- Joined
- Jun 27, 2017
- Messages
- 1,274
Of course, no one could see them. During the game (and Presidential TFR interval) and for at least an hour afterwards, a KC-135 tanker attached to the 171st Air Refueling Wing of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard based at Pittsburgh International Airport was flying a clockwise race track pattern between Downtown New Orleans and Bay St. Louis, Mississippi at 25,000 feet. They were refueling F-16's protecting the airspace over a National Event.
On another day; 9/11/01 to be exact, the 171st ARW was busy getting their KC-135's airborne in response to a scramble order from Northeast Air Defense Sector Command in Rome, New York. At the same time, on an adjacent parallel runway at Pittsburgh, commercial airliners were rapidly doing unscheduled landings as the FAA Air Traffic Control struggled to do something never done before; close down the National Airspace.
On another day; 9/11/01 to be exact, the 171st ARW was busy getting their KC-135's airborne in response to a scramble order from Northeast Air Defense Sector Command in Rome, New York. At the same time, on an adjacent parallel runway at Pittsburgh, commercial airliners were rapidly doing unscheduled landings as the FAA Air Traffic Control struggled to do something never done before; close down the National Airspace.
