MIG planes over Oakland CA?

ok I am not adept in identifying types of airplanes, but at 3:00 pm PST today (Fri the 7th of May)
i am out on the porch in Oakland CA, and SCREEEEAAAACH I hear I crazy loud plane go by...
I'm outside all the time so i can distinct between the sounds of a helicopter, small plane, and airliner... this was the sound of a fast jet.. fighter..
I go around to a better view and can't see anything..
then a few sec later.. I hear it again.. and it's 2 fighters screeching over oakland West to East.. in formation..coming from the direction of San Jose across the bay... dunno if they came from that area or the pacific?
anyway I wouldn't be curious about this..you know.. just a drill flight or whatever of our own...
...
... but there are 2 things that struck me..

1 - these planes were not the 'triangle' winged F-16 types you usually think of as american jets..
their wings were skinny and perpindicular to the main body.. meaning they were a perfect "cross" shape".. i saw virtually no angle to their wings..
they were a very dark color also.. maybee black..
remember i am no jet expert... but they reminded me of the shapes of planes we see in top-gun type movies as "migs"

2 - they came VERY close to what I thought was a commercial airliner that was going by..
obviously they could be at any number of diff altitudes.. BUT from my perspective.. the size of them in my sight was such that it really startled me... meaning it created the perception that they were at very close altitudes...
I mean they were CLOSE... to the point where i involuntarily let out a loud "WOOAH!"..

anyway....

can any of the jet-experts on here clue me in on this? do we have jets like this?

are they allowed to just flyby airliners that close?

thnx

I dont think could make a trans pacific flight to the west coast and back home with the fuel load..

Dont the US fly Migs as part of the Red Flag exercise ?

www.fas.org...

For example

www.dreamlandresort.com...

Has a full list

So I doubt seeing a MIG in US airspace is that remarkable

reply to post by Silk



k thnx.

Oh and the MIGs in Top Gun were - and clearly stated in the movie "simulations"

If we are talking TOPGUN the school then -

TOPGUN initially operated the A-4 Skyhawk and borrowed USAF T-38 Talons to simulate the flying characteristics of the MiG-17 and MiG-21, respectively. The school also made use of Marine-crewed A-6 Intruders and USAF F-106 aircraft when available. Later, the T-38 was replaced by the F-5E Tiger.

en.wikipedia.org...

Remember google is your friend

Jester out

reply to post by prevenge


A pleasure

I know that Nellis AFB has some Migs for training exercises.

Found this in Wikipedia:

On November 14, 2006 the Air Force declassified information regarding an American-manned Russian MiG unit used in training at Nellis from the late 1970s to early 1980s. This unit was known as the Red Eagles and used MiG-17s, MiG-21s and MiG-23s to simulate combat to test the capabilities of the F-4 Phantoms, F-15 Eagles and F-16 Fighting Falcons.

There have been rumors that Migs occasionally have been seen at Edwards AFB too.. (again probably for pilot training simulations).

Interesting! I live in Oakland too and have been home all day today and havent noticed anything like this. I'm going to call my friends around town and see if any of them noticed anything.

Thanks for posting.

Peace

For what it's worth, I live in Oakland, a loose formation of four jets passed over my house yesterday (5/7) headed in the general direction of Oakland International, and I saw what appeared to be the same formation today, again headed towards OAK. From what I could see yesterday, they were most likely black (or dark colored) T-38s, which is consistent with the glossy black T-38s stationed at Beale AFB north of the Bay Area, which are normally used by U-2 pilots for proficiency flights.

Airshow picture.

Perhaps a weekend getaway...

reply to post by mramsey


yes i aw them the second day as well..

but no i'm sorry i'll have to say that the picture you posted doesn't describe what i saw.. close though..

i distinctly remember on both occassions that what stood out to me was the fact that the wings had zero slant to them .. completely perpendicular rectangles to the body.

thanks for everyone that's lended their input to the thread
nowhere but ATS can you get expertise like this at a moments notice!

My first guess is the T-38.




Second guess is the T-33.




Third guess is the EF-10B.




Final guess is the A-10

Sure it wasn't a couple of B-1B's ?






[edit on 11-5-2010 by Signals]