On Monday, NewsMax.com editor Christopher Ruddy reported that U.S. air traffic controllers were diverting planes to new flight paths just hours after EgyptAir flight 990
disappeared from the sky.
Why? Listening to control tower radio traffic piped through the headset on his own London-bound flight, Ruddy overheard one controller advising pilots to follow new altitude coordinates. When a crew member asked why, he was told, "There are rockets being fired in the area."
This amazing account stunned many NewsMax.com readers. But it shouldn't have. Because the incident wouldn't be the first time air traffic control radio chatter indicated some sort of missile activity off Long Island's coast, causing controllers to alter flight routes.
On April 26, 1999, TWA 800 researcher Michael Hull, writing for NewsMax.com, reported a similar episode that took place just months after TWA 800 went down:
"TWA Flight 848 was to be involved in another incident four months after the downing of TWA Flight 800. On November 16, 1996, Pakistan International Airlines Flight 712 left Kennedy at 9:25 p.m. bound for Frankfurt. One of the pilots reported an orange light, which he described as a 'rocket,' coming from the left-hand side to the right-hand side of the airplane, and he stated that the 'rocket' had ascended through the aircraft's altitude. Boston apparently confirmed two unidentified blips on radar. The tapes were turned over to the FBI and NTSB since the object(s) rose directly out of Long Island Sound."
"TWA Flight 884 (New York to Tel Aviv) was following close behind the Pakistani flight and was diverted by a controller. The government dismissed the incident as a meteorite observation, which leaves unanswered how the meteor ascended out of Long Island Sound."
In an even more frightening example, Hull documents a hair-raising close encounter between a missilelike object and an Aug. 9, 1997, Swissair flight bound for Zurich, Switzerland.
"September 27, 1997 (Neue Zuricher Zeitung)
Swissair has revealed that an unidentified flying object almost collided with one of its planes over the United States last month. The captain and his co-pilot said an oblong and wingless object shot past at great speed -— only fifty metres away from their Boeing Seven-Four-Seven. The American air traffic authorities said it was probably a weather balloon."
"March 5, 1999 www.cbcnews.com Ottawa (CP)
A Swissair pilot reported his 747 jet was nearly hit by an unidentified flying object, possibly a missile, near the area off New York where a TWA airplane crashed in 1996, The Canadian Press has learned. Swissair Flight 127 was cruising at 23,000 feet on Aug. 9, 1997, when the pilot interrupted an address to passengers to report the near miss by a round white object, says a report by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. 'Sir, I don't know what it was, but it just flew like a couple of hundred feet above us,' he radioed Boston air traffic control. 'I don't know if it was a rocket or whatever, but incredibly fast, opposite direction.' 'In the opposite direction?' asked the controller. 'Yes sir, and the time was 2107 [Greenwich Mean Time]. It was too fast to be an airplane.' (Tape was provided by John Bergman and obtained through the filing of an FOIA request to the FAA.)"
Hull's Web site offers a transcript of the conversation between Swissair 127 pilots and ground controllers:
SWR 127: Center — Swissair 127
Controller 1: Swissair 127 -- go ahead.
SWR 127: Yes, sir. I don't know what it was but it just overflew like ... like a couple of hundred feet above us. ... I don't know if it was a rocket or whatever but incredibly fast in the opposite direction.
Controller 1: In the opposite direction?
SWR 127: Yes, sir. And the time was 2107 [5:07 p.m. local time]. It was too fast to be an airplane.
Controller 1: OK. Thank you.
Controller 1: USAir 986 -- Did you see anything like a missile in your area —- perhaps off to your right?
US Air: I'll take a good look, but if it's goin' that fast I probably won't get a chance. We just saw Swissair go by a minute ago.
Controller 1: OK. Thanks.
SWR 127: Swissair 127. We had no T-CAS [collision avoidance] warning. It was way too fast, I guess.
Controller 1: Swissair 127 -- thank you.
Controller 1: Swissair 127 -- How far above you was it?
SWR 127: It was right over us -- right above ... opposite direction ... and ... I don't know two, three, four hundred feet above us.
Controller 1: OK. Thank you.
SWR 127: All I can say -- 127 -- is that the three of us saw a white object -- it was white and very fast.
Controller 1: Swissair 127 -- thank you.
Controller 1: Northwest 550. Did you see anything similar to a missile or a UFO in your vicinity -- maybe about three minutes ago?
NW 550: We heard that report but we haven't seen anything -- Northwest 550.
Controller 1: USAir 1800 -- you didn't see anything either?
USAir: We saw nothing. ...
Controller 1: Hey, Chris. Swissair 127 ... he had a UFO or a rocket or something almost hit him in my airspace.
Controller 2: A UFO or a rocket almost hit the Swissair 127?
Controller 1: Yeah, it went right above him -- two or three hundred feet, he says. Some kind of white object. They're checking into it here, but if he says anything to you ... just to let you know.
Controller 2: OK. Thank you.
The the above transcript, along with a real audio version on tape, is available at Hull's Web site, "The Hull Thread," under Tale of the Tapes.
