Did I Just See Air Force One?

Remember the BS the Bush administration put out the first time that Bush sneaked into Iraq, that some pilot over Europe (first said by Dan Bartlett to be flying a British Airways jetliner)  saw the president's plane and asked  "Did I just see Air Force One?"  According to the W/H account the the pilot of AF1 replied "No, Gulfstream 5" (a much smaller plane) And the other pilot got the joke according to administration sources.  But British Airways was able to check with the two BA jets in the area, and confirmed that no pilot of either of the crews radioed any such thing, at which the WH first tried to change the story to BA pilots talking to Heath Row controllers  which the AF1 pilot overheard the conversation.  But that already was proven false because of the BA check, so the Bush administration sources switched to saying that a German pilot  asked the question of H/R tower.  I believe even that was checked out and no controller could be found to have had such a conversation, but the story just kinda died except in the nostalgic memories of Bush lovers and haters.  Oh those wild quirky times when lies could be spun faster than polyester.

 

But at least I have have an Air Force One tale of my own now. (Will add more pictures later.)

I found a spot between a chain link fence on a strip of grass between the airport and a busy street (a group had tried to park in a nearby driveway to small plane hangers, but two local cops asked them to clear the often used road as I had first approached, and then stayed to watch possibly out of curiosity, but more likely to keep an eye on any people on this side of airport.

Luckily a woman with a young son came up who was rather knowledgeable on aircraft, had watched a recent program on the president's flying entourage, and had seen the Marine One helicopters land the day before as they returned from ferrying our the president around the Southland (aka Southern California).  She told me  that the helicopters (as large as they were) would be folded up  and placed in a cargo plane, and followed the president around longer distances in that manner. 

So we waited, (more people walking in from the distant lot until we reached about 25 souls) standing by the fence (chain link) looking at the plane (there are two available for the president at all times I was told, but the second one was not visibly present at Long Beach) about 1/2 mile away, while a police copter droned over the huge nearly empty spaces of the airfield (good for surveillance and control I guess). Security has been very tight at LB since 911, president or not. The local law enforcement copter moved off or landed (I didn't notice which) and suddenly the lady who knew all those details said "They're coming!". 

  And, momentarily the deep throbbing of very large military style copters was apparent even to my ears.    After a minute of the increasing noise and lack of apparent source began to get downright action/adventure movie scary. Finally our resident expert said "There they are." and two large black helicopters appeared from beyond the  airport.  (There was no air traffic allowed within 30 miles -- according to news reports -- for a while before or after except those involved with the president, his transportation and security teams, and the local police).*

The loud military craft went to the left of AF1 from our line of sight then turned and landed behind a Fed Ex plane parked near us.  When we moved to our right about 15 ft we could see one of the copters sitting by the tail of the president's plane, but I think the one that had brought the president in was on the other side of AF1.  The opposite side of the mile wide airport has more a good deal more cover from the street, ergo our group and some watchful cops over on this side. 

The group that had gathered was a mixed bunch.  A young well dressed guy (but sans jacket) with a professional camera, some folks with good quality family style snappers, and folks like me, the rabble, with cheap cameras and cell phones.  Some women had kids with them, and I tried to make sure all the shorter people had a good view (though with 100 ft of that for 25 of us, it wasn't hard).  I was ready to offer up my place until I realized no one wanted to stand scrunched against a dry tumbleweed like I was doing.  (Tumbleweed's other name is Russian thistle, so maybe you can get the picture, and yes, I was wearing shorts.)

About 5-10 minutes after Marine One arrived, someone (I think it was the smart lady) announced that the lights had come on and looking closely I could see faint blinking top of the plane.

 We were expecting AF1 to come down to our side of the airport, turn, and take off in the opposite direction which is the normal pattern at this airport when there aren't Santa Ana (Santana) winds.  Expecting lots of views, maybe even being able to see the president through a window we all perked up. 

Within a minute, I think, I noticed the plane might have moved, but held off saying so because at that distance it could have been that I had rocked a little on my feet.  So the expert lady was first to announce the plane was moving, and in fact it was.  AF1 soon turned from it's sideways position to driving up a short way toward us (the actual runway we were by was diagonal to us).

While it was turning onto 'our' runway I suddenly had the idea to film in video, but, not having practiced that before I couldn't complete the switch, frantically got it back to 'photo' looked up and realized that AF1 was moving much too fast to turn around and got what I could. (That runway can be exited or entered in either direction, and, in fact. the plane was taking off.)  Even the view of takeoff was truncated as the end of the runway comes just before some tall business buildings rise beside it which obscured the sight.  The plane's angle never did allow it to get above the buildings in our line of sight during take off. So we started back towards the parking lot. 

A couple of minutes into our trudge the guy who was walking near me suddenly stopped, reversed direction, and said "There it is". 

The plane must have turned over the ocean (the plane's flightpath and speed would have gotten it offshore very quickly) and set itself on the a course aimed towards crossing the continent, and we could finally see it again.  More pictures. 

One woman says "Bye Obama" and each group or viewer, each at our own timing, stopped following the speck in the sky and turned to finish walking to our cars.

*There is a major flight path to LAX c. 5 miles away and when the lady who knew so much mentioned that they cleared the skies I noticed that indeed the the constant stream of airline traffic down that corridor had, in fact, stopped. Now that's security. If something does appear in the sky, someone is going to know immediately whether it's supposed to be there or not.  Return to * above .

tags: air force one  obama  airports  long beach  long beach airport  human groups  knowledgeable  

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