Plane with U.S. officials was fired at (by missile...in Iraq)

[Roland99]

Plane with U.S. officials was fired at
House members say C-130's defenses repelled missile; Boxer argues for similar equipment on commercial jets
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/04/08/MNGESI60LE1.DTL&feed=rss.news

In January, a six-member delegation of the House Armed Services Committee, led by Rob Simmons, R-Conn., came under missile attack as they traveled "lights out" on a military plane from Baghdad to Kuwait, according to three members of that delegation.

...

According to those same sources, the missile was deflected by the plane's countermeasures -- based on technology Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and other lawmakers have been seeking for commercial airliners.

...

"We had a scare in Los Angeles last year when an American Airlines pilot reported seeing a rocket right after takeoff. Authorities couldn't rule out the possibility it was a shoulder-fired missile," she said. "We had a scare in Iraq in January, when my colleagues said they believed a shoulder-fired missile was fired at their plane."

According to Boxer, two companies have developed countermeasure systems for use on commercial aircraft that can be installed for less than a million dollars per plane.

Uhhh..."a scare in Los Angeles", Senator? Where did that rocket land, Senator? What damage was caused, Senator?

We're going to beef up some military contractor over "a scare"?

And who's to say that plane of Representative's was actually fired upon by a missile and not something the military concocted to drum up support for more defense programs? :tinfoilhat:

[wtmusic]

1. Take the tinfoil off

A Stinger or other portable SAM would be the easiest way to kill 300 people with the press of a button. Any money spent for countermeasures on civ aircraft is well worth it.

[sce56]

2. I would have no doubt the air over I raq is dangerous and they have lost

plenty of helicopters just a week ago a top of the line Apache attack helicopter more than likely by a shoulder fired sam

[pinniped]

3. If it was a dummy rocket like an RPG, did the C-130 do a barrel roll?

What goes up must come down. Where the F is it? Did it land in the Pacific?

"We had a scare in Los Angeles last year when an American Airlines pilot reported seeing a rocket right after takeoff.

My thoughts exactly.:tinfoilhat:


And who's to say that plane of Representative's was actually fired upon by a missile and not something the military concocted to drum up support for more defense programs? :tinfoilhat:

[formercia]

15. A RPG-7 will self destruct after about 600 Meters

the copper jet from the shaped charge warhead will travel a couple of hundred Meters more. From personal observation, the copper jet will penetrate about 13 mm of steel plate 100 Meters beyond the detonation.
The tracer element in the RPG is very bright and might be mistaken for a SAM.

The Insurgents commonly fire volleys of RPG's at low-flying aircraft.

[tocqueville]

4. if it's true it shows that the Iraqui resistance has a darnn good

intelligence

because you don't stand in the desert with a SA18 on the shoulder and wait that something "lights out" flies by... The knew who was aboard, the route and the time



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igla

[Kenergy]

19. Yep, they're getting more sophisticated...just like Nam n/t

[TomInTib]

5. Oh, eff that. While we're at it, why don't we make our autos crashproof?

And our curbs accident proof?
And our bathrooms drunken fool-proof?
And lighters and matches fire-proof?

How much money do you want to spend?

Even with all the money in the world, the Airlines would screw it up.

[Guaranteed]

13. Seriously...making cars less dangerous would be idiotic! nt

[Demeter]

17. Let's Make Elections Idiot-Proof

then all the other problems will take care of themselves!

[lostexpectation]

6. what are teh countermeasures?

chaf etc?

[tocqueville]

8. jamming, flares, decoys

but the average kill is between 0,2 - 0,5. Which means that if the measures are not set in time you have 50% chances to crash.

[Catch22Dem]

12. And chaff

[TexasLawyer]

7. I never heard about the LA rocket

was that ever on the news?

[Wise Doubter]

9. It was actually at Long Beach Municipal

I remember seeing it ONCE on the news. It was last summer?

I was concerned because my g/f was flying out of there the following week.

I always fly out of Long Beach. Easy in & out

[951-Riverside]

10. They never identified that pilot who crashed near the LB habor

from what I saw he smacked into a few containers but was taken out alive but the plane looked smashed up anyway I saw it once breaking on the local news and that was the end of it after that I never heard of the story again.

[NYC]

23. Was there an investigation?

What was the outcome? Surely if a rocket was fired, there should have been more than just local interest.

[Karmakaze]

11. I would be surprised if...

a shoulder launched SAM could take down a large commercial ariliner. They just dont have that much of a warhead. In fact I believe a 747 or some other large airliner got hit on the way into Baghdad airport. An engine was set on fire, but other than that, not much damage.

On top of that there are no counter-measures really. Shoulder launched missiles are infrared guided, so you cant use a radar warning receiver. In fact you pretty much have to actually SEE the missile launch to have any hope of defeating it. So unless they are gonna have specially trained lookouts on airliners, there is nothing they can really do.

[hack89]

14. If you could take out an engine while it was taking off and flying slow ..

there is a good chance you could induce a stall, making it crash. But if the plane had adequate speed, you are right that it would most likely survive.

However, the psychological impact on the traveling public and the resulting economic impact as many refused to fly would be great whether the plane crashed or not.

[Karmakaze]

21. I believe most multi engine aircraft are designed...

to lose one or more engines on takeoff and still be able to land safely. In fact the 747 can lose 3 engines mid Atlantic and still make it home. Its not good for the engine (most likely result in it being scrapped) but it can do it.

In any case, there is nothing you can really do about it. Military aircraft keep getting shot down even though they have these systems, so what makes people think airliners would be any better off?

[Kailassa]

16. There used to be an effective counter measure available.

But it has already been wasted, flushed down the neocon toilet.

It was to avoid turning other countries into enemies, and to not pour fertilizer on the land after planting the seeds of terrorism there.

[formercia]

18. agree.

bush gang are a bunch of stupid fucks.

[high density]

20. Boxer, that's another giveaway to Boeing/Raytheon/Honeywell/et al

Who's going to pay for it? The airlines certainly can't.

Instead lets change our stupid foreign policy. Putting "countermeasures" on commercial aircraft isn't going to fix the root cause of the problem.

[cyr330]

22. The Bush admin has been warned time & again

I'll bet $$ that this will be the next menace. . . . Just imagine the carnage if this were done in a more than one city at the same time. . . What are they waiting for to equip planes with some protection? ** is probably keeping his fingers crossed, praying for a way to get his shitty ratings back up again.

[toopers]

24. I still like the parachute idea the most . . .

Put a giant parachute on the plane and float down.

[superconnected]

25. Somehow I think we'd have heard about it in January

if it were true.

It's Propaganda for war. The War is propaganda for defense companies.

Anything else, like... "how dare they shoot at us over THEIR air space", is ridiculous. They damn well ought to. But I doubt they did.

The LA rocket incident, isn't worth focusing on. I could only guess that one of the choppers that went down in California last year, contained the US soldier that shot it off.