Posted: Tuesday, 20 May 2008 9:54AM
Keep The Friendly Skies Friendly
Steve Corbett Reporting
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Low-flying aircraft in the sky above Northeastern Pennsylvania isn’t necessarily news.
Police, medical and news choppers regularly hover above my neighborhood in the Hill Section of Scranton.
Those whirring blades are reassuring.
But the small airplane in this morning’s sky has me on edge.
As of 9 a.m., after repeated requests for information by my colleagues at WILK News Radio, nobody in an official capacity has been willing or able to identify the pilot or the reason why the plane is in the sky.
A man named Mike in the tower at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport brushed off station newsman Bud Brown’s questions and referred him to Washington. Nancy Kman and Kevin Lynn spent hours raising questions on the air without getting answers.
When I called to discuss my topics for this afternoon’s show, I was stumped at how a region so close to New York City could go for so long without an explanation about a mystery small craft in the sky.
Who’s behind the stick?
Why?
When did the plane take off?
From where did the plane take off?
A Luzerne County official eventually explained that gypsy moth spraying was scheduled but he had no details if the plane in question was part of the spraying detail.
I told my colleagues on the air that I was headed to the cellar to hide out in the coal bin.
Of course I was kidding.
But an unidentified plane in the sky raises a serious dilemma. Not that many years after September 11, countless people remain uneasy about the possibility of another attack. The nation is at war and all Americans are targets.
Is reassurance too much to ask?
Is paranoia now part of the national character?
I surely hope not.
Not that many months ago, federal officials uncovered what they said was a terrorist training camp in the Poconos. An attack on an Army barracks in New Jersey was in the works, they claimed.
So who’s up there in that small plane?
Is the plane loaded with pesticide – which, in itself, is not all that reassuring - and simply on a government mission? Or is it loaded with some bacterial warfare toxin or packed with explosives?
Is the plane piloted by a capable public servant? Or is it commanded by a terrorist intent on flying a suicide mission into a shopping mall, school or center city downtown?
The people on the ground – and in the air – have every right to know.
Plane after plane takes off and lands each morning at the airport. Commercial jets loaded with passengers come and go into the friendly skies. What happens if some rogue maniac with enough flying skill to cause a crash takes down an entire jet?
What happens if the day comes when several small planes take off from small airports and convene on several targets loaded with innocent people waiting to die?
The lessons of September 11 must not be forgotten. We must remind ourselves regularly that terrorism exists and can come explode in our faces at a moment’s notice.
Caution, vigilance and security must remain the focus of an alert society that is prepared to defend itself at home.
The sky above my home remains a troublesome mystery.
When I get to the station this morning I’ll do everything I can do to find out what went on this morning.
As I write this, I can hear the sound of an airplane’s engine somewhere in the sky.
Is the pilot friend or foe?
Does it matter?
You bet your life it matters.
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Corbett
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