American Airlines Flight 612 and a mystery of the coast of Los Angeles

ABC News - World News Tonight ^

[aprilmapes]

Shoulder-Fired Missiles Pose Serious Threat to Passenger Jets

U.S. Planes Have No Defense Against Cheap, Widely Available Weapons

By BRIAN ROSS, JILL RACKMILL and ERIC LONGABARDI

March 27, 2006 — - 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.

[Lancey Howard]

El Al has installed missle defenses on their passenger jets and is now barred from landing at certain airports in scumbag old Europe. No joke.

[carumba]

Although officials concluded it was most likely a hobby rocket, the investigation remains officially open.

Conspiracy theory alert. Officials say the beef supply is not threatened by BSE. Officials say that fluoridation is hunky dory. Officials say there are no UFO's. I am sure that all these officials are nice people with no interest in mind control, black helicopters, underground bunkers, national ID cards, breast implants, etc.

[Maurice Tift]

I am sure that all these officials are nice people with no interest in mind control, black helicopters...

  I fly the black helicopters.
:)

[Redcloak]

It was an RPC; rocket propelled chupacabra.

[thomaswest]

Please do not forget sincere faith beliefs in channelling to gurus, psychics who know everything in advance, pastors who claim to know god's will, astrologists who know more than everything. So many claimants...

[carumba]

Does a trained and professional journalist want to know if hobby rockets can reach the altitudes needed for an airline pilot to see it-minutes after take off. Could he track down the local rocket club dudes and see if any of them were shooting off rockets that day? (All ten of them.) Do hobby rocketeers set up launches or lunches at the end of LAX runway? Spoon fed journalists are the laziest lazies that ever lazied. Come on MSM make pretend that it was you they were shooting at.

[ASA Vet]

How often do you see as a newspaper headline,

"Psychic wins mega lottery, again?"

[bkepley]

Breast implants?

[shaggy eel]

Q: How do you know when a pilot shows up to your party?

A: He'll make sure he tells you.

[redgolum]

Don't know about the regs in California, but when I used to launch rockets, you had to be quite a ways from flight areas.

[conservativewasp]

Caught my attention too.

[Fudd Fan]

Is that the current theory from George Noory? lol

[Shermy]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2022000/posts