a report from a Continental Airlines pilot who told air-traffic controllers he was startled to see what looked like a model rocket with a flaming tail shoot past his cockpit window

...

The pilot spotted the object flying at 5,000 feet

Wow - seems like that would be a fairly large rocket to me. Hope it turns out to not be true because that would be worse than the X-Wing incident in terms of causing new legislation against rocketry.

it gets worse. Read http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5802729.html That "rocketry spokesman" is either a total nit or he was miserably misquoted.

From the article: "Robert Morehead, an engineer who is president of the Amateur Spaceflight Association in Houston, said the FAA would only need to be notified if a rocket would be entering controlled airspace." (I guess we don't need to fool with those pesky waivers anymore)

This "spokesman" allegedly followed that up with "Model rockets can be made of cardboard and glue or have aluminum air frames... Rockets also have no difficulty reaching the 30,000 to 40,000 feet, the altitude at which an airliner may cruise." This is not the sort of ink we need...

I googled him up at http://www.asa-houston.org/

Lovely... just f*cking lovely...

Everything happens bigger and better in Texas. And there are Morons everywhere. Another "nearly hit" (?) or completely missed incident blown way out of proportion.

Alas, it gets even sillier. CNN's headline is now "Jet dodges rocket-like object in air." I hope those passengers were belted in for those emergency rocket avoidance maneuvers. 🙄

Alas, it gets even sillier. CNN's headline is now "Jet dodges rocket-like object in air." I hope those passengers were belted in for those emergency rocket avoidance maneuvers. 🙄

Adrian, the pilot used their flares to misguide the rocket so no drinks would be spilled 😉

John W. I bet you wish it was as easy as they make it out to be to hit 30-40k.

If it was real, it was either a really bad mistake or someone with bad intentions almost got really damn lucky.

Ron

I hope the FBI finds 'em and puts them away. No excuse to shoot rockets off like that. Talk about a stupid spokesman. What's his name, "Airhead"? We all know it's against everything we stand for. It just takes one idiot to make things worse for those of us who do things right. Schmuck.

Whoa now - ease on back a touch. Too many speculations and too much ignorance involved in this supposedly newsworthy scare. Ain't nothing but media spin and boredom that makes this a Code Red. Next we'll learn the mis-guided flying object didn't have a properly functioning recovery system and caused a vehicular calamity at the end of the journey. Film at eleven.

Update at the Houston Chronicle:

Jenni Etgen, treasurer of the Houston Chapter of Tripoli Rocketry Association, said none of the area rocket clubs had scheduled launches over the holiday weekend.

That's good. This is a more tame article and helps to cut the FUD from yesterday.

Whoa now - ease on back a touch. Too many speculations and too much ignorance involved in this supposedly newsworthy scare. Ain't nothing but media spin and boredom that makes this a Code Red. Next we'll learn the mis-guided flying object didn't have a properly functioning recovery system and caused a vehicular calamity at the end of the journey. Film at eleven.

I'm betting we hear something more along the lines of "ignorant rocketeer learns a lesson" if it ever gets that far. If there is no sensationalism in the conclusion, we will never hear a thing. Motors are available for anyone to buy from time to time, I bet that's more along the lines of what happened. I bet the person never got it back either.......

Oh wait, it was really Osama hiding out in an empty salt dome that is used by the govt for crude oil storage, he stole the oil and is making the prices go up, then, saw launch logs from MHM and decided that was cool and came up with a plan to launch his first HP rocket and take out a plane at the same time.... Just so he could have top anyone else's launch logs!
How's that for a story????
Yeah, I know, time to get back to work... 😛

As far as im concerned and have been for some time news channels, magazines and newspapers have been the original "reality shows" (read as sarcastic / oxy-moron) of all time with the word of reality or even truth being far from any of it. All that matters is what they have to sell... not facts or news or even just a bit of truth or integrity. Just junk. I think I get more honest answers from car sales guys.

too much ignorance involved in this supposedly newsworthy scare

Hey, I resemble that remark! You're right, just a gut reaction on my part, no brain involved. 🙄