Greek Airforce Accomplishes the Impossible? - A Satirical Rant

Cypriot airliner carrying 121 crashes near Athens

A Cypriot airliner carrying 121 people crashed north of Athens on Sunday after losing contact with air traffic control minutes before it went down.

A Greek police spokeswoman said there were no immediate reports of survivors.

Two Greek F-16 fighter jets were scrambled after the Helios Airways jet, en route from Larnaca in Cyprus to Prague via Athens, lost contact with the control tower at Athens international airport.

One of the F-16 pilots reported that he could not see the captain in the cockpit and his co-pilot appeared to be slumped in his seat, a Defense Ministry official told Reuters.

"I saw the plane coming. I knew it was serious or that it was some kind of VIP because I saw the two fighter jets," said witness Dimitris Karezas, who owns a summer camp in the area.

.begin rant.

A sad story in yesterday's news sparked yet more questions for me in the response, or lack there of, of several planes diverting from course after being highjacked on 9/11.

I was amazed (read not-amazed) that the Greek Airforce was able to accompany the doomed flight with not only one, but two F-16 jets! How could they possibly have had this ability? Were they given 52 warnings that this type of event might happen? Were they conducting multiple wargames at the time which helped their response time?

It is just soooo amazing to me how they could have accomplished accompanying this flight. It is almost like they had some sort of standard operating procedures for when a plane goes off course. And to think, we couldn't even accompany a single flight on 9/11 knowing they were not only off course, but highjacked!

I guess spending 114 times more on military spending really doesn't do much to help protect us. Perhaps we should contact the Greek airforce and ask if they think they could have responded on 9/11 with or without the massive warnings.

.end rant.

Our hearts go out to those innocent souls which perished in this horrible accident. While I hate to use such an event to rant about the failure (or perhaps success?) that occurred on 9/11 to intercept 4 highjacked aircraft, it definitely brings home the reality of what should have happened if standard operating procedures had been followed, just like the Madrid fire showed us what typically happens in massive steel fires, especially when compared to WTC7.

I find it to be a completely

I find it to be a completely invalid point and here is why. To compare a reaction to that type of event now versus then is comparing two completely different entities. Every nation is now on alert and has made adjustments and improved on previous systems and policies. To compare a pre 9/11 reaction to a post 9/11 is far from a fair or intelligent comparison. Don't let your strong emotional feelings about the event overpower your reasonable thinking.

very well said.

very well said.

I agree completely.

I agree completely.

great find and excellent

great find and excellent point.

too tired to make a sarcastic comment of my own...