>Each crew just wanted to get in a practice crash before the actual run on the target. Experience counts, you know< Scary when you think about Grand Aire running a flight school.

The FBI hails the Libyan national and the Pakistani-hyphenated American as "heroes," not terrorists because they crashed their out-of-fuel plane into the Mississippi River instead of a man-made object. http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/news/585EC0CDBD59DE1E86256D04000FDF1D?OpenDocument&highlight=2%2Cheroes%2Cterrorists&headline=Pilots+who+engineered+river+landing+were+heroes,+not+terrorists,+FBI+says+ Apparently the FBI takes their word for it. The NTSB begins investigating the plane wreckage today. Maybe the weird coincidence is that the FBI wants to rule out terrorism while we're putting on the nice face to Arabs in the Middle East. Not that I'm suspicious of the Frequent Bunglers of Investigations or anything.

This is very strange AK. They must have started the flight underfueled. (They didn't "top off the tanks") otherwise they would have made it to the field. one fly-by shouldn't have put them into "bingo fuel-state". I just can't work this one out... however! In light of the extensive fines the company has had in the past for taking shortcuts on safety, it does sort of make sense. Time may tell - the truth may be what it appears, or it may be hidden. this might end up like the O.J. trial - the truth is out there... we'll just never actually have the facts to prove it! E.

I agree, Elbandeedo. They should have had way more fuel - running out of fuel and crashing 9 miles from the airport they were circling for a second attempt at landing is way too close a shave to call them professionals. Or heroes. Their FAA violation history should end with this crash, and the Toledo crash, end as in Grand Aire put out of business. This is inexcusable, and I won't even go into how I feel about a non-American Arab national having a job flying planes in the US. I guess it's not PC to call them "reckless morons."

'I guess it's not PC to call them "reckless morons." ' - AK I won't call the PC police and report you! ;o)

Im not convinced that they werent terrorists, alos why would they want to start the flight with less then a full tank of gas - they could have had explosives onboard or may have been on a sucide mission (WW2 kamakizie planes went up with a half tank so they couldent turn back). Chris

The last I've heard on this is that the FBI declared the pilots heroes, and the next day the investigation began. The NSTB said the investigation may take a year. Chilling, isn't it?