TWA flight 800, surface to air missles, conspiracypunks

[Declan McCullagh]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 9 Sep 1996 11:26:23 -0700 (PDT)
From: Brock N. Meeks <brock at well.com>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan at eff.org>

Surface to air missles do not need to make contact to explode.  They have 
a proximity system that explodes the missle if it gets within range.

Of course, sometimes the missle does hit;  there is a famous story -- 
documented -- of an SA-2 (an old Soviet SAM) hitting an RF-4 during Viet 
Nam.  The missle didn't explode but stuck in the plane like a dart;  the 
pilot flew the plane back to the airfield and was told to ditch the plane 
when the air traffic control noticed it stuck in his plane.

-- Brock