Mystery aircraft over Oregon 10/25

MikeD said:
I can remember coming back from LSV one evening in a jet that didn't have the radar reflectors reinstalled following an operation up there. Up in the Flight Levels, and the standard, one each, military transponder decides to stop transponding. And poof.....disappeared completely off ZLAs radar.
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I had the unfortunate experience of an F-22 having generator failure and losing all his instruments and transponder with OVC015. Flew around for about 3-4 minutes after we lost radar while we scrambled to clear the altitude he thought he was at at the position he thought he was at (he was way off). He wound ejecting because the generator caught fire. F-22 hit the ground about 1/2 mile from the runway. We had been trying to vector him for a PAR
 
Richman said:
Depends on the airspace....in Soviet Russia, a 172 was considered stealth...
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And in the US, EADS screams over Guard at an "unidentified" aircraft over the Gulf that was one of our own Hurricane Hunters squawking his normal code on his normal flight plan.
 
BobDDuck said:
Probably happens, but it shouldn't. That's what MOAs and restricted areas are for.
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But as MikeD just pointed out, even the best of intentions can result in a failure.

And really until we have an incident of stealth aircraft having a midair with UA flight 307 or something... it’s not like this is the or really even an issue affecting the complete safety of navigation equation. This is a chance to look at safety but it’s also real easy to high-side toward crazy like suddenly wanting to put chaff/RF detection on airliners due to MH17.

We’ve haven’t got the whole of the USAF or anything flying around disregarding the national airspace system. (Nor can any of us say definitively this was eve them). Unless mission/national security requires it we actually have to abide by the system over our SOPs. That said, it’s naive for anybody to just assume we don’t have stuff out there at any given time you aren’t aware of either by intention or by accident. Weather balloons, ultra secret programs, stuff that just breaks like MikeD’s case but may due to requirement have to remain dark...

Everybody remember the Alabama blob? http://blog.al.com/breaking/2013/06/redstone_arsenal_blob_mystery.html
That wasn’t supposed to happen. I’ve worked with the guys that caused the incident. They all kinda had the same thing to say, sometimes stuff happens and luckily we have a high enough margin of expected safety in our national system that’s it’s not like a single failure just leads to catastrophic events.




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NovemberEcho said:
I had the unfortunate experience of an F-22 having generator failure and losing all his instruments and transponder with OVC015. Flew around for about 3-4 minutes after we lost radar while we scrambled to clear the altitude he thought he was at at the position he thought he was at (he was way off). He wound ejecting because the generator caught fire. F-22 hit the ground about 1/2 mile from the runway. We had been trying to vector him for a PAR
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Did you get to be there for the F-16 with the contractor pilot that dove into the Gulf?
 
MikeD said:
Did you get to be there for the F-16 with the contractor pilot that dove into the Gulf?
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No that was shortly after I got out. I was there though when the F-22 trainee pilot doing a touch n go decided to raise the gear before the go part. And when the F-15 pilot forgot to set the parking brake and watched helplessly as it rolled into the tail of a parked -22
 
Lawman said:
But as MikeD just pointed out, even the best of intentions can result in a failure.

And really until we have an incident of stealth aircraft having a midair with UA flight 307 or something... it’s not like this is the or really even an issue affecting the complete safety of navigation equation. This is a chance to look at safety but it’s also real easy to high-side toward crazy like suddenly wanting to put chaff/RF detection on airliners due to MH17.

We’ve haven’t got the whole of the USAF or anything flying around disregarding the national airspace system. (Nor can any of us say definitively this was eve them). Unless mission/national security requires it we actually have to abide by the system over our SOPs. That said, it’s naive for anybody to just assume we don’t have stuff out there at any given time you aren’t aware of either by intention or by accident. Weather balloons, ultra secret programs, stuff that just breaks like MikeD’s case but may due to requirement have to remain dark...

Everybody remember the Alabama blob? That wasn’t supposed to happen. I’ve worked with the guys that caused the incident. They all kinda had the same thing to say, sometimes stuff happens and luckily we have a high enough margin of expected safety in our national system that’s it’s not like a single failure just leads to catastrophic events.
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One minute, sitting fat dumb and happy staring at the stars and dark of night as the jet is pushing along at .98M. Next minute "Ghost 7, Los Angeles, radar contact lost.....completely. Everything alright up there?" :)
 
MikeD said:
One minute, sitting fat dumb and happy staring at the stars and dark of night as the jet is pushing along at .98M. Next minute "Ghost 7, Los Angeles, radar contact lost.....completely. Everything alright up there?" :)
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Well at least you could talk to them.... can you imagine if it happened when the program was super secret squirrel?

“LA center this is US Air.... umm ... uhh.... I am a UFO... you can’t see me.... I need you to keep all aircraft off FL 310 between Vegas and Fresno. Please comply.”
 
Lawman said:
Well at least you could talk to them.... can you imagine if it happened when the program was super secret squirrel?

“LA center this is US Air.... umm ... uhh.... I am a UFO... you can’t see me.... I need you to keep all aircraft off FL 310 between Vegas and Fresno. Please comply.”
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Back in the day, the flightplans were filed as night flights in A-7 Corsairs, so far as everyone knew. :)
 
MikeD said:
Back in the day, the flightplans were filed as night flights in A-7 Corsairs, so far as everyone knew. :)
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I remember when that "A-7 with potentially hazardous materials onboard" crashed in the foothills. Wrecked a weekend fishing trip with my dad because they basically shut down the area for days.
 
"airspace established outside Class A airspace to separate or segregate certain nonhazardous military activities from IFR Traffic and to identify for VFR traffic where these activities are conducted." (14 CFR §1.1, U.S.A.)

Notice the word “certain”.... not “All.”

If you guys are seriously thinking this incident is the tip of some huge safety iceberg you’ve been navigating around blind too.... probably losing focus in a world where idiots are taking close up pictures of airliners with drones or firing lasers into cockpits because the airport is so damned noisy.
 
MikeD said:
Back in the day, the flightplans were filed as night flights in A-7 Corsairs, so far as everyone knew. :)
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Exactly. That’s the way you maintain super secret squirrel and not send the whole NAS into a tizzy. If it worked during the Cold War for Sekrit Jetses, it will work just fine now.
 
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