Missiles fired at Israeli passanger jet

RE: Missiles fired at Israeli passenger jet

Fair point I suppose!

RE: Missiles fired at Israeli passenger jet

How would the tower have known? They may have been looking, they may not.

RE: Missiles fired at Israeli passenger jet

Wouldn’t the tower have told the pilots that someone fired a missile at them? In that case I would have thought the sensible course of action would be to get away from Mobassa asap, assuming the risk of a cross-country single engined flight is less than the risk of another missile up the backside!

RE: Missiles fired at Israeli passenger jet

In the UK in the mid-90’s the IRA demonstrated how vulnerable departing and arriving commercial traffic is to terrorists by lobbing a few dummy mortars into LHR from the back of a make-shift launcher parked in a hotel car park. There are countless army surplus vendors of weaponry where a terrorist can obtain materials and park themselves anywhere vaguely near the end of a runway and take pot shots at liberty. We are almost powerless to do anything about it. Any more of this and I foresee a massive hike in my life assurance premiums.

RE: Missiles fired at Israeli passenger jet

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 09-12-02 AT 10:19 AM (GMT)]That’s scary. As far as I remember the US delivered a bunch of stinger missiles to the Afghans during the war against USSR.
They were used to shoot USSR choppers.
Those might be a threat for us now since that some of them may be in the hands of Al Quaida psychos.

RE: Missiles fired at Israeli passenger jet

This one is starting to get more interesting as more of the facts emerge. The missiles used were fairly old technology and needed a certain amount of time after launch to arm themselves. Fortunately just before departure of the Arkia flight there was a wind direction change which meant a sudden change in the runway in use. The terrorists had set themselves up for the former runway so when the Arkia 757 took off they found it a lot closer than they expected. They still fired 2 missiles but neither had armed before passing the target. I’m not sure whether they actually struck the aircraft, they possibly did as the flightcrew believed they had a bird strike. If they had lost an engine (even completely) they would probably have returned to Mombasa if they were unaware that the cause was a missile.

RE: Missiles fired at Israeli passenger jet

I’ve always felt safe flying on charter flights too, but I think in recent months, I learnt that no passenger’s safety can be guaranteed regardless of who they fly with or how they fly.

And with terrorist attacks becoming more and more frequent all over the world, every airline really is at threat, whether they are charter or not.

RE: Missiles fired at Israeli passanger jet

If the missile had actually worked and say, one engine was shredded…would the pilot have tried to land, or would he have gunned the remaining engine and flown straight to Nairobi?

What would the pilots on this forum have done?

RE: Missiles fired at Israeli passanger jet

Well sadly, citizens of the USA and Israel are targets, and with the solid securty rep of El Al (which owns Arkia, I think?) it was probably inevitable something would be attempted.

Good call from the pilot though, proceeding on – quick thinking.

RE: Missiles fired at Israeli passanger jet

Personally onbourd i have felt safer with charter – i know a couple of airlines that still allow the kids upfront for example as it has always been part of the holiday trip, but unfortunatly the world changes 🙁

RE: Missiles fired at Israeli passanger jet

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 28-11-02 AT 10:56 PM (GMT)]If someone told me a missile was going to be fired at a charter 757-300 today I would have gone sick. There’s so few of them doing charter that the odds would have been too great that it could have been me!

I find this really scary as up until now (as far as I am aware) all terrorist action has occured with scheduled airlines, particularly national carriers for the political implications that brings. Today we must face the fact that the holiday market is now a terrorist target too.

RE: Missiles fired at Israeli passanger jet

Most of the passengers knew something was wrong when they saw Israeli F-15s escorting them.

RE: Missiles fired at Israeli passanger jet

http://gfx.dagbladet.no/nyheter/2002/11/28/israel_flyland_sak.jpg

Here it is landing

RE: Missiles fired at Israeli passanger jet

BBC News 24 is now showing footage of the 757 arriving safely in Israel.

RE: Missiles fired at Israeli passanger jet

Kabir, Kenya is not a new target for terror, it was hit by Al Qaeda about 3 years ago.

‘Al Qaeda bombing’ kills 11
Thursday, November 28, 2002 Posted: 1029 GMT

Reports said four-wheel drive vehicle laden with explosives rammed into the Paradise hotel

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MOMBASA, Kenya (CNN) — Kenya’s ambassador to Israel says there is “no doubt” that al Qaeda was behind the car bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya and a missile attack on an Israeli airliner.

Eleven people were killed on Thursday by the suicide bomb at a hotel in Mombasa frequented by Israeli tourists, police told CNN.

Meanwhile, CNN’s Jerrold Kessel said an Arkia Airlines Boeing 757, which was carrying 260 passengers and 10 crew members, was hit by shrapnel after it took off from the port city on Thursday but the decision was taken to fly on to Israel.

Two Israeli children were among those who died when the suicide car bomb exploded in front of the Paradise hotel, Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

Six of the victims were Kenyan, police said, adding that three suicide bombers also died. Around 80 others were injured as the explosion started a fire at the Paradise hotel.

Reports said a four-wheel drive vehicle laden with explosives rammed into the hotel lobby as 146 Israeli tourists were checking in at reception.

“There is no doubt in my mind that al Qaeda is behind this attack, because we have no domestic problems, no terrorism in our country, and we have no problem with our neighbours, no problem whatsoever,” Kenyan Ambassador John Sawe told Reuters.

A number of the the Kenyan victims were traditional dancers welcoming the tourists to the hotel, Abbas Gullet, Secretary-General of the Kenyan Red Cross, told CNN.

Kenyan journalist Victor Mwasi told CNN he had seen seven bodies, four burned beyond recognition. He said seven people had been taken to hospital after the attack in the hotel lobby.

“Just after a group of tourists were brought to the hotel, I saw a white Pajero forcing its way into the gate,” a barman at a hotel across the road from the Mombasa Paradise, told Reuters, adding the attack happened at about 8.30 a.m. (0530 GMT).

“It had three people of Arabic origin and after it got to the reception area I heard an explosion and the whole hotel was on fire.”

The casualty unit manager at the city’s main hospital, the Aga Khan hospital, told Reuters by telephone he had received about six casualties from the blast.

“They are all non-Kenyan and have different injuries. Some have bruises, others have deep cuts and some have metal objects stuck in their bodies.”

In the missile attack on the plane, preparations had been made for an emergency landing at Nairobi, Kenya, Kessel said, but after an hour in the air it was determined there was little damage to the plane and no injuries to passengers.

The jet, Flight 582, is scheduled to land in Tel Aviv early on Thursday afternoon. The Israeli airline El Al cancelled all incoming international flights until further notice following the missile attack, Israeli radio reported.

Said foreign minister Netanyahu: “It means that terror organsations and the regimes behind them are able to arm themselves with weapons which can cause mass casualties anywhere and everywhere.

“Today, they’re firing the missiles at Israeli planes, tomorrow they’ll fire missiles at American planes, British planes, every country’s aircraft. Therefore, there can be no compromise with terror.”

In the hotel bombing, Israeli television said a car crashed through a barrier and someone inside threw explosives. A woman who gave her name as Neima said she had just arrived at the Paradise hotel with a group of tourists from Israel when the hotel was shaken by the blast.

“People were cut up in the legs, arm, all over their bodies. Everything was burned up,” she told Israel Radio by telephone, according to Reuters.

Al Qaeda was blamed the Nairobi embassy bomb in which 219 died

“Almost all the guests are Israelis. A few Kenyans were also hurt, but it was mostly Israelis.”

CNN’s Catherine Bond says that Mombasa is a popular tourist destination for Israelis. The hotel, she says, has previously had Israeli troops staying there. Kessel said there was little doubt these were terrorist attacks against Israeli interests.

Kenya has seen previous terrorist attacks against Western interests.

An August 7, 1998, blast at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi killed 219 people — including 12 Americans — and wounded 5,000. A nearly simultaneous attack on the U.S. Embassy in neighbouring Tanzania killed 12 people and injured more than 80.

The United States sentenced four men to life in prison without parole for their roles in the attacks. It accused them of having links to Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda terrorist network, who were also blamed for the September 11 attacks on the United States last year.

Mombasa is frequented by U.S. Navy vessels assigned to the Indian Ocean. Although the ships bring much-needed dollars to the city of one million, many of the mostly Muslim residents express ambivalence toward Americans.

Muslims are a minority in Kenya as a whole, officially accounting for 10 percent of the country’s 29 million people.

RE: Missiles fired at Israeli passanger jet

In Kenya??? Thats a new place for such a thing but really must be a horrifying experience. No place in the world looks like a safe place for air travel these days.