Anyone else hear? 2 F18's missing over S. Iraq.

I guess they fly off of a US aircraft carrier. Anyways, I think it was on CBS News and just coming in. But I was wondering, how would we lose two at the same time. They'd either have to fly into one another or get shot down, right? What would they shoot them down with?

...and there's a lot of surface-to-air missles available on the black market worldwide (remember when somebody tried to shoot down an Israeli passenger jet?)

but I don't think those missles, probably shoulder-fired, could bring down something as fast as an F18.
not an expert by any means...

those included some anti-aircraft rockets if I'm not mistaken.

...it seems like NOBODY wanted to get to the bottom of that one.
....the implications for our military and the * administration were too damning, I think. Fuggin' incompetents left tons an tons of high explosvies -- the stuff was described as what you'd MOST want if you were planning a series of car/roadside etc. bombx.


but i also wonder if some of the Baathists, or a few renegade Republican Guards, dismantled some antiaircraft batters and secreted them away out in the desert for a time they felt appropriate...

funny...i don't see it in LBN yet

Besides, LBN frightens me with all the dire warnings.

a collision.

'We are not in Cambodia'

they are with'n range of todays shoulder fired missiles.

this is the first i've heard though.

peace

tend to be a statistical fact of life in staggered pair formation flight.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- The U.S. military said Tuesday it had lost
contact with two jets flying in support of operations in Iraq.
The status of the two U.S. Marine F/A-18 Hornet aircraft and
their crew was not immediately known, the military said in a
statement.
Contact was lost at 10:10 p.m. Monday, the statement said. There
were no initial indications of hostile fire in the area at the
time.
Search efforts were underway, the military said. No further
information was released.

(this is all of it except for AP identifiers)

Separate mechanical failures, or fuel crises seems low probability events.

Two fast movers shot down by shoulder launched missiles or small arms also seems unlikely.

A collision seems more likely. One mistake could maybe take out 2 planes...But we'll have more information soon.

With all the airborne radar, fixed place land radar and naval radar you've got to wonder how anything could really be missing. More likely than not, the military has a good idea of what happened but wants to confirm the status of the personnel.

The odds of two separate missiles striking two separate aircraft without either pilot getting a radio signal out is remote. The odds of two shoulder fired rockets hitting these planes are equally remote...there are few shoulder fired antiaircraft weapons that can be fired in tandem. The only other option would be radar guided missiles, and anyone activating an illicit radar site would be picked up in seconds by our AWACS.

In all odds these two jets were flying in close formation when, for whatever reason, they collided. It could have been mechanical failure on the lead jet, it could have been heavy turbulence, or it could have been pilot error, but the good money says that the two planes struck each other for some reason. It happens about once a year here in the US while training, so it was bound to happen over Iraq sooner or later.

I figured that one was tough to hit so two would be extremely difficult.

fired missles on a very hard target to hit like an F-18.If they had an abundance of these you would see helicopters and c-130's shot down daily.Must be something else.

and they would be an ideal target if such an opportunity presented itself.

though two disappearing at once i would suspect a collision.

peace

how is that easy,compared to a chopper doing 150?

How sad.


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/02/international/middleeast/02cnd-iraq.html?hp&ex=1115092800&en=cd688afd2894f39d&ei=5094&partner=homepage

More Deadly Bombings as Iraqis Debate Last Cabinet Posts
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
Published: May 2, 2005

BAGHDAD, IRAQ, May 2 - A string of deadly car bombs killed at least 12 people in neighborhoods in and around Baghdad today, the latest attacks in a four-day surge of bloodshed that began with the announcement of Iraq's new cabinet last week. The violence came as Iraq's new Shiite-majority government continued to debate choices for key Sunni cabinet positions late into the night.