shafer@elxsi.dfrf.nasa.gov (10/25/89)
From: shafer@elxsi.dfrf.nasa.gov
>From "Jane's Defence Weekly" for 16 Sept 89:
Stolen F-16 crashes
A Belgian Air Force F-16 crashed in Norway, after it was
apparently stolen by a technician.
The aircraft was destroyed in a crash about 15 km from Oerland air
base, near Trondheim. The unnamed technician was the only person
subsequently posted as missing, according to a Royal Norwegian Air
Force official.
The aircraft had been deployed to Norway for a training mission.
A couple of years ago a Marine ground crewman stole an A-4 here in
Southern California and flew it around for about an hour. He even did
some touch and goes. He had been selected for pilot training and was
just waiting to go. When this made the news, his name wasn't
immediately announced, but some of my coworkers, who knew him from the
glider community, guessed who it was.
About 10 years ago some Navy ex-reservist (I think) talked his way into
Patuxent River NAS, convinced Transient Ops that he'd been sent to
ferry an F-14 that was parked there, and got all his flight gear from
Life Support with some story about last minute changes. His effort
came to a halt when somebody alert noticed that he'd filed a flight
plan to fly PAX to Los Angeles at 10,000 ft non-stop. Apparently he
forgot about the Rockies.
Shortly after the Marine did his trick I was talking to one of our test
pilots about how hard it would be to steal a military aircraft.
Fighters don't have keys! We think we know how to do it, although we
probably won't test it. There are certain things that you _have_ to
know, but an air of confidence is probably most important. You'll
notice that all the cases I mentioned above were insiders, who knew the
routine and were able to look like they knew what they were doing.
Has anyone heard of any other cases of stealing military aircraft?
Hijacking doesn't count.
I don't think we can count Chuck Yeager "stealing" an NF-104 one day,
as was described in "The Right Stuff." (It was slightly exaggerated in
the movie.) His being a pilot authorized to fly the aircraft normally
gives this a whole different flavor. BTW, his doing that resulted in a
system known as CONFORM that is still in use here at Edwards AFB.
Flights are prescheduled by a limited number of authorized personnel
and an identifier (ops number) assigned. This number has to be
radio'd to CONFORM before EDDIE GROUND will issue a taxi clearance.
--
Mary Shafer shafer@elxsi.dfrf.nasa.gov ames!elxsi.dfrf.nasa.gov!shafer
NASA Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, CA
Of course I don't speak for NASAgwh%typhoon.Berkeley.EDU@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (George William Herbert) (10/27/89)
From: gwh%typhoon.Berkeley.EDU@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (George William Herbert) There was the private pilot whose AF buddy in sixties got him 'in' to fly things... the private pilot ended up doing just about everything... faked a set of paperwork, flew a lot of planes... ended up being invited along when the squadron went to Europe. Gave up and stopped then... **************************************** George William Herbert UCB Naval Architecture Dpt. (my god, even on schedule!) maniac@garnet.berkeley.edu gwh@ocf.berkeley.edu ----------------------------------------
random@cbnewse.ATT.COM (Random @ rebmA) (10/31/89)
From: random@cbnewse.ATT.COM (Random @ rebmA) >From article <10578@cbnews.ATT.COM>, by shafer@elxsi.dfrf.nasa.gov: > > Stolen F-16 crashes > > Has anyone heard of any other cases of stealing military aircraft? > It doesn't seem that dificult from a ground based airfield. When I worked SAC, the taxiway was located at the edge of the aircraft parking lot. If I were to have orded a refuel (in my capacity as an Integrated Avionics System Specialist) and had the standard ground support equipment, I could have gotten the engines started after pulling the ground-saftey pins, disconnected the 'dash60' ground start unit via a long cord, and kicked the engines up to full to full afterburner without arousing suspicion right away. Someone on the night shift might have called to see why they were not informed of an engine test, but probably not unless there was a crew chief truck hanging around. The crew chiefs would KNOW something was up. If the alarm dDID go out at this time, I don't care. I'm right next to the taxiway, and it's just as long as the runway. I can jump the wheel chock and be gone in about 20 seconds! All I have to wory about is: losing an engine, fire, blowout, bullets, stall, oxygen, A-10's, and landing. Not that I ever considered such a thing. Random
wyle@inf.ethz.ch (Mitchell Wyle) (11/01/89)
From: wyle@inf.ethz.ch (Mitchell Wyle) According to the film, "Steal the Sky," a mossad agent (Murial Hemmingway) convinced an Iraqi pilot to fly a Mig to Israel in 1965. They looked like Mig-17's in the video we rented.
rshu@ads.com (Richard Shu) (11/02/89)
From: rshu@ads.com (Richard Shu) In article <10798@cbnews.ATT.COM> random@cbnewse.ATT.COM (Random @ rebmA) writes:>yyy >It doesn't seem that dificult from a ground based airfield. ^^^^^^^^^^^^ Anybody with carrier experience want to comment on how easy it would be to steal a plane? Of course, one problem you run into is you better be close to shore when you do it cuz otherwise you're guaranteed to be facing some pretty PO'ed people when you land. As any Communist defector will tell you, if you steal a plane ... DON'T BRING IT BACK!!! :-) Rich (responsible-p ADS message) NIL (si:halt)
mamba@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Paul A Deisinger) (11/04/89)
From: mamba@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Paul A Deisinger) In article <11030@cbnews.ATT.COM> rshu@ads.com (Richard Shu) writes: > > >From: rshu@ads.com (Richard Shu) > >In article <10798@cbnews.ATT.COM> random@cbnewse.ATT.COM (Random @ rebmA) writes:>yyy >>It doesn't seem that dificult from a ground based airfield. > ^^^^^^^^^^^^ >Anybody with carrier experience want to comment on how easy >it would be to steal a plane? Of course, one problem you >run into is you better be close to shore when you do it >cuz otherwise you're guaranteed to be facing some pretty >PO'ed people when you land. > >Rich No chance. Ignoring all the "small" problems such as how you are going to get flight gear, a plane that is ready to go, etc. There is one major problem: The catapault. When a plane is ready to be launched the gound crew has to determine the weight of the plane. Then this weight is written onto a hand board and shown to the person who sets the catapault. Catapaults are very tricky things. The weight set has to be very close to correct, there is not much margin for error. The crew on an aircraft carrier is like one single organism. It would be plain to somone that somthing was wrong. You'd have to pull a "Firefox" trick. And you can't walk up on a carrier and say you were sent to ferry an F-18 to Jersey.... Paul Deisinger. -- My other .sig is a Porsche. Boongawa.
ron@hpfcmgw.hp.com (Ron Miller) (11/08/89)
From: hplabs!ron@hpfcmgw.hp.com (Ron Miller) > > From: rshu@ads.com (Richard Shu) > > In article <10798@cbnews.ATT.COM> random@cbnewse.ATT.COM (Random @ rebmA) writes:>yyy > >It doesn't seem that dificult from a ground based airfield. > ^^^^^^^^^^^^ > Anybody with carrier experience want to comment on how easy > it would be to steal a plane? Of course, one problem you > run into is you better be close to shore when you do it > cuz otherwise you're guaranteed to be facing some pretty > PO'ed people when you land. > > Rich > I'm not a carrier pilot but I've ridden off and onto the carrier in an F-4 and my dad was an F-4 pilot. I suspect that since a catapault launch is required to leave the carrier (unless you use a helo) that the airplanes are safe from theft. A thief probably couldn't steer the airplane well enough to be attached to the catapault shuttle. Never mind all the people hustling around on deck looking at the pilot. As for landing back aboard, well, a ready-to-try-landing-aboard trainee pretty well answered that recently, didn't he? Ron Miller
tarquin@zen.co.uk (Ian Mitchell ) (11/09/89)
In previous articles, Richard Shu and Paul A Deisinger wrote about stealing military wings: >>>It doesn't seem that dificult from a ground based airfield. >> ^^^^^^^^^^^^ >>Anybody with carrier experience want to comment on how easy >>it would be to steal a plane? > >No chance. > >Ignoring all the "small" problems such as how you are going to get flight gear, >a plane that is ready to go, etc. There is one major problem: The catapault. Of course, if any of us Brits wanted to steal a carrier based plane we wouldn't worry about the catapault because we could just power up a Harrier (AV8A, AV8B) and take-off. Assuming its fully fuelled and ready to go of course! In fact, we have a high power game show over here called `The Krypton Factor' and part of it is flying aircraft simulators. Contestants usually don't have a clue when they start and only get 10-20 minutes tuition. One of the simulators used is for the British Aerospace Harrier and the task set is to take-off from a carrier using the ski-jump. Considering the number of contestants who manage to get it mostly right it doesn't look that difficult but I'm probably trivialising what is in fact quite tough. >And you can't walk up on a carrier and say you were sent to ferry an F-18 >to Jersey.... > No, but having got away with a Harrier, if you get low on fuel you can always hitch a ride on a passing boat! Tarqs [the trying-to-get-on-The-Krypton-Factor]
budden@manta.nosc.mil (Rex A. Buddenberg) (11/11/89)
From: budden@manta.nosc.mil (Rex A. Buddenberg)
Rex Buddenberg : budden at manta.nosc.mil
There are some possibilities for stealing fighters that you
haven't yet considered. Turn your imagination to Tom Clancy for
a moment. Red October was built, by Clancy's own admission, on
the theft of a UR cruiser -- the Zampolit picked a holiday when
most of the crew and the shore establishment was drunk out of their
sculls, had a small cadre of co-conspirators, stole the whole
ship and headed for Sweden. Nearly made it -- this much is true.
From that news chronicle, Clancy built Red October where the
wardroom makes up the conspiracy -- crew is in the dark to the
end -- and steals the whole submarine.
Now, if you steal a carrier, won't you get some fighters too?
b