Jet fighters summoned often following Sept. 11
By JOHN J. LUMPKIN
Associated Press

WASHINGTON — It doesn’t take much these days to draw a pair of jet fighters off your wingtips — an unruly airline passenger, a wrong turn into restricted airspace or deviation from a flight plan.

Like police answering 911 calls, U.S. and Canadian fighters on anti-terrorism alert have been summoned 292 times to investigate problems in North American airspace since Sept. 11, the military says.

Fighters also come when planes stop communicating with ground controllers, when they present inadequate identification or head into unusual flight patterns, said Maj. Barry Venable, a spokesman for North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), the Colorado-based military command with authority to protect U.S. and Canadian airspace.

Some jet fighters are sent from airborne patrols over New York, Washington and other U.S. locations. Others are scrambled from one of the dozens of bases that have had armed aircraft on alert since September. The job usually falls to U.S. F-15s and F-16s, or to Canadian CF-18s.

Venable said most of the calls for fighters are precautionary, taken once civilian authorities have exhausted other options to investigate events in the sky. Regional air traffic control centers under the Federal Aviation Administration usually make the call.
“A military option is an option of last resort,” he said.

In a few cases, fighters are called because of concerns over an airline passenger. Last week, Canadian and U.S. fighters shadowed an Air India airliner because a ground screener in London decided one of the passengers looked like one of the FBI’s “most wanted” terrorists — after the flight had taken off from Heathrow. The FBI later questioned and released two passengers, saying it was a case of mistaken identity.

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