Emirates Jet Lands Safely in New York Amid Global Terror Alerts

[NYCA News]

NYCAviation:

Emirates Jet Lands Safely in New York Amid Global Terror Alerts

Fighter jets escorted a United Arab Emirates passenger plane from Yemen to New York amid a continuing series of terror alerts on Friday,
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[Sm0otHockeySpeeD]

I heard 2 F-15's escorted it...any confirmation of this?

[cancidas]

I heard 2 F-15's escorted it...any confirmation of this?

yes, 2 F-15s out of Barnes apparently.

[gonzalu]

... my question is do they escort right to the very end so that we would see could frame all three on the same shot from our spots ;-) BTW, I was spotting at LGA today (too much traffic to JFK) and had cops coming and going the whole time (they take breaks in the eastern lots) and never even a glance... if there was heightened sensitivity today, I did not notice it. At one point they ate while parked facing me and the water and I was clearly in plain sight taking pics of the pattern into RWY 31

[Fighting_falcon_51]

The jets usually break away on approach.

[Speedbird1]

Terrible news for travelers as well as spotters; now airport workers have more reasons to chase us away. Heard that the Saudis tipped-off the authorities about the packages so they got inspected in Europe. How did the Saudis know about this? Don't forget that several Saudis were involved with 9-11. These terrorists, like Michael Myers from the "Halloween" films, just can't be stopped. Many people have stopped flying as a result and vacation near their homes. This happens just when the public started feeling safe again about flying. Fortunately, nobody was hurt.

[Gerard]

Terrible news for travelers as well as spotters; now airport workers have more reasons to chase us away. Heard that the Saudis tipped-off the authorities about the packages so they got inspected in Europe. How did the Saudis know about this? Don't forget that several Saudis were involved with 9-11. These terrorists, like Michael Myers from the "Halloween" films, just can't be stopped. Many people have stopped flying as a result and vacation near their homes. This happens just when the public started feeling safe again about flying. Fortunately, nobody was hurt.

I still feel safe about flying. These recent attempts at terrorism were unsophisticated and amateurish but it shows these idiots dont give up. But even an idiot gets lucky once so we must
remain ever so vigilant. There is a column in todays Daily News by Michael Daly that pretty much sums it up.
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/...t_us_dead.html

[gonzalu]

Well, I have never heard of a negative-ending incident involving a spotter (or for that matter a terrorist) at the edge of a US airport. The way I see it is, you can;t stop it if the person is determined. It would take incredible perimeter security and isolation for that to be an effective protection. I also feel that spotters add to security by being: a) Fans and Enthusiasts who want to protect their hobby at all costs. I consider myself more fanatical than a terrorist. I have a long term goal, terorists have a one time goal. b) more eyes on the ball. The more of us around, free security. I know for a factthat any of us would immediately raise flags if we saw anything that would threatened security. c) education. I believe most spotters know more about the rules, regulations, safety, operations etc. of an airport, airline, ATC, than even hired security and operations at a facility. At a recent airshow, I was privileged to be allowed a spot near the flightline. More than once I had to tell actual employees of the facility that they needed to stand back from the edge of the runway least the FAA would get really concerned and shut the show down. d) high quality records. Most of us spend lots of money on the best possible gear to get the highest quality pictures/video. Ever seen that from a security camera at the local bank? God forbid something did happen (on purpose or accidental) the more high quality images the investigators have the better to answer questions. NASA uses very high end and expensive gear to track each shuttle launch from a multitude of angles and it is how safety was improved time and time again after any incident. e) we are such nice people, how can they chase us away? we make great friends, we feed ourselves and are a lot of fun at parties LOL.

The list is endless.

[Mateo]

Don't forget that several Saudis were involved with 9-11

By "several," you mean 15 out of the 19.

[hiss srq]

In reality none of the Arab states are trustable. They do not even trust each other.... The Saudi's earlier this year gave Israel permission to perform overflights in the event Israel decides to turn Iran into the "Persian Glass Field" on the newest maps... They feed information as they see it fit for themselves... Yemen seems to be the new hot bed though. How long will it be before Saudi gets leaned on by other Arab states to stop feeding intel to Europe and the US though? Or are they finally getting the point considering even nations like France and Switzerland are getting tired of the extremeist crap too?

[Speedbird1]

The problem seems to be with the cargo flights. If they inspected each package thoroughly from the Middle East, flights would be delayed which would cost more money for the cargo companies and less profit. I agree that spotters should not be affected since we could see something and report it but the authorities and public feel that a terrorist could be pretending to be a spotter. How could we prove we are innocent spotters? This weekend, I was chased-away by NYPD for taking photos of kids in Halloween costumes, so do you think they will still let us stand by airports for more than a few minutes with telephoto lenses after the attempt on the recent flights? I hope they don't shut-down Planeview Park. These terrorists just won't stop their madness.

[moose135]

The problem seems to be with the cargo flights. If they inspected each package thoroughly from the Middle East, flights would be delayed which would cost more money for the cargo companies and less profit.

The Middle East? We don't even check all cargo travelling within the US!!!

[hiss srq]

Speedbird, a couple of things... First off, it would not really cost shippers, freight forwarders or cargo companies any addtional money in terms of screening... If anything, it might lead to a need to forward the freight manifest with some additional lead in time. The only way costs would go up is if the US goverment added an addtional screening tax on shipments and even than, it would likely be cents on the dollar because if they did that it would choke shipping. As it is the cargo business is very slim on margins in terms of profitability. The only companies making any money in this business are the ones who are signing long term contracts. One off shipments don't turn a profit except in special circumstances as it is. Like Moose said, cargo inside the US gets limited to any screening at this point. In fact, for air cargo, up to a certain weight you can litteraly file a booking the same day, drop it off and once it's manifest matched it's on. Thats it.

As far as spotting.. I am not sure how a heightened risk with relation to air/ocean/rail or road cargo is going to affect spotting... You taking pictures of random kids in costumes is a whole other ball park topic I don't even want to scratch except to say that I am suprised all that happened was you got chased away.

[Matt Molnar]

Cargo on passenger flights should be screened. On cargo planes it's not that important.

[hiss srq]

Matt, as a friend I have to disagree. It is just as important... For various reasons... For one, there are human lives on that cargo plane that are operating it. Their lives hold as much value as the people who might get a mail bomb if not properly screened. Or, picture this... A Cargolux 744 enroute someplace over the USA does blow up for example. Lets say it blows up over a major city. Now, the pilots lives are lost, innumerable lives on the ground are at risk, infastructure, buildings, roadways and all sorts of other things are below the crash trajectory... Just because it hasnt happened doesnt mean it wont. And what if it did happen in that context? Than what? Or, maybe it's a dirty bomb... Than what... A aircraft with a dirty bomb at 380 blowing up is going to spread damage all over the place. it's going to spread over not only the detonation point but downwind as the explosion took place up in the flight levels giving particulate the chance to float in the wind as it settles very slowly. So now given that scenario perhaps both a city like Chicago AND MKE are at risk, and maybe if the winds are strong enough it blows onward to Cleveland or Detroit.... Bottom line being, EVERYTHING should be screened. At the same time the amount of staff and infastructure required to do it by hand would be immense. Either that or we need to develop machines that can do it in rapid pace similar to puffers, and xray machines. Than, when we see an issue we can crack the container, or cut into the pallet and see what is going on and if it is a risk or not. While passenger safety is certainly a tremendous concern, I feel like and have always felt like perhaps the cargo transport and logistics world is a greater risk. It has more chance to reach a larger population than say the 3PM shuttle from LGA to DCA. Remember, pax jets only move a small volume of what the world consumes... The most time critical of cargo is on airplanes, the rest is on boats and trains..