Imagine what would have happened if the tourists in those choppers were
TERRORISTS as opposed to TERRORIZED!



"Bob Chilcoat" wrote in
:

My neighbor runs one of the sightseeing helicopter companies in NYC.
After a lot of discussions concerning security for the RNC this week,
the TSA made a ruling that sightseeing helicopter flights over the
Hudson were OK, but no Charter or Corporate flights. The Corporate
people were insensed, but the TSA was calling the shots. Gotta let
those delegates see Manhatten. Sightseeing flights were assigned a
special frequency so that there would be no confusion. Right.

The other morning, on the first day of the restrictions, two
sightseeing flights took off. One was a few minutes out, headed toward
the Lady, and a second had just gotten airborne when two military
choppers blew down the Hudson. THEY were on the wrong frequency, and
could not contact the two, completely legal, sightseeing choppers. Of
course they immediately assumed that these two copters were violators.
The one closest to base was forced to return immediately. The one
downriver was then intercepted and escorted to Morristown, where it and
its passengers were held for several hours and, because it was now
outside the inner TFR, had to be completely security cleared before it
could return to its base. All because the "security" forces couldn't
get the procedures right. It's a good thing they didn't shoot first.
Might have killed some Republican delegates.

--
Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)

I don't have to like Bush and Cheney (Or Kerry, for that matter) to
love America