US Denies French Fighters Emergency Landing Rights

[Flagg]

US Denies French Fighters Emergency Landing Rights


US Denies French Fighters Emergency Landing Rights

By DAVE LINDORFF

Talk about fair-weather friends!

When nine French fighter jets and a weather plane from a French carrier taking part in a joint exercise with Canadian Naval forces in the Atlantic off New Jersey ran perilously low on fuel last Friday because of a freak storm that prevented them from returning to their ship, they figured, no problem. They weren't too far from the U.S. mainland, and so they could just land at McGuire AF Base in southern New Jersey.

No dice, the Francophobe U.S. military told them. According to a State Department source, quoted in the Philadelphia Inquirer, they were denied landing rights at the facility.

Faced with the choice of ditching their planes or finding an alternative landing site, the French pilots, with the help of frantic State Department and Federal Aviation Administration officers, managed to arrange landing permission at the commercial airfield in Atlantic City, though this necessitated delaying and rerouting several commercial flights because of the number of planes that were coming in at once.

No national American media mentioned this stunning--and potentially life-threatening--breach of basic air etiquette by the U.S. military. And not for lack of knowing about it: many news organizations covered the whole thing as a humor item, focusing on the French pilots spending a night in the debauchery of America's East Coast Vegas.
<snip>

Even Soviet planes, at the height of the Cold War, weren't turned away in emergencies.

And this was an ally.

At least the people of Atlantic City were gracious hosts to the plucky French pilots, reportedly offering them meals and hotel rooms.

One wonders what the American reaction would be if a French military airport turned away American pilots in similar circumstances-or what the French reaction would have been if the planes hadn't made it safely to Atlantic City.

He can be reached at: [e-mail]
Article featured with the kind permission of Dave Lindorff
Source: US Denies French Fighters Emergency Landing Rights

http://www.counterpunch.com/lindorff06072005.html

[getmeouttahere]

1. With all the crap the French have had to put up with...

from the US in recent years, when they were right about Iraq...I wouldn't blame them if they demanded the return of the Statue of Liberty!!!

[Amonester]

10. With all due respect, I think the French still support

the true Democratic People of the U.S.A. who struggle but who stand up and fight the actual military criminal junta, hopping (or knowing) their "Liberté, egalité et fraternité." comparable justice ideals will prevail in the end. The Civilized World are still good friends with the actually oppressed Democratic People of the United States of America. The problem is that, the actual barbarian regime that took over their government institutions illegally (for absolute power and greed) cannot be overthrown using violent means.

The Tide Is Turning Slowly But It Turns.
Never Give Up Hope And Work For It If You Can.
The Good People Of The USA Will Restore Her Just Image.

Peacefully-Pacifiquement.

:dem:

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

15. No references

No references to the Inquirer story in google news or the Inquirer's own website. No link or quotes from such article on counterpunch. WTF?

[Vladimir]

23. This is the page you were looking for

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/

search the archives for "french pilots".

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

16. Yeah, maybe they can give it to Rwanda...

...since the French government were such champions of freedom in that country.

[Flagg]

17. France was under U.N mandate

Blame the U.N, not France.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

18. They were under UN mandate to sell arms to genocidal maniacs?

They were under UN mandate to ignore slaughter of innocent civilians?

Bullshit. They were complicit in genocide.

[Amonester]

21. Ok. So who sold weapons to Saddam?

#1. Reaganists?
#2. USSR?
#3. France?

When one ain't enough guts to take the blame, the easiest way to escape personal responsibility is to deflect the attention to the next criminal down the line...

That's the easy way out.

:blush:

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

22. Actually...

Seeing as all of above sold weapons to Saddam, and the US wasn't supporting the genocidal Rwandan government, and I was talking about Rwanda not Saddam, what point does bringing up Saddam have? I was simply pointing out that holding up the French as some hypothetical paragons of virtue is incorrect. They've as much blood on their hands as us in the past 20 years.

[Flagg]

24. why would France would have to gain with a genocide ?

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

25. It goes something like this...

France was supportive of the Rwandan regime primarily because Rwanda is a French-speaking country which was under threat of war from rebels in English-speaking Uganda. The government of Rwanda was very friendly with the French, in essence being a sort of post-colonial client state of France. Unfortunately, most European countries didn't stop interfering in Africa after the second world war.

None of this is meant to say that the French were responsible for the genocide, but they certainly enabled it more than any other western country. The blame for failing to stop it can be spread around widely, however. Clinton's government utterly failed to take a leadership role in this case, which is sad. Probably he got too much grief from the Freepers over Somalia to even think about going back to Africa.

[Vladimir]

28. Belgium's responsibility is greater than

France's, because it was their colonial legacy which created the ethnic tensions in the area leading to the genocide. It was the Belgian colonialists who stoked the whole Tutsi/Hutu divide to help them rule the country...

edited for factual inaccuracies

[Eugene]

29. deleted

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

30. Oh, definitely.

I was just trying to make the point that the French shouldn't be held up as paragons of liberty and virtue for refusing to go along with the chimp on Iraq.

[Vladimir]

31. That is true, no doubt n/t

[pie]

2. Thank you for posting this.

What the fuck has happened to this country?

[Dee625]

3. Why did this affect me like it did?

Of all the crap that's come down the last year, I teared up reading that. That our government come so far as to deny help to an ally in an emergency is just incomprehensible.

I am thankful the people of Atlantic city airport were able to help and that the government LET them.

[I Have A Dream]

4. I keep thinking that I can't be any more embarrassed by what...

this administration does, but they keep surprising me.

This is unforgivable. How long is it going to take for us to be respected again by the rest of the world? :(

[acmejack]

9. Longer than the rest of my lifetime

This is just inconceivable! It is contrary to the unwritten law of aviation, it is akin to ignoring a distress signal at sea. I am once again shamed and mortified by this Government which falsely claims to speak for me. They do not and will not ever again. I can no longer stand with this administration at all. If this stance is illegal, un-American, or whatever, so be it.

[I Have A Dream]

13. I think that your stance is a very patriotic stance in the true sense..

of the word.

[ET Awful]

5. Makes you wonder if there's something going on at that base

that they didn't want the French to see.

[northzax]

7. indeed, the only reason I can see them doing this

if there was somethung uber-classified going on at McGuire...

[Kraklen]

11. Occam's razor would suggest...

that they were just being negligent assholes.

[wtmusic]

6. And if the pilots had died

would they have just written a check, like they did with the Italians in the tram accident?

We now know that Italians are worth about $8M apiece. Something tells me there might be a discount on the French...

[rfkrfk]

8. did the French pilots declare an 'emergency'?

not clear, from the article

[ArkDem]

12. French fighters react to US Air Force.

[mikelgb]

14. question is

what are they hiding at that base?

[ConfuZed]

20. STOP IT! JUST STOP IT!

They just wanted to land not a tour of the base if the military is stupid enough to keep their top secret materials on the runway shame on them but stop making excuses for the assholes at the military base!!!!!!!!!!!

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

26. Heh.

if the military is stupid enough to keep their top secret materials on the runway

In New Jersey, no less! :)

[Rex]

19. Bad move by our military.

Someday this is all going to come back and bite us in the ass.

[SouthernDem2004]

27. The planes landed in Atlantic City! This story is junk.