Posted on 12/02/2005 1:28:17 PM PST by Babu
FBI agents and Homeland Security officials spent the weekend investigating the report of a possible missile fired at an American Airlines plane taking off from Los Angeles International Airport.
Sources tell ABC News the pilot of American Airlines Flight 621, en route to Chicago, radioed air traffic controllers after takeoff from LAX. He told them a missile had been fired at the aircraft and missed.
The plane was over water when the pilot said he saw a smoke trail pass by the cockpit.
FBI agents believe it was a flare or a bottle rocket, but say they may never know if that's what it actually was.
My estimate is based on many flights out of LAX, and could have checked last August, had my GPS running (against rules) and watched the altitude and airspeed. We were well over 1,000 feet at the hills I mentioned, how much over I don't remember. At the 10,000 foot point where they say OK to turn stuff on, my WAG would be we were 2-3 mi. off the beach. This was a max load 757 with fuel for the run to Hawaii, full passenger load. A less loaded plane would get up there that much quicker. Air traffic control just tells them to use a fixed heading and climb to an altitude. Pilot's discretion how fast he gets up there, but these newer airliners seem to like a steep climb.
You might have to wait until my next flight for verification.... ;-)
bump for later reading
Not disputing you, but thought you be interested in seeing this. A bird strike on a 747 on the #3. The report said it was only about 500 feet, and the exhaust nozzle fell onto the beach along with other debris.
On August 27, 2000, a KLM Boeing 747 departed from the Los Angeles International airport with 449 on board. The departure path passes over Dockweiler State Beach located at the end of runway 25 R. Soon after take-off, 500 ft AGL, two distinct loud bang were heard and fire was observed coming out of the #3 engine. Witnesses reported seeing parts of the engine falling off. Picture 2 shows the outer cylinder of the engine exhaust nozzle landed on the beach about 35 ft from people. The flight crew declared an emergency, dumped 166,000 lbs of fuel and returned safely to the airport. (See Strike Report Details below.)
See 63. It's an interesting read.
ping
jcs...while I still don't know what to make of this whole thing....AA621 DOES fly out of LA to ORD...
I looked it up on AA's site last night.
Hey, someone is on it!
Oh! And welcome to FR! I didn't even notice that this was your first post.
Hope you enjoy it here! :)
:)
Never mess with a Gramma.
:)
So does that imply that was a military flight?
Stand up straight and wipe that grin off your face, young man!
:)
No surprise really, the old 747 climbs much more leisurely than the 757 and newer. Interesting thread.........
No.....NOT a military flight. (Did I mess up...again?) :)
Scratch my last. I saw ORD and my first thought was military. O'Hare.
Geometry is not my strong point, but that would be a hell of a steep climb angle, wouldn't it?
***FBI agents believe it was a flare or a bottle rocket, but say they may never know if that's what it actually was.***
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Reminds me of the BS after Flight 800 went down.
I don't believe what they are putting out there.
I just looked it up also:
Make that "DFW" in my last post (Dyslexia!)
The sickest stupidest thing about all of this is that it took a bunch of amateurs (us) to actually prod people who are supposed to be professionals (news media) and keep the story alive before they would actually publish news.
We should call news something else, but it isn't the news media anymore.
I'm not exaggerating when I say that FR is where I get my news, period.
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