Aircraft reported in flames.....(?)

[Ignition Override]

As we were cruising into MEM after about 2100 for a stop, the FO said that someone on an Enroute Center freq. reported that an aircraft was SEEN going down in flames, near or at Blytheville, AR (flat terrain, with a former SAC base). The weather northeast of MEM was clear.

I hope that someone misunderstood, or that such a plane made a decent emergency landing on a runway or whatever with a quick evac. After we checked in with App. Control on 125.8, that controller was not aware of any further news. The FO said that he caught the news on Center, but not on Guard.

Let's just hope that the event never happened. I doubt that Blytheville has any control tower or runway lights these days, although I read a few years ago that a certain freight airline did some sort of maintenance work there.

Huck or Airbubba and gang-have 'you all' read anything?

[aviate1138]

ignition override talked about a plane going down in flames......

aviate1138 asks.....

Maybe some movie company was shooting a flying sequence and venting fuel a la F-111's. Flames look better, more dramatic and powerful at evening, nighttime, from a movie perspective.

Just a better idea than someone in flames for real.

aviate 1138

[Ignition Override]

Possible, but the chances of that over the northeast corner of Arkansas at night are rather remote.

This alleged incident is just as difficult to research as the one over Idaho soon after 9/11, during which a stolen aircraft was shot down by an F-16. The controller at a western Montana airport confirmed to me on our left VHF radio that the plane had been shotdown. At this same airport on the same day, some fighter jets had missiles on the wingtips-clearly seen by us as we taxied to the terminal.

So far, apparently neither of these two alleged incidents were discovered by the media-or at least published.

[Timothy]

At this same airport on the same day, some fighter jets had missiles on the wingtips-clearly seen by us as we taxied to the terminal.Surely it would have been more convincing if the missiles were absent from the wingtips? :=

Timothy

[Koyo]

They could of use the 20mm on the Falcons. There's no reason to waste a few hundred thousands worth of missile on a small plane. Then again I would have to see an actual report to believe that story.

[PaperTiger]

over Idaho soon after 9/11, during which a stolen aircraft was shot down by an F-16

or not, as the case may be....
PRESTON, Idaho (AP) - A man stole a single-engine plane, flew it low enough to snap several power lines and dropped a homemade pipe bomb that did not explode, police said Monday.

Raymond Montgomery was arrested when he landed across the Utah state line, said K.G. Fonnesbeck, a lieutenant with the Bannock County Sheriff's Department in Idaho. No one was injured. He was not immediately charged.

The Champion 7GC was stolen from an airport in Preston, Idaho, said Norma Harris, whose husband owns the plane.

At times it flew only about 10 feet above the ground, breaking power lines and causing at least three poles to fall, Fonnesbeck said. The pipe bomb landed on Interstate 15, which runs north from Utah into Idaho, Fonnesbeck said.

The plane landed safely at a small runway on the property of Thiokol Corp., an aerospace company in Utah. The pilot flew about 50 miles.

Two F-16s were sent to intercept the plane, but it landed before the fighters arrived, said Michael Fergus, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman. Montgomery stole and crashed a different airplane in 1988, said Police Chief Scott Shaw in Preston, Idaho. The pilot had some flying experience and prior ``alcohol offenses,'' Fonnesbeck said.

Police found Montgomery's car at the Preston airport. It was filled with canisters of aviation fuel and tools, Shaw said. ``We're not really sure what his mental status might be,'' said FBI spokesman Kevin Eaton. He said the U.S. attorney's office in Idaho is pursuing charges against Montgomery.:hmm:

[Airbubba]

Military ops are a prime suspect in this type of sighting I would think. I've been surprised to suddenly see flares below me in an adjacent MOA.

Here's a newspaper article about some past sightings near CVG:

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/1998/07/13/loc_wargames13.html