Anyone notice this plane? (San Francisco, Oakland: apartment, live in, military)

[Boose]

Around 8:05 this morning, a plane (not quite as large as a passenger jet, but way bigger than a Cessna - maybe cargo?) flew pretty low over our apt. near Park Blvd and Cypress. We're not on a flight path, and I could hear the engine revving as it went over our roof, so naturally this grabbed my attention. The underside was dark gray, and although I couldn't read any numbers or decals on it, I could see it quite well. It seemed to head SE from Hillcrest or South Mission Hills, head over (or between) the senior citizens' towers on Park, then banked sharply right over Morley Field and banked again to head in for a landing along the usual route. What do you think? Aborted landing and retry?

[MAK802]

We live in Hillcrest and though didn't notice this one, we have noticed many others flying very low. Last week, a Southwest Plane was extremely low and we never see commercial planes that low here. I've never seen a commercial plane so low before, well other than near the airport. We're not even on the flight path, but the plane made a u turn to head back to the airport, so I assume they had delays, so it was forced to circle until safe to land.

[iskray917]

I was at the airport this morning and think I saw that plane land.

[esmith143]

The only two passenger planes to land at Lindbergh Field between 8:00 and 8:20 were a Boeing 757 from San Francisco and a Boeing 737 from Oakland. Planes from Northern California approach the airport from the north, over Hillcrest and North Park.

[Boose]

Ok, that makes sense. A little hair-raising, though!

[1AngryTaxPayer]

You should hear the private planes landing off the 15. Some are real clunkers with the engines going RR_RRRRRRRRRRRRR__RRRRRRRRRRR____RRRRRRRRRRR_RR

Some sound like they are going to quit at any time.

[Sambazon]

I don't mean to hijack the thread (no pun intended), but I think about ten years ago or so, there was an airplane that landed smack-dab in the middle of I-15 in Escondido right by El Norte Parkway. Any locals seen/remember this?

[jkoz]

I've seen passenger jets flying fairly low over Kaiser-Zion, which I didn't think was on the flight pattern at all but is obviously part of the circling route.

[flanion7]

Oh my goodness! I was walking my dog on Lakeshore and Wesley and I noticed a huge aircraft flying very very low. I really believed it was going to fly into an apartment or crash. I have never seen a plane this low. All the other plans were much higher and on a different flight pattern. This seemed so dangerous to me. My curiosty finally go to me and I googled and found this post.

By all the responses I now know that I was not imagining it or crazy. Do we have any protection or resources to find out why that occured?

Flanion7

[T. Damon]

Originally Posted by esmith143

The only two passenger planes to land at Lindbergh Field between 8:00 and 8:20 were a Boeing 757 from San Francisco and a Boeing 737 from Oakland. Planes from Northern California approach the airport from the north, over Hillcrest and North Park.

Nope! That stopped after the PSA crash in 1978. Unless they are specifically off the designated landing path, (or if the flight pattern is reversed) all planes regardless of their origin come in from the east. Even if they are from Northern CA they must head eastward to about Spring Valley and then flip a sharp right turn westward to get in the landing track.

Occasionally a plane will be off the landing pattern and will be allowed to dive in from over North Park but it certainly isn't the norm, and Hillcrest is too far westward for them to even make that turn unless they are doing an emergency maneuver.

It might have been Military and going to North Island.