Seems like it would take some skill to tail a 172 for any distance with an F-16:

172 stolen from Thunder Bay flight school

Hey can't you Canuks control you student pilots! Now we're being invaded by Canadian illegals.

That was prompt work evacuating the Wisconsin state capitol. The bomb load of a F-172 is what, a dozen 500 lb laser guided bombs? I am surprised that the F-16's could even keep up with him.

I wonder what is evacuated when a van is hijacked?

''We tailed it all the way,'' Maj. Brian Markin said. ''Once it landed our aircraft returned to base.''

Were they afraid it wasn't going to land?

Caught the tail end of this story on the TV news this morning. They showed a "video" of 2 fighters following the 172. That had to be photo-shopped or whatever (video-shopped?), eh? Top speed on a 172 is probably below the stall speed of an F18. They shoulda sicced a C130 on him.... maneuver in front of the 172, lower the ramp, then pull the power back and let him fly aboard.

Bad timing in the face of TSA trying to crawl up our butts.

Yea, that doesn't do GA a bit of good.

Think for a moment about how the article portrays GA. Look at the key phrases.

"North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado"

"intercepted by U.S. fighter jets "

"fighter pilots from the Wisconsin Air National Guard who intercepted the plane"

"Department of Justice spokesman Bill Cosh said the state Capitol was evacuated"

"Gov. Jim Doyle was not in the building"

This has been made to look like the Soviets were sending nuclear laden bombers over the north pole to strike the U.S. and start WWIII. What is the typical person going to learn from this article?

"Small airplanes are very dangerous", "They are flown by nuts", "Our armed forces must be used to protect us from them". And we wonder how the TSA comes up with their proposed rules!

That was just a practice run boys. The next time they may have a load of empty Labatts Blue bottles to dump on you.

It will be interesting to get all the details on this one. Thunder Bay is only 3 1/2 hours drive from me. Other than Thunder Bay, there is no radar coverage in this part of the world. Up here, there is nothing but lakes and trees. Unless a surveillance plane happened to be going over, I would think it would be no trick to cross the border and go on their merry way without detection. It appears to me secure borders are a joke. Those of us that cross legally get hassled, whether coming or going, are now required to have passports, the Mexicans have free rein on the south side and there is a couple of thousand miles of nothingness on the north. What is secure?