"French fighter jets "
Isn't that an oxymoron?
The story is true, they were directed to land at a civilian airfield. There's only about 30 of them in the area that could take them, so there was no risk to the pilots or AC. I wouldn't have let them on the AFB either.
But you have to wonder about their flight planning, the fact that a "weather plane" didn't see the weather, and that "all weather" fighters couldn't divert around the storm, or ran themselves low on fuel.
I read a comment on another board by an ANG F-16 pilot in Jersey who was there at the time, he said it was quite a gong show when the French planes were coming in, taxiing all over the place, trying to find a place to park, ground control was trying to figure out where the hell they were going, lol. Much confusion. He said he (jokingly) asked the controller for permission to strafe the enemy AC invading their airfield, HAHAHA. Apparently the French pilots asked to park their planes on the ANG ramp and were "politely declined". He also said it was the first time he had heard the term "surrender monkeys" on a military frequency.
