Heard two big booms about half an hour ago...just heard that there was a plane that veered a bit off it's flight plan when the Air Force One was in the air, and they quickly scrambled two fighters...nothing came of it, but man, those sonic booms are loud!

Fish on...

Todd

Pretty powerful here in Oly. I guess there were some ceiling tiles that fell down at our Chehalis Branch.

I'd hate to be a guy cruising around in a small Cessena or something and have a couple big dogs coming right up your arse at Mach 1.

Hope for change.

when i was a kid we heard them a lot. never thought any thing about the noise

I saw in the paper that the 911 lines were flooded with calls when this happened.

Have we become so fearful that anything that goes BOOM makes us call frantically for help? Seriously?

"I was outside sitting at my scroll saw."

For some reason that reminded me of the movie Fargo.

I like the reference, stlhead, but wasn't that a wood chipper? Pretty gruesome scene, for sure.

I'm probably the only one, but I actually wondered if Mt. St. Helens had blown again or something. When I brought that up, my co-worker, who was working in the same office when St. Helens blew in 1980, said he did recall feeling the eruption.

911 isn't an information hotline, Hankster.

Does it make anyone else a little nervous knowing they have to scramble F15's out of PDX to respond to an incident in Seattle?

Now I'm all for keeping the President safe and understand the SS's institutional paranoia but cmon-Really???

Air Force one was parked at Boeing Field. A Cessna from Lk. Chelan to Kenmore via Stevens Pass and they have to scramble F-15's from Portland? You’re kidding me right???

I can understand shutting down the air space when AF1 is in the air but whats the purpose when it's parked?

Seeing how 90% of what Gov. does makes no sense to me anyways I suppose this incident shouldn't be much of a surprise.

p.s. I slept right thru it.

I'm with Dan, I thought it was weird to scramble jets from Portland, Should of had a couple in the air in the area for the few hours that the Airforce one was here.

Yeah but then there'd be complaints about the cost.

It's not paranoia. The SS is required to investigate everything even off handed comments.

"If you heard what you thought were explosions, who would you call Dan?"

What would you be calling for? You didn't see anything. Why tie up the 911 line just to gather info?

"911 what's your emergency?". "I heard a loud boom somewhere and I was wondering if it's something I should be afraid of."

When I hear a big boom, I'm likely to say "I wonder WTF that was?", and then continue going about my business.

You go ahead and call 911, Hank.

why from portland. isn't there an air force base in tacoma? seem like the navy has an air base around seattle.

Were the jets actually scrambled from Portland, or were they already patrolling in the air and then directed to intercept? Strategically, if the POTUS is in the area, seems prudent to already have aircraft on patrol.

I don't get the idea of scrambling from Portland either, with AF jets at McChord and Navy jets at Whidbey, all closer and presumably on duty 24/7. Not sure what hours the Air National Guard keeps.

This morning's news says the couple in the float plane had no idea that AF1 was in Seattle or that airspace was closed as they flew from Lake Chelan back to north Lake Washington at Kenmore Air. SS interviewed them and inspected their plane for 90 minutes. Man that woulda' been a pain if they had a dab of left over recreational herb in their luggage.

Airplanes can deliver and are themselves weapons. They close the airspace so nobody goes kamakazi on POTUS

It's funny, I thought hank was JOKING about using 911 as his personal information line. Amazing.

"recreational herb in their luggage"

I really don't think the SS would do anything about that. They are above all of that petty stuff.

McChord is a MAC (Military Airlift Command) base, I believe? Which means that they have large cargo aircraft like the C-141 and C-5A... not fighters like the F-15.

Naval Station Whidbey isn't the home of fighter jets either.

I believe the closest Air National Guard unit is in Portland? I see them flying training missions over the Columbia gorge every Summer that I'm down there.

I had just put in my headphones, started my stopwatch, and started my afternoon run when the first sonic boom sounded. I was thinking "That's right big guy you are running fast today!", and then the second one sounded and I hadn't changed pace so I ruled out my blazing speed.

4 Salt,

I've seen fighters at McChord, but maybe they aren't there all the time. Whidbey has A-6 (think that's the right number) Intruders that have guns if not missles. However it's always possible that Portland had the closest jets yesterday, and the gov't. was being as efficient as possible under the inherently inefficient travel by AF1.

Sg

"Do you call your Aunt Millie when you hear what you believe to be explosions?"

Myself, I normally wouldn't call anyone. I figure if it's that loud they already heard it at the precinct. But if Aunt Millie were like you I would call her to calm her down and prevent her from tying up the 911 lines. Is this that San Francisco attitude? Call 911 about loud noises?

Oregon Air National Guard stands alert for the NW sector of NORAD, there are armed aircraft on alert status, these dedicated aircraft can get airborne in less than 5 minuets after the alert horn is sounded.
Neither the Navy or the Air Force have fighter aircraft in this sector, so any intercepts will come out of PDX.
FYI Portland's fighters were originally based at McChord AFB, and Oregon had a alert detachment mission there for a number of years, presently no fighters are based in Wash.

Yeah, I'm the knucklehead.

Oh crap, I just saw a yellow helicopter fly overhead, that's "clearly out of the ordinary" I gotta go call 911.

SO why do you call 9-1-1 when you have an earthquake Hank?

Is it an emergency when your lifesize blowup doll of Nancy falls off the bed ??

Alert! Alert! Saw a person outside who didn't look like me. Possibly a Muslim (extremist, of course).

Gotta call 9-1-1 ... and go get my GUN.

If I were Dictator of the US, and you called 911 to try to get Michael Jackson tickets, you'd be dirt-napping before dinner.

911 is for reporting an emergency. Is a loud boom an emergency? If the loud boom was accompanied by a huge explosion, and you saw it, THAT would be the time to call 911.

911 is the number to Ticketmaster? Man, this thread has gone sideways!

Only if that Kenyon-born-marxist-muslim ain't confiscated it yet.

It's a country in Africo.

Geez, I thought that was a brilliant snarky remark, and all I get is a phookin spell check.

Spelling Nazis!!

Nazis ! ! Call 9-1-1 ! !

Too funny. You have yet to put forth evidence that you possess the requisite mental capacity, let alone sufficient cognitive function, to ascertain what could be considered brilliance. Recently, it's becoming abundantly clear that you are absent operative synapses, and fail to achieve orchestrated firing of neurons.

So, there.

Leev it tu yoo nukkleheds to rune a purfeckly gud thred.

Phish awn...

Todd

Leave it to you, Todd, for not properly moderating this thread.

If I properly moderated every thread on the Dark Side I'd be the only one allowed to post any more...

Fish on...

Todd

You don't like it? Call 9-1-1

I was thinking of fishing today, so I called 9-1-1 for a weather and river conditions report...they said there was a high pressure ridge of dumbass coming in fast, and that the river was low on common sense and really needs a good gully washer of intelligence to get it into proper shape...but that there was not only no intelligence in the three day outlook, but might not be any on the way again.

Ever.

Fish on...

Todd

I'd call Aunt Millie for a second opinion.

I resent you bringing me into this conversation.

Fish on...

Todd

Hank is full of it.

We've never met.

There is already a thread for recent Skok reports.

Oh, SNAP! Got me with the mentally disabled taunt. Wow, all those brilliant people you surround yourself with must be rubbing off. How terribly witty and original of you.






Hey, didn't someone mention sophomoric earlier?

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzinng!!

I regret my earlier comments that you yo-yo's had ruined a perfectly good thread...this has now gone from an interesting thread, to a perfectly perfect one.

Thanks.

Fish on...

Todd

Call 9-1-1 and ask them how many kings we got out of Area 9 this morning...hint, it was more than three, and less than five

Fish on...

Todd

I called Chuck to get the number for 4-1-1 so I could ask them what the number for 9-1-1 was...and when I finally got 9-1-1 on the line, they told me there were three of us in the boat yesterday.

Fish on...

Todd

The Avet you sent me has a three day tuna trip coming up, starting tomorrow...should be a bloody and slimy mess by Wednesday afternoon, leastwise, that's what I'm hoping!

Fish on...

Todd

Probably dinner...though I'd love to take a day off and fish, that's for sure!

Fish on...

Todd