Unexpected Visitors

salazar

We had some unexpected visitors in town today. Four French Air Force Dassault Mirage 2000 Fighters dropped in for a visit. They were en route from Alaska to France with a stop to refuel in Bangor, Maine. Shortly after taking off from Bangor this morning one of the fighters developed a problem with their hydraulic systems and decided to land at Sydney Airport as a precaution. The other three landed as well and a French C-130 Hercules arrived this evening with needed mechanics and materials. The first photo is of two of the fighters and the Herc on the tarmac as the aircrew is unloading equipment for the rear door of the Herc. Sorry I chopped off the nose and tail but I was taking these photos through a chain link fence.

salazar

#2
Here's a view a few minutes later as they got down to work on the offending jet.

salazar

#3
Here is one of the other two fighters, up at the other end of the tarmac. A little closer view. They interviewed the pilot on the local news. He commented on how much worse this all could have been if the problem had cropped up an hour or two later when they were out over the Atlantic Ocean, far for a landing strip.

ShepsMom

WOW, Cool shots! Would love to see them fly!!!

salazar

ShepsMom wrote:

WOW, Cool shots! Would love to see them fly!!!

I didn't as I was in another town at the time but several friends heard them as they flew down the harbour and buzzed the downtown area. My wife heard them clearly form her office. Her reaction was something like "What the Hey?!"

Here's a link to the newspaper story:

http://www.capebretonpost.com/index.cfm?sid=25239&sc=145

This newspaper only keeps these stories online for a short while so don't be surprised if it's gone in a couple of days.

Skippy

salazar wrote:

We had some unexpected visitors in town today. Four French Air Force Dassault Mirage 2000 Fighters dropped in for a visit. They were en route from Alaska to France with a stop to refuel in Bangor, Maine. Shortly after taking off from Bangor this morning one of the fighters developed a problem with their hydraulic systems and decided to land at Sydney Airport as a precaution. The other three landed as well and a French C-130 Hercules arrived this evening with needed mechanics and materials. The first photo is of two of the fighters and the Herc on the tarmac as the aircrew is unloading equipment for the rear door of the Herc. Sorry I chopped off the nose and tail but I was taking these photos through a chain link fence.

You were lucky to find out they were there
Glad you got to see them and get yourself some pictures too
...and thank you for sharing them .... Skippy
.