Mystery plane

We noticed it while out walking in our Upper Fauntleroy hood a little while ago, and some readers wrote us that they saw it too: this mysterious white plane doing low circles over WS. We tried calling the FAA to find out what they knew; their 866-TELL-FAA hotline was amazingly unhelpful, and when we finally found a local number, they were closed, with a recording “leave a message.” Here’s hoping it’s nothing to worry about. We would speculate the dark object hanging off the side might be a camera, though we thought more aerial photography is done with helicopters than planes. Any enlightenment welcome. 9:45 PM SEMI-UPDATE: We think we at least know whose plane it was; an e-mail tip says a call to 911 yielded a mention that a State Patrol plane was in the area — this article about those planes mentions the camera mounted in a “black bubble” on the side.

Jan August 24, 2007 (5:29 pm)

curious…and I may be wrong…but…don’t small planes usually have identifiable numbers on them?

star August 24, 2007 (5:30 pm)

this was hovering around a police arrest at 34th and thistle….i do’nt know if it’s related

Oscar August 24, 2007 (5:40 pm)

I realized it was circling by my house because everytime it went past my 2 year old (1) looked up; (2) pointed; and (3) yelled “airplane” at the top of his lungs. This went on for a 1/2 hour or so before we went inside.

donald August 24, 2007 (5:41 pm)

i saw/heard this flying around as well. Very odd.

J August 24, 2007 (6:02 pm)

OMG!!! A plane flying around West Seattle? What’s next? I new runway? I’m going to protest.

Native August 24, 2007 (6:07 pm)

It was orbiting the HUGE police presence at 35th and Thistle. There were seven police cars parked on 35th, and police officers swarming all over the house and property. I saw several more police cars in the alley and on the east side of Thistle also. Wonder what it was.

flipjack August 24, 2007 (9:21 pm)

Yeah that was friggin annoying having that loud ass plane circling above our house. I flipped it off at least once in a vain attempt to show my displeasure.
I wondered what the hell was going on.

Tinkerbell August 25, 2007 (6:37 am)

Does anyone know what Aid Response Yellow means on the city of Seattle 911 log?

Jen V. August 25, 2007 (2:16 pm)

ruh roh, looks like the man found my stash….

miws August 26, 2007 (6:39 am)

Darn! I should have posted my thoughts on this at the time I first read this thread! I coulda won a fabulous prize!

I thought it my be a WSP plane, and figured it may have been flying nearby over I-5, or something, and was asked, or volunteered on their own to fly over and check out and record that incident.

Can’t remember why I didn’t post my idea. Maybe I was eating, or maybe I was afraid of being laughed at if I was wrong. :p

Mike

donald August 28, 2007 (11:50 am)

so has there been any reports on exactly what this incident was at 35th and Thistle that the plane was checking out? I can’t believe there was nothing on the news about it, especially with that kind of police presence.

Sorry, comment time is over.