Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.
Pilot Reports 'Missile' Fired at Jetliner Near LAX
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.
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A bottle rocket?? Youre flying a zillion pound airliner the size of a small submarine with engine noise and whatnot and you can see/hear a tiny teeny bottle rocket that somehow made it to your altitude????
I smell cover up. There were reports a few years ago about a MANPAD* found at the end of a runway somewhere down south but then it dropped from the news quickly. Of course, the TWA 800 incident had people reporting missle trails and they were brushed off as freaks. (The TWA 800 incident, in my opinion, was an accidental shootdown by the navy who was training in waters nearby.)
Of course, if the missle had hit this flight from LAX we'd get some TSB and TSA story about a spark in the gas tank or something….until a video shows up on the internet of a couple guys actually shooting it.
Watch for this story to quickly disappear and for the usual suspects to mysteriously become more concerned about anti-missle defense for airliners.
* = Man Portable Air Defense System
