He was just taking off. He would have had no opportunity to evade except to pop flares and there was no report of that. I wonder what the heck they are talking about? Take a look here. (This is a google cache -- the original seems to be gone). Down toward the bottom:
But we can protect commercial jets. There's a system that affixes six sensors on the aircraft's wings and fuselage to detect and track the missile, fires a wide-beam laser to blind it, managed by a computer — all of that in much less time than it takes to describe it.
It also says that it's stuck in procurement in the U.S., but I wouldn't put it past the Israelis to have developed and deployed something similar. They're quite good at high tech stuff.
U. S. AIR FORCE SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETES LIVE-FIRE TESTS
OF LARGE AIRCRAFT INFRARED COUNTERMEASURES SYSTEM
ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill. -- Sept. 16, 2002 -- Northrop Grumman Corporation's (NYSE: NOC) Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures (LAIRCM) system, chosen by the U.S. Air Force to protect its transport aircraft from the threat of heat-seeking missiles, has successfully completed live missile fire tests and has entered low-rate initial production……………
http://www.capitolsource.net/press_releases/laircm_livefire.html