- FAST FACTS:
- Viewers called to report a plane circling Downtown Memphis
- Homeland Security was running a test
- Testing equipment to defend against shoulder to air missiles
tom.powell@wreg.com
(MEMPHIS May 21, 2009 7:50 PM) -- Ian and Pat Tuohy, tourists from Australia, came to Memphis to visit Graceland and eat some ribs on Beale Street. When they were walking along the river Thursday, they noticed something that wasn't on their itinerary.
What they spotted circling downtown , was a cargo plane being flown as part of a test by Homeland Security. The department is testing military missile defense equipment, to see how to best adapt it for use on commercial aircraft.
"I think it's amazing," says Pat Tuohy. "Something to tell the folks back in Australia."
Homeland Security Program Manager Kerry Wilson says they picked Memphis because they wanted to test the equipment in a real world environment where the systems would have to opperate amidst technological "clutter."
Busy Memphis International Airport provided the perfect real-world environment, he says.
When folks noticed the plane circling, some started to speculate that maybe the jet was having trouble landing, and might be dropping fuel in the Mississippi. Wilson quickly put that rumor to rest. "At no point in time was the plane in any danger," he says.
Wilson also explained that they were using simulators on the ground. "We're not firing live missiles anywhere in the vicinity."
Footage provided by Homeland Security to WREG News Channel 3, shows a test conducted in the desert, using actual missiles. You can see the system recognize a missile, then cause it to spin out of control.
There is no credible threat that a terrorist might use one of these shoulder to air missiles in the United States, but Wilson says in 2003 Congress directed Homeland Security to adapt the technology to see if it could be used on commercial aircraft, just in case. "We're part of science and technology. Our job is to look at what's out there and be ready if something happens," he says.
