On Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:25:03 GMT, wrote:

Big John wrote:
On Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:45:04 GMT, wrote:

In rec.aviation.piloting Mr.Smartypants wrote:
On Feb 21, 1:39?pm, "gatt" wrote:
?"WASHINGTON (AP) - A helicopter carrying three senior U.S. senators has
made an emergency landing in Afghanistan.
Sens. John Kerry, Joseph Biden and Chuck Hagel were aboard the aircraft.,
according to Jon Summers, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
The lawmakers are on a trip this week that includes stops in India, Turkey
and Pakistan.

Kerry and Biden are Democrats from Massachusetts and Delaware, respectively,
and the Republican Hagel is from Nebraska. "

WTF?! ?Is this something that needs to be reported before they're secured
and recovered?

-c

The "emergency" landing was probably at an alternate airport/base.

You can bet those three tit-suckers wouldn't be anywhere near any
actual danger.

They landed in a field in the mountains because of a snow storm and
were transported the rest of the way by ground vehicles.

While waiting for pickup, the troops formed a perimeter and a fighter
flew air cover as would be expected for such a situation.

************************************************** *****************

Please explain to me how a fighter could fly air cover in Wx so bad
that a chopper had to land?

Are you asking me or the Associated Press?

I would guess because loaded helicopters are more altitude limited than
F-16's and they were in the mountains.

Also Fighters fly in at lest a element not singly.

Then I guess you need to fire off an indignant letter to AP press
writer Andrew Miga who wrote the AP story and set him straight.

Either that, or an indignant letter to John Kerry who provided the
information to AP in a telephone interview.

Sounds like some press had a dead line to make and not time to get
facts straight.

Or maybe since they were close to Bagram Air Base, no one felt the need
for a bunch of fighters in the air.

Or maybe Kerry didn't know how may F-16's were in the air; write to
him and grill him thoroughly until you get an answer.

Or maybe the fighter was a sim mission, eh ! Mx?

Bite me.


************************************************** *********

Quoting you.

"While waiting for pickup, the troops formed a perimeter and a fighter
flew air cover as would be expected for such a situation".

Unquote.

Since you seemed to know it all (quote) "as would be expected for
such a situation" (unquote) I simply asked some technical questions
which I guess you don't have the answers to???? so you now want to
pass the buck.

If you are going to put your name to patently erroneous data, you
should be prepared to qualify the data or say this is what was
reported and by whom. We would then know you were not setting yourself
up as a expert on what happened thousands of miles away.

More questions, since you believe everything in the media or from the
mouths of politicians. What kind of a Chopper was it and how many
'troops' were aboard to form a perimeter?

Were there two choppers, one with the VIP's and one with a squad or so
of troops for security.

This is how I would have scheduled the mission. It would have given
100% back up of equipment and safety.

Why should I stoop so low to bite you? I don't suffer or bite fools.


Big John