Larry Dighera wrote in
:

Snipola
There's mention of Rumsfeld giving the order to shoot the little
Cessna down if necessary he http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7972808/

washingtonpost.com Highlights
Military was set to down Cessna
Authority granted as plane strayed deep into capital
Updated: 5:19 a.m. ET May 25, 2005


Snipola
Officials from the Federal Aviation Administration and Customs and
Border Protection confirmed the communications problems cited by
the Cessna pilots, Hayden "Jim" Sheaffer, 69, and Troy Martin, 36,
both of Pennsylvania. The frequency was unavailable in that patch
of airspace, the officials said.
Snipola

I'm sorry, but how can a frequency be "unavailable in that patch
of airspace"?!?! If the transmitter and the receiver can tune to
the frequency, it's available unless it's already in use or being
jammed.

It'll probably take the proverbial "act of congress" to get them
to admit they were giving them the wrong frequency, or they were
waiting on the wrong frequency.

If you ask me, the fact that the gov't screwed up in trying to
communicate to the errant aircraft indicates the system DID NOT
WORK. What if they had gone and shot the plane down, only later
to find they signaled them the wrong frequency? They'd be open to
a pretty big lawsuit, methinks. They need to shelf the idea of
shooting down little airplanes and seriously rethink their
strategy before somebody gets needlessly killed.

Hmmm...another thought...what if a learjet went zipping through
the DC ADIZ? It'd be long gone before the scardy-cats in DC could
even zip up their pants!!!

But that makes sense, and besides, what do I know?

BTW, I'm not defending the cessna pilots at all. Just pointing
out that mistakes have been made on BOTH sides.

Brian
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