Missile missed plane by 1m

[Gunship]

News 24 (http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/0,1113,2-11_1291134,00.html)

Tel Aviv - A 62-year-old passenger on board an Israeli flight which narrowly missed being hit by a missile while en route from Mombasa in Kenya said on Thursday that the weapon went about a metre above the plane's wing.

Ezra Gozlan, who was sitting at the back of the plane, said after landing at the Ben Gurion international airport: "All the wheels were in the air and then we heard the explosion. It (the missile) went about one metre above the wing."

"The moment I heard the explosion I looked out of the window and saw the smoke. It was a bazooka or something like that," he said. "I said to someone 'it's a missile'. He said 'No, maybe something got caught in the engine'."

Some passengers said they saw a 300m smoke trail on the left of the plane, but many slept on the flight home suspecting nothing.

"We heard a boom very close to us and we didn't know what it was," passenger Eli Yona said.

Most of the 261 passengers aboard Arkia flight IZ582 from Mombasa to Tel Aviv were unaware they had come under missile attack as their early morning flight took off for Israel.

The pilot told the passengers about the attempted missile attack only when the flight had entered Israeli airspace. Two air force jets escorted the plane until it landed safely.

There was no damage to the plane. Airline officials and experts said that it was preferable for the plane to continue flying rather than land for a damage check at the airport where it had come under attack.

Minutes after the failed missile strike, a car bomb exploded at a hotel near Mombasa where many of the passengers had stayed during their week-long vacation in Kenya.

At least two Israelis, both children, were among the 13 people killed in the car bomb attack. Kenya's envoy to Israel blamed Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network for both attacks.

[Gunship]

IOL (http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?sf=68&click_id=3&art_id=qw1038489480459B253&set_id=1)

Tel Aviv - An Israeli pilot said two missiles aimed at his airliner as it took off from the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa on Thursday came close enough for the crew and passengers to see their smoke trails.

Rafi Marik, a captain with private Israeli airline company Arkia, said after landing in Tel Aviv that the airliner had reached an altitude of 130 metres when the missiles closed in.

"We spotted two white smoke trails passing us on the left side, from the rear to the front, and disappearing after a few seconds," Marik told reporters at Ben-Gurion Airport. Asked how close the missiles came, he said: "Not very far."

He would not comment on what sort of missiles were fired, but Israeli media reports identified them as Soviet-era SAM-7 heat-seeking missiles. It was not immediately clear whether the Arkia flight had employed countermeasures.

Thursday's attack came within minutes of the suicide car bombing of an Israeli-owned Mombasa hotel which killed at least 11 people. The Israeli Foreign Ministry said three of the dead were Israelis, two of them children

[B Sousa]

It was just a matter of time before this happened. Im guessing that aifares will increase as Airlines install countermeasures based on their threat assessments. Here in the Virgin islands We are sweating the threat that may occur to Cruise Ships, they appear to me to be very vulnurable and it would destroy our tourism industry.
SOMEONE is going to have to step up to the plate and instead of kissing these folks collective asses, go after them in such a way that they no longer exist. We have been too kind to those captured. Maybe they would get the message if not only they, but their entire Family Tree had no remaining branches.
My Two Cents.........

[StressFree]

B Sousa,
You're right, its about time we played as dirty as the scum responsible for all this sh*t. Sometimes you have to be even more ruthless than your enemy in order to win.......................

[Gunship]

I give the post a thumbs up as this tradgedy could have been much worse :

It is a fact now that the first missle went of when the aircraft was still rolling. Anyone with SAM experience knows that it is un-effective below about 300 m - two where shot at below 130 m .. too eager - to early !

The blast at the hotel - well they where fortunately too late ! The new guests at the hotel just left the front portion of the hotel - therefore the deaths of the Kenian welcoming commitee.

Too early and too late - Thanks God for that !

[Gunship]

News 24 (http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,1113,2-11-1447_1292185,00.html)

Jerusalem - Two shoulder-fired missiles which nearly brought down an Israeli charter flight over Kenya were probably deflected by detection technology onboard the Arkia plane, an Israeli strategy expert said on Sunday.

One of the deadliest ever anti-Israeli attacks was narrowly averted early Thursday when two Russian-made Strela missiles just missed a Boeing 757 packed with 261 Israeli tourists flying back from Mombasa to Tel Aviv.

Hirsh Goodman said the US-based magazine Aviation Week reported ten years ago that all El Al (Israel's national airline) planes were equipped with anti-missile technology in response to a botched attack on one its planes in the mid-1970s.

"I can't guarantee the Arkia plane was equipped with that technology but I don't believe in miracles," said the researcher at Tel Aviv's Jaffee Center.

Captain Rafi Malek, the pilot of the targeted plane, said after landing safely in Tel Aviv Thursday: "We saw two white stripes coming up behind the aircraft, slightly above it, and moving from the back to the front and then disappearing after a few seconds."

The pilot's statement appeared to support Goodman's theory that the missiles might have been deflected by some kind "heat sensing system" which detected and diverted them by firing flares.

[flyboy6876]

Very reminiscent of the Viscount (if my memory serves correctly) that was shot down in Rhodesia in the late 70's. I've always wondered if the terrs would start thinking like that again and it seems that it has.

Wonder when every major airfield will have a no-go/kill zone around it so that aircraft can take off / land in a reasonably safe area?

Damn glad they survived, and feel awfully sorry for the folks in the hoted.

[The Claw]

It was two Air Rhodesian Viscounts that were shot down, sadly the world wasn't too concerned at the time. :mad: :mad:

The world is certainly a different place today and one wonders what the future holds? :confused:

[Gunship]

Lo guys,

Saw a program on National Geographic last night re Air Force One . It was extremely interesting and was shot before 11 Sept .. actually the last days of the Clinton rule.

If you look carefully on the 747 (ANY Airforce aircraft by the way that has the Pres of America on board is Air Force One) you will see the hump on the nose. The little I know about a 747 (except the on-board computer games) - I could see the exhaust outlets and a few underwing - "accesories" is not standard equipment.

They also did not deny (and showed some detail) about anti - strela mods and cons that is on the aircraft. There are 97 telephones online but I am sure you will agree that there are a lot of extra space left on the aircraft.

So, even before 9/11 - the Americans where ready !

Without blowing things out of proportion - shouldn't we also be ready ? :(

[ShenziRubani]

Apparently those Strelas were also the training version, and would have not explode below 1500m.
We're lucky those b"#@^ are beginners. but as you say guys, it's time we get dirty too.

[Gunship]

SR, now that IS really interesting as I went through the Russian Manuals this morning and could not find an explanation that one of them did not at least was seen self - destructing .. just a few interesting specs :

Altitude of engaged targets : 50-2300 m We all know it is quite useless so low - the best is at 1000m - that will give you the real "fire-and-forget" feature that it is known for.

The fuze is a impact type - therfore it is strange that even if it was training SAM's that it did not go for the engines at is IR homing devices on the warhead.

Self - destruction should occur between 14 - 17 seconds - strange nobody seen the "blast" or explosion but just the trails ? Maybe another feature of the training version ?