Crazy Day in NORAD Land

Airstrip One

Airstrip One

Completely Effed
So, I just escaped from one of the more exhausting shifts I've ever had to pull. President Obama was spending time in Southern California, and so we had a temporary flight restriction around his airspace. Air traffic control centers were acting unusually lazy, and so all sorts of planes were allowed to take off on shitty codes. We had to track more unknown aircraft than I can shake a stick at. There was a huge test being conducted in the same room as me, and other events taking place simultaneously elsewhere in the country.

Naturally, we had to scramble fighters to deal with airspace violators. And then this happened...

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/02/fighters-intercept-cessna-approaching-air-force-one/

Fighters Intercept Drug-Carrying Cessna Near Air Force One
...In other words, there was no intended threat to the president.
But the pilot was in possession of narcotics, the Secret Service said.
One law enforcement source told ABC News the plane was carrying 40 pounds of marijuana. Officials with the Long Beach Police Department did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request to confirm the type or quantity of the drugs.
President Obama landed in San Francisco after an uneventful one-hour flight at 12:40 p.m. PT. He is attending three fundraisers in the city before heading to Seattle on Friday.
Click to expand...


Fucking A. Not a good day to be smuggling drugs...
 
One of the centers actually directed a plane right into the flight path of the Marine One helicoptor. Nice job, retards.
 
i'm so glad that I was never working the tower when a president wanted to visit the station. worst I ever had to do was wave off the marine corps commandants landing because I had an AV8 that didn't want to get off my runway.
 
God I'm glad my job never included any of that shit. Worst I ever had to do was be a gunner when Petraus went on a mission with my squad. Had to do everything by the fucking 'rules'.
 
POTUS TFR's are annoying because they require extra manning, but they suck when they are over major cities.
In theory, NORAD guards the Big 4 -- POTUS, PM of Canada, VP, and Deputy PMOC -- but I've only ever watched over the VP once, and that was a long time ago. I swear, we don't even do them, so it must have been especially requested. I've never seen the PMOC, but the Deputy flew through my airspace once on a trip to Mexico City.
 
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