NORAD: Cessna 150K Was Not Viewed As A Threat

When Troy Martin and Jim Schaeffer, both of Pennsylvania, flew unwittingly into the Washington ADIZ and came within three miles of the White House before being turned away, how close were they to being shot down by the F-16 fighters that intercepted them?

Not very, according a NORAD spokesman.

"I can't tell you how the engagement authority yesterday afternoon viewed the situation other than that it was not a threat," Col. Keith Snyder, USAF, told CNN. "And they made the decision that they weren't going to shoot the aircraft down."

Snyder said NORAD closely monitored the incursion drama as it unfolded over the nation's capitol during the noon hour Wednesday.

"We had eyes on that airplane for a number of minutes yesterday, with the fighters there getting a good identification and helping to pass that along to the engagement authorities yesterday to decide whether or not they wanted to engage that aircraft."

How did NORAD know the Cessna 150K was no threat to national security?

"Well, it's not an exact science by any stretch of the imagination. We get the pilot's eyes onto the track of the interest, the aircraft, get his tail number," Snyder told CNN's Bill Hemmer. "We bring in other interagency assets, all source information. Is the aircraft stolen? Has it been hijacked? We go through a lot of those types of issues to determine and help us build a case on whether or not this aircraft represents a threat or not."

In this case, he said, while the 150K was deemed not to be a threat, there was still the issue of getting the pilots' attention.

"The majority of the time up there -- whenever we have someone enter the no-fly zone -- that aircraft pretty rapidly gets the picture and is able to turn away from the restricted airspace and leave," Snyder said. "It took a lot of maneuvering by the folks from Andrews [Air Force Base] yesterday and their jets to try and get him... to fly away from the downtown area. And it wasn't apparently until they were able to actually raise him on the radio that they were successful."

Snyder said Wednesday's incursion is the exact reason NORAD has developed a ground-based laser warning system to alert pilots when they inadvertently enter restricted airspace. That system is supposed to be operational by May 21st.

In all, Snyder said, the engagement of the errant Cessna was a success from a national security point of view. "We were on that airplane for a very long time, monitoring him, trying to communicate with him," he said. "So we spent a good deal of time on his wing, so to speak, yesterday trying to gather the information, trying to get him to maneuver away. So we feel fairly confident in our timelines -- the folks at Andrews -- those folks did a great job yesterday afternoon with that aircraft. The engagement authorities that were involved deemed that that aircraft was not a threat. So it just took him a little longer to get the picture. And if he's a student pilot, he may not really know exactly what he should be doing or what those aircraft are trying to tell him to do."

FMI: www.norad.mil