" " If you want to try and track which airlines were involved, try
" " this website: http://www4.passur.com/sjc.html
"
" I found it. That web site is neat! The first one I mentioned was
" at (PT) 20060929T1956...T1959, flight Id AAY9873, aircraft type
" MD83, route LAS-SJC, track ID 164, and it did a left then right
" then left then right turns, which seems like S turns just like you
" said. It dropped in altitude during that maneuver according to the
" web site, but I didn't closely study those altitude changes.

I googled the flight ID, and got:

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AAY9873

AAY9873
Allegiant Air, Inc. "Allegiant"
Aircraft McDonnell Douglas MD-83 (twin-jet) (MD83/Q)
Origin Mc Carran Int'l (KLAS)
Destination Norman Y Mineta San Jose Int'l (KSJC)
Other flights between these airports
Route SHEAD4 OAL HYP5
Date Friday, Sep 29, 2006
Duration 1 hour 4 minutes
Status Arrived 3 days ago (track log)
Proposed/Assigned Actual/Estimated
Departure 06:30PM PDT 06:57PM PDT
Arrival 07:36PM PDT 08:01PM PDT
Speed 433 kts
Altitude 36000 feet

So, consistent data.


The second one seems to contradict the data I got from the first web
site you mentioned above (Passur).

" The second one from a few days later was at (PT) 20061001T2014,
" flight Id SWA1939, aircraft type B733, route SJC-BUR as it
" approached for landing at SJC (yes, that seems wrong -- should I
" watch it take off to be sure where it came from?). It came in a
" sort of J turn, but more like a hook. It was looping to the left in
" a small arc, then it came in and straightened out to the right to
" approach landing. It was that right turn I saw that night. It sure
" looked more dramatic from ground (I was a few blocks away, which is
" accurately recreated in the data in that web site). It was
" definately less of a sharp turn from my point of view than the one
" from Friday (the first one above).

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/S...131Z/KSEA/KSJC

SWA1939 (web site)
Southwest Airlines Co. "Southwest" (Dallas, TX)
Aircraft Boeing 737-300 (twin-jet) (B733/J)
Origin Seattle Tacoma Int'l (KSEA)
Destination Norman Y Mineta San Jose Int'l (KSJC)
Other flights between these airports
Route J70 ELMAA FAMUK Q3 PYE LOZIT DUXBY SFO
Date Sunday, Oct 01, 2006
Duration 1 hour 18 minutes
Status Arrived over a day ago (track log)
Proposed/Assigned Actual/Estimated
Departure 06:20PM PDT 06:31PM PDT
Arrival 08:04PM PDT 07:49PM PDT
Speed 431 kts
Altitude 35000 feet

That is obviously wrong; the data from flightaware seems like it is
not incorrect but not for the flight I am interested in, and the other
web site has wrong data (wrong flight id, origination and destination,
etc.). Library closes in half a minute, so no time to figure out what
flight the one is that did the J hook.