Posted on 03/27/2006 12:27:42 PM PST by Quilla
The potential target: an American commercial jet.
The potential weapon: a shoulder-to-air missile that terrorists fire at the jet on takeoff.
Worldwide, at least 24 civilian aircraft have been brought down by shoulder-fired missiles, and more than 500 people have been killed. And experts say that shoulder-to-air missiles can be bought for only a few thousand dollars on the black market. But U.S. commercial aircraft still have no defense system against these portable missiles.
Scare in Los Angeles
Last November, just minutes after takeoff from Los Angeles International Airport, an American Airlines pilot reported that something resembling a rocket might have been fired at his aircraft.
"American 612, can you verify whether you saw a flare or a rocket?" radioed an air-traffic controller.
"It looked more like a rocket to me," the pilot responded. "I'm pretty sure it was a rocket of some kind, because it had a definite plume coming out behind it."
The immediate concern was that the plume was in fact the trail of a shoulder-fired missile. The Coast Guard dispatched a cutter and a helicopter, and the FBI opened an investigation.
"We searched the area," said U.S. Coast Guard Lieutenant Clay Clary. "Nothing was found."
Although officials concluded it was most likely a hobby rocket, the investigation remains officially open.
"We had a scare in Los Angeles," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who serves on the Senate Subcommittee on Aviation. "We've been told that they cannot rule out the fact that it was a shoulder-fired missile."
Although all the attacks to date have been on foreign soil, a potential attack on an American commercial jet remains a very serious concern. They say that an estimated 20,000 shoulder-fired missiles, most of them made in Russia, are for sale on worldwide black markets.
"It's a disaster waiting to happen," Boxer said.
The most recent attack was on a DHL cargo plane hit while taking off from Baghdad in November 2003. The plane managed to land safely with its left wing on fire.
In November 2002, an Israeli charter plane carrying tourists was fired at on takeoff from Mombasa, Kenya. The attack intensified Israeli efforts to equip its civilian aircraft against shoulder-to-air missiles
They can cause sparks in fuel tanks!
AlexandriaDuke
Sen. Barbara Boxer, "...they cannot rule out the fact that it was a shoulder-fired missile."
IDIOT!! It was not a fact at all. It was a possibility. This woman is too dumb to breathe.
The danger is in state sponsorship of these terrorists, which would enable them to get a hold of advanced, target seeking, smart rockets built by the French, sold to a middle man known to deal with Iran, who transfers the weapons directly to the Gaza or West Bank, bypassing the necessity and the fiction of delivering the weapons firstly to Iran.
The French will deny culpability, the Russians never see a thing, and the Swiss charge fees on the funds going both ways. In a decade the Americans get called into to bail France out of a jam, the Russians still say they didn't see anything, and the Swiss charge fees on funds going both ways.
The middle man was of course a German.
I remember this was on FR, but I do not recall it getting much press in the MSM. I am sure there are some stories they repress for national secuity reasons during a state of war.
Old news, but always a favorite. This summer a comet will pass by earth (20 million miles, mag +4), but this one is different, it has broken up into at least three comets with tails.
No problem, no way can anyone smuggle anything that nasty across our secure borders! Y'all just go back to sleep, now.
Yet Sarah Brady insists that .50 caliber rifles are the real danger.
As sick a thought as this is, I've often wondered about it. When I lived outside DC in the late 1980s, I used to go down to the Potomac and watch the planes shoot the Potomac River visual approach into Washington National. They follow the river from Georgetown down over the bridges and then hang a hard right to the runway at practically the last second. I've thought to myself, all it'd take is one whackjob with an SA-16, who didn't care if he got caught or not, and one isolated corner of a park, and you'd have the potential of a jetliner crashing into the Potomac--or worse, if it veered to one side or the other--in full view of thousands of people.
}:-)4
FYI
I do too. A freeper (I can't think of her name right now) had heard this on her local news and started a thread. I've been searching for it, but to no avail.
Threats of shoulder fired missiles at LAX, and the southern border afew hundred miles away is wide open.
Does anyone else see a problem here?
Didn't one of the Clinton White House helicopters crash into the Potomac?
Wow, they revived this. Surprising.
The big deal being that the perp doesn't care whether he gets caught or not.
We already know that our mohammedan enemies are suicidal.
She thinks even .22's are a problem.
Broken in to 3? Is this a recent development? Whoa.
Reminded me of these guys. They make some massive hobby rockets, not the little Estes types that you can by at Toys R US! Some cool pics.
http://www.vatsaas.org/rtv/misc/WhatsNew.aspx
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