Originally Posted by
mike734
I spoke about this thread and the TWA 800 crash with my FO today. He had something interesting to say. I'm not saying I believe it but this is what he said.
He has a mortgage broker that was in the Navy and on a ship off Long Island the night of the incident. The broker said, at the time, the Navy routinely shot inert practice missiles off the coast of Long Island and he said he thinks (knows) it was an inert, radar guided missile that struck the plane.
Sorry, not going to let this one go...
Either you or your broker are blowing smoke.
An "inert" SM2 missile would still be a 3,000lb near-hypersonic object loaded with rocket fuel. Guess what? That's still all kinds of dangerous, so they don't "routinely" shoot "warheadless" missiles anywhere outside of designated ranges. Honestly I don't think there is a such a thing as "warheadless" SM1 or SM2. There are inert practice rounds which are TOTALLY inert (no warhead or motor) and are used for ships to practice handling and arming (the dummies have electronics to simulate the arm/launch sequence).
Ranges are all either restricted areas (US waters) or warning areas (International waters) and the range controller will never clear the shooter hot until the range is verified free of interlopers. If any such areas were is use, there would have been a NOTAM issued. If for some reason the navy wanted to do a "super-duper extra-secret" missile test and not tell anyone, they would conduct it in the open ocean in the western pacific, not within spitting distance of NYC and busy air corridors without warning anyone.