Was the New York Flyover a Hijack Practice?

[TheBigotBasher]

Something that could not be done on a simulator?

Or even live evasion practice?

I would assume that the flight crew of Air Force One are trained in both of those techniques and it would not be unreasonable to assume that they need "live" training every now and again.

This is the only reason why I can think that they needed a "top secret photo opp" of one of the best known planes in the World.

[AngryAmish]

1. If AF1 is hijacked I hope Harrison Ford is there

[tekisui]

2. I thought it was some kind of test or drill from the beginning.

The question is of what? Hijacking, reaction time of the city(panic), or what???

[TheBigotBasher]

5. The "photo opp"

does not ring true. Especially as it was kept top secret.

The flight crew of Air Force One are military, the 747 even has its own military classification VC25. It would therefore not be unusual to expect them to do "semi live" drills even without the knowledge of the President.

[rocktivity]

3. Of course it was some kind of test or drill

They HAD to have known how the NYC citizenry would react, but they did it anyway. If you do believe the "photo op" story, I have a bridge in Brooklyn you may want to buy!

:headbang:
rocktivity

[KoKo]

6. Since neither Bloomberg nor Corzine, Gov. of NJ knew about it...

it would seem that security is very lax. Considering we have two wars over "9/11" and airline passengers are subjected to rigorous security checks, that a plane could fly over NYC escorted by fighter jets and neither the people nor officials knew...but the police were notified, does seem to be very odd and a terrible breach of security.

[TheBigotBasher]

9. It was just another practice that they assumed they did not need to tell anyone about.

Fighter Pilots have flown relatively low over Cities before on live drills. I am not sure if they have used the VC25s (AF1 before). The Air Force does not tell the City officials about practice sessions, so standard operating procedure would be not to tell City Officials about this.

[KoKo]

4. Why use Air Force-2 as a target, then? Why have fighter jets following

a plane with Presidential Seal? Why not do this over the Atlantic or in the Desert?

BTW it seems fight jet pilots are getting training somewhere else because we've had several plane incidents where fighter jets followed planes. Remember the guy who stole the plane in Canada and flew all the way to Texas accompanied by fighter jets once he crossed the border?

Why do a simulation of following Air Force-2 over NYC?

[TheBigotBasher]

7. The fighter pilots were part of the drill.

The drill I would guess was being done not by the Fighter Pilots buy by VC25 pilots.

[merh]

8. It was some type of simulation or training

I know it upset NYC citizens, and I understand why it did.

But let's keep things in their proper perspective. Can you imagine how the Iraqis feel, day after day - after all of our shock and awe and attacks on them and their cities all these years?