A groundbreaking training exercise ended late Tuesday after U.S. and Russian fighter jets crisscrossed the Pacific in pursuit of a chartered plane playing the role of a hijacked airliner.
The "hijacked" plane - actually a chartered executive-style Gulfstream - landed in Anchorage after flying across the Pacific and back, monitored all the way by fighters and aerial command posts from both sides.
On board were officers from Russia and from the North American Aerospace Defense Command, a U.S.-Canadian force that patrols the skies over North America.
The exercise was designed to test how well Russia and NORAD could coordinate their efforts in the event of a hijacking, especially during the critical handoff stage when the commandeered plane moves from one side's airspace to the other.
The drill will make it harder for terrorists to pull off a hijacking against the U.S., Canada or Russia by building up the air travel system's defenses, said Canadian Forces Col. Todd Balfe, the deputy commander of NORAD's Alaska region and the senior NORAD observer aboard the Gulfstream.
"I think any time that we increase our cooperation and our coordination, we harden ourselves against further events," Balfe said. Read more
RELATED:
NORAD: Hijack drill with Russia makes travel safer (maybe not for Ted Stevens)
Was there a NORAD stand down on 9-11? : According to the Marrs book...there was no 'stand down' ordered for Norad on 9-11 but rather what was actually happening is that on that very morning Norad was conducting a hijacking simulation scenario into which the actual hijackings were confusingly mixed and thus the bad response to the situation... Also, see NORAD Stand-Down and NORAD practice for 9/11 style attacks 2 years prior to incident
Ex-Senator Ted Stevens dies in Alaska plane crash : The single-engine, high-wing propeller plane, a DeHavilland DHC-3T, crashed at 8 p.m. local time on Monday, about 10 miles northwest of Aleknagik, a village near the Bristol Bay fishing town of Dillingham, according to the NTSB.
The Assassination of Senator Paul Wellstone : Was Senator Wellstone assassinated, or was he just the victim of an unfortunate airplane accident?
Who Killed Congessman Larry McDonald? : Is there reason to believe that Rep. Lawrence McDonald of Georgia, an admittedly ultra-right U.S. congressman traveling on 007, may have been deliberately assassinated aboard the flight?
From another site:http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/members/forum.cgi?read=180626
CGI's Gryphon: A Trip to the Grocery Store
I lived in Dillingham for three summers and two winters.
Senator Stevens and his flight were going from 5th lake to 2nd lake, as they are called locally. The media reported that Agulowak Lodge was on Lake Aleknagik. It’s not Lake Aleknagik, the first lake on the Wood River, the Agulowak River connects first lake and second lake, and the lodge is at the mouth of second lake.
The flight he was on, from 5th lake to 2nd, is like going to the local grocery store, it’s done many times every day. The pilot on the flight was 62, I assume a corporate pilot, and because he was flying into Nerka, 5th lake, he’d been there before. The terrible weather the media cites is a misnomer. Everyday is a crappy day in Dillingham, if you wait for the weather to break you’ll be an old man.
Visual flight rules, VFR, always apply there. Contrary to media reports, Dillingham, nor the lakes are remote by Alaska standards. At this time of year flights have died down a bit from 3 to 4 flights a day to 2 or 3 commercial flights. When I lived there during this time of year there were at least
3 737s , 4 DC6s, plus two 12 seat turbo props flying in every day. Millions of pounds of Bristol Bay Salmon are flown out of Dillingham every year. The area may be remote by human density, but not by planes.
At the end of Kanakanak beach there is a FAA homing beacon one mile from the runway. A 500 foot deck is considered low limit for landing, the commercial DC6s never stop during season. This time of year, you fly, lose money or die.
So, getting back to the Senator’s flight, going to the grocery store to catch silvers, because up on 5th lake it’s all controlled catch and release rainbows the size of your arm 8 inches around, which is why there are at least two
Gulf Streams on the tarmac every Saturday.
This was just a fly and fish, you see the salmon running from the air, so you sit down on top of them and start fishing.
So, what happened on the trip to the grocery store?
First of all, elevation at 5th lake is 213 feet. Elevation at Aleknagik is maybe 55 feet.
I don't know where the wreckage was found, I am guessing it was between 3rd and 2nd lake, because you can jump over the mountains there, and drop down into a beautiful aqua blue glacier fjord, that's the only thing I can call it, and come out at big bend and you're at the lodge in 30 seconds.
Thing is, Why?
If the weather sucks, you follow the river, low and slow, and you're there in 60 seconds. Time is not an issue here.
The pilot was not flying over the hump of the Himalayas.
He was in a float plane that should have been flying down a river. Mechanical problems? Set it down on the floats.
You can see the clouds coming,they don't move that fast. Even 50 mph, you're flying 150.
Another plane playing chicken. That is the only scenario for deviance I could come up with. Electronics? 62 year old pilot on VFR, with an elevation drop of maybe 150 feet? He doesn't give a xxxx about his gauges.
Without a map of the specific site of the wreckage it would be difficult to speculate further, even if he tried to shoot a pass and lost, it’s still not likely, there’s water everywhere along his route. He’s flying a float plane for crying out loud. The mountains are not higher than 2000 feet. Yes they shoot directly up into the air 2000 feet but they are quite avoidable. I saw some footage on the news and it showed the plane on the side of a hill, they skimmed the trees, they did not auger in, the pilot saved those on board.
I can understand how a pilot could be caught by windshear on Togiak pass. But not here.
The pilot who spotted the plane and rescuers were local, 100 percent, guaranteed.
Included is some footage I found going into Agulowok Lodge from July 10, 2010. The hills are wide. Notice the ceiling.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5idA5_8LPw&feature=youtube_gdata
http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749625/21397595
Investigators have spoken to two of the survivors from the Alaska plane crash that killed former Sen. Ted Stevens. One survivor says there was no warning of any problems before they crashed. (Aug. 13)