[ml/nj]

If it was close enough to lock onto an airliner in the traffic pattern, it was clearly effectively in the pattern.

Words mean things. Pattern, to pilots anyway, is how they get in line to land at an airport, if they are flying under Visual Flight Rules. TWA was not in or near a/the pattern, and commercial planes don't fly VFR in any case. It was not even near where it normally would have been if it were following the other JFK Europe bound departures. And that is why the accident happened: It was more that 5000 feet lower than normal.

ML/NJ

[expatpat]

I'm a licensed pilot with IFR rating, but I was using the term pattern in a generic sense. But, if you want to get technical, a traffic pattern is not just for landing, it includes take-off patterns as well. The VFR/IFR thing is irrelevant. Approach/Departure controllers use the same limited number of routing paths for IFR traffic to and from given runways from day to day.

The lower altitude is also a minor issue, since there is no guarantee of higher-altitude use which would allow military missile-launching so close to airport traffic. As I said before, the military has a great deal of airspace designated for their own use well away from commercial airports. Of course, it could have been an accidental launching during transit, but this seems somewhat unlikely.