Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Leading Motive and Suspect(s)? Skydiving on Kings Bay Sub Base

UPDATE Jacksonville.com News (August 14, 2012 - 7:27pm) Navy: Skydivers lucky to have not landed in highly restricted areas on Kings Bay
For new facts and M.E.'s updated analysis based upon above article go here.

Background
(bold and color emphasis mine)
Last Sunday two skydivers who had departed St. Mary's Airport (some 2 miles from Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base) landed on the high-security base, a homeport for Trident missile subs. Airspace over the Kings Bay sub base is of course restricted to non-civilian aircraft and skydivers. One of the errant skydivers taken into military custody (both are now released) was a naturalized citizen and the other was an undocumented alien.

Strong winds allegedly blew the skydivers 2 miles off target (at St. Mary's Airport), according to Cathy Kloess, owner of the The Jumping Place. The skydivers didn’t know the fields were on Kings Bay and, in fact, thought they were in St. Marys, Kloess said. That may be because the most recent aerial photo she has of the base shows trees where the baseball fields are now located. “We’ve definitely got to update our photos,” she said.

Officials observed that the incident marked at least the third time in three years that skydivers had missed the landing zone. A woman suffered head and neck injuries in March 2011 when she was blown off course and hit power lines and landed on Georgia 40. A year earlier, a Sarasota woman died after she also was blown off target and landed in woods at a subdivision.

Ad Hoc Mystery Questions

1. Why would not The Jumping Place's pilot routinely update applicable wind speed and direction data to assess whether suitable for skydivers even to jump within 2 miles of a restricted air space?

2. What nationalities are these two skydivers?

3. What genders are the two skydivers?

4. What aerial photographic equipment, if any, was found on the skydivers and confiscated?

5. What, if anything, was photographed by the skydivers?

6. Besides aerial recognizance of the Kings Bay Trident nuclear missile base, what other ulterior motives might the skydivers have had in mind? (EXAMPLES: a) conditioning Kings Bay's security to the possibility of innocent, off-course skydivers; b) see 7 - 9 (below).

ANSWERS to 1-6 (probably NEVER) - Security professionals and submariners are instructed not to discuss such matters publicly.

The most realistic and in my opinion probable answer is self-evident from the following questions:

7. Does The Jumping Place have a history of generating publicity cheaply? Yes: See the caption below the YouTube.

8. Suppose experienced skydivers were handpicked to generate tremendous but inexpensive publicity for The Jumping Place by going 2 miles off-course (1/2-mile farther off-course than earlier events) ? Would the undocumented alien status of one skydiver contribute to the amount of publicity? Probably: Officials at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base, about 2 miles from the airport, expressed concerns about the lack of response time security forces would have if a terrorist attack originated from the airport.

9. What if The Jumping Place had been under scrutiny for maintaining inadequate liability insurance ($50,000 versus the nominal $1 million required)? It was.

Submarines are always silent and strange.

Labels:

2 Comments:

At 15 August, 2012 04:51, Blogger dark cloud said...

you have a serious paranoia problem. However, a no-fly zone does not mean it is enforced with AAA. But then again, you probably know that.

Please tell me what the gender of the skydivers means to you?

Personally, we ought to enforce the no-fly zone, but we don't.

 
At 29 September, 2012 17:05, Blogger Vigilis said...

dc, if the skydiving intrusions were planned to generate free publicity as suspected, nothing might make the episode appear more of an innocent mistake to potential jurors than if both subjects were women (grandmother/teen)or one was an illegal with poor reading skills.

As to your alleged 'paranoia problem',
I consider fear of anything counterproductive, and must try hard even to maintain a healthy respect for possibilities.

Take it that you never experienced a submarine sinking during your service? I experienced the Scorpion in sub school and one I was assigned to later (near test depth, not a drill: reactor scram; lost propulsion, main and vital hydraulics, and our steep downbubble made EBT blow impracticable). What saved us? Not paranoia.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home

|