When I first heard of this story I thought “wow, that sound serious” but as I read more I begin to wonder how much hype (and energy) was put into only one aspect of this accident. A couple articles I read never published the altitude, didn’t say when radio communications were lost, just that a fight plane flew super sonic over DC.
Okay, still concerning, but why was the fighter flying super sonic, must have been a quick entry right? But then I read the plane flew from TN to NY (Original flight was to land near NY) took a u-turn, flew back towards DC at 34,000 and never entered restricted space. My questions would be,
when did ATC lose radio communications? An FMS u-turn over a major ATC area without communication I think would be noticed.
Flight time between NY and DC would had to have been at least an hour so if ATC was lost around NY, why was a fighter not sent up from Ft Dix or from DC NE to intercept without needed to go super sonic?
It is great the military responds, but if this jet was that close, were they monitoring the plane and prepared to do “something” if it was going to glide towards populated areas?
The story was made to be about a jet going super sonic over DC for a non-violation of restricted airspace yet the larger story, and more poignant story is how did a plane flew from NY at that height and for that long with out quicker response. If that plane stalled along that heading it could have crashed into the greater Philly, Wilmington, Baltimore, DC area.