Using a Russian shoulder-fired missile, the mujahedin almost got a planeload of Congressmen. “Plane with U.S. officials was fired at House members say C-130’s defenses repelled missile; Boxer argues for similar equipment on commercial jets,” from the San Francisco Chronicle, with thanks to Gabrielle Goldwater:
Members of Congress are used to being attacked by their political opposition, but being attacked by anti-aircraft missiles is another matter entirely.
In January, a six-member delegation of the House Armed Services Committee, led by Rob Simmons, R-Conn., came under missile attack as they traveled “lights out” on a military plane from Baghdad to Kuwait, according to three members of that delegation.
Reps. Jeb Bradley, R-N.H., John Spratt, D-S.C., and Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, confirmed the incident to The Chronicle.
Sources familiar with the Defense Department investigation into the attack said the missile used in the attack on the C-130 carrying the delegation was an SA-18, considered the most sophisticated of Russian shoulder-fired missiles, or MANPADS (man-portable air defense systems).