What would the penalty be for invading airspace??

[gn85]

I just watched the news of the plane that went into the White House's airspace.  

I was wondering what will be the penalty for such a blunder (if it was a mistake)?  Other then getting shot down.  :o

[OTTOL]

[glb]DEATH!!![/glb]


Death by CFR suffocation!!

[C]

Well, a chap did a similar thing in the UK when he flew into airspace about to be used by the Red Arrows. This annoyed a few people (including Red One, who promptly went away, to the disappointment of the crowd, witht the rest of the team), and upon landing, said chap was prosecuted. I think in the end he lost his license and was fined in the region of

[Woodlouse2002]

If your lucky you could be given a surface to air missile. With free delivery.

[exnihilo]

Yeah, no doubt his license is in serious jeopardy.  I don't think they'll be able to convict him of anything though.

[C]

[quote]Yeah, no doubt his license is in serious jeopardy.

[Nexus]

Here you just get yelled at  ;D

[Brett_Henderson]

This is a weird case for sure.

I've been flying out of KOSU and it sits right on the edge of the upper-shelf (2500/4800) of KCMH (Columbus, OH) charlie airspace. If you approach or depart KOSU with an altitude and trajectory that even appears to put you in that airspace, KOSU tower will warn you.

If I'm not mistaken.. this was an instructor/student flight. I'm finding a lot of things alarming about it all. First.. that an instructor would get lost at all in the first place. Second, that he'd not have a radio tuned to ANY of the area towers, CTAFs or unicoms (didn't he have to be contacted by flare ?). Lastly, lost or not.. it takes quite a bit of time to cover any distance in a 152,, what the heck was he doing anywhere near the White House

[TacitBlue]

What Ive heard so far: The aircraft had a bad radio, and wasnt supposed to be used. It belongs to a flying club, and he reserved it, but never got the message that it he couldnt use the plane. After he landed, he was questioned by the secret service and released. I think they probably accepted his explanation that it was an accident, and I doubt he will face any penalty.

[gn85]

From what I've read, he was navigating visually and got lost.  I don't know if this was an 'instructional' flight, but there was a student on-board.

I have to agree that this really seems neglectful as a pilot.  Granted, I'm not a pilot, so I probably don't have the room to speak, but it seems obvious to me that flying anywhere NEAR that area (I'm from Maryland, not far from DC) is full of restrictions and dangerous places to fly.  Don't know what the visibility was for that day, but I'm sure if I saw the beltway going around DC, I'd be getting the idea real quick that I'm lost/off course and really need to find my way to somewhere safe.  

Just seems like some really poor judgment in this incident that almost cost the pilot, his passenger and possibly those on the ground their lives.  

[Brett_Henderson]

Neglectful is an understatement. If he was close enough to his departure airport to have not yet determined that he had NO radio communication with ANY tower or CTAF, then he was in familiar airpspace which rules out being lost. If he did indeed fly any distance at all in that myriad of controlled airspace without contacting anyone then he was just an accident looking for a place to happen and I find it hard to believe some moron in a light single inadvertantly meanders toward the White House.

The "catch, question and release" is the story de jour and quiets things down (for now), but I still got feeling there's more to this.

[Ace_777]

I wonder what their reaction was when they saw Two F-16's pulling up to their side LOL

[OTTOL]

I wonder what their reaction was when they saw Two F-16's pulling up to their side LOL

......considering the fact that they didn't seem to take much notice of something so easily indentifiable as the center of the nation's capitol....."hey check out the that big white tower with the long rectangular lake in front of it!.....Oh yeah, wha-duyah think that is?".....they probably didn't take much notice of, or give much regard to, the two jet fighters spewing flares, either.  ::)

[Ivan]

F-16 frying hard to keep up (trying to be slow)

[Fozzer]

I wonder if there ever was a time, in the "Good Old Days", when you could hire a plane, or go on a sight-seeing trip, over the White House, and similar places, without the risk of being shot down my some trigger-happy military pilot... ... ...?

What a depressing place the World is coming to... ...!
...gone are the old "Barn-Storming" days from the past... ...!
There's little fun in aviation anymore, following "terrorist's" scares...!

Paul....a blast from the past...
(England).