[nitpick] The Redeye was replaced with the Stinger in the early 80’s, and the SA-16 “Gimlet” is it’s Soviet Block copy.[/nitpick]
Other than that, I fully agree with Weirddave on this. It has been feared for many years that a scenario like this would play out, and the US Army has lost Stingers here in the US, and there were over 100 left in Afghanistan after the Soviets pulled out in the 80’s. Soviet versions are available on the black market.
This in no way suggests that this occurred this morning, but it has been a scenario studied for many years with not a whole hell of a lot we could do about it until afterwards. The good part is these missiles leave one heck of a smoke trail that can be seen for some time, so it is HIGHLY unlikely this occurred.
It’s time to racial profile. If an Arab got on a plane going to a Spanish speaking country with a fake Spanish passport and maybe even speaking Spanish, would anyone even notice him? Even leaving from New York City today?
Thanks, Bill, always nice for us armchair civilian students of the military to be backed up by experts. FWIW I mentioned the older models on the theory that they are more common, and if I’m a terrorist leader with both in my inventory, and the older model is more than adiquate for the attack I want to make, I would use it rather than the newer ones, which I would keep at home as having a better chance to hit when used against U.S. warplanes as opposed to civilian airliners.
Unless I’ve missed something, at this point, there hasn’t been a determination that this crash has anything to do with terrorists, let alone which terrorists, so this suggestion is, well, at least premature, I’d think.
Although anyone with a fake passport should be stopped, and should have been stopped even prior to 9-11.
What wring said. This is a time to reach out to one another and to guard our freedoms, not throw them away. If and when any hard evidence is found to suggest that this tragedy has anything to do with terrorists, then we’ll talk.
I heard about it in an email from my friend in England, who was announcing that she had just finalised her plans to travel back to Australia by plane in December, despite hearing about the latest air tragedy in NYC. Her stopover is going to be in Dubai.
My heart goes out to the families of those lost to this latest tragedy. How much can New York stand? Let’s pray that this is the end of their streak of sorrow.
After a minor accident I had to take a day off at work today. Suddenly my sister calls saying that a plane bound for Santo Domingo had crashed in New York. I though “this can’t be happening”. I tuned the local news and yes, it had happened.
A report from the AILA Airport (Santo Domingo) showed the shock in people’s faces when finding out that their relatives, spouses and friends that they went to pick up at the airport would never arrive. It broke my heart, that’s when it hurts the most when you hear the stories of these people, when you actually see them crying. And like most of you I thought “pls. God, let this be just an accident”. How sick a world when one finds comfort in knowning that more than 255 people died in just an accident.
Our president has just declared 3 days of mourning, that makes 9 days in just 2 months for us.
Do we know why takeoff was delayed for 35 minutes? Had the Airbus left on time this probably would have happened somwhere near Bermuda.
How’s this for a coincidence? CNN reported this morning that the subject of one UN conference concerned what to do with the Afghani government once the Taliban is removed from power.
Even if it were so, if the primary cause 9/10 times turned out to be unrelated to a fundamental design flaw – i.e. weather, or honest error, or negligence, or bad operating procedures, or a combination (* “Heck, I’ve landed in worse weather than this, and besides management has been on our case over delays. Gun the engines.”*) it does not throw up general red flags.
Anecdotal: About 3 or 4 years back, an A300 leaving San Juan for Miami had the port engine catch on fire about 15 minutes out. Many of us got to pull over on the highway and just stare at this big honkin’ Airbus coming on approach to SJU – which means overflying the heart of the Business District and several large housing projects – trailing a flame as long as itself and a few miles of smoke. Made it back safely.
Not sure what you mean. Wouldn’t the malfunction have happened on takeoff no matter when the takeoff time was?
Don’t berate yourself. You’re not taking comfort from the knowledge that this was an accident; you’re merely consoling yourself with the hope that this is not the continuation of a pattern. I hope it’s not, anyway.
As for the Hello Kitty bedsheets, I find it touching that people were willing to contribute something of theirs. Not that I’d know the difference, but I wouldn’t mind Hello Kitty as opposed to an anonymous body bag.
[tangent]I’m thinking of an early episode of Roseanne where a salesman talked his way into the house and abruptly collapsed in the kitchen. Naturally, he had no ID, and the town coroner was on the golf course without a pager. (IRL, someone would call the clubhouse and have him dragged off the greens!) Anyway, hours later, the coroner finally showed up, pronounced him, and “John Doe” was taken away. Becky (oldest daughter) said, "He shouldn’t have lived his whole life just to be buried as John Doe…William. Definitely a William.[/tangent]
FTR, the tail was pulled from Jamaica Bay not the Atlantic.
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The NTSB seems to be concentrating on the JAL 747 that was ahead of flight 587. Although AA587 started out more than the required two minutes behind the 747, at some point the difference was down to about 90 seconds. They are looking at the possibility that the “wake effect” from the 747 contributed to the crash. If they can retrieve the information from the damaged flight data recorder, that should answer a lot of questions.
