Earlier today a Hornet landed at SJC. I’ve been plane spotting there for years, and have never seen a fighter takeoff or land out of SJC ever before. Moffet is just a few miles NW of SJC. Fighters fly in and out of Moffet regularly. Was the F/A-18 that flew into SJC most likely having a technical issue which prompted an immediate landing?

Nav cross-country and wanted to visit SJC. I’ve seen a lot of fighters at civilian airports.


GF

Most likely. Possibly an emergency plane out of lemoore who was feet wet and landed as soon as he got feet dry.

Whatever his story, he should stick to it.

Did any emergency vehicles meet the aircraft upon landing?

Did you get a look at any squadron markings?

On the subject of Moffet field, I heard a rumor Google bought it? Is that true or even possible?

GF

No, Google keeps their private fleet of airplanes there. They have an agreement with the feds to run experiments in labs set up on their aircraft and they do flight testing with NASA stuff as well. They just built a huge corporate jet facility out there.
It’s a win win. Google gets a huge airport in their backyard. NASA keeps their facility in a town where the property value of that airport way exceeds any value the government possibly gets from it. The locals stay happy since it is now part of the local economy and google will spend the money to keep them happy and the deal intact.
I flew an aircraft in there a few years ago when I flew for Uncle. It is a great, historic place. We were the only show in town though, and had the giant base ops ramp all to ourselves. The blimp hangar was being redone at the time and we got to take a look around.

I understand google did buy or lease the blimp hangar to turn into an event center?

I flew a NASA load in there in the C-5; it was great history and blimp hangar is amazing. Always memorable as we left for home on 9/10/2001. Chaired the weekly scheduling meeting the next day at 0830 only to end it in record time.

GF

I only saw it on final, on my way home. Couldn’t ID the squadron markings.