Iraqi Air Force Plane Mystery In Florida – Solved?
February 21, 2008 by national
Filed under Homeland Security News
No one knew what to make of it when a small propeller airplane stenciled with the words “Iraqi Air Force” made an emergency landing on a country road near the rural Florida community of Sebring.
Local sheriff’s deputies surrounded the aircraft and stopped journalists from photographing it. The plane’s markings were covered.
As it turns out, it was a training aircraft built for the Iraqi military that was being flown from the Tampa area to Miami for shipment to Iraq, Cessna spokesman Doug Oliver said Thursday.
The Cessna C-172 experienced mechanical problems and the pilot was forced to land on a rural road just north of Lake Okeechobee on Wednesday evening, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.
The four-seat, single-engine plane was a part of a $10.5 million (€7.13 million) contract awarded to Cessna Aircraft Co. of Wichita, Kansas, for 18 aircraft for the Iraqi Air Force, U.S. Air Force spokesman Daryl Mayer said.
The aircraft are shipped from Miami to Iraq aboard Air Force transport planes, Oliver said.
The FAA said it is still investigating.
I remember seeing this on the news and hearing the reactions from my fellow Okeechobee residents. At first it gave us all quite a fright.
-Scott (Okeechobee accidents lawyer)