Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!cbnews!military From: shafer@elxsi.dfrf.nasa.gov Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Stealing Fighters Message-ID: <10578@cbnews.ATT.COM> Date: 25 Oct 89 04:04:27 GMT Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM Lines: 56 Approved: military@att.att.com From: shafer@elxsi.dfrf.nasa.gov >From "Jane's Defence Weekly" for 16 Sept 89: Stolen F-16 crashes A Belgian Air Force F-16 crashed in Norway, after it was apparently stolen by a technician. The aircraft was destroyed in a crash about 15 km from Oerland air base, near Trondheim. The unnamed technician was the only person subsequently posted as missing, according to a Royal Norwegian Air Force official. The aircraft had been deployed to Norway for a training mission. A couple of years ago a Marine ground crewman stole an A-4 here in Southern California and flew it around for about an hour. He even did some touch and goes. He had been selected for pilot training and was just waiting to go. When this made the news, his name wasn't immediately announced, but some of my coworkers, who knew him from the glider community, guessed who it was. About 10 years ago some Navy ex-reservist (I think) talked his way into Patuxent River NAS, convinced Transient Ops that he'd been sent to ferry an F-14 that was parked there, and got all his flight gear from Life Support with some story about last minute changes. His effort came to a halt when somebody alert noticed that he'd filed a flight plan to fly PAX to Los Angeles at 10,000 ft non-stop. Apparently he forgot about the Rockies. Shortly after the Marine did his trick I was talking to one of our test pilots about how hard it would be to steal a military aircraft. Fighters don't have keys! We think we know how to do it, although we probably won't test it. There are certain things that you _have_ to know, but an air of confidence is probably most important. You'll notice that all the cases I mentioned above were insiders, who knew the routine and were able to look like they knew what they were doing. Has anyone heard of any other cases of stealing military aircraft? Hijacking doesn't count. I don't think we can count Chuck Yeager "stealing" an NF-104 one day, as was described in "The Right Stuff." (It was slightly exaggerated in the movie.) His being a pilot authorized to fly the aircraft normally gives this a whole different flavor. BTW, his doing that resulted in a system known as CONFORM that is still in use here at Edwards AFB. Flights are prescheduled by a limited number of authorized personnel and an identifier (ops number) assigned. This number has to be radio'd to CONFORM before EDDIE GROUND will issue a taxi clearance. -- Mary Shafer shafer@elxsi.dfrf.nasa.gov ames!elxsi.dfrf.nasa.gov!shafer NASA Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, CA Of course I don't speak for NASA