• LillyPip@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Seriously though, how do you lose a fighter jet in US airspace?

    Nobody noticed it on radar? Nobody noticed the boom when it hit the ground? Just wtf?

    e: I asked my dad, who was in the Air Force during Korea and has been a test pilot, FAA inspector, and has designed civilian planes ever since. My question:

    Sorry to bug you, but I’m curious on your expert opinion. How do we lose a fighter jet in US airspace? Like, how does air traffic control not have tracked it, and how does the air force lose track of it? How did nobody notice a boom? The pilot ejected, so how do we not know where this thing is? I’m very confused.

    And his answer:

    I have no idea 🙂. Just don’t seem right.

    e2: to the person who DM’d me then deleted (I think? I can’t respond and this thread now crashes my client) I expect domestic systems would detect an explosion in the air, and a large number of systems would detect one on the ground, which covers every scenario I can think of. That’s what I meant.

    I addressed him that way because we don’t talk much. We’re both engineers.