Police in Thailand recently nipped in the bud an Al-Qaeda shooting attack against El Al passengers in the Bangkok airport. The plan was discovered three months ago when a man was found to be filming near an El Al ticket counter in the airport. His arrest led to the finding of preliminary plans to fire missiles on an El Al plane during take-off. In his home were found other plans for a separate shooting attack at El Al passengers on their way to the plane. Security arrangements in the airport, especially in the El Al counter area, have since been beefed up.
At least two Israeli planes have been hit or nearly hit by missiles in the recent past. A Ukrainian ground-to-air missile accidentally struck down an Israeli charter plane in Oct. 2001, killing all 64 passengers - mostly Israelis - as well as 12 crewmembers.
A year later, on Nov. 28, 2002, unidentified terrorists fired two or three shoulder-launched missiles at an Israeli Arkia Airlines plane on its way from Kenya to Israel with over 260 passengers and crew on board. The plane had just taken off, but the missiles missed the plane and all passengers aboard were unhurt. This past April, it was reported that Al-Qaeda terrorists planned to fire a Strella-2 anti-aircraft missile at an El Al airliner landing in London's Heathrow International Airport.
El Al is planning to install an anti-missile system on its planes. The Israeli-made system is called Flight Guard, and its manufacturer, Elta Systems, expects orders from two other Israeli airlines as well: Arkia and Israir. A spokesperson for Elta said that it is currently estimated that there are "several hundred" shoulder-fired missiles in circulation in unknown hands. It has been reported elsewhere that international intelligence sources estimate that 30 terrorist organizations are currently in possession of rockets, and that they are easily obtainable at a cost of several thousand dollars each. Twenty-seven passenger planes have been felled by rockets in the past.