747 w/ fighter escort over Houston Today

[thee12nv]

Anyone see this? looked like a single F-15 escorting a 747 who circled real low over downtown houston today.. 747 had something strange off the tail.. could not a good look at it?

 

[Oakum_Boy]

Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle
A pair of NASA aircraft prompted a flurry of calls to local law enforcement today as they flew low over the city at mid-day.

The NASA Boeing 747 jumbo jet, normally used to ferry the space shuttle from California to Florida, and the smaller T-38, a training jet flown by astronauts, were involved in a Federal Aviation Administration exercise.

However, some who witnessed the two aircraft fly over downtown Houston and the Galleria at altitudes of 2,000 feet became concerned of a possible terrorist threat and called authorities, said NASA spokesman James Hartsfield.

"The purpose of the exercise is to improve the safety of commercial airliners, and our aircraft were serving as a test bed," said Hartsfield.

The nation has been on alert for low-flying aircraft over metropolitan areas since the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington D.C. on Sept. 11, 2001.

The Boeing 747 and the T-38, whose pilots were filming the jumbo jet as they followed, were under the supervision of federal air traffic controllers.

The space agency said it plans to puplicly announce any future low-altitude exercises, but that none are planned.

 

[AA717driver]

Yeah, they were doing studies to see how wake turbulence affected the stability of a gun platform.

Missiles are expensive, you know... TC

 

[thee12nv]

wow.. I was way off on the f-15.. but to my defense I didn't get a good look.. honest

 

[88_MALIBU]

Thats pretty neat you saw it!

 

[thesource]

Why do we continue to see things like this. Why can't the military and nasa and especially the FAA who approve these things figure out how to conduct tests without flying low over heavily populated areas ad scaring hundreds of people.

Cant they figure out other places to coduct these tests?

It does however prove that the people who think they know everything, in fact really don't and lack common sense to boot!

 

[jethro]

Perhaps this was a chemtrail dispersal test... comments?

 

[dash8driver]

d@mn, you beat me to the chemtrail comment!

 

[flywithastick]

KTRK TV said NASA was taking aerial pics of their 747 over town using a T-38. It was a very nice, clear day. FAA says - paraphrasing - "nothing appears to be out of order, but we'll investigate anyway". Nice guys, those FAA folks... wonder if there's not something more productive to do than investigating astronauts and pro NASA pilots?!

 

[Flying Illini]

KTRK TV said NASA was taking aerial pics of their 747 over town using a T-38. It was a very nice, clear day. FAA says - paraphrasing - "nothing appears to be out of order, but we'll investigate anyway". Nice guys, those FAA folks... wonder if there's not something more productive to do than investigating astronauts and pro NASA pilots?!

Investigate=NASA buying some of the FAA guys a beer.
FAA-What were you doing so low over the city?
NASA-Flying around, taking pics...you know, the usual
FAA-Any terrorist-type activities?
NASA-Nope...just chemtrail testing
FAA-Well why didn't you say so...let me buy you another drink!

 

[wms]

Cant they figure out other places to conduct these tests?

Yeah, but then we couldn't see all this cool stuff. An aviation thrill is worth a little panic in the streets. Besides, it gives the civil defense people a little workout.