In Salon last week

[Connie Clark]

Hand-held terror
Shoulder-launched missiles are cheap, portable and
deadly against lumbering commercial jets -- and
terrorists in the U.S. may already have them.

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By Paul J. Caffera

Nov. 5, 2001 | American Airlines Flight 970 was
supposed to be routine, a two-hour hop from Managua,
Nicaragua, to Miami International Airport. The only
thing different about the scheduled flight leaving
from Augusto Cesar Sandino International Airport on
March 31, 1993, was that it was carrying senior-level
Nicaraguan diplomats. Just before the plane was to
take off, airport authorities received an anonymous
telephone call threatening to shoot down the Boeing
727 with a shoulder-launched missile. 

The plane was kept on the ground until security crews
could sweep the area by foot and helicopter for any
suspicious activity. The authorities had plenty of
reason for concern -- the caller had said the plane
would be shot down with a "Redeye" missile. Redeyes,
the first American-made, shoulder-launched
surface-to-air missiles, had been captured by the
Russians at the end of the Vietnam War and
subsequently shipped to the Cubans, who then funneled
them to Nicaragua's communist Sandinista regime. 

In the end, the flight took off without incident, but
the incident unnerved airport authorities and American
Airlines, who realized that they were virtually
powerless against the invisible threat. It also showed
how close to home the threat of shoulder-launched
missile attacks against passenger jets has come. 

In the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks,
aviation experts warn that shoulder-launched
antiaircraft missiles could be used against American
passenger jets in the future. Terrorist organizations
like Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network are already
believed to own such missiles, and some say it will
only be a matter of time before they filter into the
U.S. -- if they haven't already. 

So-called Man-Portable Air Defense Systems, or
MANPADS, are capable of knocking a jet out of the sky
from as far as five miles away and at an altitude of
up to 13,000 feet in as little as 13 seconds. Those
aboard often have no warning before the missile
explodes as it slams into an engine, air-conditioning
unit or other heat-producing device on the aircraft. 
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