I’m hearing from many Atlanta-area readers in the wake of the Georgia Tech explosive device discoveries. Some are chalking up the incident as a run-of-the-mill prank. Could very well be.

In a post-9/11 world, though, such incidents can no longer be taken lightly. The local cops were right not to rule out the worst possibilities. A couple of readers point to Georgia Tech’s central role as an information/computing hub for counterterrorism/first responder research as reason the campus might be targeted by non-pranksters.

In the meantime, there’s far more troublesome weirdness in Gwinnett County. Several readers point to this story of a stolen plane that mysteriously appeared at Briscoe Field (via WXIA-TV):

A stolen airplane mysteriously showed up at Briscoe Field in Lawrenceville this past weekend, but no one knows where it came from or how it got there.

Investigators know someone piloted the plane, owned by St. Augustine, Fla.-based Pinnacle Aviation from there to Gwinnett County, but they say they have no idea as to who.

Police say the 1995 Cessna Citation arrived at Briscoe Field sometime between 9 p.m. Saturday and 6:30 a.m. Sunday.

Briscoe Field, Laura Mansfield points out, is the airport where “two of the 9/11 hijackers, Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi, trained for their terrorist mission” and also where this former fugitive illegal alien pilot trained.

Ok. How does a $7 million charter jet just disappear from Florida and mysteriously appear in Atlanta without anyone finding out until after the plane has landed and the pilot(s) disappeared?

More details from the Gwinnett Daily Post:

The flight crew responsible for the plane was on a chartered flight to St. Augustine. Crew members discovered the jet was missing when they went to check on it Monday morning, said Sgt. D. Mattox of the Gwinnett County Police Department.

A check of Gwinnett airport records revealed that the jet landed here between 9:30 p.m. Saturday and 6:30 a.m. Sunday, Mattox said. Whoever stole the jet didn’t file a flight plan, which authorities said is somewhat unusual for that size of aircraft.

The jet suffered damage to the front edge of one wing, but it was not disabled. Police believe the suspect is an experienced pilot who has flown through Gwinnett in the past. Briscoe Field is the third-busiest airport in Georgia.
“It had to be somebody that knew or had experience with this type of aircraft,” Mattox said. “You can’t just walk over from one of these smaller planes and fly this.”

Mattox said planes are easy to steal if you know how to fly them, because they usually don’t require a key to start the engines.

Homeland security? What homeland security?

Let’s hope there’s a non-terrorism-related explanation for this. Which would make it just slightly less discomfiting.

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Photo Dude adds perspective to the Georgia Tech story and is also bothered by the stolen jet timeline.

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