HOUSTON -- Jet pilots aren't used to sharing their airspace, so you
can bet a rocket will get some attention. Continental Flight 1544 was
flying at 5,000 feet about 11 miles east of Bush Intercontinental
Airport after takeoff this morning when the pilot called the tower to
report an object headed toward the plane. The pilot described seeing a
fast moving object with a thick smoke trail nearing his airspace. The
FAA now says it thinks that object was some kind of model rocket. Both
the FAA and the Houston Area Joint Terrorism Task Force continue to
investigate the incident that KHOU.com first reported early this
afternoon. Neither said conclusively what the pilot saw was indeed a
model rocket, but an FAA spokesperson told 11 News that it was likely a
high-powered model rocket. It is a federal crime to launch a rocket of
any sort without notifying the FAA. The plane was at about 5,000 feet at
the time of the sighting and the flight continued on to Cleveland.
Sources told 11 News that the flight was met by Continental officials
and FAA investigators to interview the passengers and crew. Part of that
investigation included a FBI call to John Etgen, who is an officer with
one of the local model rocket clubs in the area.
When the FBI told him what had been reported, the rocket enthusiast
was shocked."This is completely outside of all of our safety codes and
all of our practices. We actually behave a lot like visual flight rules
pilots. This is if we can't see clear airspace and already have
permission to be in that air space we are not allowed to launch and we
don't," said Etgen. Etgen said it's certainly possible for a model
rocket to get that high up, but he also said the description given by
the pilot doesn't match up. At that height, a model would have been
coasting for quite some time and maybe emitting a small trail of white
smoke and not the thick smoke like the pilot's report.
He explained that while model rocketry is supposed to be fun, it is
also highly regulated. Regulated by the same federal agency that has
oversight of the airlines -- the FAA. The FAA confirmed that there were
no requests to launch or notifications filed for the Houston area for
Monday. There are also no official launch sites within 50 miles of Bush
airport. The Boeing 737 with 148 passengers and six crewmembers aboard,
took off from Terminal C at Bush IAH at 10:17 a.m. Monday and arrived at
Hopkins International Airport in Cleveland at 2:13 p.m. -- nine minutes
later than scheduled.

Lear-1 > stated :

> HOUSTON -- Jet pilots aren't used to sharing their airspace, so you

(snip)



Once the government got involved, it was perfunctorially
dismissed as swamp gas reflecting off a high altitude
balloon which was in transit at the time with the planet Uranus.

"Mickey Davenport" > wrote in message
...
> Lear-1 > stated :
>
>> HOUSTON -- Jet pilots aren't used to sharing their airspace, so you
>
> (snip)
>
>
>
> Once the government got involved, it was perfunctorially
> dismissed as swamp gas reflecting off a high altitude
> balloon which was in transit at the time with the planet Uranus.

MIB - great movie. ;-)

"Mickey Davenport" > wrote in message
...
> Lear-1 > stated :
>
>> HOUSTON -- Jet pilots aren't used to sharing their airspace, so you
>
> (snip)
>
>
>
> Once the government got involved, it was perfunctorially
> dismissed as swamp gas reflecting off a high altitude
> balloon which was in transit at the time with the planet Uranus.
>
>
Who's anus?

Didn't this happen a couple of weeks ago? I remember seeing something like
this on Fox News.

January 6, 2008
The pilot of a jet carrying passengers to Logan International Airport
reported yesterday that a model rocket appeared to have been fired toward
his craft, a Federal Aviation Administration official said. The pilot of
AirWisconsin flight 180A saw what appeared to be a spark or firework in
front of the plane around 12:26 p.m., after the jet had descended to 500
feet and was preparing to land, said FAA spokeswoman Holly Baker. The model
rocket did not hit the aircraft, Baker said, and the 40-passenger plane,
which had three crew members, landed safely. A State Police spokesman said
the plane was flying over the Winthrop-Revere area at the time and the
rocket was believed to have been fired from the vicinity of the Belle Isle
Marsh Reservation. The state reservation is about a half-mile northeast of
two of the airport's runways. State Police are investigating the incident,
Benson said.

May 28, 2008

FBI officials have been called in to assist the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) in its investigation concerning a mid-air incident that
recently took place between an outbound Boeing 737 jetliner and an
enthusiast's homemade rocket.


The near miss was revealed on Monday when a Continental Airlines pilot
reported to shocked air-traffic controllers in Houston that a projectile
with a flaming tail had hurtled past the plane's cockpit shortly after
takeoff from George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

"We don't know for sure what the object was. But we think it might be
somebody doing model rocketing," commented FAA spokesman Roland Herwig in a
Houston Chronicle report. "The pilot saw the rocket and some people saw the
rocket's trail."

While it has not yet been confirmed that the object was indeed a rocket, the
FAA has said that model rockets have been known to pass into the airspace of
passenger flights in the past. The administration has also noted that the
Memorial Day holiday would certainly have qualified as prime time for such a
launch.

"Building rockets is a legitimate hobby, but hobbyists have to let the FAA
know what they're doing," added Mr. Herwig with regard to the possibility
that the near miss was down to a model rocket.

The importance of that requirement is enforced by Robert Morehead, president
of the Amateur Spaceflight Association in Houston, who said model rocketeers
are supposed to notify the FAA whenever a launch is expected to pass through
controlled airspace.

Rocket enthusiasts are not convinced that their hobby is to blame for the
incident however, preferring to instead point the finger of accusation at
high-powered fireworks known as 'black powder rockets,' which are supposedly
capable of reaching beyond 5,000 feet. Such oversized fireworks are illegal
without a proper permit, but not impossible for someone to purchase should
they truly wish to secure one.

The hobbyists are basing their claims on the fact that model rockets do not
typically produce an obvious smoke trail beyond takeoff, while black powder
rockets would be much more inclined to do so.

Domestic Continental Airlines Flight 1544 was climbing through 5,000 feet as
it departed Houston for Cleveland with 148 passengers onboard when it was
buzzed by the object. The plane did not alter its course heading as the
pilot reported the incident, and continued on safely to its final
destination.

Rocket sails past airliner over Houston



HOUSTON, May 27 (UPI) -- The FAA suspects it was a hobbyist's model rocket
that went sailing past the cockpit of an airliner near a Houston airport.

The FBI's anti-terrorism unit has joined the investigation into the Monday
incident reported by the pilot of a Continental Airlines flight that reached
Cleveland without any further problems.

"We don't know for sure what the object was. But we think it might be
somebody doing model rocketing," FAA spokesman Roland Herwig told the
Houston Chronicle. "The pilot saw the rocket and some people saw the
rocket's (smoke) trail."

Investigators will be checking radar data to see how close the rocket came
to the plane.

A representative from an amateur rocketry club in Houston told the Chronicle
that some model rockets can reach altitudes of 30,000 to 40,000 feet,
although the Continental flight had just taken off from George Bush
Intercontinental Airport and was likely not flying that high.

http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/CloseEncounterWithAModelRocket_197994-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS

http://www.homelandsecurityus.com/Con1544