"Wheels up in 30"
 

How many times have we heard that line on Criminal Minds?

OK - I can possibly live with the idea that Penelope Garcia has the fastest internet connection known to Man, and that the amount of (machine-readable) records on everybody is out there and accessible, but I always wonder about the airplane connection.

They are located at Quantico, VA. I guess there's an airstrip located somewhere nearby, if for Marine aviation if nothing else, but is it reasonable to prep a Gulfstream, file flight plans, and get everybody to the strip in such a short period of time?

Perhaps the jet and USAF crew are at their beck and call 24/7.

Haven't seen the show, but it happens fairly often in the Air Ambulance world. Especially if the plane is already fueled. The pilots can often file flight plans from their I pads while enroute to the airport. A thorough pre-flight and clearance then it's off we go. One hour is a much more common and reasonable dispatch time, but I have seen 30 minutes done.

Wow... really?

If they have an aircraft on standby 24/7/365 and it's at Fort Belvoir and they take a helicopter from Quantico then it is very doable, maybe even without the helicopter.

Absolutely doable.

It's 100% fiction, why not!

In a fictional world, with fictional characters, and fictional storylines, I believe this assumption is entirely fictionally possible.

There's Marine Corps Air Facility Quantico (home of Marine One). Don't know if the strip there is long enough for the planes they show them flying or not, and it's predominantly a heli base I think.

Of course, I'm not overly convinced that the FBI has a crack team of profilers that flies out via private jet to everything like on the show :). My guess is if they have teams that do this that they're far more likely to fly commercial, there's very little that is on the show that commercial schedules would really be a problem for.

I think the rationale is they need to start work on the case that very minute - as the later it gets, the less likely they are to save the person etc. I wouldn't say it's particularly feasible to have a group discussion about the investigation while on a commercial plane, nor is it very likely that there would be a commercial flight leaving within the hour to the place they want to go.

Though saying all that, I do agree with you that I find it pretty unlikely this would happen in real life!

Marine One (the Presidential helicopters) are actually based at the former Anacostia Naval Air Station in Washington (now part of Joint Base Anacostia/Bolling)

per landings.com the runway at KNYG (MCAF Quantico) is 4250 ft which is plenty long enough for a C-130 or a fairly lightly loaded bizjet

Don't watch this show, but don't even get me started on all the Law & Orders (and Law & Order type shows) where the criminal is on trial a couple of weeks after being arrested.

In other words, it's fiction......

I should know better than to pay attention to wikipedia for my sources :). Although they're a little vague, even when looking up the Anacostia base.

Of course the FBI have planes, So does ICE. DEA, Border Patrol. They have their own pilots. I don't know if Quantico has an airstrip if not they could go to Reagan where the planes are housed if not at Quantico. If they needed to go to GBD how many flights a day there one I think. I just wonder if they would send a team of three or four. Of course if they found the suspect they would take all the glory because they are media hogs. :rolleyes:

Come on
 

Pretty sure that even in a fictional world, it's still not spelled "beck and call". It amazes me that people even critized the "Wow...really?" post and didn't notice the horrendous butchering of the English language that inspired it.