30-08-07, 19:57
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US Fighter jet visiting nearby?
Hmmmmm ... I wonder what's up with this? Trail is a couple/few hours West from here and I just read this story in a local news site.
Quote:
DEFENCE
MP demands answers after U.S. fighter plane reported flying in airspace above B.C. town
LANA RODLIE
Canadian Press
August 29, 2007
TRAIL, B.C. -- B.C. Southern Interior MP Alex Atamanenko is asking Defence Minister Peter MacKay to demand an accounting from U.S. authorities regarding a fighter jet possibly flying over Trail, B.C., in June.
"From all indications, an unidentified foreign fighter jet has violated our airspace," he wrote.
"It is important to note that this area is not barren, open terrain. It is densely populated and the home of a major industrial smelter, Teck Cominco, that is vital to our economy."
Mr. Atamanenko said he is satisfied with the response he got after contacting the federal Ministry of Transportation, which conducted a "thorough investigation" and confirmed the jet was not a Canadian Forces aircraft.
He said he also received a letter from John Crichton, president and CEO of NAV Canada, who said radar in the Trail area cannot track aircraft operating below 2,100 metres.
"We've done our homework," Mr. Atamanenko said. "It looks like it was a U.S. fighter jet."
He wants Mr. MacKay to contact American authorities to determine exactly what happened.
"First, it's my hope it doesn't happen again. And second, it was low-flying in a densely populated area. And there is the smelter."
Mr. Atamanenko said Trail residents "deserve some answers. We need to know why it was there."
Most of the town was awakened by the noise.
Witnesses who saw the plane at approximately 11:15 p.m. on June 18 described it coming up from the U.S., flying very low over the Trail airport, then above Trail itself.
American officials at Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane, Wash., and Whidbey Island air base near Seattle have so far denied any U.S. military planes would have been in the area at that time.
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