Posted on 11/28/2002 8:30:27 PM PST by Lessismore
Attempt to bring down passenger jet exposes new terrorism danger
Arkia Airlines flight IZ582 was just passing through the 500ft mark as it climbed out of Mombasa airport bound for Tel Aviv when passenger Ezra Gozlan heard a distinct boom from outside. As the plane shook, he looked up, just in time to see a small trail of smoke to the left of the Boeing 757 charter jet. "It went about one metre above the wing ... It was a bazooka or something like that," the 62-year-old Israeli said yesterday. "I said to someone 'It's a missile', but he said 'No, maybe something got caught in the engine'."
Other passengers were just as confused. "It felt like something fell off the wing," said Kerry Levy.
On the flight deck, the captain, Rafi Marik, was running through the post take-off check routine when he felt a "light hit". At first he believed a bird had hit the fuselage. Then he spotted two white vapour trails passing from the rear, not far off his port wing. His plane, with 261 passengers and 10 crew on board, was under missile attack.
The missiles were fired from shoulder-held Strela 3 launchers, Kenyan police said last night. Eyewitness reports say they came from a white four-wheel drive vehicle parked more than a mile beyond the airport's perimeter. The launcher and missile casings were found nearby.
The terrorists may have missed their target, while a car bomb attack killed at least 14 people on the ground below. But it is the attempt to bring down a passenger jet that represents the most alarming demonstration of terrorists' consistent and devastating ability to devise new forms of attack.
Governments have scrambled to plug each security gap since September 11. But last night terrorism experts said security services were powerless to prevent missile attacks on passenger aircraft.
"There is absolutely nothing whatsoever that can be done to protect civil aviation from somebody standing outside the airport perimeter fence with a shoulder-launched missile to take out aircraft as they land and take off," said Chris Yates, aviation security editor at Jane's Transport. "The industry deals with the headline stuff, installing better scanning, for example, and they have been very good at that, but at the end of the day there are so many ways for a terrorist to strike that they cannot cover every eventuality."
Back on flight IZ582, there was no panic after the near miss. Capt Marik radioed the control tower at Mombasa and his airline headquarters to tell them what had happened. The jet could not turn back to Mombasa and risk further attack so preparations were made for an emergency landing at Nairobi. But with no signs of serious damage to the plane and no injuries to the passengers, Capt Marik was told to continue to Tel Aviv.
To avoid panicking the passengers, the crew informed them that the problem had been caused by a minor technical mishap. For the next four and a half hours, they passed the flight in blissful ignorance. On the ground in Tel Aviv, shocked loved ones were already gathering at Ben Gurion airport after hearing about the attack on radio and television. Around the world there was condemnation of this escalation of terrorist violence.
But it was not until shortly before landing, as two Israeli air force F-15 fighters pulled alongside to check for external damage and escort them home, that Capt Marik revealed to the passengers how close they had come to catastophe.
The news was greeted with disbelief. Then people broke into spontaneous applause. Some started singing traditional Israeli songs. "There was a big uproar," said one, Sharon Heldth.
As the passengers celebrated their escape, security sources and independent analysts warned that shoulder-held missiles were the ideal terrorist's weapon. They are cheap, easy to conceal, usually easy to operate, and, above all, are in plentiful supply.
The Strela launcher is an upgraded, updated version of the Soviet-designed SAM-7 anti-aircraft system which has enjoyed enduring popularity with the IRA and terrorist groups worldwide since the 1970s. Christopher Langton, of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, said SAM-7s, like the Kalashnikov AK-47 rifle, were "ubiquitous".
The weapon is so simple to operate that experts were puzzled how the terrorists managed to miss their target yesterday. Equipped with a lead sulfide-seeking head which homes in on the exhaust plume of jet engines, it can hit targets up to 4.5km (2.8 miles) away and up to an altitude of 3,000m - six times the height of the airliner.
Some Israeli airliners are believed to have been fitted with electronic missile detection systems to protect them from attack during take-off and landing. Some Israeli security sources cast doubt on whether the Arkia charter jet would have been equipped with such expensive and sophisticated countermeasures.
Earlier this year, evidence emerged that al-Qaida militants had access to heat-seeking SAM-7s. In June, the Saudi Arabian authorities said they had rounded up a terrorist cell, led by a Sudanese who allegedly confessed to attempting to shoot down US military aircraft at the massive Prince Sultan airbase in the Saudi desert in May.
The authorities found a scorched SAM-7 launcher and pieces of the missile outside the base. Another unused missile was found buried nearby. The discovery prompted the FBI to issue an intelligence warning that terrorists could use shoulder-fired missiles to shoot down US commercial aircraft.
Other shoulder-fired weapons systems are known to be readily available across Africa, especially over the border in Somalia where they can be picked up for a few thousand dollars. These include the US-made Stinger system, which was used to devastating effect by Afghan mohajedin fighters against Soviet occupying forces.
Another popular choice is the Igla missile, which has been blamed for two attacks on Russian helicopters in Chechnya over the last three months. This week, Russian experts said that tens of thousands of Igla and Strela missiles had leaked into circulation from poorly guarded arsenals throughout the 1990s. One report said the defence ministry had lost track of 260,000 light weapons, including missiles, from the Transcaucasus region alone.
Unlike the September 11 suicide hijacks, yesterday's missile attack was far from original. In September 1978, for example, an Air Rhodesia Viscount carrying 52 passengers and four crew was shot down with a SAM-7 missile fired by guerrillas. Five months later, a second Air Rhodesia plane was shot down, with the loss of all on board, in a similar attack.
"There is no reason at all why the authorities should not have been able to put two and two together and predict that terrorists would try this sort of attack," said Mr Yates.
"The weapon is so simple to operate that experts were puzzled how the terrorists managed to miss their target yesterday. ...
Earlier this year, evidence emerged that al-Qaida militants had access to heat-seeking SAM-7s. ...
The discovery prompted the FBI to issue an intelligence warning that terrorists could use shoulder-fired missiles to shoot down US commercial aircraft. ...
These include the US-made Stinger system, which was used to devastating effect by Afghan mohajedin fighters against Soviet occupying forces."
Actually, they sort of do call the Al Qaeda terrorists, although they are termed "militants" as well. Of course, they were "mohajedin" "freedom fighters" during the Regan administration when we were supplying them with the anti-aircraft missiles.
It's not yet totally clear in this case that the terrorists are in fact Al Qaeda. Given the target, they could also be Palestinians. BTW, the article does call the perps terrorists.
The lunatics will probably try to pull something like this here.
A reacurring theme in this war on terrorism.
Deny the "incident" had any terrorist connection or origin..........
Bingo!!
If ANY part is 'touchy', it is the cryogenics. Early heat seekers would often take off for the SUN!! Military jets using afterburners were easy to shoot down. But modern Fan Jet technology bypasses most air around the nacelle to mix with heat sort of like we do with Stealth.
Cryogenics either use some form of Peltier solid state heat pump, or the older Stirling Engnie in reverse. Either way, they have to be maintained.
The simultaneous terrorist attacks and the cooperation implied means a new chapter is opened.
All the more important for FReepers and conscientious Americans to get flaming mad.
It's the Islamists, stupid.
If they want to visit America, if they want to go to our schools,
they must prove allegience by
activily turning in the extremists among them by the thousands,
and by speaking out against terrorist attacks,
and by being willing to be profiled.
It truly is a miracle that the passengers are alive. Just think how you would be feeling knowing that you came within a metre of being incinerated. And looking at the pictures of the passengers after disembarking, those are the faces and emotions of living breathing people these vermin would have destroyed. One Freeper made the point that the community should be as outraged when one of these plots are foiled as they are when they are carried to conclusion. I heartily agree.
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