troung

US Denies French Fighters Emergency Landing Rights
By DAVE LINDORFF
http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff06072005.html
Talk about fair-weather friends!

When nine French fighter jets and a weather plane from a French carrier taking part in a joint exercise with Canadian Naval forces in the Atlantic off New Jersey ran perilously low on fuel last Friday because of a freak storm that prevented them from returning to their ship, they figured, no problem. They weren't too far from the U.S. mainland, and so they could just land at McGuire AF Base in southern New Jersey.

No dice, the Francophobe U.S. military told them. According to a State Department source, quoted in the Philadelphia Inquirer, they were denied landing rights at the facility.

Faced with the choice of ditching their planes or finding an alternative landing site, the French pilots, with the help of frantic State Department and Federal Aviation Administration officers, managed to arrange landing permission at the commercial airfield in Atlantic City, though this necessitated delaying and rerouting several commercial flights because of the number of planes that were coming in at once.

No national American media mentioned this stunning--and potentially life-threatening--breach of basic air etiquette by the U.S. military. And not for lack of knowing about it: many news organizations covered the whole thing as a humor item, focusing on the French pilots spending a night in the debauchery of America's East Coast Vegas

Even the Inquirer, which did report on the incident with at least a modicum of seriousness, failed to go to the Pentagon and ask the obvious question: Why were ten planes from a European ally denied emergency landing rights at a fully equipped and prepared U.S. Air Force base when they were in danger of crashing from lack of fuel? (I did make that call, and was referred to the media relations office at McGuire, where a spokeswoman denied that the French planes had been turned away-a direct contradiction of the story out of the State Department. She had no answer when asked whether the French pilots had requested permission to land at the airbase.)

It boggles the mind to think that this nail-biting incident could have been the result of Pentagon pique at France for having refused to go along with the Bush Iraq War plan, but one is hard-pressed to come up with an alternative explanation.

Even Soviet planes, at the height of the Cold War, weren't turned away in emergencies.

And this was an ally.

At least the people of Atlantic City were gracious hosts to the plucky French pilots, reportedly offering them meals and hotel rooms.

------------
From the AP and far less biased... no link though...

10 French fighter jets forced to land in Atlantic City, N.J.
6/3/2005, 7:53 a.m. ET
The Associated Press

POMONA, N.J. (AP) — Ten French fighter jets were forced to land at Atlantic City International Airport after weather problems prevented them from returning to their aircraft carrier in the Atlantic Ocean off the New Jersey coast, authorities said Friday.

One of the jets was apparently disabled, and the U.S. State Department was contacted by French officials after one of the pilots tried to buy fuel and couldn't because he didn't have the available funds on his credit card, Philadelphia television station WPVI-TV reported.

"I think they were all part of a squadron that was in formation," said Jim Peters, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration's eastern region.

The planes, which were scheduled to perform Saturday at an air show at McGuire Air Force Base in Burlington County, were conducting military exercises with the Canadian military in international waters when they were forced to land about 3:45 p.m. Thursday, apparently because of poor visibility and high winds.

"We brought them in and parked them overnight," said Peters. "Our role ended there."

A group of French marines was being dispatched to the airport to guard the planes. According to WPVI, officials from the French embassy and translators were also expected to arrive at the airport to assist the pilots.

Peters referred inquiries about that to the U.S. State Department.

Atlantic City International Airport officials did not immediately respond to inquiries Friday. A man who answered the telephone at its airport operations desk said he could not release information.

Leader

If the story is true they should have let them land. There are people in those planes. You shouldn't risk their lives because the French Government is filled with elitist j*ckasses.

And this...

Is BS of the highest order.

__________________

troung

I only posted the top one because the bottom one was linkless... plus the top one was sure to stir you guys up...

This just looks like a screw up rather then trying to kill 10 French pilots. And the fact we did help them land. The military base had an issue I think of getting clearance.

So I don't think we did something evil...

And every government is full of elitist jackasses... from A to Z

Lunatock

On the bright side the commercial airport wouldn't of have people coming out of the woodwork to crackwise about those french pilots traveling a long way to surrender.

dalem

Gee ya think? You need an article for that insight?

-dale

troung

That was in reference to the 1st article I posted.

dalem

But that's how you had it divided in your mind? One of the options was attempted murder?

-dale

Bluesman

They DID let 'em land, just not at McGoo. And I'm sure that's exactly how it went:

Frog Fighter Jock: "We screwed up our mission planning, and now we have our balls in a wringer. Can we land at the Air Force Base, so we can hang at the O Club and be beastly pigs to the waitresses?"

Approach Controller, with absolutely no authority to grant admission to foreign warplanes onto a military installation: "How 'bout THIS, mon amis: y'all can land at a less-sensitive location, one with fewer national security implications, such as the commercial airport? And as a bonus, we won't make you circle SPAIN to get there, either."

Got that right. They haven't been 'allies' since they switched sides the second time in WWII.

__________________
"The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it, and if one finds the prospect of a long war intolerable, it is natural to disbelieve in the possibility of victory."
- George Orwell

Leader

As I said, "if the story is true." It apparently isn't.

bigross86

How do you know it's untrue? I checked Snopes and they don't have anything on it

__________________
You're a naughty girl, go to my room!

highsea

"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.

__________________
My baby called me up. She said- Why don't you ever take me out? Pick me up in your brand new car....You shake the short change from the old fruit jar...

Lunatock

french(spit) surrender jets?

Julie

Nothing embarrasses the French does it?

Gun Grape

This looks like the standard trick used to pull Libo in a good place.

US pilots, especially the helo ones, do this alot in the Med

Hawg166

Funny I spent a lot of time in the Med and I never remember anyone going bingo to anywhere except a US naval base or Air Force base. And dont think for a minute that if one of our guys did go bingo and they wanted to land at Toulone or another french (spit) airfield that we to would have been told to find a freindlier patch of terra firma.

__________________
"Now we shall have ourselves a pell mell battle!" ......The Immortal Memory, Admiral Nelson