Patrick D. McCaslin Interview, 25 February 2001
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| PM: | I don't know. Probably Minneapolis. | |
| INT: | Another question. ADC was there they had— | |
| PM: | Yeah, we had F-106's there [F-106 Delta Darts assigned to the Air Defense Command, 5th Fighter Interceptor Squadron stationed at Minot AFB]. | |
| INT: | They should've seen it too. | |
| PM: | Yeah, there were numerous radars that should've painted—numerous air traffic control that should've had it. | |
| INT: | Now apparently in the documents weather radar did have it. | |
| PM: | I don't know. Could be. | |
| INT: | Yeah, well it says that in the documents. | |
| PM: | Okay. I find it difficult to believe that something would not have painted this thing. So at some point in the descent, with this thing still shining out there, I saw it at 3 miles on the left, and then the next scan it was at 1 mile. I mean it was just—there was no sense of it closing. There was no time for that. It was at 3 miles at one point, and the next scan it was 1 mile off our left wing. | |
| INT: | Now when you saw that, what was your— | |
| PM: | I was on the intercom immediately and called the pilots and said, "Hey, this thing's 1 mile off our left wing now," and, well I knew whatever it was, in my own mind at that point, I knew that there was something there that I'd never seen on radar. The ability to close 2 miles and stop instantaneously was—although I wasn't a pilot yet, I subsequently became a pilot. Well, I went to pilot training 2 months after that and I did a lot of flying after that, and I don't know of anything—been a lot of R and D since I got out, but certainly at that time, and during the career when I was flying as a pilot I didn't know of anything that could go laterally in 3 seconds, 2 miles, and just stop. I mean I— | |
| INT: | And maintain your airspeed. | |
| PM: | Right. It was maintaining our descent rate, and then just laterally into one mile, perfect formation. So the pilot's were looking you know, that was clear. They were telling me they were looking. They still didn't see anything. No one claimed to see anything at that point. And it was about that time that the tower, and I don't remember exactly how the loss |
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