'Missile' Fired at Jetliner Near LAX

From KYW 1060 Newsradio's website:

"FBI agents and Homeland Security officials spent the weekend investigating the report of a possible missile fired at an American Airlines plane taking off from Los Angeles International Airport.

Sources tell ABC News the pilot of American Airlines Flight 621, en route to Chicago, radioed air traffic controllers after takeoff from LAX. He told them a missile had been fired at the aircraft and missed. The plane was over water when the pilot said he saw a smoke trail pass by the cockpit.

FBI agents believe it was a flare or a bottle rocket, but say they may never know if that's what it actually was. " (My highlighting)

Let's see, a bottle rocket has a range of 50 or 75 feet, at best, and doesn't have much of a smoke trail at all. If it was a flare, and the pilot saw it go by, he would probably have also seen the bright light from the flare itself, you'd think.

........it musta been swamp gas...........

Here's a bunch more reports of similar incidents.

Hat tip to Geek With a .45 for the story.