The Mombassa missile attack

A 757 dodges two SAM missiles on takeoff

Israelis leaving Mombassa come under attack

The missile used was a Strella 7

Type ...............Shoulder fired surface to air Reload time ....6 to 10 seconds Altitude...........2.8 miles Range.............3.4 miles Speed ...........1,297 MPH

The point here is to show the absurdity of the Israeli story

The Israeli version

	The story 7:15 .... An Arika jet, with 261 Israelis vacationers, takes off from Mombassa to Tel Aviv when terrorist shoot two missiles at it. 7:25.....Terrorists drive a jeep onto the Paradise hotel lobby and detonate a bomb killing 13 employees and two Jews. Moments later a small airplane dropped incendiary bombs that burned the entire hotel.

The attack

An 757 is climbing out at max thrust when terrorists, hidden in bushes at the end of the runway, fire two SAM missiles. One missile misses and the other glances off the wing and explodes jolting the plane.

Capt Marik

At 500 feet Rafi Marik, felt a "light hit" and the plane begins to shake. The veteran Capt. thought a bird had hit the fuselage until he spotted two white vapour trails not far off his port wing.

Capt Marik quickly radioed the control tower at Mombassa and his airline headquarters. Realizing he was under attack he opted not to return to Mombassa and probably more missiles. He prepared for an emergency landing at Nairobi but Israel told him to fly direct to Tel Aviv.

		Witnesses Machluf Amsalaem ...." I saw trail of smoke blast past the wingtip. " Avi Farag ...... " The plane experienced a very large jolt and shook from left to right " Ezra Gozlan ..... " I heard a distinct boom and the plane shook and I saw a trail of smoke."
		Sam Hovkiem .... "It went about one metre above the wing _ It was a bazooka or something like that. "I said to someone 'It's a missile', but he said 'No, maybe something got caught in the engine'." Kerry Levy...... ... "It felt like something fell off the wing". One woman........."When we took off we heard a noise on the lefthand side of the plane and someone on the left hand side said it was smoke. Another woman.... "We heard a bang. They told us they thought a bird had stuck in the engine.

Eyewitnesses saw Arabs Eyewitness reports say they came from a white four-wheel drive vehicle parked more than a mile beyond the airport's perimeter. The launcher and missile casings were found nearby.

Israel sends F-15

The airliner flies 2,000 miles and as the plane approaches Tel Aviv Israel sends up two F-15's to escort the airliner home.

Jews arrive in Israel

Most analysts call it absurd

Missile specialist

" There is no way that two Strella-7's could miss a 757 that was taking off - under full power and at 500' doing 230 mph. A Strella can take out a F-16 doing 700 mph at 10,000 feet". The weapon is so simple to operate that experts were puzzled how the terrorists managed to miss their target yesterday

26 airliners have been shot down with Strellas over last 30 years Missile video

Kenyan police are suspicious

An Israeli eyewitness leads them to the missiles. Both tubes appear unfired with no scorch marks and the battery units are missing. Why leave the launch tubes and keep the electronics and battery pack

The pilot disobeyed the tower and used the wrong runway.

A supervisor said the plane took off with a 15 knot tail wind which is a dangerous maneuver.

The odd part is that the safe take off is over the beach where terrorist are easily spotted.

Mossad sends in teams Perhaps realizing that they had left fatally flawed evidence lying around Mombasa airport, more than a hundred heavily armed Israeli soldiers landed at the East Coast port on December 1, and demanded that the Kenyan Police hand over the "evidence". By all accounts they were particularly anxious to get their hands of the unfired sky-blue "Strela" missile launching tubes left near the end of Runway 21. To their astonishment and considerable anger, the Israeli demand was met with a point-blank "NO".

Source

The story backfires When the story is question the Israelis claim the 757 had " Anti missile technology " Hirsh Gooddel said El Al (Israel's national airline) planes were equipped with anti-missile technology and divert missiles by firing flares. Shem Bronstein a spokeman for Israel said : -- "I can't guarantee the Arkia plane was equipped with that technology but I don't believe in miracles". The pilot's statement appeared to support Goodman's theory that the missiles might have been deflected by some kind "heat sensing system" which detected and diverted them by firing flares.

Captain Rafi Malek won't confirm this but he won't deny it.

Flash presentation on airliner and hotel