Small Plane crashes in NYC

[Flowboy]

Hi,

While I am extremely sad to see the death of at least two people, one a pitcher for the NNY at the peak of his career, I have to ask.
1. How does a small plane take off from anywhere near NY without a flight plan.
2. How does it then enter the city's airspace without even one F16 intercepting it and forcing it down?

What happened to Homeland Security? I'm betting Don Rumsfeld and Haliburton are there somewhere, whats the bet it all gets covered up?

Not a conspracy theorist,

Rob

[bennylaird]

The action of forcing a small plane down with an F16 is interesting? How could they do it? To slow an F-16 down enough to fly in close formation with a lighty is not an easy task. Uually they settle in at a distance behind anyway with the only real action possible being to shoot it down. Would hate to have to make that decision as a pilot. All happens to fast to confirm if it's a lost pilot or a terrorist attack.

[rrich]

The airplane probably took off from one of the smaller airports on Long Island or north of NYC. The initial reports implied that visibility was poor due to overcast skys.

Flying in that area, in those weather conditions using VFR is sort of like riding a motorcycle (2 wheeler) without a helmet.

[Honorary Bloke]

The action of forcing a small plane down with an F16 is interesting? How could they do it? To slow an F-16 down enough to fly in close formation with a lighty is not an easy task. Uually they settle in at a distance behind anyway with the only real action possible being to shoot it down. Would hate to have to make that decision as a pilot. All happens to fast to confirm if it's a lost pilot or a terrorist attack.

Right you are, Benny! But the problem is, how did he get into that airspace at all without being detected??:eek: Flying VFR requires no flight plan, but that doesn't make the plane invisible. Apparently they scrambled the jets AFTER he hit the building, but what good is that? Very disturbing.