Guy Elden Jr wrote:

Ron Natalie wrote:
Guy Elden Jr wrote:


- Rumsfeld had ordered the plane to be shot down, and they were
literally seconds away from doing so...

I don't know if Rumsfeld was in the loop, but they were very
close to being shutdown.

I think that's a very big deal though. The claim that an order was
actually made is a far cry from just debating the point, which is
probably SOP anyway for any incursion that gets close enough to the
restricted zone at the center of the ADIZ.


- The "CFI" had his "license" revoked...

No CFI, but even REC.AVIATORS who should no better have been making
this error right and left.

It gives a very bad impression of instructors when they go calling this
guy an instructor. Call him a country bumpkin who should've known
better, because that's what he is.

- The "student pilot" would not be charged...

Have you heard anything to the contrary?

Point here (and granted, this is really more a technicality for pilots)
is that the student pilot was not, at the time of the incident, acting
in the capacity of a student pilot. He couldn't have been, because the
guy who was acting as PIC was not an instructor. So the whole scenario
that this radio station described was factually wrong on several
accounts, and paints a very different picture... i.e., "instructor &
student" vs "pilot and passenger".

Don't bet on that. If FAA wanted the student certificate, they'd have it
and it would be up to him to try to get it back in court. Even when the
lawnchair nutcase with the balloons survived his stunt, FAA said that they
would have cancelled any certificates he had because that's all they could
really do. But he didn't have any.