I seen that jet while picking blueberries that same day! and it was very low and looked as it was landing for the Sawyer international airport. I thought it was a 52-bomber, but i was wrong. lol

What about all the other immigrants in this country? They arrest people with expired Visas (and I don't have a problem with that, you want to stay here, keep up your paperwork) But at least they had Visas. What about all the illegal immigrants, here without permission, papers, Visas, ect? Arrest some of them why don't you?

Thank you for clarifying that. It helped clear up some confusion at least. :)

An international airport is one that has the facilities to allow an international flight to land there. An international flight is an aircraft that has a registration or flag carrying aircraft of a different country. The airport has customs agents there that can allow the flight arrival and departure. Take for instance, this plane could not land in Escanaba because it is not an international airport. Sawyer and Chippewa County are the two international airports in the U.P. where international flights must land if they are coming from out of the U.S.A. and landing in the U.P.

Someone with more knowledge, please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the reason Sawyer is considered an "international airport" is because it can accomodate larger planes than most smalltown municipal airports??
Remember the plane that had to make a landing at Sawyer on 9-11? (I remember the ticked off looks some of the passengers had on their faces when TV6 showed them reboarding their flight to go home).

At any rate, Sawyer is a much better airport than the old Mqt County Airport was from what I've heard pilots and other PROFESSIONAL people tell me. Therefore, I will go with the experts on that one.

As for these Ukrainians: The first news story about them made it sound like they were on a scheduled flight plan and were simply stopping to refuel.. on schedule. Having a scheduled flight plan creates the assumption in my mind that being from a foreign country, they would have their papers in order and were operating under legal standards of operation, including staying within the immigration laws.

Now, this most current update still begs the question: how did they have a registered flight plan with illegal/outdated visas? I'm not understanding the procedures, apparently. And TV6 needs to do a little more investigating to explain this to the public.

In addition, I would like to mention that so far it doesn't sound as though these Ukrainians were trying to stay in the US as illegal citizens. To the contrary, it sounds as though they were on their way home; is this correct? If so, that's more than we could say for all of the illegal immigrants who are "difficult to find" yet somehow manage to obtain welfare and free schooling in this country.

Can anyone shed any light on any of what I'm apparently confused about?

Thank you.

So once again 6 brings up a story that is intriqueing to say the least and then Nothin. You say you're Upper Michigan's Source(I hate the term Upper Michigan because that includes the trolls in the northern half of da Lower) so what's Up with your big story?

Speaking of our wierd flights to and out of the U.P.
I was flying home to the U.P from Iraq which was a great non-stop flight from Heathrow(London) to Chicago and then you do the usual song and dance of Chicago to Milwaukee and stop and then fly from Milwaukee PAST Iron Mountain, I live not far from Crystal Falls, and then onto Marquette to let a few people off and THEN back to Iron Mountain where I finally got off the Plane. I know I wasn't the only one flying to Iron Mountain so why fly over it to Marquette.
Yooper Airlines at it's best

There has been an international flight that has left Sawyer. But just because it is called an international airport, doesn't mean it HAS to have international flights.

informationnot correct

Air Force C17 Globemaster heavy transport plane?

WHY? WOULD A MULTI MILLION DOLLAR CORP. ASSET,SUB-LEASED TO A PUBLIC CORP.TRY TO SNEAK OUT OF THE COUNTRY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT, WITH MULTIPAL LEANS AND LAW SUITES WRAPPED AROUND IT? THE ANSWER IS IN THE FOUR INDIVIDUALS OTHER THAN THE UKRAINIAN NATIONALS.MADOFF WOULD HAVE BEEN PROUD!

Flights are cheaper out of pellston than Marquette, We would have to srive 2-3 hours to get to Marquette or 1-1.5 to get to pellston... Last time I checked on a flight to denver the price was $ 400 more to fly out of Marquette than detroit. It cost me $ 112 in gas. If it was the same or even just a little more I would fly out of Marquette..

Hunter Thompson: How practical is Marquette for a regional airport? If I’m going to drive a couple of hours to get to Sawyer, I might as well just head to Green Bay. Those living south of Marquette (such as Iron Mountain/Kingsford) certainly aren’t going to head north for a flight and pay more than going to Green Bay. And don’t forget the snow factor. I’m gonna take my chances on flights in and out of Green Bay or Milwaukee in the winter, not Marquette.

google the plane and it will tell you
it is a school out of Texas

Who returns the plane to the Russians?

I think we should have a regional airport and Sawyer should be it. The UP can not support all these little mom and pop airports. Maybe then, after consolidating resources, we could have custom agents stationed here. Think positive and suggest some solutions, don't just complain.

That plane looks as awful lot like an American C-141. Thanks, Rambo, for the additional info. I wondered how a bunch of Ukranians could get all the way to the U.P. in a big plane.

Not to get too far off the subject of illegal immigrants, but someone always seems to defend the "old airport." The old airport had several problems operationally. One of the most significant was that terrain only allowed precision instrument approaches to be flown to the least favorable runway. Most often, when heavy lake effect snow was falling a choice had to be made to either divert or attempt a "tailwind" approach in less than optimal conditions. This can be a dangerous situation.

It should also be noted that Sawyer is the only airport in the U.P. that generates enough revenue not to have subsidized air service. If you want to talk about throwing good money after bad, why not eliminate air service to Escanaba, Houghton (just applied) and Iron Mountain all together? These airports collectively receive millions of dollars from the federal government to subsidize airlines who otherwise would lose money providing them with service. In many parts of the country a 1-2 hour drive to an airport is perfectly normal. (Escanaba is actually less than an hour drive from Sawyer.) Even driving across certain metro areas such as Chicago can take over an hour in traffic. Operating Sawyer as a regional airport with bigger aircraft and more connections would be far more cost effective than a cluster of small subsidized airports with poor flight schedules.

that explains the widow under the front of the plane
i thought it mite be something like that

HOW MANY?WHAT ABOUT ALL THESE ILLEGALS WHO WORK IN THE USA AND GET HELP FROM SOCIAL SERVICES AND DRIVER LICENSES? WOULD IT NOT BE NICE TO GET RID OF ALL OF THEM
?? THEN OUR TAX MONEY WOULD BE AT GOOD WORK,AND IT WOULD NOT BE BIG NEWS TO CATCH FOUR OF THEM!

The real crime is that this country pays defense contractors who use illegal laborers billions of dollars, when we have thousands of unemployed Veterans who would love to do this job. If TV 6 really wanted to tell the news they would have done their research and found out that this aircraft an IL-78 registration number N78GF belongs to North American Tactical Aviation Inc. A department of defense contractor farmed out to provide aerial refueling of United States Navy aircraft.

Nine foreign nationals five of them possibly illegal flying around the country in a Soviet era tanker plane. And all some of us can manage to do is whine about Sawyer airport. Seems to me that maybe just maybe there is a bigger issue here than Sawyer.

hey wait a minute ain,t those canadians international when they fly in with their passports and loonies in hand?

Yeah, International Airport. The only thing "International" there, is the Canadian Geese that fly over it. Not even Customs there. Have to wait till someone comes from the Sault. Handy, eh? But then again, this is the biggest money pit the county has, besides KI in general. Good money after bad. What was wrong with the "old" airport? Nothing. Someone saw this fleeting opportunity to expand, offer something that we never had, never will, (Business') and all they've done is pore money into hangers, etc. What a waste!

WOW, K.I. Sewer International Airport finally had an international flight after 10+ years. What a huge waste of money and resources after all of these years.

WHAT A WASTE OF OUR TAX $$$$ A CIVIL CASE IN TEXAS?? , 15-20 OFFICERS , A CASE OF HOMELAND/FEDERAL /CUSTOMS YOU NAME THEM WASTING $$ " FOR OUR SAFTY" LOOK IN THE SOO PARKING LOTS YOU'L SEE 20-30 $50,000 FED. SUV'S HARD AT WORK HA.