Was It Gdubya's Fault?

[BEagle]

Big PPRuNe outage today:{ , but all is tiggerty-boo again now.

What was the cause - Secret Service Spooks worried about sensitive information being passed around concerning Mad George's visit to see HM pulling Danny's plug?

6000 ft and 5 miles of central London denied to aircraft not quite enough for mr Pres?

Conspiracists, chem trail idiots and others will have their own ideas - but don't let the truth get in the way of a good rumour!

Nice to have you back!!:ok:

[Airbubba]

>>What was the cause - Secret Service Spooks worried about sensitive information being passed around concerning Mad George's visit to see HM pulling Danny's plug? <<

Yep, be careful what you say here...

A couple of days ago someone posted something nice about the U.S. and the whole thread disappeared.

[Seloco]

Spooky too that the "no fly zone" thread seems to have vanished now......

[HAMMY]

nothing spooky about it.that info was need to know.and need to know I'm afraid doesn't include the whole of pprune readership.end of story.

[Seloco]

Thanks Hammy, but you really have me intrigued now. Surely declaration of both permanent and temporary "no-fly" areas is, of necessity, public domain information, and is published through the widely accessible channels that are familiar to most of the users of these forums.

The phrase "need to know" (assuming you are using it in the same way as my organisation does) implies a very much more restrictive sharing of information, which would, I agree, be inappropriate to any openly accessible site such as PPRUNE.

[HAMMY]

"Surely declaration of both permanent and temporary "no-fly" areas is, of necessity, public domain information, and is published through the widely accessible channels that are familiar to most of the users of these forums. "

completely agree.have you checked to see if the info is available thru these channels.if it is then fair enough maybe the thread should have stayed.if its not there then as I'm sure you would agree it is for what someone else decides is a good reason.Whether you or I or any one else agree's would be open to argument.unfortunately I think it is just a sign of the times in a world that is becoming more paranoid than when the cold war was at its peak

[Seloco]

Indeed Hammy I guess it comes down to whether NOTAMs are deemed to be public domain information or not. Certainly the central London restrictions which were the subject of that particular thread are correctly covered by a NOTAM easily accessible via AIS.

[Jerricho]

Interesting point. The name of the site says it all - RUMOUR, and should be treated as such. Of course, there are discussions with input from people who are "in the know". Also, there is a great deal of speculation (AF1 landing at Northolt was a good one!).

IMHO, most people here do use restraint regarding things they know from work/personal involvement that might not be appropriate for "general viewing".

Dubya's cronies pulling the plug? That is a good conspiracy theory!

[PPRuNe Towers]

Absolutely right Jerricho,

When we rang the server farm in the States to request a reboot for the fallen server it was service as normal. Tech support seemed a little confused - answered the phone as NSA or something but they certainly did the trick...........

[BEagle]

Perhaps it was the 'cammo dudes' who answered your call.......??

[Airbubba]

Plane Scare Prompts Partial White House Evacuation

By BRIAN KNOWLTON,
International Herald Tribune

Published: November 20, 2003

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 — The White House was partially evacuated this morning, and a stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue running before it was cleared, after a small plane approached the restricted airspace around the executive mansion, officials said.

White House staff and schoolchildren on tours were escorted quickly from the building that houses the home and offices of President Bush, who was in Britain at the time with many of his top advisers.

There was no official evacuation, Jean Mitchell, a Secret Service spokeswoman, told The Associated Press, but many people did briefly leave the building.

The incident lasted only minutes before authorities were able to contact the airplane and it left the area.

But the scare lasted long enough to briefly cause a dip in the value of the dollar on currency markets; financial markets had been rattled hours earlier by two deadly bombings against British targets in Istanbul.

This was the second such incident in less than two weeks.

On Nov. 10, a small plane entered restricted airspace, apparently headed directly for the White House, and controllers were unable to raise its pilot on radio, two F-16 fighter jets were scrambled and escorted it from the area. Authorities met the pilot of the single-engine plane when he landed in North Carolina and determined that he had no ill intent.

President Bush was in Arkansas at that time, but Vice President Dick Cheney and Andrew Card, the White House chief of staff, were removed to a secure location, the Presidential Emergency Operations Center.

It was unclear whether the proximity of the two scares might point to some problem in air-traffic procedures. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the matter. But clearly, concerns about terrorist attacks are high.

The national color-coded terror alert in the United States remains at yellow, the mid-level on a five-color scale.

But a series of recent attacks abroad targeting the United States and its allies have fueled concerns. And there was speculation that today's terrorist bombings against British targets in Istanbul might have been meant as a signal to Mr. Bush and his British host, Prime Minister Tony Blair.

_______________________________________

Now, the "updated version":

Bad Radar Prompts White House Evacuation
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: November 20, 2003

Filed at 11:12 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Air Force fighter jets were scrambled and the White House was briefly evacuated on Thursday after birds or possibly disturbances in the atmosphere tripped radar that keeps watch on restricted air space around the complex.

``It's a false radar target,'' said William Shumann, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman. ``When the NORAD fighters got to the location of the alleged violation, they found nothing.''

The North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, is the command center for the defense of U.S. and Canadian airspace.

Shumann said flocks of birds or atmospheric disturbances might have caused the false radar reading, which was initially thought to be a plane flying within five miles of restricted airspace around the White House.

``It's one of those electronic gremlins that pops up, but there was no aircraft there,'' he said...

[DSR10]

"flocks of birds or atmospheric disturbances might have caused the false radar reading"

Is an excuse for not discovering WMD about to be issued

[Orson]

If you go to google, type "weapons of mass destruction" into the box and click the I'm feeling lucky button...

[Jerricho]

A little off the topic, but it is my understanding that the above mentioned "small plane" that approached the restricted airspace was "a reported 5 miles from it" but didn't actually enter it.

Was the response form the F16's that quick that they didn't let it get any closer, or was it the lighty neer actually penetrated? Just curious.

[av8boy]

...or perhaps the issue is in the writing of the article. As in, "the aircraft was flying over Iraqi airspace..."