B767 escorted back to Portland International (KPDX) by F-15s: katu.com/news/local/80830362.html. Crazy,
Heard the thunderous roar of the F-15’s as they hauled a-- headed West today!
I just spent a week in the PDX area and they ANG were out flying almost every day.
They never fly that fast. You could see the afterburners when they went over. Haven’t seen them that fast since 9/11.
This flight seems to have confused the FAA/Flightaware computers. The tracklog of the current flight shows it has been in the air for over 8 hours with over 2 to go.
If there are no charges being filed, could this be an overzealous flight crew?
I was watching a flight attendant yelling at an 75 year old man the other day because he "questioned’ her rule about bags under the seat. He just asked if he could leave a bag unzipped, and she gave him a speech about listening to the flight crew, and ended up telling him that they would turn the airplane around etc. She told him security would meet him at the gate, and the poor man fretted about that with his wife the whole flight.
So, if the man is not being charged, did he do anything wrong???
Ever been pulled over for something and not gotten a ticket?
Ever compared apples to oranges?
An incident occurs. An investigation is opened, and a decision is made by the investigating agent that whatever occurred does not rise to the level of a crime.
Or maybe they will turn it over to a Grand Jury and let them decide whether or not to indict the guy.
Did the pilot overreact? Who knows. Did he make a decision based to turn the plane around to ensure the safety of the plane and its passengers?
Yep.
WTF is with the F-15’s? Really, what are they going to do? Shoot the plane down? That’s good for business. Turn a 767 around with f-15 escorts and no charges filed? They should file them on the crew then. 
NO SHIT!!! Totally agree…I swear sometimes some of these FAs have a little too much zeal. AND NO COMMON SENSE!!!
Well, so much for reality. The FA’s didn’t turn the plane around, or call in the fighters. The captain turned the plane around and NORAD called in the fighters.
My guess this has much to do as a result of the Christmas Day attempted bombing.
We don’t have all the details, but I’m sure the FBI would not have let the next Richard Ried go a few minutes after they landed. I fly a lot, and I have seen wolf called too many times by flight attendants who have made the wrong career choice. Agreed the F-15’s were not the cap’s call, but is that the message we want to send to the flying public? Enough knee jerk reactions, PROFILE… NOW!
Agreed that the F-15’s are overkill (and probably scared the hell out of the pax), but living and working near an AFB and with friends that work on our base, I know that they are continuously training and looking for any circumstance to buff up on their skills. They (probably) knew the deal and were just looking for some practice at interceptions - this was a good drill for them and a good way to show a demonstration of power and that the system in place works (or should). Was it needed? No, but practice never hurts when a real situation presents itself. (Like when a NORDO commercial aircraft overshoots it’s destination by 100+ miles…) I bet seeing those outside the window quieted down the unruly passenger ASAP!
Thanks for the working link Fly. When I saw this yesterday and couldn’t get the link to open, I was imagining a much more severe situation that what really happened.
The attacks of September 11th is the reason for the fighters. The FAA & NORAD have to go under the assumption that they are not getting the full story from the cockpit. If the pilot has a gun pointed to his head and is instructed to say that they are returning with an unruly passenger we have no way of knowing that everything has gone to hell. So if this was true and the ‘bad guys’ decide to slam another Boeing 767 into building and kill several hundred more people then the public would be complaining they didn’t do enough to stop it.
So what would you rather have? A couple of F-15s in the air, or another several hundred people dead?
Thank you trashbag!
Welcome to the board. The only security improvement we have at all since 911 is that passengers don’t want to die. The TSA is a great concept, but the union has already destroyed it’s effectiveness.
F-15 escorts for practice are good, but practice on a KC-135, not a passenger aircraft with 200 civilians. That is wrong, and I hope heads roll for that. Using a non threat as an excuse to play around with the lives of United States citizens is disgusting. How many people on that airplane had to explain to their children that they weren’t going to get shot down by their government?
I said it before, profiling is our FIRST line of defense, everything else is secondary. Getting surly with a nasty flight attendant is not a national security threat, sorry if you can’t see it that way, but maybe you need to fly more.
Would you rather have 200 people dead or maybe 500 or 600? I know you would rather have nobody dead, but if those 200 were gonna die, what would you rather have?