From: Declan McCullagh <declan@eff.org>
Date: Tue, 10 Sep 1996 07:12:27 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: TWA flight 800, surface to air missles, conspiracypunks
Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.91.960909112948.4544H-100000@eff.org>
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 9 Sep 1996 11:26:23 -0700 (PDT)
From: Brock N. Meeks <brock@well.com>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan@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