this was all about. and then you ve got to say, why wasn t there any warnings? let s bring in rick francona here. air force, colonel, you know about planes, about flights. tell me what vistrikes you here. well, why this particular aircraft? if you look at that display which is the transponders coming off all these aircraft, why that particular flight? why was that one singled out? it doesn t particularly present any kind of a threat. 32,000 feet, if that s what the altitude was, there s only one or two ways to knock something down. it s either air to air or surface to air. it s not a man pad. this is going to be a large surface-to-air missile. somebody had to make a decision to actually fire that. but why at that target? like richard said, this is not an unknown flight path. he s in a civilian corridor. he s squawking a civilian code. he s under control of air traffic control. i don t understand why this particular flight would have been singled out. that s probably what we need to
i see no public information that this occurred, but we can t exclude it at this point. is it a difficult system to operate? i mean, is it something that requires no. a large amount of training? not particularly. they re very accurate. and once you get a lock on an airplane, once you ve identify it had, it s pretty easy, especially an airliner moving in a straight line to knock it down. the same way a sophisticated man pad. i want to bring in lieu tenant colonel francona as well. what kind of training would somebody need to operate this? if they provided the people with the system, it wouldn t be a problem at all. they would have the training. you have to know how to use the radars and the guidance system. once you ve got it locked on, though, and fire it, this would be this is not the kind of system that you this is not the kind of shoulder-fired weapons that would have been supplied to the mujahadin during afghanistan? but they still required training. but yo
power, stinger missiles. they are powerful enough to take down a commercial airliner. with us now, retired air force gentle. also a fox contributor. thank you both so much. general, explain the stinger missile and importance of them getting their hands on them? it s called a man pad. it s shoulder mounted. it s effective u.s. made and can be lethal against aircraft if you do not have what we call decoy flairs. if you ve got decoy flairs and aware they re in the area, most fighter pilot, u.s. fighter pilots can handle them. it changes the name of the game. for the first time in the last 11 years we may now see a
power, stinger missiles. they are powerful enough to take down a commercial airliner. with us now, retired air force gentle. also a fox contributor. thank you both so much. general, explain the stinger missile and importance of them getting their hands on them? it s called a man pad. it s shoulder mounted. it s effective u.s. made and can be lethal against aircraft if you do not have what we call decoy flairs. if you ve got decoy flairs and aware they re in the area, most fighter pilot, u.s. fighter pilots can handle them. it changes the name of the game. for the first time in the last 11 years we may now see a
associated press that manual strongly suggests militants already have the missile in their possession. experts also call it a man portable air defense system or a man pad. the analysts say those fighters in maly likely swiped the missile from libya amid the fall of the dictator there muammar qaddafi two years ago. the u.s. ambassador to belgium says is he devastated by state department memo that suggests he solicited sex from prosecutes and children he is ambassador howard gutman who released a statement i m angered and saddened by the baseless allegations. at no point have i ever engaged in any improper activity. the allegations about gutman s private life came to life as part of an internal investigation there the report we first telling you about yesterday suggested the agency tried to cover up the bad behavior of several government workers. james rosen for us at the state department tonight. james? shep, good evening, the state department is pushing back in concerted way