N941WR
Legacy Member
Check this out:
Say what you want, but this bad press will give the goverment good reason, with public support, to ban us from the air.
How is it us pilots keep screwing up like this? What can the FAA do to make sure this doesn't happen in the future?Fighter Jets Force Plane to Land at Asheboro Airport
Agents interview pilot for violating presidential airspace
Last Edited: Friday, 11 May 2007, 5:29 PM EDT
Created: Friday, 11 May 2007, 5:27 PM EDT
By CARON MYERS
FOX8 News
ASHEBORO, N.C. (WGHP) -- Navy fighter jets forced the pilot of a small, experimental aircraft to land at Asheboro (N.C.) Airport on Friday after he violated presidential airspace in Pennsylvania.
Daniel Gollus was flying his RV-6 airplane from Niagara Falls, N.Y. to Asheboro when a pair of military F-18 Hornets appeared after he flew too close to St. Vincent College in Pennsylvania, where President Bush was giving the commencement address.
Jim Chaney, a pilot from Statesboro, Ga., landed at Asheboro within minutes of the RV-6 and spoke with Gollus about his ordeal.
"He said he'd seen an F-18 Hornet waving his wings and shooting flares out, and he thought he was just trying to show him what his airplane was all about," said Chaney.
After Gollus violated presidential airspace, the Department of Homeland Security and the FAA requested the N.C. Highway Patrol keep the pilot in custody until the Secret Service arrived.
Secret Service agents interviewed Gollus for two hours.
"The thing is, the FAA regulations state we have to know intercept procedures, so he should have known what to do if he was intercepted by a military aircraft," said Chaney.
Gollus refused to answer FOX8's question about whether he had filed a flight plan.
Say what you want, but this bad press will give the goverment good reason, with public support, to ban us from the air.