FBI Planes Flying Over Boston Metropolitan Area 'Frighten' Residents
Brought to my attention by some readers and Twitter followers, a recent article published on CBS reported that residents of Quincy, in the Boston metropolitan area were worried by the activity of a low-flying aircraft spotted doing loops over the city.
Actually, in the wake of the Boston attack, some of them said they are really “frightened” by the presence of the mysterious plane over the town every night for the past couple of weeks.
According to WBZ News Radio, FAA has given out little information about the aircraft activity. Not even the City Councillor nor the Mayor know anything about the aerial activity that is keeping locals up at night with a “strong humming sound.”
After a bit of investigation on Open Sources, the mystery was easily solved.
The aircraft flying over Boston metropolitan area since at least Apr. 24 are not drones but FBI planes. Among them, a Cessna 208 carrying registration N1132F, Cessna 206H N309JK, and Cessna 182s N859JA and N906TM.
What these planes are doing at night can’t be said with much detail because the operation requires some secrecy and the FBI is obviously not willing to comment on it, but, based on the type of mission usually flown by these assets (available on the Federal Bureau’s website), it’s safe to say they are conducting aerial surveillance and intelligence collection.
Although they are painted as normal private planes, some of these aircraft are equipped with night surveillance and eavesdropping systems, including thermal and video imagery, and are capable to track suspected terrorists and criminals.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/fbi-planes-frighten-boston-residents-2013-5#ixzz2Uz6rWSC9
Photos show mystery aircraft over Quincy is not a drone
Jennifer Azevedo-Andre
A zoomed-in shot of the plane flying over Quincy shows that, despite concerns, it is not a drone.
Photos of one of the planes that have been flying over Quincy show that, despite suspicions, the aircraft is not a drone.
The Cessna single-engine airplane, which residents have captured in photos, has been flying overhead for weeks, turning circles around the Quincy and Milton air space.
Although people have gotten a better look at what the plane is, it's still unclear what it’s doing or who's doing it.
“We’ve received a couple more phone calls and the response is the same,” said Christopher Walker, spokesperson for Mayor Thomas Koch. “The FAA confirmed that it is a sanctioned flight, and there is no information beyond that.”
FAA spokespeople have said the aircraft is not a drone, but refused to elaborate on the machine’s purpose.
The tail number, N906TM, which can be seen in one photo, is registered to a company called RKT Productions. The only information that could be found on the company is a post office box in Bristow, Va.
A spokesman for the nearest airport, Manassas Regional Airport, had never heard of the company and said the plane did not fly out of that airport.
But Quincy residents say there is more than one aircraft flying overhead.
“There’s definitely more than one plane,” said Jennifer Azevedo-Andre, who lives in Merrymount. “[There’s] the one we could get a picture of. The other one has a dark blue belly. My husband is a pilot…the Cessna can only fly for seven to eight hours, so there is definitely another plane that comes to relieve it.”
Residents have not seen the tail number on the second plane.
For residents, the purpose of the plane is practically irrelevant, as it’s the noise, continuous since late April, that has been the most distressing.
“We’re very reasonable people,” said Azevedo-Andre. “There may be a valid reason for them to be covert, to explain it might undermine its purpose, but I can tolerate for so long and no one can give us a timetable of when it will stop.”
The flights have ceased during the recent rains, but Andre was concerned they might start up again soon.
Michael Gundersen, a Wollaston resident, agreed the noise was, at times, unbearable.
“It was basically every day, and … I’d notice it when I woke up in the morning. And I go to bed late and at 1 a.m., still going, 2 a.m., 3 a.m., and I want to go to sleep but I can’t. Even with the windows closed, you could hear this thing,” Gundersen said.
The noise would get louder as it made the loop approximately every six minutes, Gundersen said. “The noise was just, at some points, it was unbearable."
He said he would feel better if he were to learn that a government agency was flying the plane, "then at least there isn’t this strange plane flying overhead.”
http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/quincy/2013/05/photos_prove_suspicious_aircra.html
