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Re: Unusual View of Groom Lake
From: nclayton@ix.netcom.com
Date: Tue, 16 Sep 1997 11:49:38 -0800
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Since my recent posting regarding my near-flyby of Groom Lake on
Southwest Airlines, I have received correspondence from a reader who
says he has been to air traffic control school. I had hoped that my
great view of Groom Lake could be repeated simply by taking any weekend
flight from LA to Salt Lake City, but this appears not to be the case.
My correspondent asked me whether the plane was late leaving LA (which
it was, by 20 minutes). My flight (Southwest #1748, August 30) ended up
arriving on time in Salt Lake without any apparent help from tailwinds
(usually, if the plane is late in leaving but there is a tailwind to
help it along, the pilot will say something about this). My
correspondent informed me that Southwest is fanatical about on-time
arrival, and has a reputation with air traffic contollers for doing
extreme things to make up lost time. He conjectures that the pilot
probably requested permission from air traffic control to take the
shortcut through Nellis airspace, which happened to be open that
Saturday, and then cut as close as he safely could to the permanently
closed Groom Lake sector. Presumably, then, the only hope of repeating
this performance is to take a weekend flight between LAX and Salt Lake
on Southwest Airlines and hope that the plane is 20 minutes late in
departing (which is a rare occurrence for Southwest). Thus, my great
view was probably a fluke.
Nelson Clayton
nclayton@ix.netcom.com
Re: http://www.ufomind.com/area51/list/1997/sep/a12-001.shtml
