LOOK UP: By all accounts, that plane Julie Petitt saw the other
day behind Fretz was a C-130 military cargo plane – and others saw
it, too.

You may recall Julie had told us about seeing this large,
slow-moving plane dip precariously below the hills near Fretz –
enough to make her wonder if she might hear a crash, but then fly
off in an eastwardly direction.

Dave Newman tells us assuredly that this was a C130 (E or G)
Hercules, four-engine, turbo-prop mostly likely out of the Niagara
Falls Air Reserve Base. These big beasts are remarkably agile, can
fly “low and slow,” but are also capable of utilizing short
take-off and landing runways.

If you can see one, he adds, it’s like seeing one turkey
vulture: Look for others.

Carol Freer of Smethport also saw the plane over the Smethport
area. “I heard it coming over my home, very low, and went out front
and it was going towards Smethport hill. I really hoped they made
the hill.”

“This is the second time this has happened here. The first time
the plane was a large cargo, and was very loud and very low.

“My husband and I see the refueling jets many times during the
summer, and it is exciting to watch.”

Lester Stuck of Duke Center tells us he had also seen a large
cargo plane but the day before Julie. It was flying down the valley
toward Eldred, he reports.

Some 10-15 years ago, it wasn’t unusual to see as many as three
cargo planes at one time flying through that valley, Lester adds.
These Army planes would “come onto you all at once.”

We, too, have experienced that sudden appearance of planes
overhead, particularly when it’s a formation of low-flying – and
very loud – jets. We have seem them over Kinzua Dam and East Branch
dam. It’s quite startling but also exciting.

As we had mentioned the other day, this region is used for
training out of that Niagara Falls Base. When you think about it,
it does make sense that even large cargo planes have to learn about
flying low in the hills so as to avoid any radar detection. We
certainly have hills in abundance for this kind of practice and,
from the air, probably look a lot like Afghanistan.