....from my instrument instructor.

This happened when they were filming The Hunted along the Willamette River
in Portland (been through the set, haven't seen the movie.)

At a nearby airfield--Scapoose, I believe--a guy with a fabric-and-wood
plane was receiving fuel and the attendant asked him how his day was going.
The guy said "depressing" and then made a joke about whether there were any
good buildings to fly into. (It being a fabric plane and all.)

So the pilot takes off in his airplane, which has about a 3.5 hour
endurance. About 4.5 hours later, the FBO attendant decides he better call
the police, which he does.

The National Guard scrambles its F-15s who fly fast as hell at low altitude
up the river and through Portland (heard all kinds of people talking about
this the day it happened, thought they were hot-dogging) looking for the
terrorist attacker. As if a cloth and spruce airplane is going to cause
damage that, say, firing an A-A missile over the city wouldn't...but they
never find the plane.

Instead, they see massive fireballs rolling into the air in the industrial
district near the shipyards, and race back up the river. More fireballs,
jets roaring overhead...it turns out that nobody informed the Oregon Air
Guard that they were filming a pyrotechnic or mock battle scene (as I said,
haven't seen it) alongside the river for the movie "The Hunted."

My little brother is dating a girl who lives on the ridge next to the
filming, and I didn't believe the story when he told me the first time.
Wish I'd have been there to see it.

-c