Message posted by Dave B on June 24, 2004 at 10:26:31 PST:

Hi All,

Not sure if anybody else saw this. Monday around 11:45am when Chenney was leaving Mccarran Aiprort, they shut down all arrivals and departures as usual. During this Southwest flight 880 lost his transponder and was told he would have to divert to Nellis. The flight crew responded they were working on the problem and would continue to hold, Las Vegas approach then handed them off to Nellis which had them set up for a visual approach for runway 3. By this time they were just north of VGT airport with the gear and flaps hanging out, Nellis approach says we have your transponder cancel landing at Nellis and proceed on a right downwind for runway 25L at McCarran. Pretty interesting they wanted him on the ground when Air Force Two was getting airborne.

Dave

Replies: