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CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With Jim McKenna

Aired August 17, 2003 - 08:14   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Elsewhere in the war on terror, the arrests of three men who wanted to sell shoulder-fired missiles to terrorists, have increased airline security worries. Is the threat real and what is being done to keep you safe in the skies?
For some answers, we turn to Jim McKenna. He's the editor-in- chief of "Rotor & Wing" magazine and the former editor of "Aviation Week" magazine. Hi, Jim.

JIM MCKENNA, "ROTOR & WING" MAGAZINE: Hi, Kyra. How are you?

PHILLIPS: I'm all right. Let's lay out the threat here. How big a deal are shoulder-fired missiles in the United States?

MCKENNA: They're a big potential threat; there's no doubt about that. Most experts believe that there is at least a thousand of these things available on the black market.

The threat is mitigated somewhat by the practical problems of using these things. You have to be in the right range from the aircraft that you're shooting at, and you have to have some skill in keeping the missile targeted on the aircraft while it's in flight.

Investigators now are apparently saying that one of the reasons that the attack against the Israeli jet in Mombasa, Kenya failed is that the people who fired at the aircraft were too close. So that's an example of some of the practical hurdles that you've got in successfully using things, which is no doubt a good thing that the people using them are not too experienced in their use.

PHILLIPS: Well, around airports, specifically in the United States, let me ask you that first. Security, is it tough enough? Is it strong enough? Can it prevent someone with a shoulder-fired missile to getting close to an aircraft?

MCKENNA: It can't. And the problem -- the reason it can't is that airport security since its inception has been focused on the perimeter of the airport, the fence around that bounds the airport grounds and the area inside that. The odds of people using a missile against an aircraft in the perimeter of the airport are pretty slim. These folks are going to be outside the airport.

And as we all know, aircraft, you know, make long, low descents to an airport and low takeoff flights from the airport. And in those portions of the flight they're vulnerable to a missile attack. PHILLIPS: That's what I want to know, is sort of how -- I'm not quite sure how close you need to be away or how far away or how far these shoulder-fired missiles will reach. So at what point -- you talk about -- you're right, for a while they're flying pretty low when they came in and also when they take off. At what point are aircraft definitely safe from possible RPG?

MCKENNA: Well, if we go back to the 1996 accident involving TWA Flight 800 out of JFK, there was a lot of talk initially that that might have been a missile attack against the aircraft. It was eventually proved that it was not, but the investigations into that accident pretty much established that an aircraft at 13,000 feet or below is in the envelope of a lot of the shoulder-fired missiles that are available out there. So below 13,000 feet or so, a commercial aircraft is vulnerable to a missile attack.

PHILLIPS: Now our strike fighters have incredible anti-missile detection systems. What about commercial airlines?

MCKENNA: Most of the commercial airlines today don't have protections against missiles of this type. There's a lot of work going on now. Obviously, vendors see a market or potential market for this. U.S. companies are trying to convert systems built for military aircraft to sell to commercial aircraft operators. Israeli companies are doing the same thing. And I think that given the right incentives and the right prospect for a market, these folks could come up with fairly efficient cost-effective measures to put on airliners to protect everybody on them from shoulder-fired missiles.

PHILLIPS: Jim, I'll be looking for those companies and I'm going to buy stock. Jim McKenna, "Rotor & Wing" magazine, thank you.

MCKENNA: Thank you, Kyra.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired August 17, 2003 - 08:14   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Elsewhere in the war on terror, the arrests of three men who wanted to sell shoulder-fired missiles to terrorists, have increased airline security worries. Is the threat real and what is being done to keep you safe in the skies?
For some answers, we turn to Jim McKenna. He's the editor-in- chief of "Rotor & Wing" magazine and the former editor of "Aviation Week" magazine. Hi, Jim.

JIM MCKENNA, "ROTOR & WING" MAGAZINE: Hi, Kyra. How are you?

PHILLIPS: I'm all right. Let's lay out the threat here. How big a deal are shoulder-fired missiles in the United States?

MCKENNA: They're a big potential threat; there's no doubt about that. Most experts believe that there is at least a thousand of these things available on the black market.

The threat is mitigated somewhat by the practical problems of using these things. You have to be in the right range from the aircraft that you're shooting at, and you have to have some skill in keeping the missile targeted on the aircraft while it's in flight.

Investigators now are apparently saying that one of the reasons that the attack against the Israeli jet in Mombasa, Kenya failed is that the people who fired at the aircraft were too close. So that's an example of some of the practical hurdles that you've got in successfully using things, which is no doubt a good thing that the people using them are not too experienced in their use.

PHILLIPS: Well, around airports, specifically in the United States, let me ask you that first. Security, is it tough enough? Is it strong enough? Can it prevent someone with a shoulder-fired missile to getting close to an aircraft?

MCKENNA: It can't. And the problem -- the reason it can't is that airport security since its inception has been focused on the perimeter of the airport, the fence around that bounds the airport grounds and the area inside that. The odds of people using a missile against an aircraft in the perimeter of the airport are pretty slim. These folks are going to be outside the airport.

And as we all know, aircraft, you know, make long, low descents to an airport and low takeoff flights from the airport. And in those portions of the flight they're vulnerable to a missile attack. PHILLIPS: That's what I want to know, is sort of how -- I'm not quite sure how close you need to be away or how far away or how far these shoulder-fired missiles will reach. So at what point -- you talk about -- you're right, for a while they're flying pretty low when they came in and also when they take off. At what point are aircraft definitely safe from possible RPG?

MCKENNA: Well, if we go back to the 1996 accident involving TWA Flight 800 out of JFK, there was a lot of talk initially that that might have been a missile attack against the aircraft. It was eventually proved that it was not, but the investigations into that accident pretty much established that an aircraft at 13,000 feet or below is in the envelope of a lot of the shoulder-fired missiles that are available out there. So below 13,000 feet or so, a commercial aircraft is vulnerable to a missile attack.

PHILLIPS: Now our strike fighters have incredible anti-missile detection systems. What about commercial airlines?

MCKENNA: Most of the commercial airlines today don't have protections against missiles of this type. There's a lot of work going on now. Obviously, vendors see a market or potential market for this. U.S. companies are trying to convert systems built for military aircraft to sell to commercial aircraft operators. Israeli companies are doing the same thing. And I think that given the right incentives and the right prospect for a market, these folks could come up with fairly efficient cost-effective measures to put on airliners to protect everybody on them from shoulder-fired missiles.

PHILLIPS: Jim, I'll be looking for those companies and I'm going to buy stock. Jim McKenna, "Rotor & Wing" magazine, thank you.

MCKENNA: Thank you, Kyra.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com