Al-Qaeda's latest weapon: kites

Metro.co.uk ^ | September 17, 2007 | Staff

[jdm]

Al-Qaeda's new weapon: a kite

Forget heat seaking multi million pound missiles Al-Qaeda terrorists may be using a low tech weapon that has been used as a toy by children for thousands of years: kites.

The multi billion pound US military fear al-Qaeda-linked militants may be flying cheap kites high above the Indonesian jungle with the intention that they get caught in the propellers of military helicopters flying by to bring them crashing to the ground.

A Huey helicopter encountered difficulty while flying back at night from a recent combat mission on the southern island of Jolo after a kite's thick nylon cord became dangerously entwined in its rotor, Philippine air force chief Lieutenant General Horacio Tolentino said today.

The pilots had noticed unusual vibrations, and managed to land safely in a Jolo military camp, he said.

An air force officer familiar with the incident said that the kite's cord most probably struck the Vietnam War-era Huey over a sparsely populated mountainous region, from which the aircraft evacuated soldiers wounded during a clash with suspected Abu Sayyaf militants.

It was unlikely the kite had been flown by ordinary civilians, the officer said.

Several kites may have been flown, then tied to trees surrounding a rebel encampment as an extra buffer against nighttime air attacks, the officer said.

'They really have an intention to bring down our helicopters,' Tolentino told the Associated Press.

After the incident, Tolentino said he instructed air force pilots to undertake "evasive maneuvers" aimed to protect choppers from kites during landing and takeoff in Jolo, especially at night. Inspectors were deployed to ensure no kites were being flown near air force areas, he said.

Kite-flying is a popular pastime on Jolo, a predominantly Muslim island where US forces have been providing non-combat assistance to Filipino troops to wipe out Abu Sayyaf militants and a handful of Indonesian militants.

But residents rarely fly kites at night.

Kites' potentially lethal power caught the country's attention last May, when a Huey helicopter crashed on a busy street near an air base in central Cebu province, killing nine people, seven of them on the ground.

Investigators said the nylon kite cord, which accidentally got coiled in the assembly connecting the main rotor to the aircraft's body, may have caused the crash.

Tolentino said the air force endorsed a bill to Congress that would penalize people who fly kites near airports and air bases nationwide following that deadly accident.

[FreedomFromGov]

The boat made it about 200ft and died. They spent almost an hour trying to cut that line from the propeller.

Wow, next thing you know, they're going to trip up our battleships with fishing lines and crab traps.

[Tenacious 1]

You can likely turn all the beeps off. Go to your owner manual. There are ways, using the ignition switch, seatbelt and horn to re-program a lot of those beeps. Vehicle to old for programming? Look under the drivers seat and unplug it.

Hope this helps. :o)

[Jeffrey_D.]

LOL!!

[SpinnerWebb]

This is just a flying enemy marker.

Wait until the media picks up on the report that several Indonesian muslim "children" were blown up while playing in the "civilian forest". Complete with news footage of them hauling the same gray body out of the jungle 8 times. And a sign that says Baby Kite Playground.

[IronJack]

That was probably monofilament, no? I suppose the al-Crudda primitives could be using mono line, or even nylon fishing line. I guess I was thinking of braided nylon rope.

[Little Ray]

Actually, there were barrage KITES in WWII, too!

[Jeffrey_D.]

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[bk1000]

Sharpen the rotor blades. Problem solved.

[LibLieSlayer]

Funny and true... and most of all SAD!

LLS

[Islander7]

"....BTW......biggest thing I ever caught !!!!...

So, how do you clean and cook something like that? What's that? Oh, catch and release, I see.

[darth]

IIRC, they have cable cutters on the rotors of military choppers already. You need 1/4” aircraft cable to bring down a military chopper. A kite that can carry that much weight aloft will be highly visible. Silly islamonazis.

[monday]

“Several kites may have been flown, then tied to trees surrounding a rebel encampment as an extra buffer against nighttime air attacks, the officer said.”

er... am I the only one who thinks flying kites is kind of stupid if you are a terrorist trying to not call attention to yourself? If I was flying a helicopter and knew terrorists were flying kites, I would look for kites and then shoot the people flying them.

I am guessing kite flying would quickly become a very unpopular pastime on the island of Jolo.