December 2, 2005

Missile Fired at Jetliner Near LAX?

The following item speaks for itself, and underscores the very real threat of terrorists in the United States getting their hands on shoulder-fired missile launchers. From Philadelphia's KYW:

Pilot Reports 'Missile' Fired at Jetliner Near LAX (11/28/05)

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.

Obviously, this was no mere "laser pointer" prank as we've seen numerous times over the past year. As the FBI admits, however, we may never know the source of the "smoke trail" that passed by the cockpit. If a land-launched missile were to hit a commercial jetliner (as has long been rumored to have happened to TWA Flight 800 off Long Island in 1996), the American airline industry would fall even further into a financial abyss.

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