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Missile fired at airliner (Arkia) taking off from Mombasa

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Old Nov 28, 2002, 12:49 am
  #1  
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Missile fired at airliner (Arkia) taking off from Mombasa

Israeli Foreign Ministry reports simultaneous attacks on Israeli airliner, hotel in Kenya. Missile fired at airliner taking off from Mombasa as car bomb explodes in front of Mombasa hotel.

cnn.com
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Old Nov 28, 2002, 12:54 am
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www.spiegel.de reports that 270 passengers were aboard. The pilot landed the aircraft in Mombasa.
All flights from El Al from foreign airports are cancelled.

The hotel "Paradise" (Mombasa) has been hit by a bomb attack.
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Old Nov 28, 2002, 1:06 am
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bbc.com reports that the flight continues to Israel

An explosion has hit an Israeli-owned hotel in the Kenyan city of Mombasa, just as two missiles were fired at an Israeli jet that had just taken off from the city's airport.
The aircraft carrying more than 200 passengers was not hit and continued on its way to Israel, but there are reports of casualties at the hotel.

"There's smoke and there's fire," said one resident outside the Mombasa Paradise hotel, which is frequented by foreign tourists of several nationalities including Israelis.

Crowds milled around the damaged building as ambulances ferried the injured to a local hospital.

Israel television reported that a car had crashed through a barrier outside the hotel and explosives were thrown from the vehicle.

The apparent attack occurred as two or three buses carrying Israeli tourists were on the way to the hotel, an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman said.

The aircraft that was subject to the missile attack belonged to the Arkia charter company.

It was lightly damaged, reports say, but no one aboard was hurt.

Airline officials said pilots saw a flash of light on the left side of the aircraft, and had initially prepared for an emergency landing in Nairobi before deciding to continue to Israel.
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Old Nov 28, 2002, 1:40 am
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www.spiegel.de reports a car bomb blew up in front of the Paradise Hotel in Mombasa. 8 people were killed; at least 10 people injured. The hotel is totally destoyed.

The jet, Flight 582 (B757), is scheduled to land in Tel Aviv shortly after midday (5 a.m. ET) on Thursday. Preparations had been made for an emergency landing at Nairobi, Kenya, but after an hour in the air it was determined there was little damage to the plane and no injuries to passengers.

The Israeli airline El Al cancelled all incoming international flights until further notice following the missile attack.
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Old Nov 28, 2002, 3:04 am
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All flights originating from foreign airports into TLV have been cancelled.

Am I glad I flew in yesterday morning!!

And thank God those people on the Arkia flight are okay... I wish we could say the same for those in the hotel in Mombasa.
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Old Nov 28, 2002, 4:58 am
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It was long time reported that terrorist might be planning attacking airplanes with missiles.
I really feared the day to come when this really happens.
This is really horrible.

Only thing is I am very happy that they did not actually got the aircraft down. It seems not so easy to shoot an airliner with this kind of missiles.

I am happy for all people aboard this flight, and also happy for the airline industry. I am sure, if the missile would have come into target, passenger numbers would drop by 50% immediately.
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Old Nov 28, 2002, 7:02 am
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Horrendous. What security measures can we adopt against these rabid mad men? Counterattack suggested as a possible deterrant. My sympathies to all the Israelis who have suffered and have been suffering.
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Old Nov 28, 2002, 7:31 am
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If reports are true that these projectiles were within 8-feet of the wing, this forebodes bad things to come. I know that in the mid/late 80s in Afghanistan, our (US) special ops and Pakistan's intelligence/military trained rebels to use even rocket propelled grenades to hit landing, taxi-ing and taking-off aircraft. I guess those (relatively inaccurate) skills/knowledge are not only out there, but even more diffuse. If they get to use stingers or stinger-like missiles, we have even a greater mess on our hand.
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Old Nov 28, 2002, 8:58 am
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Given that the attackers are Lebanon-based terrorists, they used handheld SAM's. It's a known fact that the various Lebanese terrorist groups have them. I'm sure that information will be out there in due time, as the police have already recovered components of the missles.

It does help to illustrate that hitting a jet aircraft isn't as easy to do as one might thing.
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Old Nov 28, 2002, 10:33 am
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Sounds like Sayed Hassan Nasrallah and company.
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Old Nov 28, 2002, 11:01 am
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[sarcasm]I suggest we continue to focus all our efforts on making sure the passengers don't have anything sharp or pointy, no matter what the cost. [/sarcasm]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by drbala:
Horrendous. What security measures can we adopt against these rabid mad men? Counterattack suggested as a possible deterrant. My sympathies to all the Israelis who have suffered and have been suffering.</font>


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Old Nov 28, 2002, 1:21 pm
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<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Uli:
It was long time reported that terrorist might be planning attacking airplanes with missiles.
I really feared the day to come when this really happens.
This is really horrible.
</font>
This happened 25 years ago and the world turned a blind eye...
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Old Nov 28, 2002, 1:27 pm
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Yes, many TV station which are covering this in depth now report this started 1973 when terrorists tried to shoort down airplanes with missiles during take-off in Rome. Since then, there were more than one incident with missiles, may those have been shot by terrorists or by the military.
A new aspect is that an aircraft specifically carrying tourists, and those all from Israel, was targeted.
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Old Nov 28, 2002, 2:10 pm
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A good place for a summary of past attacks...

http://cas.faa.gov/crimacts/

birdstrike
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Old Nov 28, 2002, 2:31 pm
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How about the member of the anti-Castro movement, Orlando Bosch who blew a Cubana airliner wiped out the entire Cuban Olympic fencing team.
I believe he still lives on 6th Ave in Miami, the USA, appears not be a terrorist though, could'nt have been or our govt would have arrested him right?
Interesting world we live in.
mike



[This message has been edited by MIKESILV (edited 11-28-2002).]
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