A plane leaving Bush airport may have been fired on by a rocket or missile early Friday night in an incident that is still under investigation.
From the Chron:
Liberty County Sheriff’s officials are expected to meet with the FAA on Tuesday to discuss what a Continental Express pilot reported as a “missile or rocket†flying near his airplane.
A pilot reported to the Federal Aviation Administration that at about 8:15 p.m. Friday, an object passed within 150 feet beneath the aircraft, sheriff’s officials said.
The aircraft was near the southern edge of the county, flying at about 13,000 feet, officials said.
“The pilot, from what we understand, was former military. He was able to get the coordinates down real quick,†said Cpl. Hugh Bishop with the Liberty County Sheriff’s Department.
Sheriff’s deputies searched Friday night for signs of evidence where a missile might have been launched or landed.
“We couldn’t find anything,†Bishop said.
That could be because the object was a homemade munition recovered after firing. Weapons like this don’t leave much debris at all:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJiAx4pi0sE[/youtube]
Youtube and various Internet forums are full of instructions on weaponizing model rockets with homemade explosives so investigators may not find the kind of military missile wreckage they are looking for.
Via N.T.A. there is a longer ABC piece that includes a video report where authorities claim it was “bigger than a model rocket” but hobby rocketeers have been known to build some exceptionally powerful rockets in their workshops so ruling out a homemade munition is unwise. There is a black market for anti-Aircraft missiles, but if this was an attack on the jetliner with one we just got very lucky. The fact that the rocket missed the plane and did no damage seems to indicate that this may have been someone making something homemade who didn’t know that a model rocket isn’t a good ground to air weapon.
Hopefully the person will be caught before they realize that a more effective ground to ground munition can be made from the same materials.
“Hopefully the person will be caught before they realize that a more effective ground to ground munition can be made from the same materials.”
Not without a guidance system.
Unless you’re suggesting someone can reliably hit an airliner 2+ miles up with an unguided rocket, which of course is ludicrous.
Please stop the fear mongering and stick to plausible scenarios!
Why would a GROUND to GROUND rocket need a guidance system? Miniature Katusha rockets can be cheaply manufactured, loaded with flash powder and BBs or birdshot and pointed toward a town square to make a very effective terror weapon.
Maybe you should try reading the sentences you excerpt. I have said it’s unlikely a model rocket could shoot down a airliner, but it can set a roof on fire or injure some random people.
Why? Because even the best rocketeers cannot accurately predict where a rocket will land when launched from a distance. Or for that matter if the rocket will be where it needs to be when your flash powder and BBs go off.
That’s why REAL weapons use things like proximity fuses and guidance systems. Really, it would be much simpler and very much more reliable to just walk a bomber into the middle of the town square.
Then why do Hezbollah and Hamas use rockets, unguided it should be noted, so effectively in Israel? Why do many militaries still use unguided rocket systems?
Because they are effective weapons for terrorizing a populace. YouTube is lousy with videos of amateur rocketeers making improvised munitions like I’m describing, and in fact the Oaxala rioters used similar weapons to great effect on the federal police in Mexico a couple of years ago.
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And so, 6mo after the fact and living in the vicinity of where the incident was reported, should I still be concerned? I say this only because I have recently seen miliary fly by which reminded me of the news report. Also, I can’t help but wonder why there has been no mention of the fact that Exxon Mobile is only a few miles from the supposed launch site location. In May 2008, a similar incident in the general area was reported by flight 1544. Although model rockets can reach 12,000ft and beyond, the report is, however unsettling when a major petroleum refinery is within a 10 mile radius.
I frequent several sites and forums that report on Homeland Security issues and frankly there really hasn’t been anything to add to this.
The National Terror Alert site has a forum and they keep abreast of all the important happenings. Try there I may have missed something they posted.
http://www.nationalterroralert.com/