Snapped these about 30 minutes ago.
Was outside smoking a butt when I heard a an engine I dont normally hear around the Philly area - military but not the usual A10's or F18's from WGNAS.
Walk out and look up to see an F15 circling overhead and dropping flares! WTF?
Run inside to get my camera and see if I cant snap a few pics. I missed the great shot opportunities directly overhead but he circled around about a 1/2 mile distant and did it again. Run out at high speed, circle, drop flares, repeat.
Looking around I was surpised to see that there was a small private aircraft close to him. I wonder if perhaps the guy in the private plane was either flying where he wasnt suppose to or not responding on his radio and the flares were designed to get his attention or alter his course. There certainly arent any Stinger armed terrorists in suburban Philly that Im aware of.
I would imagine a non-responsive pilot in a post-9/11 world would make people nervous even if it was small. Ive never seen an F15 around here aside from airshows and Ive never seen one drop flares for no purpose.
Anyway, the 15 looks armed in the pics - cant tell if the hardpoints on the wings are holding drop tanks or AAM's though.
Wonder what the problem was.
(PS: Pics are large because I couldnt zoom any closer and wanted to retain detail. Small in file size, though.)
Thoughts?
Dropping second set of flares.
Moments after. The private aircraft is visible (but blurry) to the right of the 15.
Circling around again. Note the hardpoint shadow visible on the right wing.
