Phantom pilot keeping Parisians up at night By SUSAN SACHS Special to The Herald
PARIS - The newest
star in the Paris sky is a mysterious pilot of a small plane whose leisurely low-altitude cruising over the French capital has evaded the combined efforts of the army, air force and Eiffel Tower policemen to catch him.
Or catch her. Or even them. French officials are not sure how many imitators are up there, buzzing the city out outs summertime stupor.
During the six or seven midnight sightings since late July, the
phantom plane has been variously identified as an ultralight, a single-engine plane and a twin-engine Cessna.
Further identification has proved impossible. The mystery pilot flies at less than 1,000 feet, too low to be picked up on radar and well below the legal minimum of 6,000 feet.
On Saturday, Interior Minister Pierre Joxe inaugurated "Operation Viper." Gendarmes armed with walkie-talkies and night -vision binoculars are stationed at high points in the city.
A few are perched on the top floor of the Eiffel Tower, which rises 984 feet. More scan the sky from the Are de Triomphe and Sacre Coeur at Montmartre.
Helicopters crisscross the city, prompting just as many complaints about noises as the phantom plane itself. Joxe said he hopes that the affair "will not end in tragedy."
By Fausto Fabio de Araujo