NORAD Readiness

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
FNC
April 30, 2008
Special Report With Brit Hume (FNC), 6:00 PM
BRIT HUME: Since the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001, the North American Air Defense Command has flown tens of thousands of missions to defend U.S. airspace. Our intrepid national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin risked a bout of air sickness to bring us that story, so pay attention.
JENNIFER GRIFFIN: Two members of the D.C. Air National Guard convinced me to join them in a test flight above Washington to intercept potentially wayward planes as soon as they entered restricted airspace. Takeoff was from Andrews Air Force Base Tuesday.
Operation Noble Eagle was launched by NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, on September 14th, 2001, after 9/11. It now has fighter jets all over the country on high alert, ready to intercept potentially hijacked planes. Over 50,000 sorties or missions have been flown defending the continent of the United States since 9/11. The F-16s based at Andrews have on average one to two alerts per day.
In March alone, NORAD intercepted three wayward planes; each had wrongly entered the 30-mile Air Defense Identification Zone over Washington, D.C. NORAD has not had to shoot down any planes, but it could. Each fighter jet is armed with infrared and heat-seeking missiles. On April 19th, the Air Force flew its one millionth mission since 9/11: a C-130 Hercules transport plane carrying soldiers from Kuwait into Iraq.
To mark the millionth mission, members of the 113th Wing of the D.C. National Guard carried out this mock intercept of a wayward fixed wing Cessna. I knew I was in trouble when they told me we’d be flying with a pilot whose call sign is “Psycho,” Lt. Col. Mike Sinarecki (ph) and Lt. Col. Dave Miles, call sign “Shoju” (ph). Shoju had flown for United Airlines but was called up by the National Guard after 9/11.
Psycho buzzed ahead doing a maneuver known as a head butt, forcing the Cessna to slow down while Shoju signaled the Cessna by tilting his plane’s wings, which means for the small passenger plane to follow him. When the F-16s needed fuel, a KC-135 refueling tanker filled them up, hovering like a gas station in midair. The boom lowered over the cockpit and offloaded the fuel.
The F-16s normally based at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland flew to New York in a very few minutes. But the cloud cover was too thick to swing by the Statue of Liberty as planned, so they returned to Andrews to prepare for the next real alert.
At Andrews Air Force Base, Jennifer Griffin, Fox News.
HUME: Some correspondents get all the good assignments.
 
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