[Polynikes]

“I wasn’t thinking RPG’s. I was thinking shoulder launched SAMs. I thought they had a maximum altitude of 10,000 feet and that shold be no problem for a plane taking off. And you can easily hang out at the end of a runway in an urban area in LA, Seattle, Burbank, Ohare, etc.

I thought they had those sorts of SAMs for a long time. If I’m full of baloney, never mind... ;-)”

Your not full of baloney. Some years back there was a curious incident with an American Airlines flight out of LAX. This was pre 2008. It looked to the pilot according to cockpit voice recording like a contrail went past the plane on the land side. The “authorities” ended up blaming a misguided amateur rocket that went astray. They were probably partially right in that a rocket went astray. They also removed a female passenger who had a camera and may have gotten a photo. It looked like some launched a unguided SAM from a power boat in the flight path out of LAX.

[cuban leaf]

And flight 800...

[cuban leaf]

some launched a unguided SAM from a power boat in the flight path out of LAX.

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Well, unguided really IS a crap shoot. I was assuming they had heat seeking ones.

[BrewingFrog]

There have been several incidents like this near IAH in recent years. Always blamed on “amateur rockets” as the cause...