Message posted by Magoo on January 15, 2004 at 22:20:34 PST:
OK, at the risk of being labelled a “debunker”, I have a few questions regarding this story and with the actual transmission. FL six zero is 6,000 feet, not 60,000. Assuming the transmission has been recorded in full or hasn’t been altered, it clearly says “six zero”. To back this up, the Pecos MOA has a ceiling of 17,999 feet MSL (see link, page 3). http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/enviro/DTI_EA/04_Executive_Summary.pdf >When the center controller queried, "Say aircraft type," the unidentified After consulting with several informed sources in both the US and Australian Air Forces, the general consensus appears to be that there is absolutely “NO WAY” an aircrew member would transmit the fact that they are a “classified type” over an open frequency in a non-emergency situation. If he had said what has been alleged, then he would be in a whole lot of trouble. Additionally, if flying in an MOA that has a ceiling of 18,000 feet, why would he not be able to state his true altitude? >About 15 min. later the same pilot - on a different frequency (351.700 MHz) – There was also consensus amongst my sources that the pilot is unlikely to have said “final destination somewhere in the Nellis Ranges”. Again, why reveal something like that if it were unnecessary. By the time the aircraft would have reached Vegas it would have been speaking to the Nellis range controller anyway who would have then cleared them into TTR or Groom or wherever they were going, so why tell Albuquerque on an open channel something as mysterious as this. It would be interesting to hear a full, unedited copy of the alleged transmissions for analysis before jumping to the conclusions that seem to have been thrown around. In the meantime, I think we are selling short the professionalism of flight test pilots and air traffic controllers by indulging in this type of speculation and spreading of unsubstantiated single source information. If you have a reliable military (aircrew) or ATC source, by all means double check this story with them and THEN form an opinion as to whether it actually happened or not.
>"On the morning of Jan.7 an aircraft using the call sign "Lockheed Test
>2334" told the FAA's Albuquerque Center it would be "going supersonic
>somewhere above Flight Level 60 [60,000 ft.]" for about 10 sec. It was
>flying over the Pecos Military Operating Area in eastern New Mexico
>vehicle's pilot responded, "We are classified type and cannot reveal our
>true altitude".
>requested permission for a descent to 30,000 ft. and flight-following to
>"Las Vegas with final destination somewhere in the Nellis Range" complex.
In Reply to: AW&ST Reports "Secret Streaker" Heading to Groom posted by Thud on January 12, 2004 at 18:55:46 PST:
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