There is a foreboding term applied to rogue aircraft not to be mistaken for the ghost rockets of 1946 when for several weeks when the telemetry of several unknown aerial objects that some observers thought could have been captured Nazi V-2 missiles flew over the Scandinavian countries of northern Europe. However after investigations were launched neither the allied forces or Russia had been sending recovered German rockets over Sweden, Norway, or Denmark. The ghost planes are a different enigma all together.

The pursuit

The year is 1974 a prominent college football coach has filed a flight plan taking him toward the northeastern seaboard. His assistant couching staff accompany him en route to their destination. The latest designed Lear Jet begins to veer off course and traffic controllers lose audio contact with the pilot. Several attempts are made to contact the flight crew to no avail. As the Lear Jet gets closer to the densely populated eastern coast the US Air force is contacted by the civilian control tower. An F-4 Phantom is scrambled to investigate. The fighter jet races down the runway and climbs into the sky on an intercept course with the rogue Lear Jet.

Risky possibilities

At more than 450 knots the air superiority fighter quickly catches up to the Lear Jet, a plane designed originally as a fighter jet itself built for the Swedish Air Force but rejected in a defense contractor competition. The aircraft is then repurposed for peace time flight and the Lear Jet becomes a high performance corporate travel and charter flight aircraft. It proves fast and has a higher service ceiling than most jets used for civilian and business travel. That this plane carrying the football coach to his intended destination seeming unresponsive and on auto-pilot is strange and if something is mechanically wrong it could cause a massive loss of life if the Lear jet runs out of fuel over a heavily populated city region of in the busy ship channel.

The deadly truth

When the pilot of the F-4 slows and begins flying alongside the Lear Jet he notices that the wind screen is frosted over from the inside. Not a good sign. The aviator can see no activity or sign of life inside the Lear Jet cock pit compartment. Flight engineers deduce that there has probably been catastrophic decompression. The occupants of the Lear Jet are probably dead or unconscious from hypoxia. Either a sudden loss of cabin pressure or a gradual loss of onboard oxygen has caused the pilots to pass out along with their passengers. The flight has become a "Ghost Plane"! The pilot is ordered to trail the flight path of the Lear Jet as authorities determine just when the aircraft's fuel capacity would allow it to go down.

Dead reckoning

Once the approximate point of fuel loss is estimated it seems the aircraft will end up in the Atlantic beyond the danger of crashing into city or suburb real estate and beyond any port or harbor. The F-4 Phantom pilot follows the ghost plane until it crashes into the Atlantic ocean safely offshore. If the Lear Jet had veered dangerously toward busy city streets or shipping lanes the pilot would have had to radio for permission to fire an air to air missile and knock the Lear Jet out of the air to avert a worse disaster. The Lear Jet breaks up in the ocean on impact. The bodies are never recovered.

Fame and tragedy

Oct. 26, 1999 golf champion, Payne Stewart, succumbs to a mysterious end. Departing Orlando, Florida he is headed for Dallas, Texas. The Lear Jet 35 accommodates the famous Pro Tour golfer well known and well liked by his contemporaries. However after not long into the flight traffic controllers lose radio contact with the famous golfer's flight. Rather then continue on a westward heading the Lear Jet flies northward and radar detection indicates the plane is flying erratically. An interceptor is ordered to investigate. A test pilot flying the F-16 is diverted from his Eglin Air Force Base station to intercept Payne Stewart's unresponsive Lear jet.

The inevitable

As always, NTSB flight staff will have to find out how much fuel the Lear jet is carrying and what range the private jet is capable of at the speed and altitude the aircraft is flying at. When the Air Force pilot finally catches up to the errant Lear jet he notices the Lear jet is porpoising at an altitude of 41,060 feet which is higher than the recommended service ceiling. The pilot flies alongside and observes that there is not any apparent human activity in the Lear Jet 35 and the windscreen is iced over from the inside of the plane. Instead of the Dallas destination of the original flight plan Payne Stewart's aircraft has strayed far off course and is northward bound headed toward South Dakota. Fuel records and aircraft specifications indicate that the rogue plane will crash somewhere in the great northern plains, but could go as far north as Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, not necessarily far as hoped from populated areas. The test pilot disengages and returns to base.

Final arrival

Next up are two F-16's from the 138th Air National Guard wing out of Oklahoma they are directed from Minneapolis ARTCC to intercept the flight path of the rogue Lear Jet. Both pilots observe Payne Stewart's aircraft searching for damage to flight surfaces or activity within the cockpit but cannot see any movement by the flight crew or passengers. They note that the wind screen glass is darkened. At one point the Lear Jet reaches over 48,000 feet but the two F-16's must withdraw in order to refuel and depart the ghost plane. Tulsa 13 flight is now joined by two F-16's of the North Dakota Air national Guard. Now 4 F-16's converge on the stricken Lear Jet on a heading to nowhere. Although the US Air Force claims that a shoot down was not an option, the Canadian Prime Minister orders the Canadian Royal Air Force to take down Stewart's Lear Jet if it crosses the international border.

Death Dive

The Air National Guard F-16 pilots trail their target as it climbs and then descends in its bizarre flight behavior due to the automatic pilot control set to climb but with the Lear Jet exceeding its maximum ceiling altitude and running out of fuel. Apparently, the aviator of Stewart Payne's Lear jet lost consciousness shortly after setting the auto-pilot to climb. Once again a ghost plane flies into eternity taking the bodies of the crew and passengers with it. The F-16 drivers watch as the Lear Jet pushes over and inverts on a high speed dive due to fuel deprivation to the deck! Disintegrating on impact, all five aboard die, and nothing but a scorched crater and debris mark the point of the crash. Another ghost plane has met its fate. Eerily, the obsolete flight recorder simply recorded the pulsating sounds of the failing engines and auto pilot warnings to the unconscious crew, but no conversation is heard.