QUINCY (CBS) – A mystery in Quincy continues to deepen: Who is flying around the city from dusk to dawn, for the past ten days or so?
“It’s frightening, not just weird, but frightening,” said one resident of the Wollaston section.
Every night for nearly the last two weeks, residents have spotted a low-flying aircraft doing loops over the city. WBZ has learned the FAA knows what’s going on, but the agency isn’t telling.
“I mean it is strange. I don’t know if they’re looking for somebody, I have no idea,” one resident told WBZ.
It’s not the state or local police doing the flying, and the FAA is giving out little information, even to city officials.
“It’s frustrating, it really is,” says City Councillor Brian Palmucci. “I specifically asked, ‘Is it a law enforcement flight? Can we tell people that?’ He said, ‘No, we can’t tell you that.’ Then I asked that when folks call me can I at least tell them that it is something that they shouldn’t worry about, it’s something they shouldn’t be concerned with? He said, ‘I can’t tell you that.’”
The aircraft doesn’t appear to be flying when it’s cloudy out, only taking to the skies on starlit nights.
Sources tell WBZ that the aircraft is not a drone, that it is manned. FAA spokesman Jim Peters would only say, “We have to be very careful this time” concerning information.
Even the Mayor has been kept in the dark. “We’re as frustrated as our constituents,” said Mayor Tom Koch. “We’d like to be able to give our citizens some answers, but we don’t have any answers.”
Obviously when the federal government wants to keep something quiet, they keep it very quiet. In this case, they wouldn’t even say how long it would continue flying for.
“The FBI does not comment on aerial activity,” a statement from the bureau said.
In the meantime, neighbors are complaining the plane is keeping them up at night.
“This strong humming sound as you look up and you go, ‘Oh there she goes again.’ It goes all the way around, comes all the way back, keeps going at 5 o’clock in the morning,” one resident told WBZ NewsRadio.
Palmucci is just hoping he can ease any worries his residents are sharing.
“If it’s an operation that requires some secrecy, that can be appreciated by residents,” said Palmucci. “Just at the very least if the FAA can release something that says there’s nothing that should cause folks any concern, I think that would put people at ease.” source – CBS Boston
Put a few rounds into it, bring it down and we’ll see what it is..
I like the way you think. 🙂
there you go … if it scares you; shoot it. The Supreme court ruled that you can use lethal force if you’re in fear of death or bodily harm.
Is this thing lit? Is it fixed-wing, multirotor, single-rotor, ducted-fan, what?
Any technical eye or ear-witnesses care to comment about what sort of engine it sounds like? What class of powerplant? How large is it?
If it was that annoying, it should be possible for a private pilot to intercept, or at least observe. From the sound of the story it doesn’t sound like it’s going very fast or high.
Probably destined to be another one of those “residents see/hear/feel something for a few days which later goes away never to return” stories.
Any night-vfr rated people in the MA area watching this?
Anybody with a good night-camera on their long-range FPV rig?
If they won’t say anything about it, it’s pretty hard to complain if you go into close formation with it, isn’t it?
Them: “Stop flying too close to our…uh…vehicle…”
You: “What vehicle?”
Them: “Sorry, we can’t say.”
You: “Well alrighty then, nevermind.”
Or if your remotely controlled or autopilot based FPV rig happens to be trailing some high-test fishing line and happens to over-fly this thing at close range. Oops, sorry uh-whoever-you-are, my-bad! Looks like it was a cool plane, how much did it cost? Sorry. Say, you wanna sell me that camera?
And yeah, it’s not technically illegal to _carry_ a firearm in a private aircraft. Civilian Shooting from that aircraft is most certainly illegal without special paperwork, but accidental discharges do happen from time-to-time.
“Sorry, uh-whoever-you-are, was using my whiz-bang night-hunting scope on my rifle and looking at your whatchamacallit over there, and whaddya know, there was a round in the chamber and my hand-slipped!”
The airspace over the US is so big, and the population so sparse in some places, something could fly around 24/7 in a great many places and attract no attention whatsoever. And in fact, many things do, everyday. So what is it that makes it necessary to fly over this particular neighborhood night after night?
Are they simply flying any old thing around just to see how many people will talk about it?
Oh, actually, it should be possible to pick up any NOTAMs from that area from the FAA. If there are any no-go areas or temporary restrictions or aerial hazards they’ll appear in the NOTAMs for that area.
If the thing is flying without lighting at night in a heavily populated suburban area, rather than some testing range out West, I’d imagine US Private Pilots would certainly have a case for complaint against the FAA permitting such a thing, so…is it lit? And if so, how?
Really…WHAT TYPE aircraft is it????? A one prop cesna or a 747??? At what alt.?????
This all stinks of BS!!!!! Scare tactic….
If civilians can bring down United Flight 93 in PA, why can’t civilian action be deemed valid to bringdown a terrorizing plane? Already Boston brother and sisters are terrified by False Flag BOMA operation.
nuisance is handled by nuisance laws. take the faa to court.
It sad when the mayor of a big city with all his police force doesn’t have the balls to kick the feds out of his town or to even shoot the damn thing down or even give an explanation of what the damn thing is. I mean he’s in charge of the city, right? He can do whatever he wants in his city limit. If it is in the city airspace, shoot the damn thing down. The mayor has the authority to do so if he fills the city is threatened. Why is he mayor? Oh that’s right, he is just a puppet. My bad.
Well, in the hills, there’s one way that’s worked for centuries when you see something, don’t know what it is; You shoot it and when it stops moving, you go find out.
Elementary kid is suspended from school because he makes the shape of a gun with his hand ….this is acceptable. Strange aircraft doing loops over the city of Boston interfering with Logan Airport traffic and endangering hundreds of lives….this is “no problem” and mind your own business. Typical tyranny logic.
It is a scout ship gathering information for a future demonic alien invasion.
Based in Dulce, NM, or Area 51?
Wow what if that kid pointed his pencil at drone
Probably have to smoke him
My pet peeve for the day
WHY DO II NEED TO LOOK AT OB PICS NOT
ONE BUT THREE TO FOUR TIMES ON EVERY PAGE OF EVERY ARTICLE
STOP LOOKING THEN, MORON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
it’s obviously mapping the area with a thermal camera.
get a pilot or a drone with good battery life / a methanol engine to tail it to it’s landing site.
then look up who owns the site.
maybe go back in the day and see if you can find it on the ground and read the tail number.
This should be an easy question to answer. Surely it has to land somewhere.
People need to just follow the damned thing until it lands. Problem Solved.
Instead of whining “oh Mr. Mayor! Oh Mr. Policeman please tell me what I’m so frightened of every night…please!!!”…How hard could it be for a team withseveral vehicles ?
Oh…wait….tthat would probably have to be done during prime time TV…shit….can’t miss Duck Dynasty over some little pest of an airplane…
It is obviously not annoying any night-vfr rated Boston-area private pilots, or they would be up there flying in formation with it until it landed. It is perfectly legal to follow an aircraft in your own (or a rented) aircraft unless it goes into government restricted airspace, and there is very little of that in the Quincy area according to my maps.
Otis, down on Cape Cod is the nearest Restricted area. Quincy is in the lowest “step” of the Boston Logan controlled terminal airspace, from the surface to 7,000 feet, which means if whatever it is, is flying around there at less than 7,000 feet it has to be known to controllers at Logan, as it’s inside controlled terminal airspace. And if residents can hear it, it must be less than 2,000 feet up.
Why not just ask the people at Logan? Or just grab a scanner and put in the frequencies of the approach, departure, tower, and area frequencies for Boston Logan, and listen when the thing is flying around. It will definitely have to check in, since Logan is a public airport with Airline traffic and they can’t have their blacker-than-black-project-whatzits crashing into airliners, can they? That would spoil everything!
Go here for all the scanner frequencies and just scroll the map to Boston and click on TAC chart for the detailed Terminal Area Chart.
http://skyvector.com/