Okay, let me preface this with:

1. I agree the pilot was a moron who is lucky to be alive.

2. I am not in any kind of conspiracy theory type of clubs.

However, what if this was some kind of test of our response to this type of situation? Given that one report is that the two men involved were supposedly not authorized to take out the plane, it seems rather suspicious to me.

Even if it was not a test per se, haven't we now shown that our response is to not shoot down a plane that violated air space (TWICE!).

I don't want to second-guess what the response was - there was probably not nearly enough information available at the time of the incident.

I'm just wondering what all of you think about how we just sort of "showed our hand" and that the message may have been that, yes indeed, you can violate no-fly space like this.

As far as I'm concerned, we already knew the truth. If this had been a 747 instead of a Cessna, the military would have been even less likely to shoot it down, because of (1) the higher probability that it's just some kind of error and (2) collateral-damage issues (killing innocent passengers and concern for people on the ground). Thoughtful people know this already. As long as terrorists don't gain control of any large planes, we have nothing to fear.

Bruce

Nope, I meant Candyland as I have been using that term for the system since it went live

I never watched Sesame street so I can't relate as well to that system

Don't they knew it's the terrorists who wear shoes, not people who deserve to run faster!

An explosive-laden SUV or Ryder-truck that had a good "run up" to get speed would do far more damage than someone intentionally crashing a C150... its hard to crack 100mph of airspeed flat out in level flight in one of those.

The pilot's license will likely be pulled for good. I am certainly glad they did not shoot it down, though... its nice to see some restraint exercised in a case like this.

BTW, the C-150 is most often used as a primary training aircraft for people to become initially licensed in.

Ohhh, Smoketown, that sheds some light on their loss of reasoning skills.

The sense I get here from several folks is that we have a bunch of idiots in DC getting so worried about a Cessna. How cavalier. I don't know the explosive force of 250 lbs of plastic explosives, but I do recall that some experts believe that the amount in the attempted shoe bomber's shoes might have caused enough damage to bring the plane down.

This was worth ringing the alarm bells.

Occupants reported as a flight instructor and student. The instructor will be able to teach ground school at Leavenworth.

Any transient GA pilot knows to avoid the DC ADIZ. An instructor has no excuse.

Revocation, fines, prison, and reimbursement.

And how is rushing people from several building out into the streets making them any safer? As suggested above, the plane could have just been the decoy for a ground operation. Even those kids who pulled the fire alarm in that school shooting a couple years ago were smart enough to think of that one.

People seem to be so concerned about what's going on in the sky that they don't think about the ground. e.g. The reports that the long security lines at LAX put people in more danger from terrorism, not less.

Lest we forget, creating a hole in the fuselage of an aircraft (a confined space, no less), is different than attacking a building.

All I know is that you couldn't pay me enough to live in D.C. Priapism and paranoia are a foul combination.

If one wants to target those folks on the streets, they can just attack in the morning or afternoon rush hours. The high value targets, so to speak, aren't heading on to the streets as a group. They're either going into a shelter or dispersing widely outside.

5 kg of C4 will shatter windows 15 miles away. I imagine 100+ kg will do some damage.

In the previous evacuation, the Congresspeople (let's assume they're "high value") were evacuating through the same routes and exits as their staffers were.

In the morning rush hour there's no way to guarantee that any significant number of "high value" targets will be outside the buildings at any given time. This significantly increases your odds.

Most of the buildings in DC have security bollards to keep truck and car bombs away from the building.

Well said, Bocastephen and others!

According to what I just heard on the news it was a student pilot and a passenger. I don't know if the passenger was a CFI, but I would hope the media would mention it if this was the case.

The student pilot made a huge mistake and unless he was with a CFI, which misguided him, he has no business flying again.

He's lucky he wasn't shot down; it took flares to be shot in his line of sight. By properly scanning the sky for other aircraft, he should have seen the F-16's at some point prior to the flares and known something was wrong. At the same time he should have realized he was in an area where he didn't belong.

Furthermore, he had no business flying through, let alone near, the DC restricted no fly zone. It seems he had no ATC contact and his transponder was not properly set in accordance with WAS area operations.

I hope this doesn't end up causing further restrictions being placed on responsible private pilots who use airports in the WAS area. It took time getting DCA re-opened as well as having guidelines established for use of private airports in the WAS area. I sincerely hope this doesn't cause further restrictions or grief for the responsible private pilots, or the re-opening of DCA for private operations.

Best,

SDF_Traveler