HOUSTON

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.