[Scan-DC] Mystery airplane over Takoma Park

[Andrew Clegg]

The crooks don't realize there are helicopters and/or planes buzzing over them for hours at a time?

________________________________
From: scan-dc-bounces at mailman.qth.net <scan-dc-bounces at mailman.qth.net> on behalf of Eric C. Carlson <ecarlson at gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 5, 2019 9:11 AM
To: Alan Henney
Cc: Scan DC
Subject: Re: [Scan-DC] Mystery airplane over Takoma Park

I can speak from my experience in Houston. These are almost always
anti-narcotics surveillance flights. There was one period of time where the
FBI aircraft were camped out over a suspected "terrorist" apartment for a
few months but I don't think that is the norm. Callsign these days is
"Limo" for FBI. Monitor 136.275 (DOJ aircraft) for air-to-base and
air-to-air when they swap out planes. In the DC area the FBI aircraft
should be flying out of Manassas airport. They will be on the usual
approach/departure frequencies with ATC.  The ones in Houston also disabled
their Mode S transponders (TCAS) -- so they won't be trackable via MLAT --
and are using tablet computers for traffic avoidance. You won't hear them a
lot on ATC but they will check in "on station" and "RTB." Depending on how
close they are to approach/departure routes you may hear more if ATC is
giving traffic advisories.

For FBI, they're usually on a simplex VHF tactical frequency; look for
something 5x5 ENC for hours at a time when they're overhead (I've also
gotten Close Call hits). Due to the multi-agency nature of most of the
anti-narc work you'll see FBI aircraft working with DEA/ICE/CBP/locals, or
DEA aircraft doing the same thing (with correspondingly random combinations
of frequencies). DEA aircraft exhibit the same behavior (callsign "Flint").
CBP aircraft ("Omaha") fly in support of ICE and in my experience these are
typically helicopters (although FBI and DEA use helicopters also). CBP
aircraft use 136.375 and the CBP "Air" P25 simplex frequencies. Also, more
rarely, there are the US Marshals aircraft using callsign "Gunsmoke" (I've
caught them using 170.8 NAC 293 simplex on many occasions).

I've never heard any these aircraft on VFR advisory frequencies for what
it's worth (e.g., 123.025); ATC approach/departure is your best bet to find
them in the clear.

-Eric

On Mon, Feb 4, 2019 at 11:23 PM Alan Henney via Scan-DC <
scan-dc at mailman.qth.net> wrote:

>
> Flying over Takoma Park -- over and over -- this afternoon and early
> evening was this airplane.  It flew a continuous circle following the same
> flight path (Takoma Park was the western edge).
> It's the classical FBI contractor, I assume.  Did we ever come to a
> conclusion as to what kind of surveillance they are conducting?
> Whenever I see a civilian aircraft fly overhead here I quickly consult my
> ADSB tracker (thanks Mike!) hoping to make an ID.  I find at least the
> civilian aircraft typically appear... but not this one.
>
>
> Did anybody, by chance, catch them on the aircraft radio?  I did not hear
> them on the helicopter channel, 134.35 (maybe too high for that?).  The
> plane was overhead roughly from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. (at least).
> Thanks,Alan
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