Originally Posted by AZ Travels the World

I don't know about that. While there may be absolutely nothing to this particular incident, given the lack of controls in this country around the importation and possession of weapons capable of doing exactly this, unfortunately, I think it's only a matter of time before someone brings down a commercial airplane on US soil with a portable missle launcher.

I remember an NPR story (I think it was) last year some time that addressed the thousands of just such launchers that Homeland Security knows, for certain, are already in this country. Think about the freeways on both ends of Sky Harbor's runways. Given how low the planes are, how hard would it be for someone to pull over, get out of the car, and blow one out of the sky? I think about it every time I land at an airport where I can see out the window all the cars lined up with people watching the planes take off and land.

There is a reason there's been so much talk about equipping commercial aircraft with missle avoidance systems. Unfortunately, it appears it just isn't "cost effective." (Translation: it's cheaper to pay off the families of a shot-down airliner.)