Sonic Booms over the Puget Sound... Protecting Obama

[Beancooker]

It's been years since I heard one, and damn it was loud.


SEATTLE - Military fighter jets were scrambled to respond to an airspace violation near Air Force One in Seattle on Tuesday afternoon, causing sonic booms that scared residents throughout Western Washington.

North American Aerospace Defense Command spokesman John Cornelio said the F15 jets were sent from Portland as the president was visiting Seattle after a report that an aircraft violated the restricted airspace. The small plane left the restricted air space before the jets arrived.

Pilot Lee Dailey and his passenger, Laura Joseph, were returning home after a weekend at Lake Chelan. They landed on Lake Washington in Kenmore.

"We just landed, sailed in here, nice and peaceful, pulled up to the dock and a guy came out and said I have some bad news for you guys," said Joseph. "Obama is in town and you guys violated the air space or something."

They reported that they saw jets as they flew between the Seattle area and the mountains, but said the jets didn't motion for them to land.

"I saw a jet, just a white jet going by," Joseph said. "I thought it was kind of odd to see a military jet."

The fighter only passed by the float plane once and didn't take any other action, Joseph said. She also said she didn't hear the sonic booms.

"Oh my God, I can't believe -- is this the top news thing?" she said.

Once they landed, Dailey and Joseph were interviewed by the Secret Service. The Secret Service then spent about 90 mintues checking out the plane.

Joseph said she and Daily were allowed to leave after being interviewed and haven't heard anything yet about possible sanctions.

When the president is visiting there is a 10-mile radius from the center of Seattle and 18,000 feet up, where it is no-fly for commercial aircraft. Extended another 20 miles, to make it a 30-mile radius, there can be private air traffic if the pilot files a legitimate flight plan, if that person is in contact with air traffic control and if that person has the plane's transponder turned on.

There is no system for notifying private pilots about airspace restrictions. It's incumbent upon them to check to see if restrictions are in place.

911 call centers overloaded

Emergency agencies across Western Washington were flooded with calls from people who heard and felt a double boom about 1:50 p.m.

Residents in Pierce County ran from their homes.

"It shook my whole house," said Stephanie Walters of Lakewood.

"It rattled the whole house, the ground, everything," said Charlie Kuhn of Lakewood.

Det. Ed Troyer with the Pierce Co. Sheriff's Dept. said the 911 system was down via landlines in areas of Pierce County for a time and car and home alarms were set off by the booms.

KING 5 News was flooded with calls and e-mails from people who heard and felt the explosions. Many people reported that their homes shook.

The King County Sheriff's Office reported that about 300 calls came in to the 911 center.

[AZ89two4Tsx]

I love America.

[tigersharkdude]

So did I miss or was it the F-15's that made the sonic boom?

[Red coupe]

So... Bill the guys who didn't check the status of that airspace for two super sonic jet runs?

[Beancooker]

So did I miss or was it the F-15's that made the sonic boom?

Yes, the F-15's made two really loud sonic booms. They were at stupid low altitude, less than 1000 feet. They pretty much carved a path right above I-5. It sounded like a bomb went off in the parking lot. My office windows shook and I wondered WTF? Never got out of my chair though.

The dipshits saying that it scared them and they had to run from their homes, are blithering retards.

[AZ89two4Tsx]

1000 feet?!?!?!??!?! That's CRAZY low.

No wonder why so many people got scared, lol. Sonic booms are pretty wicked.

[gmac708]

He's coming to Columbus tonight. Everything is shut down around here unless you are a medivac or scheduled airline until tomorrow afternoon. And the rules are pretty stiff...

A) The FAA may take administrative action, including imposing civil penalties and the suspension or revocation of airmen certificates; or B) The United States Government may pursue criminal charges, including charges under title 49 of the United States Code, Section 46307; or C) The United States Government may use DEADLY FORCE AGAINST THE AIRBORNE AIRCRAFT, if it is determined that the aircraft POSES AN IMMINENT SECURITY THREAT.

[Jesda]

LOL. how annoying. I have to give W a little credit -- at least when he came through town and shut down St Louis it was late at night.

[Urabus GodofTraction]

A) The FAA may take administrative action, including imposing civil penalties and the suspension or revocation of airmen certificates;

In the business we call that "getting violated." Trust me, you don't want to get violated.

[Joe]

i would have been outside with a beer, steak, american flag and naked singing america the beautiful

p****** calling 911 over a sonic boom....

[gmac708]

We moved our Learjets and Challengers to LCK tonight.
I think the TFR actually follows the Pres where ever he goes, not just "air force one". He could travel by motorcade to a remote sight and the airport would open up and the TFR would be just around him. Normally have C17 and lots of advance notice, marine 1, marines, automatic weapons...seems to be almost normal now.

[Chaotic_Warlord]

I'm surprised there isn't any video footage of it, I'm sure someone had a camera running for something and just happened to catch this happeneing.

[tigersharkdude]

that **** would have been awesome to have seen. I would have had a photo op

[f1seb]

Man is everybody a vagina nowadays? Do these people call 9-1-1 when they hear thunder??

[Empty V]

I wonder how much this whole deal cost us?

[Dattebayo]

Man is everybody a vagina nowadays? Do these people call 9-1-1 when they hear thunder??

For real. We had a crazy bunch of storms around here the last few days, I saw my neighbor's house get hit by lightning and that was accompanied by a huge "BOOM" (duh) and no one called 911 then. I saw the poor guy hit the resulting fire with an extinguisher tho...

[Bubba1]

I wonder how much this whole deal cost us?

A drop in the bucket compared to our National Debt.

[maxhopper]

I strongly suggest those people never visit Virginia Beach. The Sounds of Freedom

[Watermelonwarrior]

I wonder how much this whole deal cost us?

A drop in the bucket compared to our National Debt.

Ya pretty much...

[Dattebayo]

I strongly suggest those people never visit Virginia Beach. The Sounds of Freedom

AFAIK they aren't allowed to go supersonic until they get several miles out into the ocean. That noise is just the afterburners.

[Extreme Dimensions]

I strongly suggest those people never visit Virginia Beach. The Sounds of Freedom

Or the Pendleton/Fallbrook/Oceanside/southwest Riverside county area. The Marines like to have artillery practice in the middle of the day.

[Beancooker]

p****** calling 911 over a sonic boom....

Man is everybody a vagina nowadays? Do these people call 9-1-1 when they hear thunder??

For real. We had a crazy bunch of storms around here the last few days, I saw my neighbor's house get hit by lightning and that was accompanied by a huge "BOOM" (duh) and no one called 911 then. I saw the poor guy hit the resulting fire with an extinguisher tho...

This is Washington. Liberal hippies. It's scary to them, what do you expect?

AFAIK they aren't allowed to go supersonic until they get several miles out into the ocean. That noise is just the afterburners.

Normally that is true. In this case, they were going supersonic. Close to twice the speed of sound. There is no question as to if they were sonic booms or not.

Or the Pendleton/Fallbrook/Oceanside/southwest Riverside county area. The Marines like to have artillery practice in the middle of the day.

No different than living at my house. Straight line to Fort Lewis artillery range from my house, it is 6 miles. They practice a lot... A whole lot.

[Dattebayo]

Normally that is true. In this case, they were going supersonic. Close to twice the speed of sound. There is no question as to if they were sonic booms or not.

I was speaking with respect ONLY to VA beach because you hear the afterburners there all day, but not sonic booms all the time like that particular post I quoted had said. I didn't mean to include this incident in that, sorry brah.

[Beancooker]

No sweat bro. I should have read a little closer also.

[Poyzinous]

I like sonic booms. From an appropriate distance. VA beach is awesome for flythrus though.
Every once in a while you'll see low flying jets in the DC area. They sure are loud.

[HashiriyaS14]

There should be a system to notify private pilots that they shouldn't be there, but you can't expect them not to respond over an AF1 airspace violation.


As for costs, it's not like scrambling a couple fighters is a huge deal. Our aircraft don't just sit around all day, they log hundreds of training and patrol hours anyway.

[DAAN.]

I wonder how much this whole deal cost us?

Compared to the deficit ... "nothing"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZ3Hhdr8EjI

[Dattebayo]

Every once in a while you'll see low flying jets in the DC area. They sure are loud.

Andrews AFB. There's also several spots over the bay as well, but again, no supersonic flight there. I have seen the Blue Angels do some practice there I think...

[AZhitman]

We live very near the F16 training base (Luke AFB)... we're right in the flight path - LOVE the sound, and it's sweet to see them in formations of 2, 3, 4....Even cooler is when they go do live-fire missions near Gila Bend and they're all carrying live ordinance. WOOOO!

[Dattebayo]

I wonder if they would pay for medical issues with broken glass because of a sonic boom?