viable threat, and would not do much damage if it hit a building.
The fighters stayed in the skies for almost an hour, returning to the Portland Air Base (which is at PDX) at around 8:10pm.
To scare citizens even more, a movie crew in town to shoot "The Hunted" was in North Portland staging explosive devices for the movie, which they had this date set for months. So not only were people in North Portland seeing fighter jets patrol the skies, but large explosions that could be heard and felt for up to 3 miles away.
911 operators were flooded with calls.
Interesting night for portlander's, and glad everything is calm and back to normal.
Sitting in my apartment, I knew it wasnt a drill, because I have never seen them fly like that over the downtown area. Something was going down, in my opinion, and I was right.
Starting at 7pm, we had 4 F-15 Strike Eagles patrolling the skies over portland with an offensive stance of the like the I have never seen.
They were doing circles around downtown, buzzing my NW neighborhood several times, setting off EVERY car alarm on the ground, and shaking everything.
It was a scary moment, since those of us on the ground did not know what was going on, yet we had fighter jets with full afterburners on flying very low. PDX was on the verge of closing and diverting all flights at 7:15pm, but an FAA controller from SeaTac helped downplay the situation, saying the private plane was not a viable threat, and would not do much damage if it hit a building.
The fighters stayed in the skies for almost an hour, returning to the Portland Air Base (which is at PDX) at around 8:10pm.
To scare citizens even more, a movie crew in town to shoot "The Hunted" was in North Portland staging explosive devices for the movie, which they had this date set for months. So not only were people in North Portland seeing fighter jets patrol the skies, but large explosions that could be heard and felt for up to 3 miles away.
911 operators were flooded with calls.
Interesting night for portlander's, and glad everything is calm and back to normal.
Sitting in my apartment, I knew it wasnt a drill, because I have never seen them fly like that over the downtown area. Something was going down, in my opinion, and I was right.
Jan 16, 2002 | 1:59 pm
#2
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Jan 16, 2002 | 3:19 pm
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Sounds like an exciting night. We were out sailing past dark last night and I can't tell you how many times we were buzzed by the Coast Guard helicopter with its spotlight on us.
Jan 16, 2002 | 3:25 pm
#5
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Location: Sugar Land,Texas USA
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pdxracer i feel for you.
As I drove around Tucson yesterday evening..i saw 4 F16s flying around in circles...i know that they are practicing...but still it's a sight to behold..I thought about being in a different country driving and all of a sudden these fighter jets started bombing the crap out of the city...scary thought.
Glad everything is back to normal. When i was in PDX, i stayed at the Shearton PDX...i could imagine what it was like there.
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As I drove around Tucson yesterday evening..i saw 4 F16s flying around in circles...i know that they are practicing...but still it's a sight to behold..I thought about being in a different country driving and all of a sudden these fighter jets started bombing the crap out of the city...scary thought.
Glad everything is back to normal. When i was in PDX, i stayed at the Shearton PDX...i could imagine what it was like there.
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Jan 16, 2002 | 7:47 pm
#6
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letiole
From your profile it looks like you are from the Bay Area. Were you sailing in SF Bay last night? I am a Coast Guard helicopter pilot stationed at Air Station San Francisco, so it would have been one of my helicopters that "buzzed you with its spotlight on you" We had two flights up last night, both were practicing search and rescue manuvers to Coast Guard small boats / cutters. Given the requirements of both flights, I can't imagine that either of those flights would have had the time or opportunity to buzz you just to annoy you, nor would the pilots be unprofessional enough to do so. We do ocassionally fly low and shine our spotlight on a vessel when we are conducting a search and rescue case and need to identify a missing boat, however there were no cases in the San Francisco area last night.
If you really felt threatened or felt that the helicopter was acting in a manner that scared you or was unsafe I would really appreciate it if you could email me with the details so I can resolve the issue. We strive to be a professional organization that is always ready to rescue you should you encounter trouble at sea, no matter what the weather, as well conducting our other missions including defending our ports from attack. I put myself on the line every day to provide this service to you, so I am disturbed that you would feel threatened in any way by me or one of my pilots.
From your profile it looks like you are from the Bay Area. Were you sailing in SF Bay last night? I am a Coast Guard helicopter pilot stationed at Air Station San Francisco, so it would have been one of my helicopters that "buzzed you with its spotlight on you" We had two flights up last night, both were practicing search and rescue manuvers to Coast Guard small boats / cutters. Given the requirements of both flights, I can't imagine that either of those flights would have had the time or opportunity to buzz you just to annoy you, nor would the pilots be unprofessional enough to do so. We do ocassionally fly low and shine our spotlight on a vessel when we are conducting a search and rescue case and need to identify a missing boat, however there were no cases in the San Francisco area last night.
If you really felt threatened or felt that the helicopter was acting in a manner that scared you or was unsafe I would really appreciate it if you could email me with the details so I can resolve the issue. We strive to be a professional organization that is always ready to rescue you should you encounter trouble at sea, no matter what the weather, as well conducting our other missions including defending our ports from attack. I put myself on the line every day to provide this service to you, so I am disturbed that you would feel threatened in any way by me or one of my pilots.
Jan 16, 2002 | 8:46 pm
#7
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CG: Sorry, I certainly didn't mean to offend you or imply that the Coasties were doing anything wrong. I certainly appreciate the work you/they do and really appreciate that Coast Guard San Francisco has done a lot to become respected among Bay Area sailors - it wasn't always that way as you may know. I get a lot out of reading the Cost Guard call reports in Latitude 38 and we also toured the Morgenthau and try to be responsible sailors who we hope will never have to put a Coastie's life on the line because we did something dumb - always nice to know you're there though just in case.
Back to last night, I used the term "buzzed" pretty loosely - we certainly did not feel threatened, it was just pretty clear something was going on. Thanks for letting me know what it was. We were the only sailboat out along city front that I could see last night and they did seem to make a point of passing over us a few times, but, as said, we certainly didn't feel threatened. We did see another one that seemed to stay in one spot over the city, but that didn't look like a CG helicopter, but it was difficult to tell at night. The Morgenthau was also out and cruising and hanging out south of the Bay Bridge and that seemed rather unusual too.
BTW, if you're ever out flying around and see a 34' boat named Allegre, feel free to buzz us and say hello. Of course, if you get a call from a 34' boat named Allegre and the sailor needs help because she did something dumb, my boat's name is Socket.
[This message has been edited by letiole (edited 01-16-2002).]
Back to last night, I used the term "buzzed" pretty loosely - we certainly did not feel threatened, it was just pretty clear something was going on. Thanks for letting me know what it was. We were the only sailboat out along city front that I could see last night and they did seem to make a point of passing over us a few times, but, as said, we certainly didn't feel threatened. We did see another one that seemed to stay in one spot over the city, but that didn't look like a CG helicopter, but it was difficult to tell at night. The Morgenthau was also out and cruising and hanging out south of the Bay Bridge and that seemed rather unusual too.
BTW, if you're ever out flying around and see a 34' boat named Allegre, feel free to buzz us and say hello. Of course, if you get a call from a 34' boat named Allegre and the sailor needs help because she did something dumb, my boat's name is Socket.
[This message has been edited by letiole (edited 01-16-2002).]