Americans tell Highland Airways to clear off!

[newswatcher]

From the BBC(11/7):

"The commander of an American NATO warship has been reported to aviation authorities after he ordered a scheduled passenger flight off its normal route. It has been reported that the commander told the aircraft that it was entering a military area before issuing the order.

The Jetstream aircraft was travelling from the Hebridean island of Stornoway to Benbecula in the Western Isles on Tuesday when a warning came on an emergency panel. The pilot of the Highland Airways flight turned off course before air traffic controllers intervened to bring it back onto its normal route.

The aircraft complied with the request but after further consultation with air traffic control discovered that it was not in any danger and carried on to Benbecula. The airline and air traffic controllers have formally complained to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

A CAA spokesman said: "We have had a report from an airline that a flight from Stornoway to Benbecula was addressed over the radio by a ship, presumably a military ship, that it should leave the area.

"There is no indication that there was any firing under way. The aircraft did leave the area."

The CAA spokesman said the authority had no record of there being a restricted area or closed airspace in that area at the time. He added: "The airline's view is that it was entitled to be where it was.

"We have received the report from the airline, and we are looking at it."

A spokesman for Highland Airways said: "On Tuesday a Highland Airways flight traveling from Stornoway to Benbecula at 0905 BST received a call from a US Navy Warship.

"The aircraft was warned that that it was entering a restricted zone and should alter its course immediately.

"The aircraft complied with the request but after further consultation with air traffic control discovered that it was not in any danger and carried on to Benbecula."

The spokesman said he did not know the name of the warship, or whether the message from the ship was intended to be taken as an order.

It is thought the US warship, which was taking part in a NATO exercise, may have been firing Sea Dart missiles in the area.

This is the second incident in the past few days involving the same NATO operation off the west coast of Scotland.

On Tuesday a British frigate fired a shell into a loch eight miles off target and just one mile from the village of Durness."

[sapco2]

I think I would be inclined to clear off too - there has already been far too many cases of so called 'friendly fire' by 'trigger happy' Americans.

[eng1170]

This is surely the most novel way of poaching fish from a private Loch!! The Navy shells it, and they didnt by chance send in the Marines to collect the dinner did they??!!

[El Grifo]

According to news reports, a passenger aircraft from Highland Airways with 11 souls on board, en route to Benbecua, was warned by an American frigate, (part of an ongoing NATO excercise in the area) to change course immediatly, as it was entering a restricted area, near the ship.

The response from the aircraft's captain went un-answered, so with the Vincennes incident firmly in mind, he had little option but to comply.

An investigation is underway.

Earlier in the day a sister ship lobbed a shell 8 miles off course landing in a bay, one mile from a highland settlement.

:confused: :confused: :confused:

[ORAC]

I presume this is a JMC, in which case the planned operating areas and ranges should have been NOTAMed. It will be interesting to see who was where they should'nt have been.

BBC:

Warship warns off civilian flight

The commander of an American NATO warship has been reported to aviation authorities after he ordered a scheduled passenger flight off its normal route. It has been reported that the commander told the aircraft that it was entering a military area before issuing the order.

The Jetstream aircraft was travelling from the Hebridean island of Stornoway to Benbecula in the Western Isles on Tuesday when a warning came on an emergency panel.

The pilot of the Highland Airways flight turned off course before air traffic controllers intervened to bring it back onto its normal route.

The aircraft complied with the request but after further consultation with air traffic control discovered that it was not in any danger and carried on to Benbecula

Highland Airways spokesman
The airline and air traffic controllers have formally complained to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

A CAA spokesman said: "We have had a report from an airline that a flight from Stornoway to Benbecula was addressed over the radio by a ship, presumably a military ship, that it should leave the area.

"There is no indication that there was any firing under way. The aircraft did leave the area."

The CAA spokesman said the authority had no record of there being a restricted area or closed airspace in that area at the time.

He added: "The airline's view is that it was entitled to be where it was. We have received the report from the airline, and we are looking at it."

A spokesman for Highland Airways said: "On Tuesday a Highland Airways flight traveling from Stornoway to Benbecula at 0905 BST received a call from a US Navy Warship.

"The aircraft was warned that that it was entering a restricted zone and should alter its course immediately.

A Highland Airways Jetstream 31 was involved

"The aircraft complied with the request but after further consultation with air traffic control discovered that it was not in any danger and carried on to Benbecula."

The spokesman said he did not know the name of the warship, or whether the message from the ship was intended to be taken as an order.

It is thought the US warship, which was taking part in a NATO exercise, may have been firing missiles in the area.

This is the second incident in the past few days involving the same NATO operation off the west coast of Scotland.

On Tuesday a British frigate fired a shell into a loch eight miles off target and just one mile from the village of Durness.

[West Coast]

Sapco
But for the grace of god, the friendly fire would have been Brit this time.

[Bally Heck]

Reminds me of...................

This is the transcript of an actual radio conversation between a US naval ship and Canadian authorities off the coast of Newfoundland in October 1995. The Radio conversation was released by the Chief of Naval Operations on Oct. 10, 1995.


US Ship: Please divert your course 0.5 degrees to the south to avoid a collision.

CND reply: Recommend you divert your course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision.

US Ship: This is the Captain of a US Navy Ship. I say again, divert your course.

CND reply: No. I say again, you divert YOUR course!

US Ship: THIS IS THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER USS CORAL SEA*, WE ARE A LARGE WARSHIP OF THE US NAVY. DIVERT YOUR COURSE NOW!!

CND reply: This is a lighthouse. Your call

[Airbubba]

>>...This is the transcript of an actual radio conversation between a US naval ship and Canadian authorities off the coast of Newfoundland in October 1995. The Radio conversation was released by the Chief of Naval Operations on Oct. 10, 1995...<<

Lad, you're pretty green if you fell for this famous sea story! Next you should try to buy some propwash...

Here's what the CNO really says about this story:

http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/questions/litehuse.html


Remember, it's not really true unless it starts "Now, this is no s**t!";)

For more on this see:

http://www.aliensonearth.com/misc/1998/nov/d05-001.shtml

http://www.snopes.com/military/lighthse.htm

[Minhaj Atwah]

The actual story of course was portrayed in the movie ‘Nightmare on Lighthouse 3 Part 6’, when Tom Cruise, after having won the Second World War single handedly, liberating Berlin whilst riding on a HMMWV, and ejecting the Luftwaffe’s crack infantry battalion from Bucking-ham House near London England, beats off a rebellion from Oliver Cromwell before riding across the deserts of Switzerland on a camel, and joining the USS Dallas, a nuclear submarine by the sea at Zurich.

Breaking the secret Enigma code on his laptop and telling the British spooks at Bletchley Park how to do it, he discovers that the Arapaho have taken over a lighthouse in Chesapeake Bay. ‘I feel the need’ says Cruise as he climbs the conning tower to the flight deck and straps on his F-14. Selecting a nuclear sidewinder on the advice of his wingman 'Liceman', Tom wastes the moth….ker in the lighthouse with the chilling line ‘That’s right Tonto, I’m dangerous’.

Tom pulls his F14 around and returns to land on the USS Dallas which has returned to Cruise’s ancestral home of Hebridy Scot-land, bringing it into the hover and landing on the helipad of the destroyer.

‘Where’s that British-Air airplane Goose?’, says Tom before frightening the foreign invader away from the ship and saving the World once again.

It's all true, honest, I work for Andersen :p

[Straight Up]

From the BBC:

The Jetstream aircraft was travelling from the Hebridean island of Stornoway to Benbecula in the Western Isles

I think the BBC needs an atlas of the UK, last time I was there Stornoway was a town on the Isle of Lewis, not an island by itself.

Maybe I missed some news somewhere and the town declared independance and seperated itself from the rest of the island?:confused:

Straight Up

[BEagle]

Flying on an IFR flightplan on a published route in international airspace near the Red Sea, we once received the message:

"Aircraft at position ********, this is R** C**** on Guard,, identify yourself".

We told him callsigns, point of departure and destination and were then told:

"You are clear to proceed"

To which I told him that he was absolutely correct, we would indeed be continuing in accordance with our clearance, any suggestion from him to the contrary would have constituted unlawful interference to international air traffic - and thanked him for his interest!

Dear trigger happy Spams roaming the World in grey boats thinking that you own the place - this might come as a surprise to you, but you DON'T!!

[Self Loading Freight]

BEagle--

Well, yes... but thinking back to various incidents, if told to depart the area promptly or face a whoosh-bang-nasty up the tailpipe there's no international lawyer in the world who'd persuade me to argue the toss there and then. It might ruin the old salt's career if he or his machines decided to pop one off, but it'd ruin my entire weekend.

R