FBI Aircraft Flying Anonymously On Surveillance Runs
Look!
Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane (well, it is that)!
It's... G-Man!
Or is it?
Airport officials in Bloomington (IN) said the Cessna 182
flying over the college town several times a day is involved in law
enforcement surveillance. But local, state and federal law officers
said it wasn't so.
Now, the truth comes out.
Residents in this city of 69,000 have seen the white,
single-engine Cessna 182 at least since Feb. 19 making passes
overhead about noon, in the late evening and after midnight.
Andrew Stevens tracked the plane one night from about 8:30 p.m.
to 1 a.m. "It kind of concerned me. After the plane flew away
Friday night, I thought, 'I can take my own terror assessment back
down to yellow.'" But then the plane returned last Monday.
Officials at
the Federal Aviation Administration and area airports said they
could not comment about the plane beyond confirming that the
flights were authorized.
"This is a very sensitive situation," Monroe County Airport
manager Bruce Payton said Wednesday. "I can only say that people
should not be alarmed by this aircraft. This airplane is in contact
with air traffic control."
Law enforcement officials denied the airplane belonged to them
or that they were aware of its mission.
"I can say of a certainty it's not anybody out of our post, and
I've called the (Indianapolis) hangar and they say it's not any of
our planes," said state police Lt. Michael Saltsman, commander at
the Bloomington post.
The Truth Is Told
But then, FBI Agent Thomas V. Fuentes said the Bureau initially
issued the denial because a reporter asked if the airplane is doing
electronic surveillance, which, he says it is not.
Fuentes and agent James H. Davis said the FBI is not aware of
any threat to Bloomington or the state, but is watching many
foreign nationals. Besides individuals, they said, the aircraft is
monitoring vehicles and businesses--particularly those open late at
night from which faxes or e-mails can be sent.
FBI officials in Washington said that use of aircraft is not
uncommon in surveillance, particularly when agents are keeping tabs
on vehicles over a wide-ranging area. Planes are also used when it
is not feasible to introduce agents on the ground.
Fuentes said the aircraft is conducting surveillance flights
over several communities near Indianapolis.
Bloomington, the home of Indiana University's flagship campus,
is about 40 miles south of Indianapolis and has a population of
69,000.