As most of you know, during the last weekend of June, I was honored to be invited to be one of the speakers at the Secret Space Program/Breakaway Civilization conference in San Mateo, California. While this was happening, my email pile grew to enormous proportions, and a number of stories occurred that require some commentary, no matter how belated that may be. (One reason for my late commentary on some of these stories during the next couple of weeks is that I had to schedule five weeks' worth of blogs in order to cover the period of my absence during the conference, so I beg your indulgence the next couple of weeks as I attempt to "catch up" with some of these stories in the blogs). In any case, here's RT's short article on the story:

‘Unprecedented’: 13 aircraft mysteriously disappear from radars in heart of Europe

This article is so short, it's worth citing in full, with the italicized portions representing what, to my mind anyway, represents the "story hidden between the lines":

"A total of 13 aircraft suddenly vanished off radars for about 25 minutes on two occasions over Austria and neighboring countries, Austria's flight safety monitor said, calling for an EU probe into the “unprecedented” incidents. "The flights vanished from air traffic controllers’ screens in Austria on June 5 and June 10 for 25 minutes each time, Marcus Pohanka of Austro Control – Austria’s flight safety organization – said Thursday. "Air traffic control in neighboring regions of Germany and the Czech Republic also reported similar problems. "Pohanka said the location, height, and identity of the 13 aircraft vanished over Austria both times, in what he called “unprecedented” incidents, AP reported. "He added that some neighboring countries had experienced similar problems. The daily Kurier, based in Vienna, elaborated that similar problems were experienced by flight controllers in Munich and Karlsruhe in Germany and in Prague, Czech Republic. "Poahanka declined to say which airlines and planes were involved, but suggested that some may have been passenger jets, which fly at high altitudes. The EU’s Eurocontrol and European Aviation Safety Agency will investigate the incidents. "Poahanka stressed that at no time were any of the planes in danger, as extra air traffic controllers were immediately called to their posts and emergency measures were brought in, which included immediately establishing voice contact with the pilots and the widening of flight corridors. "The Kurier cited an unnamed expert as saying that the problem was most likely to do with interference between the aircraft transponders and the ground."(Russia Today, "‘Unprecedented’: 13 aircraft mysteriously disappear from radars in heart of Europe," June 13, 2014, bold-italics emphasis added).

Now note the main points:

13 aircraft over Austra disappeared from radar; A similar problem was reported in Germany and the Czech republic, implying that the actual number of airplanes affected may be higher than 13; Emergency measures were initiated; and, An unknown source implied that the problem was due to interference between aircraft transponders and ground air traffic control.

It's the last point that is the crux of the issue, for interference with transponders implies an "interferer", and that implies someone with the motivation and technology to do so. Additionally, there are the usual internet rumors - one or two that crossed my email desk - that allege that all of this occurred during a NATO exercise. But exercise or not, the interference implies an interferer, with the technology and motivation to do so.

In the post-Malaysia Air flight 370 world, this incident gives one pause. I cannot exorcise the nagging intuition that somehow, the two incidents are related; indeed, I cannot get rid of the nagging intuition that perhaps the USS Donald Cook incident might be related, for Russia clearly demonstrated a capability during that incident. If the "unknown source's" allegations are true, then someone reached into the air traffic control system of central Europe, and created a disruption.

The question is, who?

My high octane speculation? I doubt very much any of the BRICSA nations would have sufficient motivation to risk such an incident. For imagine if something had gone tragically wrong: if that had happened, the Western oligarchs would have ramped up their media band organs and churned out some spin on their media carousels and pointed the finger of blame at those nations.NATO was apparently conducting drills at the time, and most here know the drill about drills: real time operations are often piggy-backed into such drills. But still... if the BRICSA nations had pulled such a stunt, and it had gone somehow wrong, just to send "a message," the message would have backfired colossally. Could it be "radical Islamic terrorists", the convenient and most-favored-villain in today's world? Possible, but if so, then the technology to do so, not to mention the intelligence organization to do so, would have had to have come from somewhere else. Could it have been the insane oligarchs of the West? Well, from the point of insanity, they'd be crazy enough to stage such a demonstration to the countries of central Europe, and note, two of the three countries mentioned - Austria and the Czech Republic, and Germany - are all countries dominated by the third country mentioned, Germany, which has been a-less-than-compliant lap dog lately(how dare they ask for their gold back? how dare they try to cement stronger relationships with Russia? &c). But the strategy is risky, for all the reasons mentioned before.

So in other words, in the end, we're left with questions and no firm foundation for speculation. It's anybody's guess.

And there's always the possibility that it was just a fluke, an accident. A simultaneous failure of transponders....

.... Nah!

See you on the flip side....