Missile misses charter jet by a metre

PASSENGERS yesterday spoke of their terror following yesterday’s attack on an Israeli charter airliner.

One woman out of the 261 passengers said: “When we took off we heard a noise on the left-hand side of the plane and someone on the left-hand side said it was smoke.

“Everyone was saying it was nothing. Only towards the end of the flight they told us what had happened.”

Passenger Ezra Gozlan said: “The missile went about one metre above the wing ... it was a bazooka missile or something like that.”

Another woman tourist said: “We heard a bang. They told us that they thought a bird had stuck in the engine. They knew from the start what had happened but they did not tell us.”

She said after passengers were finally told, she saw an Israeli military plane flying as an escort.

Another woman said: “When the aeroplane started to leave we heard a boom.

“The staff didn’t tell us anything until 10 or 15 minutes before we came to Israel.” After that she saw a military plane flying alongside.

Ezra Gozlan, who was sitting at the back of the plane, told Israel Radio: “All the wheels were in the air and then we heard the explosion. The missile went about one metre above the wing.”

Another said her hands were shaking like a leaf, and that “until the last moment, we didn’t believe everything was going to be fine”.

“Thank God we are here”, said another passenger, vowing never to go abroad again.

The pilot of the Israeli airliner said he spotted smoke trails following the plane seconds after liftoff from Mombasa, Kenya.

But Rafi Marek decided to continue to Tel Aviv, the scheduled destination, after checking that the aircraft was working properly.

The holidaymakers were only told after the Arkia Airlines Boeing 757 entered Israeli airspace.

The weekly charter flight landed safely at Tel Aviv at 12.40 local time yesterday.

Marek said: “Immediately after we took off from Mombasa at a very low altitude, we felt a little blow to the plane. We saw two white stripes passing us by. I couldn’t tell what it was.

“We saw two smoke trails following us and they vanished after a little bit, after a couple of seconds.

“The question was raised about an emergency landing. We checked all the systems. The plane behaved perfectly normally. We announced to Mombasa air control that we would continue as normal.

“Some of us in the crew did think that perhaps we had been shot at but we weren't sure. So having heard of the tragic incident that had occurred in a hotel in Mombasa we did think it was likely to be connected.

“Since some of the passengers had also heard and seen some of these white trails we talked to them, we reassured them according to the cabin crew’s report.

“No one was particularly bothered or upset in the cabin, everyone understood, they took it in their stride. Everyone was very relaxed during the flight.

“In fact, as far as we were concerned the whole flight till we landed back in Tel Aviv was absolutely routine,” he said.