The people of Geneseo, Illinois, were going about their everyday lives on high alert when the planes came. A small passenger plane, being circled by an F-15 fighter, was flying so low, one witness claims, he could see the pilot in the cockpit. The citizens were terrified, unaware that in the passenger plane was their state senator, Todd Sieben. His son, Maj. Whitney Sieben, piloted the F-15 that was looping and dodging around the senator’s plane. The two were on their way to a neighbouring suburb, where Whitney’s grandmother lived. Whitney had promised gramma a fly-over.

Air-traffic control had okayed Sieben’s flight path, and Whitney e-mailed his grandmother to tell her to watch for him. Unfortunately, nobody considered notifying anyone else, and local and state authorities were soon deluged with calls from panicked citizens. Sieben fils says their fears are misplaced.

“If anything,” he commented, “it should make them feel good that military pilots are out and about.” :

» Scott Saxon